Response to Taylor's Comment (Dec, 5)

9:14 AM by Brian Norton
Taylor: Does the book give any reasons as to why nobody intervened? View Original Comment

Brian: The books seems limited in its approach to this idea of intervention, however i may shed some light on the subject. As the tensions grew in the areas in an around Rwanda, the world viewed this as a normal rise and fall of popular opinion. As we know now, this is untrue and nearly 500,000 Tutsi's lost their lives to this large miscalculation, and human vengeance. When the world realized what was happening people simply didn't react with speed or skill. The UN stood by, and claimed the struggle was internal and natural. From the US standpoint, a military intervention would be to costly and bold, and by the time UN leaders learned of the genocide one-quarter of the people had already been killed, and another two thirds would have died before full deployment. These facts by no means excuse the lack of action on the worlds part. They should not be excused, intervention should have happened and happened fast.

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Who the F*ck Cared!?

11:12 PM by Brian Norton

"In September 1997, Gen. Roméo Dallaire, said, "I haven't even started my real mourning of the apathy and the absolute detachment of the international community, and particularly of the Western world, from the plight of Rwandans.Because, fundamentally, to be very candid and soldierly, who the hell cared about Rwanda?" Gourevitch's answers are sobering: No one much cared what happened in Rwanda. Not nearly enough is being done to solve the problems of the country, where politically motivated mass killings continue. And no one except Rwandans -- depleted, haunted, utterly alone in the world -- are living with the consequences" This excerpt came from a credible web site's book review section. It speaks logical truth about the nature of the response to the Rwanda crisis, and genocide. Gourevitch says that nobody cared, and those who cared to take notice sat around in foreign lands with tea and scones. A horrible way to treat a struggling country. A country where a certain group of people are treated as a different species. We have seen this in same thing happen in the past, it was called the holocaust. Hitler would smile upon this and say that the killers were trying to survive in this world. This notion is a dangerous and destructive logical fallacy. Hitler replaces the idea of race with that of species...

The Pain of Thought

10:48 PM by jimlagergren
We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families I will refer to as WWTI throughout the scope of this blog and this mission to provide credibility and understanding to the audacity of the actions that occurred in Rwanda in 1994. A good reference point to start is to analyze the history of a nation. Rwanda is situated in the heart of Africa surrounded by nations on all of it’s borders. Rwanda is a beautiful country with lush forests and many hills. It is important to notice the point when the factions the Hutu and Tutsi began to develop and become a part of the Rwandan vocabulary and how the definition of these two groups has evolved throughout history. Emblematic of this relationship of the Rwandan people to history is contained in this quote from page 23 of the book, “In Rwandan history, everyone obeys authority. People revere power, and there isn’t enough education. You take a poor, ignorant population, and give them arms, and say ‘It’s yours. Kill’ They’ll obey”. The truly tragic history of why the Rwandans killed each other can be traced back to a principle created by a British anthropologist John Hannign Speke in 1863 called the “Hamitic Hypothesis”. In short the hypothesis delineates Hutu’s as the lesser people, and defines them as being tall and lanky with long noses, whereas, the Tutsi’s (the one’s subjected to the genocide) are short, stout people with very wide noses. The danger in this assumption that began with Speke and as will be proven throughout this blog may be the primary cause for the genocide that occurred because of the policies that followed the formulation of the hypothesis, we will seek to prove that “He who controls the definition controls the argument”…..

Hey Brian

4:45 PM by jimlagergren
Just a test message to see if my account is active.

-Jim

Criteria of the Project

10:34 PM by Brian Norton
November 21, 2007

This project will strive to inform, and illustrate the main messages and themes of We Wish to Inform You. This website not only includes a Blog but a comprehensive selection of related links and downloadable content. (This website has over 2,000GB of bandwidth, per month, so downloads will be available to you. In the acquirement of knowledge, one must be wary of credibility. You must consider these issues important. This website will address three main issues of credibility.

  • Demonstrate Knowledge
  • Prove Trustworthiness
  • Show Consideration

Through these avenues of credability, I will explain noit only explain the things of WWTIY I will illuminate the significances.

Introduction to the Special Project

10:28 PM by Brian Norton
November 20, 2007

Professor Adams' 103 English class has been a ride I think I may never come to forget. As you all may have sensed, I have a deep appreciation the and wisdom imparted to us by Professor. Unlike Professors at larger and more "prestigious" institutions, he actually Professes. he has a profound his love and joy for English, and if even the smallest ounce of ether slips from him into you, you are blessed with a gift. He is the teacher who you unconciously thank every day for furthering you intelluctual depth, and understanding. On that note, I have set up a Blog in order to capture the essence of Gourevitch's book, in a simple and straightforward format.

Special Project Commences

5:54 PM by Brian Norton
I have yet to start reading the book, however, I wanted to do some testing before i start posting and sharing parts of my project here.