Hotel Rwanda, Essay Example

Rwanda is a poor country that is located in central Africa. It is surrounded by Uganda, Burundi the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania. Perhaps one of the most horrific ethnic issues in this era was the Rwanda genocide. In 1990 in the African country known as Rwanda, two tribes battled each other within the same territory. Unfortunately, the rest of the world strangely disregarded this massacre as thousands of people were brutally killed. This massacre went on for about 100 days and nearly a million people died. Although the Rwanda government asked other countries for assistance or military support, the global community did not get involved in this conflict and choose to disregard the massacre of Hutu’s and Tutsis.

Hotel Rwanda is a movie based on this tragedy and it presents the crude and horrific reality that thousands of people had to experience in Rwanda and in other surrounding African countries that are not a primary target of oil and natural resources and therefore have to go through their tragedies alone. The movie follows a basic family man whose only hope is to save his family from the civil war. His name is Paul Rusesabagina and he is the manager of the Mille Collins Hotel where the movie takes place. This conflict is between two tribes that have been living close in the same territory for thousands of years. These tribes are the Hutus and the Tutsi. Paul is in the Hutu tribe. However he is married to his wife Tatiana. Ironically, she is a Tutsi woman and therefore his children and family are Tutsis as well. This puts them in serious danger of being murdered or kidnapped by the Hutu army because they are determined to eradicate the Tutsi tribe.

Rwanda’s economy is divided and Paul has to defend his family. He, like hundreds of other Hutus and Tutsis people, has hope that the global community will intervene and stop the battle before more people are lost. He trusts the United Nations organization as well as the American and British forces. However, he starts to lose hope as soon as he realizes that the international forces are only there to save foreign citizens and diplomats, disclosing Hutus or Tutsis peoples. Paul helps nearly up to 1268 Hutu and Tutsis refugees and assists hundreds of other families to escape to countries such as Kenya, Tanzania, England, and Belgium.

In my own knowledge of modern history, many ethnic conflicts have begun as a minor problem and then exploded into a civil war that left thousands of people dead. This is the case in India, a country home to hundreds of various ethnic groups among Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, and others that live within the same territory. This level of diversity has put India in numerous ethnic conflicts.

In a specific scene in the movie entitled “cut the tall trees”, the first signs of genocides were exposed to Paul and his family. The streets were filled with chaos as dead bodies were laid out and families were being driven from their homes. Although everybody was of the same skin color and background, the diversity factors fueled corruption. This shows that diversity is not always superficial, and can be on a personal or egotistical level.

Some cultural differences cause a high level of intolerance. This can lead to a civil war where nobody carries values or ideals and where nobody is good or bad. There is simply just fighting between such groups. Somehow, Rwanda’s people lost their values and their ideals. The division of ethnicity was so deep that they were not only standing against each other but also against themselves. Coexistence among different ethnic groups is sometimes difficult to achieve. However, it is not impossible. Unity is not a concept that should depend on ethnicity, gender, religion or tribe. It is something larger that should involve every human being. We must learn to respect each other and accept everybody regardless of ethnic background.