Reflections on Rwanda

In the last year, I've read several books about the genocide that occurred in Rwanda in the mid-nineties. I was also really moved by the movie Hotel Rwanda-- I really recommend it if you haven't seen it.

Over the weekend, I started reading another book-- Philip Gourevitch's We Regret to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will be Killed with Our Families. I'm only a couple chapters into the book and already have found it to be probably the most moving work about the mass murder of the Tutsis in Rwanda. I never do this, but one line resonated with me so much that I actually highlighted it. He was discussing with shock and horror how such a thing-- the killing of 800,000 people could be carried out in such a short time by such a multitude of people who largely used crude methods to murder their victims and how in the wake of it, he wrestled with a curiosity to know and understand what happened in Rwanda.

"The best reason I have come up with for looking closely into Rwanda's stories is that ignoring them makes me even more uncomfortable about existence and my place in it."

So true. There are some thing about which remaining neutral or ignorant, looking the other way, even in the aftermath, becomes a cruel and callous act.

At any rate... so far this is an amazing collection of reflections. Whether or not you've ever read anything about the massacre of Tutsis in Rwanda, this is a powerful and, I venture to say, even necessary read.