Rwanda Genocide

A heart- wrenching documentary, which grabbed me from the beginning to the end. If I could sum up the documentary with one sentence that’s how I would do it. ‘When good men do nothing’ touches on the genocide, which plagued Rwanda in 1994. The Rwandan Genocide of 1994 is one of many shameful events in history where human apathy and lack of action resulted in the death of over a million innocent civilians. One million ‘Tootsies’ were slaughtered in one hundred days. That’s more than five times faster than Hitler and the Germans killing off the Jews during World War II. There was a distinct relationship between the Nazis and what happened in Rwanda. This documentary is an example of the ability of journalists to expose atrocities of this nature and magnitude, to surface the guilt and hold accountable those who put politics and paper work in front of human life.

The funny thing as was mentioned in the documentary was that members of the UN knew the plans of the genocide months before it happened, and they did nothing about it. Why? Its because if world leaders had to get involved, their election status might have been on the line if they made any bad decisions.

Lets talk about the statement “Evil triumphs when good men do nothing”. How can the world step away and do nothing while hundreds of thousands of men, women and children are murdered right in front of their eyes. It’s easy. It’s easy when you are six thousand kilometers away making decisions over a phone. It’s easy when it’s not your family being massacred. It’s easy when you can still fall asleep at night knowing that you are safe. It was clear at this stage that the world was giving the killers the freedom to do what ever they wanted to do.

It’s a topic that gets debated on many talk shows, ‘How good men can stand by and do nothing’’, while their loved ones or even just another human being is being hurt. Is it fear, is it following orders or is it just that they didn’t care. It’s not their family so why bother.