Filed under: Films, Opinions | Tags: 1994 Genocide, Hotel Rwanda, Hutu, Jr., Martin Luther King, Rwanda, Rwanda 1994, Rwanda Genocide, Sometimes in April, Tutsi, UN, UN Failure, UN Tribunal, United Nations, United States, US
800,000 Rwandans murdered in only 100 days. If only Rwanda was filled with diamonds and oil. Either one of those resources would have caught the attention of the US.
Murambi Genocide Memorial Site
This project is centered on the main building in Murambi, a school that has been left vacated since the genocide in 1994. The school classrooms where over eight hundred corpses have been preserved have been left untouched. After the genocide, as mass graves were being discovered around the city, it was decided that a single monument/ burial place should be created, where the victims could be laid to rest with dignity.
"In a barn-like building at the far end of the complex, coarse blue rope has been strung across a cavernous space. Bloodstained clothes have been draped over the rope."
On the ground floor on the main building new walls were constructed to create a space that allowed for the design of the exhibition and burial place. The open hall on the ground floor of the main building now has a pathway, which leads visitors first to an exhibition describing the context of the genocide, then into the burial rooms. The burial rooms allow some of the preserved human remains to be viewed, while at the same time they are also buried with some dignity. Some of the survivors of the genocide have been trained as guides at the centre.
Before beginning my educational endeavor into Rwandan history I had great love and respect for the US. After learning about the US and UN’s atrocious behavior I am ashamed and disgusted to have ever respected such a petty, inhumane nation (don’t even get me started on the French). I have never been a fan of Human Rights, nor the UN. Why is the United Nations still around? What good have they actually done? I see the mass genocide in Rwanda as a direct failure of UN intervention. What is the UN there for if not to intervene when people are being murdered because of their so-called “race”? A Beligium-created racial difference that resulted in over a million deaths. I do not understand. It takes money, wealth and resources (OIL) to get the worlds attention. I am taking down the Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations. The West – you have failed again.
On the other hand…
Special shout-out to Lieutenant-General Romeo Dallaire – Force Commander of the UN units in Rwanda in 1994. He might just be the Greatest Canadian EVER. Making him more awesome: the Honourable Romeo Dallaire is now a Liberal Senator from Quebec. Two things I personally love: Quebec for its poutine and the Liberal’s for the sharing. Seriously, this man is a hero and the small group of UN Peacekeepers that were allowed to stay in Rwanda are just as kick-ass.
If you thought Hotel Rwanda was sad then check out Sometimes in April. Hotel Rwanda is baby food in comparison. 
The drama is set in two periods, which unfold concurrently: In April 1994, after the Hutu Army begins a systematic slaughter of Tutsis and more moderate Hutus, Augustin and a fellow Army officer named Xavier, defying their leadership, attempt to get their wives and children to safety. Separated from his wife Jeanne and their two sons (whom he entrusts to the care of his reluctant brother), Augustin gets caught in a desperate struggle to survive. Barely escaping the purge, he’s haunted by questions about what happened to his wife, sons and daughter (who was a student at a local boarding school). In 2004, looking for closure and hoping to start a new life with his girlfriend Martine (who taught at his daughter’s school), Augustin visits the United Nations Tribunal in Arusha, where Honoré awaits trial for the incendiary role he and other journalists played in the genocide. In the end, through an emotional meeting with Honoré, Augustin learns the details of his family’s fate, giving him closure and, perhaps, hope for happiness in the future.
“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.
The UN is no “friend” to any nation anymore.
Filed under: Life, Opinions | Tags: CL, First year, Res Life, Residence, UVic, Victoria
Okay. It’s official. I hate this “holiday” weekend because it is also “First Contact” for first-year residents. I know, I know – it’s my choice to live on campus but FUCK. The parking lot is full and does anyone have a parking permit? No. There are lineups out and around corners because everyone arrives on the same Saturday. What’s worse than a first-year? An IDIOT CL (Community Leader). They must have received training in social awkwardness because that is all they are good for. It seems Res Life has immature dorks leading seventeen-year-old babies into a life of Hell. Cult alert. I was accosted getting out of my car. Change that – they must have been trained by Jehovah Witnesses because fuck, these retards are clingy. When I was seventeen and moving into residence the last thing I wanted was my hand held. “Hi, do you see these people? My Parents! Thanks, I got enough annoynaces up my butt right now.” What. A. Nightmare. I also noticed the other CL’s who weren’t stalking the parking lots or entrances were just standing around!! Uhhhhh Losers! Way to make yourselves super unapproachable by gathering in groups. What child is going to go up and talk to that? I hate them.
Filed under: Current Events, Opinions | Tags: 9/11, Brasil, Brazil, DDB, Planet, Preservation, Tsunami, WWF
“The tsunami killed 100 times more people than 9/11. The planet is brutally powerful. Respect it. Preserve it.
“Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.” It’s in the author’s essay. “Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements.” It’s in Baz’s song. I fucking hate it!!
I Googled “throw out love letters” and “finding love letters” and in more than 70 percent of the pages that came up quoted this line. There is a pandemic and I want it to stop NOW. It is sick and twisted. Why is this encouraged? Can I write an article for the paper that says “Keep the arsenic, throw away the vitamins”? NO that would be madness. Right.
People who follow this mantra should all have to suffer the discovery of their partner’s kept love letters from exes. I’d love to see their reaction. How about you keep them in an underground vault only to be accessed by yourself in eighty years? Not out, in the open for innocent eyes and minds to discover. Fuck.
Filed under: Opinions, Originals | Tags: Christianity, Creationism, Darwin, Evolution, Genesis, God, Planet, Sun
vs AND
I ask a lot of questions which apparently comes form my personality type of INTJ. It is a curse. People hate me for it. If I have an idea or a question I will never stop until I’ve completely figured it out. It does explain my obsession with school.
The other morning, awake at an ungodly time, I was contemplating evolution. I might have been looking at my hands or maybe there was no reason for my wind to wander that direction. It is really easy for me to accept that primates evolved to humans but before that I have no understanding of what really happened. Luckily I’m madly in love with the smartest and most patient boy – I think our relationship depends on those qualities he wonderfully brings to the table. Jason kindly explained each step (similar to the image above) and I realized that for me to really grasp the concept I needed to constantly remind myself of the millions of years this all took.
It seemed like common sense and I struggled with the fact that religious theology does not coincide with these facts/theories. In religious studies at an undergraduate level in a secular school theology is not up for debate. I know this is a hard concept for non-religious studies majors to understand but we study the history of religion, ideas, people, consequences. As a scholar it is not up to us to agree or disagree with religious theology so I was surprised my mind actually went there. The fact: Christians believe in creation. As a scholar I accept this fact. It is irrelevant to my studies if creationism is true or false. My thought process: why can’t there be a compromise? Yah right! I know stupid question and re-reading it now is so embarrassing. Compromise? Religion? Science? Never! But I strongly support respecting of religious thought that is different from your own. For about two minutes I accepted this and tried to fall back asleep.
But wait! We’re forgetting the location for all this evolution: Earth. I thought, if scientists have identified the process of life on Earth than what about the life of the Earth? My brain works in steps: Humans, primates….single cell organisms chilling out in the ocean, Earth - but even we know that Earth is one of many planets/stars/junk in space. If Earth is the next “step” on my backwards trace of existence then I need to know where it came from. Here’s the conflict: did God create Earth or did science? Evolution is undeniable so let’s pretend that we can agree that it has been explained for now. I still don’t know where the Earth came from so do I say God? I mean, what is the farthest back science can take us? There must be a point where science ends and cannot explain anymore (for the time being). I thought this was Earth.
Insert wonderful boyfriend for the second time. If God didn’t make the Earth than who did and how?
According to science: Gas and dust = big cloud. Sun forms as gravity pulls these materials together. The remaining particles collide, larger objects form, collide more (think snowball) – this is called accretion. One of these large objects – Earth. Fact: gravity, GAS (helium, hydrogen, etc, etc) are scientific facts. A larger object formed by smaller objects is fact. Get some play-dough. Fact: different gasses form different elements and coincidentally these elements are the basis of a living planet like Earth.
So phewf. Earth’s formation is explained by science and not by God. What about the Earth’s location? What about Space? The Universe? Where did that come from!?! Just when you think it’s settled it really isn’t at all. Sun and all the planets, including Earth, are in a galaxy, the Milky Way. The Milky Way is in the Universe. Here is where science ends. The Big Bang Theory is one idea of how this all began but a theory nonetheless. Logic: science leads us back to the Universe. The only unexplained but essential part of creation is the Universe. Science ends here.
Let me show you what God created, according to the Christian/Jewish traditions:
Genesis (NIV version) Chapter 1; Verse 1 -8
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
2 Now the earth was [a] formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.
6 And God said, “Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water.” 7 So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the expanse “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.
Problems with this: God created Earth but what about Jupiter? The Milky Way? We already know Earth, Light (Sun) and water were created through scientific means. Let’s give Jewish and Christian authors circa 100 BC – 500 AD a break because they did not have the scientific proof we have now.
Solution for scientists: Accept that creation was an idea formulated before there was any reason for dispute. Understand that faith overcomes science because faith requires no physical evidence. Faith in religion can be blinding in the presence of science.
Solution for creationists: Understand that science is undeniable. I understand that it is easy to think that God created science as a test of belief. I am the Queen of Stubborn-land and it can be hard to admit fault! But no one is at fault or wrong for believing in what they choose to believe.
Compromise: There is conflict everywhere in the world so why not eliminate one conflict at a time when we can? Just because God did not create Earth or man does not mean He created nothing. What can science not explain? The universe. What if God created the universe? Now settle down because that does not imply that God therefore created the Sun and Earth and everything the term universe envelopes. I mean, simply that The Big Bang was God. Is it so crazy to think that God was the one who went ‘bang!’ No one can legitimately prove this wrong. God went ‘bang!’ and created the universe, went back to sleep and evolution took place. Scientists get evolution and creationists get God. Ebony and ivory living in perfect harmony.
Genesis (Brooke version)
1 In the beginning God created the universe.
2 Billions of years later God named the first man Adam. A man who had evolved from a primate who had evolved from a ………..
Until…..
The God Particle.
Filed under: Life, Opinions, Originals | Tags: Alcohol, Drug, Drunk, Rave, Ungrateful, VEMF, VEMF 2009, Victoria, Volunteering
Victoria Electronic Music Festival 2009 = Unorganized and ungrateful
It was an easy and moderately entertaining way to add another volunteer experience to my resume/grad school application. It was also completely unorganized with five people telling you to do five different things with no cohesive plan in sight. The “real” staff were wasted while volunteers like myself sat around taking people’s money slash tickets. The event organizers gave this huge spiel about their zero tolerance for drugs and alcohol, but at the festival there was not a sober person in sight. Volunteer, employee, raver – nobody. Embarrassing. At least Jason and I found this out the first night so the second night we drank before our shift.
I suppose the ‘appreciation’ party got me thinking about what a horrible event it actually was because the ‘party’ was fucking typical of such lunacy. “The party will be held at the Sunset Room on Thursday, August 13th from 6pm to when things wind down and you are welcome to bring a friend. We will have music, food, drinks, door prizes and a whole lotta fun! Please RSVP so we have an idea of how much food to get.” By Sunset Room they meant cracked out, condemned Mexican restaurant that is built into the side of a parkade. Apparently it is going to become a nightclub so we were some how able to ‘borrow’ the venue for this gracious event. UNclassy.
Food = soggy Caesar salad, a cracker and some raw vegetables. THAT IS IT.
Drink = beer and sangria. Oh wait. The sangria ran out in half an hour. But there was also whiskey and vodka. Don’t expect any ice or fizz if you except to mix with soda.
I love smoking and I’m all for smoking in public places. I remember those good ‘ol times…..smoking sections….Anyway – people were smoking inside this condemned building which didn’t have ashtrays or anything of the sort. No, there were just pinatas and paper streamers everywhere just waiting to be lit on fire.
TACKY.
Filed under: Opinions | Tags: Fraud, Idiot, Scam, Theft, University of Victoria, UVic, Victoria, XXX, Zap
THIEVES. CON ARTISTS. FUCK THE STUDENT UNION. I hate the Student Union and the building and the employees and the stores. Bunch of cock suckers. Boycott!
Filed under: Opinions
When bigots have babies
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/when-bigots-have-babies/article1152429/
Wednesday, May. 20, 2009 09:13PM EDT
What kind of mother would send her child to second grade with a swastika on her arm – and then help her redraw it after a horrified teacher washed it off?
A clueless mother, to be sure. But an unfit one?
That’s the issue at the core of a high-profile case that began 14 months ago, when social workers seized two small children from a Winnipeg couple. They felt that the children were at risk of “emotional damage” because of their parents’ deviant beliefs.
The parents had a bunch of neo-Nazi paraphernalia in their home. Dad was fond of posting out-and-out hate speech on websites. Mom (who described herself at the time as a “white nationalist”) wore a swastika necklace. On the website, she allegedly described how cute it was to see the children goose-step. “It really is adorable, it’s more fun when we’re in the mall and I do it too.”
But now the father is arguing at a custody hearing that being a neo-Nazi should not disqualify a person from being a parent. He has also filed a lawsuit claiming that his constitutional rights to freedom of expression and to religion have been violated. He says he has “dedicated my entire life to being a skinhead.”
Drugs and alcohol may be other factors in this case, and the girl had missed a lot of school. The parents (now separated) seem to be as much white trash as they are white supremacists. Still, many people believe that their beliefs alone make them unfit to be parents. “Indoctrination to racial hatred and being a billboard for hatred is a form of child abuse,” says David Matas, legal counsel for B’nai Brith Canada. “It marginalizes the child from society, and it has a lasting impact on character development.”
But, as always, the question is: What’s deviant? Which ideologies are the taboo ones? And who decides?
“If you’re going to target neo-Nazis who haven’t actually hit or sexually abused their children, who’s to say conservative Christian evangelicals aren’t next?” Bill Whatcott, an anti-gay Christian activist, asked in an interview in the Winnipeg Free Press.
In fact, they have already been targeted. Seven years ago, child-protection authorities in Ontario seized the children of a family belonging to a tiny sect that believes in strict corporal punishment.
Some child-abuse cases are cut-and-dried. But some mirror the moral panic of the day. In Britain, the definition of abuse now extends to children who are overweight. Last fall, a six-year-old was taken into custody for being too fat and, according to the Daily Telegraph, obesity was a factor in at least 20 child-protection cases last year. “It is drastic, but it’s a long-term therapy,” said a director of the National Obesity Forum. “For the sake of the children, it does need to be done because we have got children who are horrendously fat.”
Well, so do we. Unfortunately, if the state started apprehending all the children whose parents think that pop and chips are a nutritious diet, it would have no place to put them. The same is true of odious beliefs. Personally, I would like to apprehend girls whose parents give them lipstick when they’re 7 and enter them in beauty pageants. Or how about the parents who have never read their child a book because they have never read one themselves?
There are many, many, many forms of child abuse, and helping your kid redraw a swastika on her arm is only one of them. The problem is that the state’s cure can be far worse than the disease. Being separated from your mom and dad is hard, even if they do happen to be fans of some guy called Hitler.
Meantime, the swastika mom has distanced herself (both literally and ideologically) from her husband. She has given up the Nazi gear, and you get the sense that she would do pretty much anything to get her kids back. Helping her daughter redraw the swastika, she says sadly, “was the stupidest thing I’ve ever done.
