Genocide

I am currently reading this book called A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah. It's about the author as boy when he lived in Africa. At the time, there was a civil war in his country. The "rebels" (the enemy) attacked his village and he was eventually forced to join them. You see, these rebels would invade a village and force innocent young men to become a rebel themselves. If they refused, they were killed. These boys were obligated to kill their family and friends and destroy their town. Can you imagine being in their position? You have to travel from village to village, pointing your gun at a trembling, tear-faced person, a friend maybe.

This book takes place in 1993. That was 16 years ago. And it still happens today. I read a book similar to this one a year ago. It's called An Ordinary Man: The True Story Behind 'Hotel Rwanda'. Although it is not about a boy becoming an enemy soldier, it shows the perspective of a genocide hero. He saved about 1,200 people from being slaughtered by negotiating with the enemies. The Hutu (enemy) wanted to slaughter the Tutsi population. If you were a Tutsi, you were obviously killed. If you tried to help the Tutsi or showed that you were on their side, you were also killed. This happened 1999, ten years from now.

In these books, especially 'Hotel Rwanda', it seems that the United Nation did every little to get involved. I wish that the United States would help out, but at the same time, I don't want them to. We have our own nation to save. It's sad really. In the movie Hotel Rwanda, an American film reporter says, "I have people at home that say, 'Oh my god, that's terrible', and then go own eating their dinners."

Sad. I can't believe that people could be heated up enough to actually start a war like these. I can't believe that there are holocausts abroad. Only everyone is blinded to it. We all know about Hitler and the Jews. That was huge! I feel that these genocides should also be recognized like it was during World War II.

I have a theory. Why are we in Iraq? Oil. They have something that we need, so we help them out. What does Africa have? Nothing. So why are our services needed? We were in Europe because our economy was depending on them. Sad.