PAUL RUSESABAGINA REAL-LIFE HERO, HOTEL RWANDA
I just finished a very moving book called “An ordinary man, The true story behind ‘Hotel Rwanda’”. Wow! As I read this book I was shocked with disbelief of the events that unfolded in Rwanda. I’m sure most of you have seen the movie, “Hotel Rwanda”. It’s moving story, it delves into Paul’s personal journey while explaining the history behind Rwanda’s Hutu and Tutsis tribes within the historical context of the conflict.
Fiftteen years ago on a Thursday, a single attack on a plane triggered a 100-day orgy of slaughter in the central African nation of Rwanda that left at least 800,000 people dead.
Fiftteen years ago on a Thursday, a single attack on a plane triggered a 100-day orgy of slaughter in the central African nation of Rwanda that left at least 800,000 people dead.
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The international community did little to stop the bloodshed, and it ended only when a Tutsi rebel group defeated the Hutu-backed government.
The international community did little to stop the bloodshed, and it ended only when a Tutsi rebel group defeated the Hutu-backed government.
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Amid the stories of unthinkable, pitiless bloodshed, there were faint voices of hope. Paul Rusesabagina, dubbed by some the "Oskar Schindler of Africa," resisted the madness that surrounded him and quietly sheltered more than 1,200 Tutsis and moderate Hutus within the walls of the luxury hotel he managed. Outside those hotel walls, mobs hunted down their victims and hacked them to death with machetes.
Amid the stories of unthinkable, pitiless bloodshed, there were faint voices of hope. Paul Rusesabagina, dubbed by some the "Oskar Schindler of Africa," resisted the madness that surrounded him and quietly sheltered more than 1,200 Tutsis and moderate Hutus within the walls of the luxury hotel he managed. Outside those hotel walls, mobs hunted down their victims and hacked them to death with machetes.
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It’s a little hard to talk about the book in the context of a blog as there is so much involved in telling the story.
It’s a little hard to talk about the book in the context of a blog as there is so much involved in telling the story.
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In the Genocide in Rwanda the UN and the West did nothing to stop the Genocide amoungst pleas and requests when it was in their power to intervene.
In the Genocide in Rwanda the UN and the West did nothing to stop the Genocide amoungst pleas and requests when it was in their power to intervene.
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As I reflected on the book i thought about how there are so many things happening today in third world nations that are in our power to make a difference. It makes me think of one of Bono’s quotes, “The fact is that this generation -- yours, my generation ... we're the first generation that can look at poverty and disease, look across the ocean to Africa and say with a straight face, we can be the first to end this sort of stupid extreme poverty, where in the world of plenty, a child can die for lack of food in it's belly.”
As I reflected on the book i thought about how there are so many things happening today in third world nations that are in our power to make a difference. It makes me think of one of Bono’s quotes, “The fact is that this generation -- yours, my generation ... we're the first generation that can look at poverty and disease, look across the ocean to Africa and say with a straight face, we can be the first to end this sort of stupid extreme poverty, where in the world of plenty, a child can die for lack of food in it's belly.”
We have the opportunity right now to sponsor children, stand against child slavery and use our money to lift people out of the cycle of poverty. I hope we are not the generation that stands by and does nothing.
Awesome post! Spot on, how can we sit in our comfortable couches and do nothing, we have a responsibility when we know the truth to act!
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