Understanding

As it is the 2nd week of the cycle, the side-effects I experienced were very severe, just like during the previous three cycles.  The fatigue, nausea and diarrhea lasted until Saturday.  However, I got some relief from the restlessness by taking only 75% of the cortisone, which, although it reduced my symptoms, placed me at a higher risk for retaining water in my lungs and hearts.

29th week: Hotel Rwanda

After previous sharings about our permanent character, destiny and morality, it is natural to talk about the value system next. However, I think the point will be better made with a real example.  Hence, I will share the story of Paul Rusesabagina this week and use it to discuss the value system next time.

In Rwanda, between April 6th and July 4th of 1994, the Hutu-led Interahamwe slaughtered the Tutsi population. However, no intervention came from either the United Nations or its more powerful Western members (including the US) until after over 900,000 Rwandans had been murdered.  900,000 lives got snuffed out over 100 days.  That is 9,000 lives a day and more than 6 lives a minute (By this count, the Rwandan genocide was the most brutal one in recent history.). Each and every one of those lost lives held a unique story.  They were people who laughed, cried, ate, dreamed, and felt, just like you and me.  Every one was a mother’s child.

In the midst of the genocide, Paul Rusesabagina sheltered up to 1,268 refugees for 76 days in a hotel which he managed in the Rwandan capital.  He found food and water for them. When the militia and army came with orders to kill his guests, he took them into his office, treated them like friends, offered them drinks and then persuaded them to neglect their task that day.  And when they came back, he poured more drinks and told them they should leave in peace once again.  

Rusesabagina had a few advantages: He is a Hutu.  He managed a luxury hotel, which upheld a façade of being protected by police (4 unarmed UN soldiers and 5 local policemen.)  More importantly, as the manager, he had stored up a large bank of favors with influential and powerful people, including some of the architects of the genocide.  He had a personal directory of the elite within the circles of government and commerce in Rwanda.  He cashed all the banked favors in and borrowed heavily in order to save the lives.  

Above all, “I am simply a man who decided to hold onto his family and his beliefs.”  With his courage and integrity, when the world closed its eyes, closed its ears and turned its back, he pleaded, intimated, coaxed, cajoled and negotiated with murderers.  He acted friendly with despicable people.  He flattered and bribed them shamelessly.  He said whatever he thought would keep those people in his hotel from being killed. He had one simple goal: to save the lives that ought to be saved.  To accomplish that goal, he kept evil persons in his circle to find and play their soft spots.  By staying with monsters, he found cracks in their armors to exploit.  Had he shut them out, they would have killed him without a second thought.

His bravery and selflessness can be seen in an extraordinary example.  On May 3rd, the UN struck a deal to evacuate dozens of refugees who secured invitations from people abroad.  As well connected as he was, Rusesabagina easily secured an invitation for his whole family.  There is nothing more seductive than getting away from all the fears, the death, the blood, the stench, the killers, the machetes, the insanity, the chaos and into a safe place with clean sheets, air-conditioning, a warm bath and no worries.  However, the night before, he told his family that he was going to stay behind with the refugees because “I am the only person here who can negotiate with those killers outside” and “If people inside this hotel are killed, I will never be able to sleep again. I will be a prisoner of my own conscience”.

Finally, on June 18th, after an aborted mass slaughter at the hotel, all the remaining refugees were evacuated.  The hotel was one of the few places in Rwanda where nobody was killed during the genocide.

During the genocide, the US chose to look the other way like the rest of the world. The State Department’s official language was, ”Acts of genocide may have occurred.” When the spokeswoman of the US State Department, Christian Shelley, was asked how many acts of genocide it takes to equal a genocide, the answer was a big diplomatic hand-waving. The US avoided the use of the word genocide so that it wouldn’t be compelled to act morally and legally under a UN 1948 treaty threatening criminal penalties for the leaders of any regimen found to have conducted any genocide (which the US Senate didn’t ratify until 1986).  Of course, there is no natural resource in Rwanda that anybody cares about.  It was only human suffering. For whatever it was worth, Rusesabagina did receive the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom on November 9, 2005. (A person saved 1300 lives and a country that saved none awarded the person a medal.)

May this find you and your loved ones in good spirit and health.