Thoughts
We watched Hotel Rwanda yesterday and it was amazing. This tells the story of the guy who inspired it all - Paul Rusesabagina. He sheltered 1268 refugees, fleeing from the genocide in Kigali, Rwanda, in his hotel, and ingeniously found ways to keep them from being slaughtered by the angry rebels who turned up everyday.
Paul had such courage, and I could never, ever imagine myself put in his position.
One of the songs had a heartwrenching excerpt of a song sung by African children:
Ni dyar'izuba, Rizagaruka,
Hejuru yacu, Ni nduzaricyeza riceza
Ni dyar'izuba, Rizagaruka,
Hejuru yacu, Ni nduzaricyeza.
(When will the sun return above us?
Who will reveal it again to us?)
This movie also set me thinking about how much is going on in the world that I don't know about, don't care about, don't pray about. During the crisis in Rwanda, over a million people died but the UN didn't intervene. One of the cameramen in Hotel Rwanda said, "If people see this footage, they will go, 'Oh God, that's horrible' and go back to eating their dinner." And I realised that I need to become more well-informed about the world out there, and try to make a difference.
Right now, genocide is taking place in the Sudan..read about it here and here. Besides signing petitions, and donating money, we can all pray. And we must pray, for prayer is the only hope we have in our positions, sometimes.
Paul had such courage, and I could never, ever imagine myself put in his position.
One of the songs had a heartwrenching excerpt of a song sung by African children:
Ni dyar'izuba, Rizagaruka,
Hejuru yacu, Ni nduzaricyeza riceza
Ni dyar'izuba, Rizagaruka,
Hejuru yacu, Ni nduzaricyeza.
(When will the sun return above us?
Who will reveal it again to us?)
This movie also set me thinking about how much is going on in the world that I don't know about, don't care about, don't pray about. During the crisis in Rwanda, over a million people died but the UN didn't intervene. One of the cameramen in Hotel Rwanda said, "If people see this footage, they will go, 'Oh God, that's horrible' and go back to eating their dinner." And I realised that I need to become more well-informed about the world out there, and try to make a difference.
Right now, genocide is taking place in the Sudan..read about it here and here. Besides signing petitions, and donating money, we can all pray. And we must pray, for prayer is the only hope we have in our positions, sometimes.
5 Comments:
Hey, that John Schless guy that's running for office or whatever. Is he an American? From St. Louis?
By
Anonymous, at 5:34 am
Oh yeah, here's my email.
kao_chen@yahoo.com
By
Anonymous, at 5:35 am
no... hes british
By
ruthie, at 11:32 am
I saw that film today, curiously I just spoke about the line you picked out to my mum a few hours ago.
My opinion was that I wanted people to see that while they were having their dinner, they could cry into their tea, then maybe we would've done something. Did you note that the US and the UK were the two countries on the security council that vetoed helping Rwanda then?
The whole cinema was in tears today, some people just sobbing constantly, myself included. It was very moving indeed, what humanity is capable of is quite frightening.
By
Orbling, at 4:53 am
My friends and I just saw it here in the States. I found your post by searching on the "Million Voices" lyrics. I keep thinking of Bono's lyrics "are you gonna wait forever"? May something better come from this.
By
James, at 8:41 am
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