"A Transfusion of Humanity"

The internet is on my side tonight! Because of that, I am finally uploading a picture of our beloved Salama, the ‘edgy’ judge on Bongo Star Search (also known as simply BSS). Also, the other picture is of Mt. Meru, the mountain that looms over Arusha. I see this monstrosity every time I walk out my apartment door and every time we walk to class. It’s quite impressive. Also, for those of you who want to be in on the fun of Bongo, you can check out http://dar411.com/bss/ and watch some of their themed songs, such as the Albino Week group song. Also a fun fact that I learned the other day: Bongo is a nickname for Dar es Salaam, but it is also the Swahili word for “brain”. This is no coincidence – it is because Dar is where most educated Tanzanians flock to in search of better jobs and a better standard of living.

I just conquered a book today. I brought it along with little intention of actually reading it because it is incredibly heavy and quite long, but I ended up plowing through it. The book is called Shake Hands with the Devil by Lt. Gen. Romeo Dallaire. Dallaire was the Force Commander of the UN Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) during the 1994 genocide. The back of the book describes the story as “his gift to those he could not save: a searing book that is both an eyewitness account of the failure of humanity to stop the genocide, and General Dallaire’s own struggle to find a measure of peace, reconciliation, and hope.” Interestingly, Dallaire is also “the highest-ranking military officer ever to suffer openly with post-traumatic stress disorder.”

I cannot say that I would recommend this book to anyone except those who have a very intense interest in every aspect of the Rwandan genocide. It is neither light, nor uplifting, but I suppose you could guess that from the title. Dallaire provides a unique perspective – the perspective of a man who witnessed all 100 days of genocide that killed 800,000 people, along with the build up to the slaughter and the backroom dealings. He has no political agenda and has nothing to prove, except his belief that the international community failed a country desperately in need.

Like I said, this is definitely not a beach read, and you should not take this as a recommendation (the last thing I want is to be held responsible for a disappointing read). But I will offer a couple of passages that I found interesting and leave the rest to you.

“I answered that I know there is a God because in Rwanda I shook hands with the devil. I have seen him, I have smelled him and I have touched him. I know the devil exists, and therefore I know there is a God.”

“Each mission was judged as to whether it was ‘worth’ risking soldiers’ lives and nation’s resources. As Michael Ignatieff has warned us, ‘riskless warfare in pursuit of human rights is a moral contradiction. The concept of human rights assumes that all life is of equal value. Risk-free warfare presumes that our lives matter more than those we are intervening to save.’”

“Are we all human, or are some more human than others?”

“The only conclusion I can reach is that we are in desperate need of a transfusion of humanity. If we believe that all humans are human, then how are we going to prove it? It can only be proven through our actions. Through the dollars we are prepared to expend to improve conditions in the Third World, through the time and energy we devote to solving devastating problems like AIDS, through the lives of our soldiers, which we are prepared to sacrifice for the sake of humanity.”

Dallaire acknowledges that blame is useless – what we need is accountability. If he blames anybody he blames everybody. He begins with the perpetrators of the genocide but ultimately calls the genocide the result of the failure of humanity. You can blame the UN, governments, NGOs, or the media, but it comes down to the fact that “the international community, of which the UN is only a symbol, failed to move beyond self-interest for the sake of Rwanda.”

I’m not trying to preach, just trying to stimulate your minds and your hearts a bit.