Indifference = Genocide
"By the time the genocide was over, I was so angry at America, America the beautiful, America the brave. I was angry with our government, I was angry with people who could do something, even the simplest things, and they didn't." -Carl Wilkens, Adventist Missionary, only American remaining in Rwanda during the Genocide depicted in "Hotel Rwanda."
Today I've been putting together some stuff for my Young Adult Literature class on how I would teach Elie Wiesel's first-person account of the Holocaust, and I've been reminded of some horrible modern-day atrocities.
I'm going to present Night in a current issues type of lesson concerning current genocides and injustices. I was reminded of the movie Hotel Rwanda, and I did a little research...
During the Rwandan genocide, well over 800,000 human beings were slaughtered because of their geneology.
After the Holocaust, the UN passed a rule that in cases of genocide the UN and the nations involved in it MUST intervene. The UN and America did not act. They avoided using the word "genocide" as a legal technicality to avoid acting. I am dissapointed in the human race.
find time and watch these videos... they are paradigm-shifting:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/ghosts/video/
During the first few days of the genocide, a Tutsi woman was smuggled out of Rwanda to Washington DC in order to report a first hand account and influence the US government to action... she was told by a sympathetic official that the UN and US did not have "friends" that it helped... it had "interests." Rwanda would not be helped because it the UN and US had no interest in Rwanda.
I cannot afford to no longer have "interest" in what is happening outside of my own world. Indifference and apathy is genocide. As a nation, Americans are indifferent and apathetic.
As a body, the Christian church is indifferent and apathetic (much more indifferent than we give ourselves credit for).
Want to know why the Church and the United States of America have little credibility in the world? Here's a start.
Please watch these videos and get educated about this.
posted by Singleton @ 8:19 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
Diddy-Matt:
A big ECHO for your sentiments here - thanks for spotlighting this and keep keeping us up on it.
I hate conviction!
Hey Singleton, there is something so similar to rwanda going on right now in the Darfur region of Sudan. It is truely a classic case of how the US government has no "interest" in Africa. and by "interest" i mean "oil"!!! I know i might get some flack for that comment but I am willing to take the flack...bring it on! I am so sick and tired of trying to apologize for believing that our (the US of A's) foreign policy is not driven by selfish interest. "But Ben, what about protecting Mericans from the bad guys?" I was was watching the daily show one week and jon stewart made a joke about Iraq and Iran...because Iran is way more of a threat to our national security...Stewarts says, "Not bad Pres. Bush...you were just off by one letter" go to www.savedarfur.org. If this bugs you this much...we can do more to help! lets talk
Thanks Ben. I am very aware of the situation in Darfur, Sudan. I think the greatest thing that we need to realize is that "the government" operates the way it does largely because they are trying to please "the people" and get elected or re-elected or good approval ratings (this is not a good thing). However, I believe as a citizen of this nation it is our responsibility as "the people" to make our concerns known so "the government" can act accordingly. I encourage everyone to get educated and
involved on these issues of genocide. Make it known by contacting your representatives and informing others about these issues. Change takes place on the ground level. We all have to do what we can and the government will come around or get the message.
For more on the Darfur genocide, go to amnesty.org or www.ushmm.org (current genocides section).
I began this post frustrated over an hour ago, but now, I'm fine. Reasonable people can disagree. So this is just continuing the conversation - not debate - conversation. Ben said "let's talk" - well, b/c Ben and I know we're friends and we already know we disagree on SOME things politically, I'll respond.
This medium enables people to fire comments off-the-cuff, so I doubt he fully intended something that drew my ire, but I'll point it out anyway. I just really dislike how you portray someone that thinks differently than you - at least on this post (i.e. response from someone that would talk to you "...Mericans...").
To me, I envision a dumb hick making that statement. I think that there are some people (myself included) that know quite a bit about this and other situations that would disagree with some of your positions and can put together a discourse that reads quite a bit more intelligently than your statement.
Also, who was president during the Rwandan genocide? I don't say this in a "Democrats suck" way, but in a way that notes how this is conveniently forgotten when talking about the evil self-interests of American forign policy (i.e. "Bush sucks").
These are tough issues that lack easy answers...it's good to see people interested in the world outside of themselves, so good work Singleton...even though your post took up way too much of my time! :) -Blair
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