"Hotel Rwanda" has shaken my perception of Africa. In answer to last week's question, I had thought of Africa as a continent. More specifically, as a land--open space, sky, grasslands, sun. I also knew I really enjoyed some of the music that was making its way into American mainstream music. I hated the apartheid of South Africa and remember well the killings in the news and Nelsen Mandela's release.

What "Rwanda" shifted for me was opening me to an understanding from within, as opposed to the "outsider" view. Much like the character Paul in the first half of the movie, I contextualized Africans in regard to whom they interacted with--if that makes any sense at all. I only saw how they were impacted by "outsiders," not from within. Or if it was from within, it was in relation to oppression such as South Africa. So when I heard on the news in the early 1990's of the internal strife in Rwanda, I did not "see" and did not understand the horrows of the events. And quiet honestly, I'm ashamed of that. I didn't know the difference between a Tutsi and a Hutu, and pretty much dismissed it as civil war somewhere across the world.

Now that I think about it more, I realize I thought the same way with Yogoslavia when that country was disintegrating. I had no idea of the diference between a Bosnian and a Serb. I still don't. I don't understand the hate in the Middle East, either. Or the tension between China and Tibet, or China and Taiwan, or for that matter, America and Iraq, and now the internal killings in Iraq. Just as in Rwanda, there are daily horrors that we have no clue about...What's the phrase for it? Ethnic genocide?

Maybe it comes back to Paul's statement that he didn't understand man's cruelty to man. Is there really any difference in cruelty between equals or between a dominant entity and a weaker one? I don't think so... None of it is good. I'm glad we're now in a time where techology allows millions of people to see the horrors--so maybe it won't be so far removed we can't remain ignorant...