Mizusawa, RebeccaJanuary 5, 2018Period 1C.R.O.W.
N-“History on the Rwandan Genocide”Purpose- Currently, we are studying imperialism and colonialism. In class, we have learned that imperialism or colonialism is the act of colonizing a land and making it your own. It can also mean to establish financial or political dominance over another nation. These two points can be seen in the movie, Hotel Rwanda, as the story basically shows the after effects when colonialism under Belgium ended and both groups coveted power in which chaos erupted. When the Tutsis were given control of the government.
Naturally, the Tutsis prospered in these years, and the Hutus declined. But when the Hutus regained control of the government, they were angry about all the years of decline. The genocide was an unjustifiable result. The Rwandan Genocide is a great example of how imperialism or colonialism can affect a country. Communicate- React- From the rather graphic images to the detailed sound effects, the scenes from the movie is hard to erase from my mind and stirs the feelings of needing to take action. While I was watching the movie, my heart ached for these people, and all I could think was how brutally sad it was.
This movie gave me a lasting impact and sent a clear and direct message and has definitely changed my view of the world. Additionally, this movie definitely made me think of the Holocaust. When the economy in Germany went down, the Germans blamed the Jews for it. This became one of the many reasons to why millions of Jews died.
Similar to how the Hutus have a grudge on Tutsis and ended up killing them. One-Why- The information that the movie provided for us is important because it educates people on something that was, during its time, swept under the rug. I suppose one message is that when certain things don’t necessarily apply or have any effect in their lives, they don’t bother with it. One of the characters said in one scene that people would see the massacre on the news and say “Oh that’s horrible”, and then go on eating their dinner. This point of view can also be seen through the main character in the beginning of the film. At first, Paul thought that the only thing that was important was family and work. But as the film progressed and he protected the refugees in his hotel, he realized that there is more to life than those two things.
Other people who aren’t your family will eventually need your help and that helping them and reaching out is also important. Note- This movie captured a lot of the upsetting truth of what happened in Rwanda, but despite all sickening scenes throughout the movie, there was a few scene that I liked or thought was good. One of the best scenes was definitely the ending scene where Paul and his wife find their nieces and head to Belgium with their whole family.
The reason why I like it isn’t just because they all made it out safe and sound, but the smiles and tears on their face were really relieving to see, especially because they barely passed death. It is a very heartwarming scene where all the stress was finally released. Although there were many gruesome moments thought this movie, the one scene that struck me out as the worst part is when the UN came to the hotel only to save the “whites”. This scene definitely had me upset when all the Americans or white people got the chance to leave, while the Rwandans were left be killed.
In this scene, the UN took the white nuns when they didn’t want to go because they didn’t want to leave the Rwandan children behind to get killed. I was so surprised to see some white nuns begging the UN to take the Rwandan children instead of themselves. Overall, this was a very emotional scene, which left me really hating the UN for their cowardly action.
