Tragedy and Irony
Over the weekend Amy and I watched Hotel Rwanda, a moving film about a horrible period in Rwanda. However, some odd ironies were apparent about both the movie and the situation, especially in some of the accompanying documentaries.
First, the filmmakers at the end stated that the movie was ultimately about "the dignity of the human spirit." This seems to be an odd thing to say about a movie that has genocide as its primary backdrop. One could certainly talk about the dignity of Paul Rusesabagina' spirit. But close to 1 million died in the genocide. How many does it take to kill 1 million people? For every courageous Paul Rusesabagina, how many were out hacking other humans to death with machetes? Just in terms of sheer numbers, there did not appear to be much dignity present.
Another irony was the desire by the filmmakers to tell the story in order for such tragedy to never happen again. Obviously, nobody wants genocide. Yet the "never again" proclamation sounds like what happened after the Holocaust in Germany. Somehow genocide still managed to happen, even under the watchful eye of the exalted U.N. and our own courageous US president.
Lastly (although I could also pick on the French for what was apparently an implicit role in the massacre), while there was some justified criticism of the racism of the West in its apathy towards African tragedy, the whole discussion of "the failure of the West" sounds a little racist as well. It seems rather paternalistic to effectively suggest that blacks in Africa are unable to do anything for themselves, but continually require the benevolent hand of whites, whether through military intervention or Live8 sponsored economic intervention.
I am, of course, very much in favor of charity. But I have the nagging question: what if the last 50 years of Western aid to Africa has been nothing other than a more benign form of colonialism, perpetuating a dependency upon the West while doing nothing to actually ameliorate the conditions of war and poverty?
July 11, 2005 10:09 AMTrackback URL for this entry: http://baltiblogs.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/6246
I actually just watched that yesterday as well. I think that Cheadle did a great job, but overall I just found the movie to be a hopeless commentary on the continent of Africa and very much in need of nothing less than Christ. I grieve that the kind of killing is still going on over there, but much of the aid that we keep on sending keeps on going to the generals who allow the massacres. Just didn't feel any glimmer of hope that I felt at the end of Schindler's List.
Pondered by crabby at July 11, 2005 05:58 PM