Welcome to the wonderful world of European colonization.

Rating: 10/10 (27 March 2005)

Somalia, Ethiopia/Eritrea, Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Congo, Sudan, Algeria, Nigeria, Tunisia - and Rwanda...what do all of these African counties have in common? They're countries torn apart by civil war, where millions have been slaughtered and millions more have been maimed, raped, beaten, tortured, threatened, displaced, and, most importantly, ignored by the rest of the world. And the main reason for the nightmare that Africa has become? Europe colonized Africa and divided it along new territorial lines, splitting tribes and clans into pieces, and forcing rivals and foreigners into the same territories. The entire Rwandan genocide is namely due to the Belgians, who basically handpicked certain Rwandans and called them Hutus, and called the others Tutsis, all arbitrarily, then left the country and power to the Hutus, creating a power struggle between two 'tribes' who were really the SAME PEOPLE.
In the end you have Hutus and Tutsis at war, even though there is absolutely no difference between them save a name granted by their Belgian 'lords', and power unilaterally granted by uncaring and abandoning colonizers. I just watched the Shake Hands With The Devil documentary on Radio-Canada tonight, and one thing that astounded me was the footage, at the 10th anniversary conference on the Rwandan genocide, of a personal attack by the Belgian senatorial representative, on Dallaire, because of Belgian casualties within the UN peacekeeping corps. I think that this is the perfect example of where the Western priorities lie.
Everyone in North America and Western Europe needs to see Hotel Rwanda. Only through this kind of film can we actually learn about and feel the sort of terror that exists in a land where death can come to someone simply because they're unfortunate enough to be branded with a colonial name that divides them from the Powers That Be. 10/10.