Ghosts of Rwanda DVD

I only just watch the Ghosts of Rwanda DVD a few days ago (I know a little slow). While I watched it I think like most people I was shocked and felt so sad that only 13 years ago something as horrible as this could have happened. However I was surprised that I also felt hope. I was moved and inspired by the fact that there were a few brave people who realised the injustice of the situation and took it upon themselves to do what they could to help. Even when some of them were told they should evacuate the country for their own safety they selflessly decided to stay and help. While there were only very few of these people they made an incredible difference and saved many lives.

Like General Dallaire who stayed behind and kept on trying to negotiate and do what he could with limited troops, or Gregory Alex who delivered food and supplies to people hiding in UN safe havens, or Philippe Gaillard who was brave enough to speak up and as a result the red cross was given safe access to many areas to help save the injured, or Captain Diagne who died saving hundreds of people even though he was not meant to get involved, or Carl Wilkens the only American to stay behind and offer shelter to his work colleges and helped to save an orphanage of children.

All these people prove that one person can make a difference and while obviously they did not stop the Genocide they were able to reduce how severe it was. I do not know what I would do in a situation like these people found themselves in and I don’t think anyone would really know what they would do until they are faced with the situation. But I would like to believe that I would be brave enough to stay and help. Listening to the story of these people gave me hope that there are still good people in this world who are willing to fight for what is right even though it is sometimes dangerous and hard.

My Outline of Blog 1

I was naive when I picked this topic and thought that the causes of Genocide would be straight forward and fit nicely into an essay. However there are so many things that contribute to Genocide. I have therefore decided to focus just on the Rwandan Genocide and examine what caused the Rwandan Genocide. However a lot of the aspects of what caused the Rwandan Genocide are still important and relevant to other Genocides. I’m still doing a lot of reading and currently think that I will include the following.

1) History and socio-cultural factors which lead up to the situation

· Use of aggression in past and as a normative problem solving skill

· Strain on resources (economic situation)

· Lack of acceptance for cultural diversity

2) The Elite and Powerful

· Rich want to be richer and want to made the poor poorer

· Rwandan rulers feared losing heir own power

· Propaganda

· All genocides in history have been instigated, organised, and legitimised by the state.

3) Social Psychological Factors – why individuals follow or be a part of the Genocide

· Lots of people in Rwanda started killing neighbours, spouses, or even children just because they were Tutsi. (what caused this behaviour)

· Obedience

· Confirmatory bias

· In groups and out groups “us” and “them”

· Heuristics

My concept map will not only include what I have talked about in my essay but I also want to include some things I haven’t had room to talk about

Social Psych - Invading my thoughts at the Simpsons Movie

I don’t know if this is happening to anyone else but now it seems that wherever I go or what ever I do I am thinking about social psych and see examples of it everywhere. For example when I was watching the Simpsons movie last week all I wanted to do was to relax and not think about school. No such luck, there is a scene in the movie were an angry mob is after the Simpsons. At first they were just after Homer but in the end they were after the whole family and wanted to kill them. I know it is just a cartoon but I was thinking about mob behaviour and conformity, and wondering if there was no mob and each of the character were just by themselves how would they seek revenge? It made me think just how fast rational and intelligent humans can change and do things that I bet they would be embarrassed about later. And I think now I am only just beginning to understand just how complex some of the topics that we talking about are.

I know it is so nerdy to be thinking about this stuff in the Simpsons movie and I’m sure the writers of the movie would not be impressed. But I was wondering if everybody else has started to see examples of Social Psych were ever they go? Do you guys think that doing this unit has opened your eye’s to think about things you have never thought about before? Have your attitudes about society and people changed since the beginning of the semester? Do you guys think that what we are learning in this unit is important for us to know and use in the future?

I would love to hear everybody else’s thoughts and comments, because I think that this unit and blog have made me open up my eyes a lot and think about the world and why things are happening, which I definitely wasn’t expecting to happen when I signed up for this unit.

Have a good day guys and good luck with your blogging :)

The Stolen Generation – Was it Genocide?

Hi everyone I was just doing a bit of googling on genocide to get some background info on the topic. The definition below is what the UN regards as genocide.

...any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
– Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Article II

Point (e) states that forcibly transferring children of the group to another group is a form of genocide. So was the Stolen Generation a form of genocide???? Many Aboriginal children were moved away from there parents to try to assimilate the children into the mainstream Australian culture. By doing this I assume the general goal was to slowly destroy the Aboriginal culture and population. I don’t know if what I am saying is obvious but I never thought that the Stolen Generation was a form of genocide. What do you guys think?

Genocide - “never again” ??????

The image above is of Berlin’s Holocaust Memorial for all the murdered Jews of Europe. I visited it at the end of last year and it is one of the reasons that I have decided to choose the subject of Genocide for my first blog. Previously I had no interest in War or things like the Holocaust probably because unconsciously I found them too depressing and it was easier just to continue my childish belief that the world is a good place and made up of good people (even if they are only good really deep down). But I was surprised by how much this memorial touched me. It is hard to explain but instead of feeling sad and depressed as I walked around it I felt a strange feeling of calm. I realised that these things in history are not intended to depress us. Instead they are reminders of how we should live and learn from our past mistakes to insure that events like this never again happen. However unfortunately it appears that mankind is a slow learner and mass murders and genocide still continue. It is amazing that mankind prides itself as being civilised and superior but there is nothing civil or superior about genocide. I’m slightly embarrassed to admit that before this class I had not even heard of the Genocide in Rwanda, but I believe that to change anything first there must be a true understanding of why it occurs. So that is why I have chosen the Genocide topic, I want to understand how such horrible things can still be happening in today’s day and age.

Weekly Quote

"In total darkness we are all the same. It is only the light which separates us." Unknown author.

Communication – The Blind Men and the Elephant

Hi everyone when we were in our tutorial last week about communication I couldn’t help but think about one of the stories I loved from when I was younger and think about some of the underlying themes which I never considered before. The story I’m referring to is “The blind men and the elephant”. For those who don’t know what I’m talking about I will give a recap.

In the story six blind men come across an elephant, each man touched a different part of the elephant and was positive that they knew what the elephant looked like. However they argued and could not come up with an agreement on what the elephant looked like. They argued wither the elephant looked like a wall, a spear, a fan, a tree trunk, a piece of string, or a snake.

Clearly the six blind men were missing an important aspect of communication. When I was younger I thought the story was funny cause all of the men got it wrong and didn’t even think about combining there knowledge, but after our last tutorial I think that the story is symbolic of how important communication is and shows the effects of what can happen if poor communication happens. It seems that the six blind men were just communicating on a factual level and did not move on to the next stage of communication.

Do you guys think that the six blind men missed out on a lot of the non-verbal communication cues such as body language and eye-contact since they were blind? From what we discussed in our last tutorial can you guys think of anything else about communication that relates to this story?

I also like this story because it shows that everybody sees that world differently from each other and just because someone has a different view from you does not mean that they are wrong, as the six blind men show each of them were right in there own way.