Last night, four of us headed to the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute in Utica to watch Hotel Rwanda, a chilling and graphic depiction of the Rwandan genocide that took place in 1994 between the Hutus and Tutsis. Don Cheadle, who was nominated for an Oscar, performed beautifully, exuding both courage and fear and sharing his emotions with the viewer. The movie, summed up in one-word, could be described as haunting. The violence was distrubing, the actions of the characters believable, and given that this was based off of a real-event (Rwandan Hotel is Still Haunted by Horror New York Times, Feb. 28, ‘05), incomprehensible that humans could be so cruel. Although I had personally heard and read about the Rwandan struggles before, saddly, it took this ‘Hollywood’ movie to emotionally challenge me and force me to question why the US (and other foreign nations) had done nothing but look on. The saddest thing is that these struggles will continue through the world, and just like what happened in Rwanda, the plain fact will be that the majority of the developed world will simply look upon the actions in horror and then continue our daily routine. What will it take for us to be more pro-active when such an event occurs?
Copyright © 2000 - 2007, Aram Kudurshian. All rights reserved.
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