Outside Reading #5: An Ordinary Man

This week in my reading of An Ordinary Man by Paul Rusesabagina the experiences that Paul went through from the 1994 genocide were described in great devastating detail. The president of Rwanda did not care that his people were killing each other. People were getting "brain washed" and sucked into being a soldier. Rusesabagina expresses, "'Do your work.' It made killing sound like a responsibility. Like it was the normal thing to do"(Rusesabagina 82). Messages would go over the radio saying things like "'Clean your neighborhood of brush. Cut the tall trees'"(Rusesabagina 82). This referred to the Tutsis that were commonly know to be taller, hence the tree metaphor, and the sympathizers who were portrayed as the brush, around helping the trees. People everywhere were being murdered, even by their close friends that they saw every day. Even UN officers stopped escorting people because it was not safe. People were so influenced by fear that they did crazy things that they would never have done if they were not under these circumstances. People changed. Where have I seen people changing in a negative way? The first thing that comes to mind is when soldiers form Iraq come home with post traumatic stress disorder. They change and become different people just because of their environment that they were living in over seas. This is not necessarily the same type of change as people had to face in Rwanda, and most definitely not to the same extent at all. But still the fears and chaos of war almost always makes an impact in one way or another. The 1994 genocide in Rwanda was a terrible time in Rwandan history. It was scary, confusing and just plain out of complete control. I wish our society could help to prevent war and to help all the people involved.