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Hotel Rwanda Essay

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The film Hotel Rwanda follows the actions of Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager, during the Rwanda Genocide that occurred in the 1994’s. During this event the Hutu ethnic group waged war on the Tutsi ethnic population, believing them to be “cockroaches”. The Hutu-led government, Interahamwe, and Impuzamugambi militias murdered close to one million people, mostly from the Tutsi population. Although it was clearly a genocide and that the country needed assistance from outside countries to combat the violent perpetrators, little to no help came. In response to this, Paul Rusesabagina, whose wife and family were Tutsi, sheltered 1268 citizens, mostly of Tutsi ethnicity, in his hotel in an attempt to protect them from Hutu soldiers. Paul, his family, …show more content…

According the United Nations 2015 Human Development Report, Rwanda ranked as the 25th poorest country in the world. This ranking was mostly based on their Human Development Index, which is used by the UN to evaluate countries. A study published in the Journal of Business Venturing found evidence suggesting that individuals' perceptions of poverty alleviation and conflict reduction are sequentially linked, particularly through increased quality of life. (Tobias et al., 2013) So by decreasing poverty levels, quality of life would improve, which could then result in conflict reduction. Suggesting that conflict stems, in part by, poverty. This makes logical sense in the case of Rwanda seeing as conflict between the Tutsi and Hutu originated from issues concerning social …show more content…

I had heard of the movie before, which is what sparked my interest in choosing the film, however was unsure of what to expect. Needless to say I was shocked while watching the film, not only due to the details of the horrific event, but shock that I had now known more about this incident. Watching this film and getting to see what people experience during these violent events was very eye opening. Often I see reports on TV of violent attacks in struggling countries but now I think I will have a much greater awareness of them. So many of us simply watch reports of violence in other countries and think “that’s sad” or “how could someone do those things” but it’s easy to simply forget about it once the TV turns off and you’re thousands of miles away. What’s difficult I think is that as just one citizen we don’t feel like we can do much good to help them, so we leave it to the government to figure out and don’t worry about it. Although it is a heartbreaking story, this film is an important one. This film allows viewers to put themselves in the shoes of those who had to live through the horrific events that occurred in Rwanda and I would highly recommend it to anyone. It was incredibly educational and I believe it is especially important to watch and learn about due to the current violence that is occurring in the world today. It gives you a bit of a new perspective

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