Baudot- Week 7: Hotel Rwanda and Murambi, The Book of Bones

Rwandan genocide-- Innocent children one of its greatest victims 

In the film Hotel Rwanda, we see what mass genocide was like for the Rwandan people. In only roughly about three months, millions of people were killed by this persecution. What is most striking about this film, and as Dr. McCay mentions in her lecture, is that there seemed to be a complete lack of willingness to help Rwanda during this by by most all other countries. Despite occurring during a time when media and news was able to rapidly spread, this news had no effect. Fortunately, Paul Rusesabagina is able to help save over a thousand people by keeping them shelter in his hotel. The reason behind the Rwandan genocide was the ever longstanding competition between the Tutsi who were typically more powerful and Hutu who were greater in population and finally took away the power from the Tutsi around the 1960s. The assassination of Habyarimana unfortunately resulted in the Hutus' execution of mass killings of the Tutsi people and anti-hate Hutus who were very unfavorably labeled as traitors to their people and for not wanting to kill the "cockroaches" and the Tutsi were renamed.

The Hotel becomes a very significant aspect of the movie, other than reasons that are not so obvious, including the idea that very quickly Rwanda was in a state where they needed more and more refugee camps because of the greater danger that was being imposed on them and the number of people that were being killed as well as the importance of it keeping its reputation as a 4 star hotel. This is important, as Paul states, because it is the only thing keeping them alive, which I interpreted to represent their lives as well as their people as a whole, their culture, their business, their economy, their land, etc. This idea is supported as there are many more economic and social references made to the Hotel as the film goes on. When the Hutu army comes and orders all of the refugees and Paul out of the Hotel (and Paul tells his family to hide on the roof) there are over 900 people who will be forced to most likely face their death. Paul ironically calls from the hotel phone is order to receive help from the UN who then tells Paul no one will assist Rwanda because they do not feel it is worth saving, as this includes Americans, Europeans, and especially the French. They reach out for assistance but keep getting denied. Western powers, at this time, are not willing to take a risk and save these people. A UN soldier in the movie even claims, at one point, that he is a "peacekeeper not a peacemaker." But what line is being drawn there, and where is there even a distinction? To what extent is someone even being a peacekeeper but ignoring all of the death and mass murder that is going on around them? To maintain peace there must be action if there is evil present. To keep peace, you make peace. This notion even relates back to a quote earlier in the film by a media recorder who states, "I think people see this footage at home and say 'Oh my God that's horrible' and then go on eating their dinners." Passiveness can be genocide's greatest support. Meanwhile, Paul is being told that the rich cockroaches he is keeping in his hotel will no longer have any need for their money; that it will  be no good to them anymore. Soon "all the Tutsis will be dead." He even challenges Paul when he asks, "How can you kill us all?" As mentioned, there is a continuous decline for overall outlook for the people of Rwanda in every sense of the word.

Paul tries to remain encouraged, however, and asks the people to try to get as much outside help as possible and imagine passing the sentiment to them through the phone that if they are to let go of our hand asking for help, we will die. I found this to be one of the most powerful scenes in the movie. As Dr. McCay mentions in her lecture, it is ironic how the World Cup is going on at the same time as the Rwandan genocide. It is so sad to think that so many people turned a blind eye to what was going on in Rwanda-- and yet, you assume, too, that not only was it just people, but exposure to what was going on was minimal as well due to the probable. complete lack of media attention this genocide was receiving on the news, etc. This crisis was not even important enough to make it to television. One other striking scene, to me, was when Paul gets told, "You aren't even a nigger. You're an African. Because of that, they aren't going to stop this Paul." There is just a complete mentality of hatred, disregard, and ignorance.

This theme continues in the novel Murambi, the Book of Bones. The story recounts the life and sentiment of a Rwandan history teacher, Cornelius, who was living in Djibouti at the time of the genocide. he returns to Rwanda to try to comprehend the death of his family and to write a play about all the events that he has seen and witnessed for himself. As the novel continues, Cornelius begins to understand one of the most important lessons concerning genocide: only our own humanity can save themselves. Cornelius takes it upon himself to bear witness to all of the atrocities going on around him and the lack of what humanity is doing to help themselves. At one point in the novel it states in reference to talking to people about Djibouti, "Djibouti had fascinated him. he explained to Stanley and Jessica that it was an immense expanse of stone, a country of vivid colors, often red or black. He told them that Djibouti had made him experience a strange emptiness and that no country in the world offered itself up so immodestly to the curiosity of strangers. There, everything was visible to the naked eye, including misery, which everywhere took so much trouble to escape attention... Cornelius had a lot of reasons to love Djibouti but the strongest was perhaps this: it was the only place in the world where he had the feeling that one could start something new (Diop 37)." In this quote we see the importance of having faith in humanity and that there could be hope for a place that experiences great genocide. Misery and trouble are everywhere, but it all must be overcome.

The character Jessica seems to keep this same sentiment. Throughout the text she is described as thin and frail and weak with the effects of starvation and hunger. In the text she says, "Should we just sit back and wait for our killers or try to do something so that our country can go back to being normal? Between our futures and ourselves, unknown people had planted a sort of giant machete. Try as you might, you couldn't ignore it. The tragedy would always end up catching you. because people came into our house one night and massacred all your family. Because in our country where you live in exile, you always end up feeling in the way (Diop 31)." Jessica struggles with the elements associated with tragedy, including loss of family, the uncertainty of the future, and her memories that haunt her (as mentioned around page 30). Ultimately, she is a character who has her own personal struggles and feelings she must overcome that are associated with the genocide, but she is aware of the "greatness" that is behind what is going on--people needed to embrace the tragedy, try all that they could to fight against it and resist, and see hope. In both Murambi, the Book of Bones and Hotel Rwanda, we see these actions as the ultimate redeemers.

Trujillo, Hotel Rwanda and Murambi

Young Tutsi boy bearing machete scars

Genocide is horrible across the board. No matter what the genocide, what the war, who the opposing people are, the fact remains: innocent people are being killed. There are humans killing humans with no mercy and with the intention of stamping out a people that are devout to a particular culture. It's disgusting no matter how you look at it, and every single genocide we have looked at is equally as disgusting. No one deserves being killed in cold blood, no one deserves having their culture forcefully and violently taken away from them. These people are all innocent.

The Rwanda genocide was, in the simplest way, a method of revenge, of the underdog (the Hutus), a people who, long ago, were deemed different and of a lower class in Rwanda. This is a constant battle, a constant war between the Tutsi's and Hutsu's. Long ago, this division of people was decided by the Belgians and the decision was made because of lightness of skin, daintiness of the nose and long limbs. It was said that the Tutsi's were a tall, light and regal people. While I don't think that this genocide can be placed on any one people or any one event, the separation of the people of Rwanda was the turning point.

In Murambi: The Book of Bones the man who made my skin crawl would be Dr. Joseph Karekezi (a Hutu) who was manipulative, self-interested and cruel. This was a man married to a Tutsi woman and who had fought passionately against the cruelty shown to the Tutsi people. He had been a strong advocate for equality amongst the people and had come to have a position of trust and power. However, all the tables turned when people had found out that he had been secretly funding the Hutu movement. He then used his position of importance among the Tutsis to build a shelter for them so they would be safe from the Hutus. This is where 50 thousand people died because of him. Where 50 thousand people's blood was spilled when this man called in the Hutu killers.

He then also led his wife and own two children into the 'safe camp' and into their deaths. They were Tutsi were they not? They also deserved to die did they not?

Tran: The Rwandan Genocide

The aftermath and cleanup of the genocide.


Of all the genocides I have studied, Rwanda has always been the hardest to learn about or even to comprehend. I think is because of the short amount of time it was executed in and the number of murders that took place. Beyond the figures though, the worst part was the way in which the genocide was carried out by neighbors, friends, and even families. How could once lovely neighbors and families suddenly turn on their Tutsi loved ones literally overnight. It is hard to imagine that it was ordinary Rwandans that picked up machetes and clubs to chop and hack at innocent Tutsis. Even under the house of God, no one was spared and churches were actually where most of the mass murders happened. It was an unspeakable event and worst of all, no one came to help.

Studying Rwanda this time around, it has been shocking to find out how involved France was in the genocide. France didn’t personally kill anyone, but they backed the Hutus and also helped war criminals sneak across the boarders during Operation Turquoise. I have studied the Rwandan Genocide before, but I don’t remember learning about France’s involvement and I think it is important to be aware of its part in the genocide! In the article by Murigande, he states how there are reports that there would be a killing spree that was to occur and goes further to say that the French didn’t like the RPF and weren’t going to allow them to take control of Kigali. There were signs that things would happen and the UN didn’t take a bigger stance to prevent it. As much as I am angry at the French for assisting the Hutus murderers to escape, it was really the Belgians who started it all. They socially constructed two different ethnic groups (more so a caste system) in Rwanda when there wasn’t a difference between them at all. I was also surprise that on identification cards, there was either Hutu or Tutsi on it. They created this tension and hatred between the two groups and added to it by favoring the Tutsi because they thought that group had better traits.

I think the West had a huge part in Rwanda and should have done more about it. Sarajevo was happening at the same time and though it lasted a long time, media attention and some kind of action was used to try to help it. With Rwanda, I feel that because it wasn’t a white country, it didn’t get the same treatment. I think it is also because Africa didn’t have anything to offer the West. The Holocaust had to be stopped because it was already part of the war. The Native American genocide was over land and resources. Then in Bosnia and Serbia, the UN was very involved in that, but why not Rwanda? In the film Hotel Rwanda, Colonel Oliver tells Paul that the UN weren’t coming and the French only came to evacuate the whites of the hotel. Paul and other guests at the hotel try to call all the Western people they know to see if anything could be done or if they could find a way to leave. The lack of intervention from the West allowed more of the killings to happen and the rebels didn’t feel a sense of consequences for doing so.

Docter Joseph Karekezi is Cornelius’s father and his time during the genocide was a peculiar one. From the outsider, he seemed to be uninvolved with politics and what the rebels Hutus are doing. He seemed like a moderate Hutu and someone would was trying to lessen the divide and discrimination between the two groups. He was also secretly meeting with the Hutu interahamwe and Colonel Musoni to tell them to come to Murambi to carry out the massacre. He actually felt that some of the interhamwe were getting a bit lazy and sloppy because they were drinking and not killing everyone in sight. During the genocide, Karekezi reflected on his life and his beliefs and he realizes that this was his opportunity and duty to rid the country of the Tutsi. Since he is quite trusted by his community, Tutsi feel like they can look to him and trust him when he advised them to go to Polytechnic School. He was very calculating in his plans because he decided to bring his family to the school too to show the other that it would be safe there since his family was there too. His family would have been easily safe in their house, but he decided to get rid of them too. There is part in the book where it says he has a cold indifference; he neither hates anyone nor does he love enough. They were all expendable to him. Gerard says how though Karekezi seemed like he was a moderate Hutu who tried to be equal, but in actuality he hated the fact that Tutsi had better jobs and pay and he never had those chances because he was a Hutu. After the genocide, Karekezi is able to leave Rwanda through Operation Touquoise and Colonel Etienne takes him away. On the surface, Dr. Joseph Karekezi is shocking and sinister, but if you look collectively at the events in Rwanda he wasn’t that much different from half of the country. People like him could be found all over Rwanda, although most of them didn’t organize a mass murder the size he did. He turned on his village and especially his family, but that happened over and over again in Rwanda where friends and families would kill their own because they were Tutsi. When Cornelius comes back to find out the truth, “He had suddently discovered that he had become the perfect Rwandan: both guilty and a victim” (Diop 78). He was left to pick up the pieces of his father’s actions and face their aftermath.

Ramon: Week 5, Powwow Highway and "Saint Marie"

The characters, Buddy Red Bow, Filbert Bono, and Marie all deal with cultural subordination in vastly different ways. However, the constant within these three character’s paths of subordination is the destruction of their Native American culture.

We will start with Filbert Bono of PowWow Highway. Filbert is an interesting character in this situation because he is somewhat naïve to what is truly going on around him. He is of middle age from what I could gather in the film, but he has a child-like mind. Filbert has the goal of becoming a great Native American warrior. In Filbert’s mind, all he has ever known is the Native American culture. The ironic thing about Filbert’s character is that he tries so hard to become a warrior, but he still is sucked in by Americana. Two large examples of this is his “pony” and his eating styles. His “pony” is a beat up car and the only things that Filbert eats, according to Buddy Red Bow, are hamburgers and fries. When one thinks about Americana, the automobile industry and the fast food industry are the two distinguishing factors of Americana. It I ironic that this Native American warrior journey is laid side by side with two of Americana’s major elements.

We now move to Buddy Red Bow. Red Bow’s situation is also quite ironic. He is so gung-ho about preserving the reservation from the mining scheme and keeping Americana away from the Reservation. He goes so far as to park violence towards the white-man. However, when he and Filbert attend the Powwow, Red Bow states his hate of the Powwow. Granted, Red Bow does partake in ceremonial dancing at the Powwow, but in my examination of this scene, Red Bow joins in the dancing to make Filbert happy.

Lastly, Marie’s character in “Saint Marie” is partnered with another large element in Americana, the Christian religion. This nation was founded on religious principles, but the native inhabitants of the “New World” were pushed back and lowered to third class citizens. This short story made me think about my time in Belize. In Belize, young Mayan women are taken under the wings of multiple religious orders, such as the Palatine Sisters. This is not a knock on the Palatines at all and I am not saying that the Palatines are taking the Mayans away from the Mayan culture. In this story, Marie simply deals with the treatment she undergoes from Sr. Leopolda. I am in full support of the Mayan youth being taken in by the sisters. However, are the Mayans (and Native Americans) being “forced” to do these things and tricked into thinking that doing dishes is for God? I do not know and will not know

Gommel: Sarajevo

A Sarajevo Rose is a concrete scar caused by a mortar shell’s explosion that was later filled with red resin.

They are a unique feature to the city

In the siege of Sarajevo, the literature and film focused on how those trapped within the city survived whether it was Sarajevan citizens or foreign journalists. The psychological warfare was horrendous. This seems to be a major part of modern warfare, and so much crueler and inhumane than wars where armies charged in and killed indiscriminately. In this siege, snipers held people’s lives at bay continually. One never knew when the sniper might strike, but they knew they were there and could randomly choose who and when they wanted to kill. Snipers humiliated the people as they watched them decide on how to cross a street, walking straight, running zigzagged, alone or helping someone. Eyes were always on them, making them live in fear as they scrounged for food and water, knowing at any moment they could be shot. Yet there was also the indiscriminate shelling that showed no mercy to citizens and the institutions that were supposed to be protected during “legal” sieges.

The Cellist of Sarajevo was framed from the point of view of 3 citizens going through their daily routines and becoming further distressed by the long range effects of the siege. It also revealed the daily routine of the cellist who for the 22 days played the cello in memory of those killed while standing in a bread line in front of his apartment. The song he plays was once destroyed, but later reconstructed. It may not be the original but it is still beautiful and this is the hope the cellist also wants to offer to the living in the city of Sarajevo- that their city may be rebuilt beautifully, albeit changed. The three citizen’s lives interconnected in small ways to the cellist, but in the end the music and demeanor of the cellist touched them greatly and led them to maintain their identity and hold onto their humanity.

Kenan, the family man wanted to give up on everything, even Ms.Ristovski, after the struggle to fetch water nearly escaping death and witnessing the deaths of those around him and the greed of his own people taking advantage of his friend. But the cellist’s music had given his weary mind and body rest from the reality of the war. With a renewed spirit, he went back out of his way to get his neighbors water, joked with his wife and was overjoyed with hope over a little electricity and simple pleasures for his family. And he continued to fetch water and care for his family.

Dragan had been overwhelmed by fear in the war and couldn’t even move to help a friend after a haggard day deciding when to cross the street. But in the end he comes to the realization that he lost his grip on life in defending himself from death (224). Now he must live and flourish. He stands up for his city he loves and doesn’t let a camera man film the dead hatless man. He will preserve the city he remembers for the world. He now addresses others joyfully instead of downcast. He goes out of his way to help those in need. He will live his life with zeal instead of fear (224).

Arrow (her code name) was a defender for the city. She was put in charge of protecting the cellist from a sniper. She killed the sniper, but momentarily hesitant as she saw his eyes were shut and his demeanor relaxed listening to the cellist. But it was her orders and had to be done. Later her own defenders called upon her to kill a seemingly innocent old man and she refused to do it and left. After 10 days she returned to her apartment. The night before she had listened to the cellist play for the last time. He put his bow down among the flowers and she laid her rifle down. She would no longer protect a city, whose own defenders acted like the ruthless men on the hill. She heard the steps of the defenders coming, she knew they were coming to get her for her defiance, but she did not pick up her hand gun to kill them. She was no longer Arrow, but Alisa.

I gathered that the world saw the siege as Dragan’s stray dog. The world saw images of what was happening, yet just kept going on with their own lives “uninterested.” Mankind had things to do and places to go and it didn’t have time to bother with non-essentials. And the citizens of Sarajevo sensed the inhumanity, as they saw humanity drift out of sight.

Welcome to Sarajevo was framed from the reporters’ point of view from within the city. They were moved by the suffering and the murders. Yet internal conflict erupts about how much they can and should do. When one reporter assisted someone after a shooting he was condemned by most of the other reporters. Yet they worked together to get the children out of the city. They were astonished after their continued reporting and the world would not help; and royal divorces were more newsworthy than man’s inhumanity to man. Disconcerting too were the many excuses from all the bureaucrats: Plenty others are in the same condition or worse; It can’t be that bad; It has to go through bureaucratic process. Don’t count on the West; Don’t Dream. Some acted concerned; but ultimately did nothing. The reporters also saw the corruption from within, as did the citizens in the Cellist, when lured into an apartment and then robbed and shot at. In the end though we see the people of the city and the reporters transcend all the iniquities through the music of the cellist. The world may be slow to help, but they have to have something on which to hold. Music takes them away from this disturbing world and helps them to find that spark inside themselves that makes life worth living.

Raymond: Week 6 Welcome Sarajevo & The Cellist of Sarajevo

The film, Welcome to Sarajevo and the book, The Cellist of Sarajevo, gives us as the audience two great ways of learning the effects and events that took place during the siege. Welcome to Sarajevo, brings us right into the heart of reporters telling us about what they are experiencing, this film has a very similar resemblance to Good Evening, Mr. Wallenberg. A business man willing to risk his own life to save others, during the genocide of Jews and in this we see a reporter risk his life to aid the locals during the siege. The Cellist of Sarajevo a young musician continuing to play his cello at the site of an attack to maintain the mood. This is much like the novel the Pianist, where he plays the piano to maintain the mood during the Holocaust. They may not have been playing for the same reason, but both maintain their passion to play music for others during a genocide taking place. The siege of Sarajevo may have been the longest in modern history, but the Holocaust and this siege share many similar characteristics of dehumanizing individuals for reasons of power.
Many scenes in the novel express to us how scared and dehumanizing it was for the citizens to witness their fellow citizens lose their lives at any moment. “Dragon tries to count the seconds since the sniper last fired, tries to figure out how much time they have before the next bullet comes”(118). The citizens are on hiding in anticipation of the next shooting to take place; will it be them or someone near them? Do they have time to run and hide? As outsiders we see this as a very inhumane way to live, day by day literally minute by minute. In the very next paragraph he says “He can’t look away from the street, where the hatless man is trying to crawl, and a centimeter at a time, to safety. There’s an expanding smear of blood surrounding him, and although Dragon knows the streets around him is full of noise, he doesn’t hear a sound” (118-119). Dragon having to witness a man who was shot and being too afraid to help for fear he himself may be shot next. The man as he says is crawling to safety, if someone is in this dire need of help, we should help them. All human reflexes to help others are taking from you under this type of situation. You are unable to think clear and logically. These Serbs were out seeking Muslims and achieving massive deaths, just as the Nazi’s did in attacking all the Jews.
The film we see reporters stepping around and completely overlooking the hurt and people in need. I do realize that they are there to do a job and that is to report what is taking place so others can understand. I do not understand one human can walk away from another in need of real help. You always hear that you must keep business and personal separate; I do believe that is true in most cases. However, out in the field of a siege as this one taking place brings a whole new level. Reporters must maintain their composer, but as a human how are you to actually hold back your sympathy for those suffering around you. This goes on for quite a while in the movie, and then we see a turn in one of the reporters. Later in the movie, Henderson one of the reports has to tell a little girl that her parents have been killed. This was the turning point of reporter like characteristic of being dehumanized, he regains his human nature and promise to resuce this little girl away from the siege. This little girl really touched his life; he was very much in aid for all the children there as well. As a reporter doing what he has done, made him make a very significant choice. Henderson had to choose between his long career of a reporter and saving the young lady. He made choice he could live with for the rest of his life.
You can try and take control over people and their lives as they once knew. The Serbs tried here and the Nazi’s did, but you are not going to get them all. There are some individuals who are not afraid to stand up or take a stand for what they have always believed in and stood for. A person’s integrity is all we have as humans and no one should be able to take this away.

Rogers: Welcome to Sarajevo and The Cellist of Sarajevo

After reading Steven Galloway's "The Cellist of Sarajevo", several instances served as a stark reminder of the dehumanizing efforts of modern warfare, like the kind practiced by the Serbs on the Croats and Muslims in Sarajevo. In similar fashion to the Nazi's, the Serbs sought to and succeeded in making the inhabitants of Sarajevo bend to their will through the illegal act of terror. In the article by KJ Riordan, "Shelling, Sniping, and Starvation: The Law of Armed Conflict and the Lessons of the Siege of Sarajevo" she states that people use terror to, "…break the will of the enemy to fight or...cause the civilian population to lose confidence in a government that cannot protect them (165)." Forced to scurry through the streets like mice running from the looming threat of a hungry cat, the civilians that we meet in "The Cellist:" Dragan, Kenan, and to a lesser extent, Arrow, seem shocked to find themselves in such an unbelievably bad situation. They are even forced to treat each other like animals. We see an example of this when Dragan becomes Emina's guinea-pig for crossing the street and leaving their place of safety. Dragan did the same thing earlier to a couple trying to make their way across the city; waiting to see if a sniper was in the area, testing him out on the couple.

On the other hand, in Welcome to Sarajevo, the civilians go about their everyday business, at least at the beginning of the film. Women go to the hairdresser, people go to church. Humans, through our ability to overcome oppression and carry on with the customs that shape civilized society, are shown to be adapting, at the beginning of the film, far better then by the films ending, the situation in Sarajevo having gotten progressively more atrocious. There is definitely some dehumanizing going on on the part of the reporters in the film. They seem to exist in a separate world; able to come and go as they please, able to separate themselves, at least at first, from the carnage around them. One part in the film that struck me, as well as the characters, was when Risto and Henderson have to explain to the little girl in the hospital that her parents have been killed in a shell-attack. Not waiting for their sympathy and help, and perhaps unknowingly realizing the psychological distance between them, she gets up and walks away from the adults. The reporters, in their enthusiastic fervor in being out in the field, mindlessly film the suffering of the inhabitants of the city without offering any succor, only later realizing that the civilians are not merely fodder for their respective news networks, but people who are living under constant terror of snipers and shells.