I saw “Hotel Rwanda” today. It is a dramatization of a Hutu Hotel managers’ experiences in Rwanda during the genocidal rampage against the Tutsis that happened in the around the mid 90’s. The Hutu people of Rwanda turned on their Tutsi neighbors and butchered hundreds of thousands of Tutsi mainly with machetes. Man descended to beast as women and children were given no quarter.
The United States shy because of the recent experience in Somalia did not assist and the rest of the international community fumbled.
The goal of the Hutu was to exterminate all Tutsis. Like rabid dogs Hutus rampaged through the country killing, raping, and marauding with abandon while the world looked on.
The world recently honored the victims of the Nazi extermination camps, which makes part of the story in this film relevant. The answer to the question whether genocide like that which occurred in Nazi Germany can occur again has been answered in the affirmative. Genocide occurred in Nazi Germany and genocide has occurred numerous times after Nazi Germany with the worst case of recent history being Rwanda (it was attempted in Kosovo) and it is now occurring in Sudan.
Human beings can sometime be a stupid species by repeating mistakes made even in the recent past (learning absolutely nothing from history or learning the wrong lessons from history).
As President Clinton did nothing to stop the genocide in Rwanda, President Bush does nothing to stop the genocide in Sudan.
In the film the hotel manager uses his connections and position to help his Tutsi family (from his wife’s side of the family), neighbors, friends and eventually Tutsi orphans and others. The movie has many poignant moments as elements of the international community, government, marauders, business and victims interact with each other as Rwandan society collapses around them.
The story is of this one man’s experiences during the Rwandan genocide and it is informatively and movingly told.
The film is one of the first to dramatically deal with the Rwandan genocide and as a first on the subject a movie which is probably just a solid B (which is nothing to laugh at) gets an A grade. See Rwanda and observe how one man does make a big difference in 1200 plus lives.