Recently in Genocide Category

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/04/13/hague.karadzic.trial/index.html

"Anti-abortion groups are targeting black audiences with the message that abortion is a form of "ethnic cleansing." But as many point out, this strategy ignores the real needs of all women."

http://jezebel.com/5483679/womb-lynching-on-the-anti+choice-targeting-of-african+american-women
















     When I heard this spot on the radio the other day, I immediately thought about the situation we discussed in class about the adjunct professor that was fired for using the "N" word.  According to our class discussion, one of the main reasons we believed this action was taken was because of the instructors' inability to recognize the history and the true meaning embodied by that sort of language.

      This use of the word "lynching" regarding African American children seems to do the same thing.  Though I think all of us would like to see the number of abortions performed each year decrease, it seems the groups using this sort of language are also disregarding the historical and contextual meaning the word "lynching" has.

     Media coverage over the last few years (even as recent as last month) has shown time after time how even a noose hung in a tree or a campus building incites fear, resentment, and anger amongst those who understand its meaning.

     No matter what side of the abortion issue you find yourself, I think this kind of use of language proves ineffective for its intention...  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UyvoSaocUQ

This is a link to the trailer for " The Devil Came on Horseback".  As you can see in the trailer it is about the experiences of a ceasefire monitor for the African Union while he was in Dar Fur.  There are a lot of explicit pictures in this film taken from the ground and the air, because that was the job of the monitor.  He was there to take pictures, and was not allowed to interfere in any way. 

There is a lot of frustration expressed in the film on the part of the observer.  He was in the army before he had this job and didn't like being in the situation and not be able to help.  There is a point where he talks about how he is sitting in the same place on the helicopter as he did when he was a gunner, but there is no gun.  He wants to stop what is going on and he feels like having a half dozen gunships would be all that they would need to end the conflict.
 
I think that the hardest part of the film to watch is a part where the observation chopper watches the government military stand by as a whole village is killed and burned.  The government troops even tell the observers to just leave. There are obvious tracks on the ground from where the Janjawid had come and talked with the military group just a few minutes before. 

 There is also a good message about what we can do here in the U.S to try to stop this genocide from continuing. There is a large section of the film concerning activism and work with Save Darfur.  Also since this film came out the president of the Sudan has been indited for war crimes including genicide,  this makes it so that he is pretty much stuck in Sudan because most countries have signed a UN treaty against Genocide.  Unfortunately that treaty has yet to be effective in the prevention of genocide.

Here is a link the website for the movie if you want to learn more about the film, if you want to watch it you can get it from netflix or buy it for about $15:  http://www.thedevilcameonhorseback.com/

 

Earlier this week I watched Hotel Rwanda for the first time.  I knew about the genocide there previously but I didn't knew as much about the differences between the two groups involved.  Here is a clip that explains the difference.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAl79s9PMuI

After watching this and realizing that the differentiation between the groups was completely artificial I wondered how somthing like this could happen.  Most of the killings in this genocide were carried out with machetes, a very personal way to attack someone.  How could the artificial in and out groups become so salient that they allowed people to commit such violent acts?  Do you think something like this could have happened if there had not been artificial groups created by the colonials?