As the twenty year anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda...

As the twenty year anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda arrives, it is important to recognize the lack of action on the part of the international community, and to look toward a future where people have learned from the mistakes of the past. In some ways, each individual could ask themselves whether, if they saw a murder taking place, they would intervene. Would it depend on whether they had a weapon big enough, and whether they felt they knew the person being victimized? The Rwandan genocide reported almost 100000 brutal killings of a community within a country and it shocked the world. The genocide resulted in almost one million causalities within the space of 100 days which means 10000 killings a day. The most tragic aspect of the†¦show more content†¦In the first days of April 1994, the radio broadcast the names and addresses of Tutsi and moderate Hutu politicians on the primary death list. Its infamous message was simple: â€Å"The grave is only half-full; who will he lp us fill it?† Militiamen went to â€Å"work†-often observing normal office hours- with a machete in one hand and transistor radio in the other† (Peterson 256) The authority of the Hutu government to call for ethnic cleansing was unquestionable in the minds of the Hutus who carried out the murders, and committing genocide was considered part of 5their moral imperative as Hutus. As was demonstrated in the book by Scott Peterson, Me Against My Brother, in the country of Somalia, this sort of clan warfare had historically been limited by the tools of warfare that were available to the people. Without motorized vehicles and guns, they were limited to single combat with spears and knives, and couldn’t cover large amounts of territory in short amounts of time in order to engage with the enemy. Peace existed mainly due to a lack of resources for making war, as exercising power and authority in brutal and violent terms was otherwise respected and revered in Somali culture. The same was true in Sudan, evidenced by the ethnic conflicts within the ranks of the southern rebels at various points in their fighting with the north. Peterson writes, â€Å"The 1991 Bor Massacre revived an antagonism that, for many southerners,Show MoreRelatedOne Significant Change That Has Occurred in the World Between 1900 and 2005. Explain the Impact This Change Has Made on Our Lives and Why It Is an Important Change.163893 Words   |  656 Pagesdemarcate historical epochs, the twentieth century does not appear to be a very coherent unit. The beginnings and ends of what we choose to call centuries are almost invariably years of little significance. But there is little agreement over when the twentieth century c.e. arrived, and there were several points both before the year 2000 (the collapse of the Soviet Union, the reunification of Germany, the surge of globalization from the mid-1990s) and afterward (9/11, or the global recession of 2008)Read MoreEssay on Fall of Asclepius95354 Words   |  382 Pagesfight back or bringing out the best in people because I inspired them. That was not true. It was thanks to true humanity. The humanity I always knew existed. Its just that it was always suppressed by the darkness of humanity. If you said to me a year before the outbreak that this would happen, I would send you to a mental asylum. I guess the joke is on me, so to speak. I wasnt, what some would say, a confident person. I would just follow others and just do my job. The outbreak changed all that