Hotel Ruanda

There are probably a lot of movies which one should not watch in a plane if you are sensitive[1]. One of them is definitely “Hotel Ruanda”. I had never intended to see this movie for a good reason. I knew what I would expect and how I would feel about it: Sad, deeply moved and horribly angry. And I was right.

Accidentally I started watching the movie and I could not resist watching it. It started with so very familiar scenes. The same landscape, buildings, cars, etc. It was so similar to Uganda. It was all so familiar. And then all of a sudden (at least for me) the horror started and nobody from the international community intervened. Well, why should they? They had no interest. That was the explanation given in the movie.

And I felt ashamed. I have never been an uninformed person. I have followed the news, yes. But did I care? No, I would be lying if I confirmed. I did not care. I did not!

God, I would nobody ever again experienced such massacres again. I would never ever again the west stay out of the terror hiding behind diplomatic statement like: “Yes we observed acts of genocide.” Jesus, why do those people in charge not use their common sense and intervene for mere humanitarian reasons?

But maybe I am bigot, too. I know about the situation in the North of Uganda and all the other crises regions and do I do enough or even anything against it? I feel extremely helpless.

I am now happy that the movie is over. I had been crying almost constantly during the last hour of the movie or so. But I did not feel ashamed about it. I mean, what human being cannot be touched by watching it.

I honestly hope that this will never ever happen again. But at the same time, I fear that it is still everyday practise in several parts of the world and nobody intervenes. This is just too unfair. It is not just…It is not human…

How can those murderers been called human beings? Do they deserve to be treated, i.e. judged like human beings? Yes. They must, otherwise this vicious circle that needs to be broken. And that is one of the many reasons, why the Bush administration is wrong in having Guantanamo Bay (and maybe even more detention centres we are not aware of.

Please let us stop this! Let it never happen again.

---

[1] Or more precise: If you tend to start crying if you see people in miserable sitautions.