Another slap in the face

In one of my previous blog entries, I made comment that I was looking forward to seeing Hotel Rwanda. (Haoran made mention of it during the last writing group meeting we had).

I went and saw it with F. on Tuesday night last week. We both found it a very confronting film to watch. Perhaps its designed and created to play on our emotions a touch, but given our blindness, I don’t know that I mind.

For mine, there are a couple of scenes that were particularly challenging and confronting, a western journalist shoots pictures of a massacre close to the hotel, and then shows them to the hotel manager Paul, who after watching it is convinced that the West will see these pictures and will be forced to act. The journalist responds by saying “if people see this footage they’ll say ‘that’s terrible’, and they will go on eating their dinners”.

How that accurately defines us.

The New York Times in reviewing the movie [Dec, 22, 2004], spoke about how the violence differed from that in Nazi Germany, if only in the sense that it was carried out with a spirit of mad jubilation, and the understated violence leaves the impression that given the right circumstances similar passionate hate could spring up anywhere.

The film is beautifully done, the characters, and more centrally the violence are not overplayed, but are real, and the softness of the film strengthens the films impact. The film could not detail the total history and events of the Genocide; rather, by focusing on the stories of a number of “real” characters it packs a powerful punch.

I could go on and on, about how we have failed to heed the lessons of Bosnia, and of Rwanda, particularly as we ignore the conflict in the Congo, and Sudan. We are simply not interested in Africa, more cynically we will only act were our interests are at stake. (Iraq and its oil are case and point).

But now I am witness to these things. As I see, or read, it is my duty to stand, and act. For evil is not only in the actions of those who commit atrocities, but also in the failure of others who stand idly by and not call injustice or evil as it is. (I can't quite find Martin Luther King's quote, so I butchered it, sorry).

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:: Answers to Karen's second meme, and reviews of R.E.M's Sydney shows to come.

:: I'm currently at home in Wollongong celebrating Dad's 60th birthday. I think works starting to catch up with me ... I'm think I've been getting a little sick.

:: The week ahead at work will be good - I'm going to be having lunch with my supervisor on Tuesday, which will be great to be able to talk some things out, and also will have lunch with my Dad on Wednesday (something to look forward to).

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