Reflection: HOtel Rwanda! =)

Over the past couple of days we have been watching the movie, Hotel Rwanda in class. This was my second time watching the movie and after watching it again my perspective changed and I saw things in the movie that I didn't see before.
Question: How this movie was intended to impact you and its actual effects.

While watching this movie I took notes on certain scenes, quotes, and general ideas that really impacted me. Overall, I think that this movie was intended to show the truth of the Rwandan genocide and to convey the true emotions and disorder that occured there. The movie was really powerful and really captured the time and setting in which the genocide occured. Personally, I think that this movie was very well done and fully conveyed the distress and anger of the two people groups. Through this movie we can obviously see that there were killers "bad guys" and victims. This is evident through the amount of people killed and their actions were not at all justified.

Some scenes that really impacted me were:

-When Gregoire and Paul drove along the riverside and came across many dead bodies.

-When the foriengers were all evacuted (There was a sense of hopelessness and helplessness).

-All the scenes in which houses were destroyed and people were being beaten or killed.

-The Hutus entering the hotel.

-Paul staying behind at the hotel and seeing his family leave.

-Paul crying after he cannot butten his shirt.

(These are some of the many scenes that really effected me and really impacted me throughout the movie.

SOme quotes that really impacted me were:

*Quote from the beginning of the movie, "When people ask me, good listeners, why do I hate all the Tutsi, I say, "Read our history." The Tutsi were collaborators for the Belgian colonists, they stole our Hutu land, they whipped us. Now they have come back, these Tutsi rebels. They are cockroaches. They are murderers. Rwanda is our Hutu land. We are the majority. They are a minority of traitors and invaders. We will squash the infestation. We will wipe out the RPF rebels. This is RTLM, Hutu power radio. Stay alert. Watch your neighbours. "

*"There will be no rescue, no intervention for us."

* " I think if people see this footage, they'll say Oh, my God, that's horrible. And then they'll go on eating their dinners."

* "You're black. You're not even a nigger. You're an African"

* "Please don't let them kill me. I... I promise I won't be Tutsi anymore."

* "They're not going to stay, Paul. They're not going to stop the slaughter."

In conclusion, I think that this movie was intented to get people to stand up and to realize some of the true things that we should be worried about in this world. We can take a stand and we should take a stand for what is right. This movie shows a glimpse of what our world has come to... and who knows where it will go in the future if we don't stop things before thousands of people get killed.

- Furthermore, the actual affects of this movie left me speechless. I cannot even begin to imagine what an experience like this would be like. I don't know how people would/could ever recover from so much trauma, fear, and heart-ache. Personally, I don't think that I could ever recover from such events. The intentions of the movie and the actual affects of the movie are very similar. Both aspects were intented to open peoples eyes and show the truth, these two things were both conveyed with emotion and were shown in a way that makes people want to do something about it. Therefore, both aspects are very similar in their intentions and both conveyed the injustice and fear that took place in Rwanda.

Comments and thoughts on the Rwandan Genocide~

*After reading and thinking about the articles and interviews on the genocide that took place in Rwanda, I felt a burden on my heart and a terrible feeling in my stomach. I personally, could never ever imagine what it would be like to live in fear daily and after reading the articles it made me really appreciate what God has provided my family and I with. I really connected with the words of one news reporter who captured the Rwandan genocide and experienced the crisis for what it truly was. One thing he said really made me contemplate how powerful the genocide was and how it really changed his life,

"Just after the genocide, when I'd wake up in the night, this was a dream of being hidden under corpses, and a man with red eyes and a machete pulling the corpses away to get at me. And that was just born. I know where that came from. That came from the road blocks, and the looks on people's faces.But now it's kind of waking up with a sense of failure as a human being. And I can't really describe the dreams themselves, except that it's just crowds of people, crowds of people and, then, waking up and just feeling a sense of failure. It sounds bizarre, but that's what Rwanda has left me with as a human being."

*For some reason I really connected with this quote and it seemed to capture some of the emotions I have felt while watching Hotel Rwanda for a second time. This time, while watching the movie, I have noticed certain things that I didn't see the first time and I have really been able to understand the situation more thoroughly. I think that it is very importante to watch this movie more than once because, you notice new things and can really understand just a small portion of what the genocide was like.

* During class we have been taking notes on how media plays a big part throughout the crisis in Rwanda. I have noticed that things like; TV, communication systems, news, and news reporters play a huge role in publizing information. However, I think that the radio is the most important piece of media that affected the extremity of the Rwandan genocide. It instilled fear, anger, destruction, and above all, hate.

Feb. 11 Homework

Piano by D.H. Lawrence

Softly, in the dusk, a woman is singing to me;
Taking me back down the vista of years, till I see
A child sitting under the piano, in the boom of the tingling strings
And pressing the small, poised feet of a mother who smiles as she sings.

In spite of myself, the insidious mastery of song
Betrays me back, till the heart of me weeps to belong
To the old Sunday evenings at home, with winter outside
And hymns in the cosy parlour, the tinkling piano our guide.

So now it is vain for the singer to burst into clamour
With the great black piano appassionato. The glamour
Of childish days is upon me, my manhood is cast
Down the flood of remembrance, I weep like a child for the past.

Response:
I chose this poem because when I read it it had a really big impact on me. I could connect with the person that the woman is singing to while playing the piano. Even though I am not old yet, I am still past the years where I was carefree and a child. Somedays I really wish I could go back to being that child because life is so beautiful and when you are that young things are all so new and exciting. So, even though I am not an old woman yet I still miss and at times even weep for that child from the past. As I get older each year I am faced with new challenges and new obsticales that affect my personality and eventually mold me into a mature young adult. At times I really don't like this new way of life but sometimes I just can't wait to get even older but as I read this poem I really thought about a lot of my memories and I tried to forget the future.
I personally really enjoy listening and playing music so I was really touched by how this person was moved by the woman's music. I also have had similar experiences where a type of music at the right time will bring me to tears and evoke so many emotions that I would never have thought I would have felt.
Therefore, I can really connect with this poem and the emotions/theme/message that it is conveying. I didn't mean to find this poem, it was a kind of accident but it is one that I read over and over because there was something unique about it that stuck out to me.

3 Questions:
1) What feelings/emotions do you feel when you first read this poem?
2) Do you connect with the poem in anyway? And how?
3) When you read this poem do you connect with the person listening to the music, or to the person playing the music?

2nd Poem and Reflection~

I chose a poem by Maya Angelou. I really like a lot of her poetry and decided to pick out a poem by her to put up on my blog for English class. 

When I read this poem a lot of emotions and unique thoughts came back to me. Some things I have never been able to fully express or describe and to me, this poem did that perfectly for certain things in my life. I really appreciate this poem and as I read it I feel like I am floating, I feel like I become whatever the poem is talking about, I get swept away into another world. A world of freedom and love. A world of compassion and expression but, above all a world of hope. 

So, for all of these reasons I chose this poem to post and respond to. It captures a lot of what I was looking for and I can really appreciate and connect with it. 

Touched by an Angel: By Maya Angelou

We, unaccustomed to courage

exiles from delight

live coiled in shells of loneliness

until love leaves its high holy temple

to liberate us into life.

Love arrives

and in its train come ecstasies 

old memories of pleasure 

ancient histories of pain.

Yet if we are bold,

love strikes the chains of fear

from our souls. 

We are weaned from our timidity 

In the flush of love's light

we dare to be brave

And suddenly we see

that love costs all we are

and will ever be. 

Yet it is only love 

which sets us free. 

Poem and 1-2 paragraph reflection~

Poem: 

What keeps us alive, what allows us to endure?

I think it is the hope of loving,

or being loved. 

-Meister Eckhart 

Reflection:

I chose this poem because I find it to be sweet and simple. It isn't long and drawn out but instead is precise and no words can be taken out. Personally, when I first read this poem I got a little smile on my face because it expresses a type of hope, a hope that we as humans look and long for. Although, many people put their hopes into material items and false gods there is something deep down inside of us that we all long for and that is love. This type of love can come from other people, material items, or even false gods but, true love that is deep and sincere will come from God and God alone because he is the one that created love or the feeling of love in the first place.  That is hope and for me, I believe that everyone lives for hope of loving or being loved. :)

Question 8: 1984

* entry of your choice: My Room 101

The part of the book that left the most impression on me was Room 101. Room 101 is a torture chamber where the victim gets tortured by their worst fear. Since the party knows everything, they would know your biggest fear no matter how hard you tried to keep it hidden. Room 101 definitely brought about very strange feelings for me. I ended up thinking about myself and I imagined that, if I were in the place of Winston, what would I do??? I am sure I would do the same thing that Winston did, and betray my companion, although I cannot make that decision without actually being there and going through the events that Winston faced.

My biggest fear is of SPIDERS and DEATH. I am terrified of both of these things to the extreme and I can't imagine what the party would do to me with spiders or death. :O It is a very scary thought!! I do not know how the party would portray death but I presume it would be in a terrifying way.

What caught my interest was that Winston was not really frightened by Room 101 at first but more intrigued and interested in the room. He witnessed people doing anything to escape from going to Room 101, yet when it came time for his turn to enter Room 101 he did not show any resistance like some others had. Winston is a very confusing character at times but I enjoyed learning and coming to understand some of his complex characteristics in the novel 1984.

Question 7: 1984

* are there are any current situations in the world that relate to the novel? what are they, and how do they relate? does the novel shed any light on how current situations could be resolved or "fixed"?

There are many current situations that relate to the novel 1984. Some current situations like what is happening in North Korea can relate to the novel 1984. The situation in North Korea is not as extreme, in some ways, as in 1984. For example, North Koreans are not observed by telescreens and thought crime doesn't exist, but children and adults are being killed for their beliefs and actions. This is unjust and wrong.

In 1984, people who commit thought crime or rebel against the party are either put to death or sent to the Ministry of Love. In the Ministry of Love most people are not killed but, instead, are tortured and corrupted into loving the party. This is almost the exact opposite in North Korea. Most people in North Korea are not put on trial but are immediately killed if they oppose the government. Some similarities between the North Korean situation and 1984 are things like the government having complete censorship over the entire nation, abusing power for their own glory, not letting people believe or spread their own beliefs about religion and not being able to escape from the country or to escape from the false reality they are trapped in. I do not think that the novel 1984 sheds any light on solving the situation in North Korea.