I'm reading one of the most deeply moving and exhausting books I've read in a long time.
Called "Shake Hands with the Devil", it's a crushing account of Roméo Dallaire's time in Rwanda in 1994.
I sometimes wonder why I am reading it.
The images are so despairing and the brutal rememberances so vivid I have to put the book down and walk away sometimes.
But I think it needs to be read. I think it should be required reading in fact.
We failed almost a million people.
And in this day and age, we don't have any excuses.
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15 comments:
Thank you for writing this, Tai. Dallaire is a genuine Canadian hero and a consumately fine human being. Actually, it's a book on my list but haven't gotten to it yet. After watching Hotel Rwanda, I thought I'd wait a while.
I love the diversity of your interests, by the way, and thank you for the painting compliment.
I really admire how well-read you are.
Some people's links got removed in the refurbishment, but I'm putting you back onto blogroll! It's got a will of its own.
Yes, but if they'd only had some oil, we could have "helped"!
Sorry, sorry...I need to read that.
I was in the shower at the time, so I do have an excuse.
Really makes me questions the US priorities. So sad.
Also saw Hotel Rwanda and was absolutely stunned at my own ignorance. Will read your latest recommendation... thanks.
You are so good at picking such fine reads. I'll have to look up that one.
this is what I was looking for.. a book on Rwanda and genocide..
i know we don't know each other but i remember you commenting on a few of my posts a while back, and i thought it was a weird coincidence that the series of drawings i'm working on right now deals with this exact issue.
i don't know any other way to handle it other than to just draw and draw and draw. it's like we all know it's happening but we just push it aside.. i dunno. i'll try to post some of them in a little bit... thank you.
It is hard to learn how horrible our species can really be to each other.
Good for you for takin' it on.
things like that should always be read. Everyone should know.
I think we often hide from such works because so often we feel powerless to change the system.
In the last month I have watched both Sometimes in April and Hotel Rwanda. I can hardly believe it is real. And we are in Iraq now, why??
Food for the soul.
Tai, I HAVE to get my hands on this book, I will be traveling in Rwanda after Kenya & Uganda (I leave in 2wks!) and I am very interested to know more about this terrible tragedy. When I saw that movie Hotel Rwanda, I cried, it was so incredibly moving and tragic. And now the whole world is sitting by once again as Sudan unravels and another genocide happens...how horrible that Never Again is merely a farce!
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