Monday, 07 March 2005
You Can Check Out Any Time You Like
Been a while since the last update. Sometimes I get sick of writing and I find that taking a break for a few days (or weeks) helps. After over 750 posts and God knows how many words, I'm surprised I'm not completely sick of this altogether. But when there's news like this everyday, how can I possibly stay away from the computer?
It's like a landslide of macabre wrapped in an deluge of irony and presented with a gleefully dark bow.
But I digress. The point of this post is not to tickle you with horrible news of today, but rather to urge you to go remind yourself of the horrifyingly, um, horrifying news of yesterday.
A few days ago we saw Hotel Rwanda. You need to go watch this movie. It is incredible. It captures the slide of a civilized country into total anarchy better than any I've ever seen. Those of you who have seen The Killing Fields will remember the feeling of "Holy shit I know where this is going, and it's not gonna be pretty."
If you do decide to see it, may I suggest a little thought experiment? As you watch the film try to imagine that instead of "Tutsi" tribe and "Hutu" tribe imagine the characters are talking about "Janjaweed" and "Fur" tribes. Also, pretend it's not set in Rwanda, but rather a different African country called the Sudan. And finally, imagine it's not set in 1994. It's happening now. All over again:
"The police came at night and said, 'Do you want to make us like Iraq? Do you want to bring foreign troops here?' " she said in southern Darfur's Kalma camp, home to some of the estimated two million people displaced by two years of civil warfare in Darfur.
"The rapes never stop; sometimes there are more, sometimes less," she said, accusing militiamen known as the Janjaweed of the crime. "Now the Janjaweed babies are being born, and the girls are throwing them down latrines."
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has urged the Security Council to take immediate steps to stop the Darfur war, which has killed at least 70,000 people since March 2004.
Posted by flow Frazao on March 7, 2005 at 04:37 PM in Film | Permalink
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