Last Friday, hundreds of U students turned out to watch “Hotel Rwanda” and to hear from real-life hero Paul Rusesabagina, the Rwandan hotel manager who saved the lives of more than 1,300 Tutsis in 1994.
The event, put on by ASUU’s Presenter’s Office, was a huge success-a nice change of pace from on-campus events that are poorly attended. The Presenter’s Office is to be congratulated for bringing such an interesting and engaging figure to our campus.
The truly surprising thing is that so many students turned out when the advertising for the event was so minimal-just some posters hung around campus. Yet tickets, which were free for students, sold out well before Friday. This resulted in a large waiting list of students who wanted to attend.
For that, U students are to be congratulated. Those in attendance on Friday night proved to whatever doubters might be out there that our campus is socially aware and globally conscious.
The tragedy of the 1994 Rwandan genocide was that the rest of the world didn’t seem to take notice of more than half-a-million people dying until it was far too late. People on the U campus, at least, seem to be making up for that ignorance now. When Rusesabagina offered to take questions from the audience, student after student asked basically the same question-“What can we do to help?”
It is important to recognize that for some, it took the production of a major Hollywood film to recognize one of the greatest tragedies of the last century-and that the actual damage done to the people of Rwanda was even worse than what the film “Hotel Rwanda” depicted, according to Rusesabagina.
Let us hope that it doesn’t take another Oscar-nominated movie being made before we recognize-and do something about-the global tragedies that are taking place today. Students who were in attendance Friday night should apply the lessons they learned about the Rwandan genocide to the problems of today.
From genocide in Darfur to the AIDS crisis in Africa and Southeast Asia to famine in Zimbabwe-it is important to take note of these events and help now, rather than be confronted with our collective guilt in ten years, via the silver screen. We should harness the compassion that the Rwandan tragedy engenders and use it to promote positive change in the present.