Hotel Rwanda Reflection 2

Based on the knowledge and perspective you have in a certain subject, the interpretation may vary. This fact is always true even when the same material is being analyzed. This was what happened to me this time when I was watching the movie ‘Hotel Rwanda’. When I first watched this movie (when I was a freshman), I focused more on racism and inhumanity rather than the relationship between families or the culture of Rwanda. Therefore, I think that the intention of the movie was to give a message about the importance of life and how inhuman it is to treat people differently according to their skin color. Moreover, the movie was giving a lesson of how the genocide was unfortunate and miserable that must never happen again in the universe. In fact, people might easily forget the historical facts since it is past events and usually think that present is much more important compared to the past. Therefore, another intention of this movie is to prevent this kind of idea, since past is also important (this is why we are actually learning history in high schools), and so the director is reminding the tragic genocide by making a movie. However, this time I paid a close attention to how the media affects the people’s reactions to events and the role of media in our daily life. Therefore, I came to think less about the real purpose of the movie, ‘the immorality of discrimination and the cruelty/brutality in humans’ inner mind’. Nevertheless, I think it is not so important to obtain the main purpose of the movie; I personally think that we should think critically and get several of ideas from the movie. I believe that this is the reason why movies are so appealing to people all around the world.

Hotel Rwanda Reflection

Rwandan Genocide was the mass extermination of two different ethnic groups ‘Hutu’ and ‘Tutsi’ in 1994. It was the largest massacre during the Rwandan Civil War which was mostly carried by the terrorist Hutu militia group, for 100days from April 6 to mid-July. Unfortunately, thousands of moderate Hutus and at least 500,000 Tutsis died during this genocide. The death of the Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana led to this desperate genocide when his plane was shot down above the Kogalo airport on the 6th of April in 1994. Historically, Rwanda was ruled over by Belgium which broke out the confliction between Hutus and Tutsis due to the Belgians’ discriminatory treatment toward the Rwandans. In fact, the Belgians considered the Tutsis as superior to the Hutus according to their appearances; Tutsis were usually taller than the Hutus, have more bright skin color and smaller nose. Therefore, the Tutsis took better jobs and received better educations where as the Hutus did not. This was the other reason why the Hutus committed the genocide since they had always been treated badly. (All information from global security.org- newspaper article by BBC News)
In this movie, many different types of media have been used; newspapers, televisions, and radios. The most remarkable part of the movie was when a reporter said that whoever sees the news might concern or feel sympathetic to the innocent people, but will never decide to help them out and take action immediately. The people who saw the news would still stick on their daily life and soon will forget or even ignore about outside-world events. Therefore, I think the media is good enough to tell the event and information globally; however, they never convince or move people to actually analyze or criticize the event. For an example, on April 16, the New York Times reported ‘the shooting and hacking to death of some 1000 men, women and children in a church where they sought refuge.’ This tells the readers that some 1000 men, women and children died but never urges that they need help. Moreover, it is not accurate enough to completely believe. This is not because the media tells a lie. Usually, the media only shows the broad image of the event but never explains in detail or shows the unknown events. For example, the news might tell that a massacre is going on in Rwanda, but will not include the fact about the poor orphans and the dead bodies on the road. I think the role of the media is limited; what actually matters is how an individual interprets the media.
After I watched this movie, I was shocked by the Hutus’ inhuman and cruel behavior. They killed the innocent people both Tutsis and moderate Hutus disregarding the fact that they were same race. However, I truly think that this kind of miserable event should never occur again. Therefore, we should always remind ourselves that we claimed all human-beings are equal and killing others is immoral. I believe racism is unjust and discriminative, because race is not something that you can choose to be born in. It’s rather predestined by God. For every problem, there is a solution, even racism could be solved. To make a society with equal rights for everyone, we all need to get along with each other putting aside our differences.