Reading Philip Gourevitch’s We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families (punctuation is as appears on the book’s cover), makes the word “chaos” take on a completely different meaning.
Recently I’ve used the word “chaos” to describe a various number of things, mainly my lack of a set schedule due to exams, moving back home and searching for a job.
Gourevitch uses the word “chaos” to illustrate genocide – something very different than my portrayal of the word. Through his own words and the words of his sources, Gourevitch clearly indicates that there is more to chaos than my definition.
Dr. Eliel Ntaki used the word “chaos” to avoid using “genocide”, describing chaos as “every man for himself.” Pastor Elizaphan Ntakirutimana also substituted “chaos” for “genocide.” After saying Jesus is the only one who can take away hatred and sin, he closed with, “Everything is chaos.”
Reading the book during one of the busiest times of my semester, I realized that contrary to how I felt, my life was not chaos. I was chasing my studies, not being hunted down because of my ethnicity. I was tired because of studying, not because I was on the run for my life. I was hurting from lack of sleep, not because I had been beaten, raped and left for dead.
After finishing the book, I felt as if there were truly no words in the English language to describe what has happened in Rwanda, but perhaps Gourevitch’s exposition on “chaos” is the closest possible definition.
4 comments:
Chaos, is exactly what is it was. Eliel Ntaki, many more understand this and sadly Gourevitch and even more did as well. And yet they, including you, still could not grasp the truth. These were NOT the trains to Dachau from the ghettos which WERE systemically designed to usher people to. It was NOT one group of peoples that were butchered, and in fact the Tutsis that are so frequently lauded as the sole victims, were not even the majority of the dead. THIS was a state where bodies from fleeing innocents were piled in the streets, and cars were forced to trample them. It was politicians, rich and poor, the influential and weak, everybody was a victim because it was CHAOS. There was no order in the country and no functioning state to speak of, and definitely not one that was n.mearly as controlled as one the most organized institutions the world as ever known in Nazi Germany. Yet in Rwanda, the most efficient "genocide" ever is supposed to have existed??? There was hate, that we agree on, and fear but, genocide is not "controlled chaos" instead it is the very essence of absolute control. In Rwanda, the dead had to bury themselves- maybe you have the "intel" to prove who could controlled such chaos, many of course have been condemned but there are no real answers to chaos. Only that such a despicable reality can never be understood, and most importantly realized.
The only thing to do about chaos is to prevent IT, because once there is chaos- there is no control only death, the end, an abyss of darkness. If you understood anything from this post- understand genocide is anything but, chaos. The guilty are the ones would have prevented this not people that supposedly should have done more to STOP IT. People that were negligible with the information they had and to your surprise the blame game never stops. It reaches some of the highest levels of our govt. and the UN. What did WE ignore, what could we have done? Ask yourself if anyone can control chaos itself???!!!! Ask who could PREVENT the chaos, the President's plane gunned down, wars consuming the region, and most importantly the world turning a blind eye to what Rwanda descended to. Yet it's the world that seeks to judge the chaos which they ignored. Wants to point blame for a chaos they could have prevented. Ethnic hatred and fear consumed the region and it was not a government authority so corruptible and weak that it could rightfully but, untruthfully be accused of killing its own president but can't even provide running water to the people. It was hate and fear the reigned in Rwanda and are the main ingredients of chaos. Even today fear is still a staple in how Rwanda is governed and soon it will manifest into hatred once again.
The answer is can the people rightfully have the freedom to control their own lives and thus allow the state to rightfully govern through their submission to their authority, not to violently quell the people's challenges and dissent- a popular feature of African governments (undemocratic ones- 90% victories). Nothing was controlling about what happened in Rwanda.... nothing. I am thankful we can enjoy the faith we have in our country (excuse the torture bit) and how much control we exercise in freedom to keep chaos at bay.
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