tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28785049.post7323570248037136641..comments2023-10-30T07:54:27.317-04:00Comments on Allegiance and Duty Betrayed:: Beyond the Gatesjoaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11914891807184694081noreply@blogger.comBlogger30125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28785049.post-3476478312674284752008-07-14T15:57:00.000-04:002008-07-14T15:57:00.000-04:00From what I understand, the Hutu government went a...From what I understand, the Hutu government went around taking a "census" for almost a year before the genocides began, so that they could know exactly where all the Tutsi and Tutsi sympathizers lived. It sounds alot like pre-war Germany. And no one lifted a finger, in spite of all the warning signs that this was in the offing. This kind of history tends to repeats itself if good men sit back and do nothing.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28785049.post-66883528754666323462008-07-14T15:53:00.000-04:002008-07-14T15:53:00.000-04:00The more we elect liberal politicians to sit in Wa...The more we elect liberal politicians to sit in Washington, the more we are sanctioning this kind of tragedy. Obama and his kind want to hand over more and more of our decision making powers to organizations like the UN. So our sovereignty will suffer, and so will the freedom and safety of the rest of the world.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28785049.post-19889318401767758342008-07-14T13:30:00.000-04:002008-07-14T13:30:00.000-04:00I came here for the first time today. You do nice...I came here for the first time today. You do nice work. I'll be reading all of the past columns as time permits. We conservatives are fighting a losing battle but it's nice to come to a place where rational thought is expressed and reasonable arguments are welcome.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28785049.post-26608016907972907432008-07-14T11:22:00.000-04:002008-07-14T11:22:00.000-04:00The 1994 genocide in Rwanda resulted in the system...<B>The 1994 genocide in Rwanda resulted in the systematic massacre of 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in less than 100 days. The events occurred while the international community closed its eyes.<BR/><BR/> <BR/>"Perhaps there is no better case than Rwanda of state killing in which colonial history and global economic integration combined to produce genocide. It is also a case where the causes of the killing were carefully obscured by Western governmental and journalistic sources, blamed instead on the victims and ancient tribal hatreds." </B><BR/> <BR/>Here are more sources to learn about the truth:<BR/><BR/>http://www.rwanda-genocide.org/multimedia.htmlAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28785049.post-64529111332758882172008-07-13T11:02:00.000-04:002008-07-13T11:02:00.000-04:00We rented the DVD last night Joanie. You are righ...We rented the DVD last night Joanie. You are right about it being a powerful movie, and one that every American should see!<BR/><BR/>The U.N.'s and America's reaction to the tragedy in Sudan is the same. All talk, little help.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28785049.post-59541688790092390862008-07-12T20:53:00.000-04:002008-07-12T20:53:00.000-04:00The Clinton presidency had many low points, but th...The Clinton presidency had many low points, but this may have been the lowest.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28785049.post-3868267956874366392008-07-12T18:09:00.000-04:002008-07-12T18:09:00.000-04:00Rick's a lucky man.Rick's a lucky man.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28785049.post-45208405878769756002008-07-10T22:25:00.000-04:002008-07-10T22:25:00.000-04:00Thank you, Luis. I also affirm everything that yo...Thank you, Luis. I also affirm everything that you have written. <BR/><BR/>Although I am sad to hear that you had to 'stumble upon' this film on a forgotten shelf at Blockbuster, I hope that we can, in a small way, make others aware of it.<BR/><BR/>Again, many thanks for doing that for me, and for your valuable comments here, as always.<BR/><BR/>~ joaniejoaniehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11914891807184694081noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28785049.post-3812435868014454162008-07-10T22:13:00.000-04:002008-07-10T22:13:00.000-04:00Bravo, Joanie!Thank you for bringing this movie to...Bravo, Joanie!<BR/><BR/>Thank you for bringing this movie to our attention. I had never heard of it and I suppose most people haven't.<BR/><BR/>I'll be renting it soon.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28785049.post-63159919786335200832008-07-10T18:48:00.000-04:002008-07-10T18:48:00.000-04:00Joanie,Your writing on this subject truly does thi...Joanie,<BR/><BR/>Your writing on this subject truly does this film justice and I can only congratulate you on a wonderful review of this moving film.<BR/><BR/>Apart from seconding everything you have written, I would say this film has a special ability to remind us of our humanity. In an age where it is all to easy to become hardened to daily media coverage of carnage and suffering this film really reminds us that there are always real people suffering behind the headlines. It does, as you write, have the power to move people to tears.<BR/><BR/>Father Christopher, as portrayed, is an inspiration and a rare example of someone living their faith by deed as well as word. Yes, he seems a world a way from the Jeremiah Wright kind.<BR/><BR/>I find it shocking to be reminded that all this happened on such a scale as recently as 1994 and I struggle to understand why this got so little meaningful international interest when it happened.<BR/><BR/>I would like to think it could not happen again but I guess that would be naive. <BR/><BR/>It is a sobering reminder that inaction can truly allow evil to triumph.<BR/><BR/>I would also recommend this film to all. It does not seem to have been seen by many to date. I found it languishing on a forgetten shelf in my local Blockbuster, so if a few more see this powerful film Blockbuster and the internet will be shown to have their uses...<BR/><BR/>Thank you for describing this film so eloquently.Luishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13101628574058713071noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28785049.post-3092751950147118352008-07-10T12:22:00.000-04:002008-07-10T12:22:00.000-04:00Referring to the power of man's free will, the fil...<I>Referring to the <B>power of man's free will</B>, the film opens in silence with the following script:<BR/><BR/><BR/>Every man is given the key to the gates of heaven.<BR/><BR/>The same key opens the gates of hell.<BR/><BR/><BR/>.....Buddhist proverb</I><BR/><BR/>That is so appropriate for the world situation. The terrorists are bent on creating hell on earth and we are bent on allowing them to.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28785049.post-87037308120423386732008-07-10T07:58:00.000-04:002008-07-10T07:58:00.000-04:00I'm going to see if our local public library has e...I'm going to see if our local public library has either the book John Galt mentioned or the DVD of the movie. This is a subject that every major library in America should have major information on, but I'm betting they don't have the book or the video. It's a sign of the times.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28785049.post-10406336617138617452008-07-10T01:43:00.000-04:002008-07-10T01:43:00.000-04:00It is insanity to be the major supporter of an org...It is insanity to be the major supporter of an organization whose main objective is to destroy everything we stand for. Talk about suicidal.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28785049.post-88150545204103384002008-07-10T00:55:00.000-04:002008-07-10T00:55:00.000-04:00It's enough to make you quit your job, head for th...<I>It's enough to make you quit your job, head for the mountains, build a cabin, plant an orchard, and just tune them all out.</I><BR/><BR/>In such an environment, it seems to me you'd need a bunch of dogs. And lots of beer and jerky.<BR/><BR/>:)joaniehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11914891807184694081noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28785049.post-77129079863123491112008-07-09T23:12:00.000-04:002008-07-09T23:12:00.000-04:00Very well done, Joanie. I too feel it is importan...Very well done, Joanie. I too feel it is important for us Americans to see these things. If we don't, we take them too lightly. I will try to rent the DVD this weekend.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28785049.post-74396056929464898582008-07-09T17:52:00.000-04:002008-07-09T17:52:00.000-04:00About six months ago, I wrote my Senators Dole and...About six months ago, I wrote my Senators Dole and Burr urging them to get the U.S. out of the United Nations.<BR/><BR/>All I got back was the obligatory non-responsive form-letters telling me what a glorious organization it was...<BR/><BR/>It's enough to make you quit your job, head for the mountains, build a cabin, plant an orchard, and just tune them all out. (wink)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28785049.post-21366352000236653242008-07-09T14:47:00.000-04:002008-07-09T14:47:00.000-04:00Thank you for this.Thank you for this.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28785049.post-65352947967479644882008-07-09T00:22:00.000-04:002008-07-09T00:22:00.000-04:00John Galt,I looked up "We Wish to Inform You That ...John Galt,<BR/><BR/>I looked up "We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: Stories From Rwanda" that you mentioned, on Amazon.com. This is one of the reader reviews:<BR/><BR/><B>In early May 1994 I stood on a bridge over the river that forms the border between Rwanda and Tanzania and observed corpses floating down towards Lake Victoria in an unbroken stream. As I write this, two Rwandan women are taking the unprecedented action of suing the United Nations for its failure to intervene in the worst act of genocide since WW2. UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, who played a kay role in UN decision-making in 1994, has confessed the UN's "failure" and expressed his own "deep remorse." 800,000 people died, most of them hacked to death with machetes by their neighbours. How this happened, and how the world utterly failed in its self-appointed role to prevent exactly such a holocaust, is the subject of this beautifully written, accessible and compelling book. Gourevitch wants to know WHAT happened, and through interviews with survivors, gives us the clearest and most comprehensive understanding I have yet seen. It is not pretty reading, although Gourevitch's dispassionate and sensitive writing makes it possible to get through material that in coarser hands would be impossible to stomach. He also describes the HOW. For years it was evident to the West - and most particularly to France and Belgium - that Hutu factions were gathering their strength to strike at the Tutsi minority. Every day Hutu radio stations ran violent anti-Tutsi propaganda, in which Tutsis and any moderate Hutus who were not interested in killing them were warned to prepare to die. When the killing began, it was simply the next logical step in a process that had long been underway. The case seems impossible to refute - indeed, the UN's internal investigation which published its report in December 1999 does NOT refute - that the genocide was both broadly predictable, and could have been ameliorated, if not altogether stopped, by effective international intervention. The legal knots the UN allowed to create for itself, so that "blue-helmets" felt they could not act to save a woman being raped and hacked to pieces, because their mandate allowed for only their own self-defence, are just one example of how international law can - sometimes - ENCOURAGE crimes against humanity. The lessons of Rwanda, painfully learnt, will influence the way the so-called "world community" responds to massive ethnic eruptions for a generation to come. To begin to understand this most painful event in recent human history, this book cannot be too highly recommended. If there is one small niggle, it is the lack of an index, something that I hope will be addressed in future editions.</B><BR/><BR/>I ordered the book, and the DVD of "Beyond the Gates."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28785049.post-25879239806379761442008-07-08T22:50:00.000-04:002008-07-08T22:50:00.000-04:00Cal Brindisi,Dan was over for dinner tonight, and,...Cal Brindisi,<BR/><BR/>Dan was over for dinner tonight, and, after I finished teaching, we all sat down to watch the movie again (he had never seen it).<BR/><BR/>Amazingly, its effect was just as powerful as the first time -- although I don't know that I could watch it again anytime soon. One needs some time to 'recover'.<BR/><BR/>~ joaniejoaniehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11914891807184694081noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28785049.post-37032983098544825822008-07-08T22:48:00.000-04:002008-07-08T22:48:00.000-04:00A real man of God. Can you see Rev. Jeremiah Wrigh...<I>A real man of God. Can you see Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Jesse Jackson, or Al Sharpton staying behind?</I><BR/><BR/>Point well taken. I don't know how many people -- men of the cloth or not -- would have made the decision that Father Christopher did.<BR/><BR/>And, although no one can presume to know another's mind, I strongly suspect that the three you mentioned would have been vying to be among the first onto the U.N. evacuee trucks.joaniehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11914891807184694081noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28785049.post-28337831432164805792008-07-08T22:45:00.000-04:002008-07-08T22:45:00.000-04:00What makes it even more real is that it was filmed...<I>What makes it even more real is that it was filmed on location in Kigali, and many of the actors are actual survivors of the genocide—although not the part of it that took place at the school in question; all of those people were slaughtered.</I><BR/><BR/>You are correct, anonymous. Thank you for pointing that out. <BR/><BR/>At the end of the film, several photos of a few of the 'extras' are scrolled across the screen, with descriptions of what they endured and how they survived.<BR/><BR/>The movie itself was filmed inside the actual school, and around Kigali and environs. It would be difficult to obtain a more true-to-life setting for the tragedy.<BR/><BR/>Thank you for reminding me of what I neglected to mention.<BR/><BR/>~ joaniejoaniehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11914891807184694081noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28785049.post-58916995519656678722008-07-08T22:25:00.000-04:002008-07-08T22:25:00.000-04:00Father Christopher did not evacuate with the other...<I>Father Christopher did not evacuate with the other whites, but stayed behind with the refugees. </I><BR/><BR/>A real man of God. Can you see Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Jesse Jackson, or Al Sharpton staying behind?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28785049.post-57612250725830813722008-07-08T17:53:00.000-04:002008-07-08T17:53:00.000-04:00I have seen this movie and I recommend it as highl...I have seen this movie and I recommend it as highly as the author does. What makes it even more real is that it was filmed on location in Kigali, and many of the actors are actual survivors of the genocide—although not the part of it that took place at the school in question; all of those people were slaughtered.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28785049.post-34387590527541523602008-07-08T17:49:00.000-04:002008-07-08T17:49:00.000-04:00Joanie, I haven't seen or even heard of the movie ...Joanie, I haven't seen or even heard of the movie but I will be seeing it now. You are as good a movie reviewer as you are a political commentator. ;)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28785049.post-27909203783752984752008-07-08T17:31:00.000-04:002008-07-08T17:31:00.000-04:00Thanks, Joanie. I will see it.Thanks, Joanie. I will see it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com