Daddy Doesn't Love Me

Issues like the 1994 genocide in Rwanda seem, more often than not, a way to point fingers at those who “failed” to act accordingly. Does playing the blame game ever actually make any progress in solving a problem?

In regards to the 2004 film, Hotel Rwanda (George), Anthere Nzabatsinda states that there is an underlying theme of “worldwide indifference, especially from the white, western world.” From this, I can only deduce that there seems to be a pattern of race and gender becoming the scapegoat for any unjustified act on humanity. How is making a racial divide any different than making an ethnic divide between the Hutu and Tutsi? When nonsensical separations start being pulled in to political affairs, one can only expect irrationality to follow.

Let us take a closer look at the actual cause of the genocide. As convoluted as it may be, there are blatant historical facts that may offer some sort of explanation. The European colonization in the mid-ninteenth century administrated identity cards to make a distinction between three ethnic groups inhabiting Rwanda: the Twas, the Hutus, and the Tutsis. Why this was done seems to be a vague detail that has been blurred into the background. However, purportedly, colonial favoritism shown between the ethnic groups stirred up a lot of bad blood and, before you know it, we have an out-of-control genocide.

In a way, one could compare it to parents favoring one child over the other. The jilted child acts out at home or at school because they cannot find justification for why they are receiving unequal treatment. Similarly, the Tutsi's could not come to terms with Belgium's sudden favoritism toward the Hutus.

It is all a vicious cycle that eventually boils down a genocide where “the racism of whites do not consider the lives of blacks equal to their own and are, therefore, not worth saving,” as Anthony Daniels so delicately put it in his article, “Never Again, that Time.”

Be that as it may, some Rwandan victims still managed to flee abroad to Europe and America--the very places that were accused of not offering any aid. If these nations felt the Rwandans were not worth saving, why on earth would they allow them into their country? It's like saying, “Daddy doesn't love me, but he bought me a car.”

Why the west was reluctant to offer aid is a political debate. However, I don't believe “the lives of blacks being unequal to the lives of whites” is a viable explanation. It is too narrow of an accusation.

Words of interest:

Fastidious- very attentive to and concerned about accuracy and detail
Beleaguered- lay siege to, beset with difficulties
Atrocity- an extremely wicked or cruel act, typically one involving physical violence or injury
Pundit - an expert in a particular subject or field who is frequently called on to give opinions about it to the public