In Districts 9 we are provided great insight for us to experience and learn the events that take place during genocide, with a science fiction twist. We are once again exposed to many of the trials and tribulations seen in other genocides we have studied. In The Pianist we see Szpilman forced out of his home into the Warsaw ghetto. The living conditions were very deplorable, with almost no resources to live left there to starve or become exposed to disease. In District 9 the prawns are living in the very same type of conditions, rooting through garbage for food and using the bathroom where ever they can. The scene shows the houses in which they are living in, that have dirt floors and tin roofs. They are experiencing this because of separation; all the “less desirable” being attacked in genocides are forced out of their normal lives into horrific living conditions and removed from the rest of the community. The less desirable type of society must be removed and excluded; this is how the society attacking gains power. Having the less desirable remain in the population they are not as easily controlled.
The Article What We Learned from the Siege of Sarajevo, in the very being says “given the city’s poor defenses, few imagined the siege would last some three and a half years” (Andreas). This quote shows how the less desirable are sought out against. The places and people who are targets generally do not possess the defense mechanisms to help aid in defending their communities. District 9, we see the scene in which the hut is filled with thriving babies this is quickly set on fire. The babies are a defenseless piece of the pie and is very easily controlled or destroyed. The MNU felt that destroying the reproduction, would make things much easier in moving all the prawns along to the designated area.
The extermination of the prawns was not initially the intended purpose. The MNU was hired to go into district 9 and have the prawns sign eviction notices. This was to serve as notice they were being forced out of district 9 and going to moved to another area far away from the rest of the community of Johannesburg. MNU was forced to do this because of violent events taking place between the citizens and the prawns outside of district 9 where they were originally assigned to live. Many of the prawns through this eviction process were being killed off. The prawns did not want to live what they have established as their community and refused to sign the papers. This resulting into the prawns fighting back at the MNU using violence at times, in return the MNU military retaliated with shooting them. Powwow Highway we see a type of extermination without a massacre of death. The Indian community is being threatened by being taken over by a mining contract. This is result in the Indian community moving out of their homes as they know them and into other land to start all over and reestablishing themselves. Along their travels to save Red Bow’s sister, they see how the Indian community is being targeted and treated very poorly and even violently at times. Red Bow’s sister is arrested for drugs found in her trunk and her children are taking from her as well. Bonnie knows she did not have the drugs in her trunk and the police were seeking her out, due to her Indian ethnicity. Native American Genocide, conversation Jana speaks about an article written by David E. Stannard called The American Holocaust. She speaks of a thesis that Stannard says “claim that European cultures were obsessed with the annihilation of those individuals categorized as life-unworthy” and also that “Individuals associated with the earth (such as non-Christians, women, and the native populace of the Americas) needed to be subdued and converted, if not eliminated.” Both of these quotes are great summaries of less desirable in a given society and elimination used in genocides.
Raymond: I agree with your point that those who are sought after as less desirable also do not have a thriving ability to defend themselves. However, I would like to add onto your point. On one level, those who are persecuted also do not themselves feel it is acceptable to fight back against an oppressive power. If we look deeper into the Prawns, they had many times in which they could have fought back. They did have the ‘Prawn-power’ to fight back against the MNU. The aliens had far superior strength, size, and weaponry than the South African forces.
ReplyDeleteYou also spoke briefly about the eviction process and the MNU’s theories behind the eviction process. The way that I systematically viewed this event is that the MNU’s systematic plan to exterminate the Prawns was to evict them so that they would start to cause violence. Then, once violence began, the MNU would have a legitimate reason to exterminate the aliens. Also, to an extent the simple act of serving an eviction notice was an attempt to anger the prawns to a point of violence and valid reason to shoot.