The second part of this book is better than the first, Although interesting, the first part seems detached and meandering a nice set of interviews but for the most part they seem to be afterthefact interviews.
The second part becomes more unified and emotional, It is concerned more with the here and now of how Rwanda is 'coping' with the genocide indeed, if it can ever hope to do so.
Sometimes I feel the author is painting a 'rosy' picture of Rwandan president Paul Kagame, Nevertheless he does score points in detailing how the international communities have been insensitive to Rwanda particularly in terms of the refugees or fugitives from justice in camps that were receiving humanitarian aid from several UN organizations.
Gourevitch also points out the hypocrisy of the UN providing aid, but it's unwillingness to risk lives like to prevent a genocide of close tomillion people.
The book reminds me of the points brought out by sitelinkDaniel Jonah Goldhagen's book sitelinkHitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust: a genocide has many participants and they
can be eager participants who believe in the righteousness of their cause.
A genocide is organized machetes were ordered, lists were made, groups assembled, These points are well brought out in the book of Gourevitch,
For a more immediate 'feeling' of the Rwandan genocide read sitelinkRoméo Dallaire's heartwrenching sitelinkShake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda.
Dallaire and Paul Rusesabagina represented in the movie "Hotel Rwanda", are interviewed in this book of Philip Gourevitch,
It happened, therefore it can happen again: this is the core of what we have to say, It can happen, and it can happen everywhere, sitelinkPrimo Levi
How do you "rate" a book about genocide On the merits of the reporting On its "balanced" or "just" interpretation of history On its tone or political slant On the firsthand accounts presented On your personal horror at both reading about what happened, and at probing the limits of your own ignorance How did I not know this!
Theis first and foremost a Thank You to Gourevitch for writing such a welldocumented, historically detailed, passionate account of the Rwandan genocide.
After reading We Wish to Inform You, I am more than ashamed that I knew very little of the tragedies Rwandans suffered during thes and beyond, past and present.
This book provides an excellent history, and contextualizes events enough to allow even those very poorly educated in the matters of African colonization like myself to grasp some kind of understanding or informed incomprehension.
I also appreciated hearing the voices of the Rwandans Gourevitch interviewed as part of his research and reporting, Both factions Tutsis and Hutus are represented, though the voices of the Tutsis are what shapes the narrative, These voices do not quite constitute an oral history, but offer the same effect: a nuanced and humanized perspective that is much more insightful into the human condition, imho, than traditional histories, which are fascinating of course, but which tend towards the abstract.
I am not quite sure how to rate other aspects of the work, but I also figure, any flaws are minor compared to the overall appraisal, which is that I think everyone should read this book, because as humans, we should not be ignorant of such potentialities in our own natures.
Usually when reading history, I am more critical or at least, I try to be! but in this case, there is a dearth of written material on the subject, and general public awareness is also limited, if it exists at all.
Also, the "flaws" I refer to may not even be flaws one, for example, is that Gourevitch editorializes at times and does not always stick to the more detached journalistic voice.
But in this case how can I blame him Gourevitch is not a historian plus historians editorialize all the time, if history is interpretation.
And, as a child of Holocaust survivors, he is understandably passionately empathetic with the Tutsi's case as probably we should all be, as human children.
Contentwise, I would not do the work any justice if I attempted any kind of brief summary, But I will say this: one aspect that sadly did not surprise me, yet still angered me to tears, was the "West's" complicity in both turning a blindeye to the Tutsi's plight, and in fomenting conflict in the region to begin with in the process of colonization and subsequent support for dictatorial puppets.
Highly Recommended. “What distinguishes genocide from murder, and even from acts of political murder that claim as many victims, is the intent, The crime is wanting to make a people extinct, The idea is the crime, ”
What happened in Rwanda,The answer isn't as clear as one may think, and the questions that arise aren't simple either.
I'm so, so glad I read this book,
I'm too young to remember anything disasterous or political from the's and everything I've heard about Rwanda sincehas been from my own, knowledgeable parents or my high school history book.
They don't really talk about what happened anywhere and no one seems to know anything other than that the country was divided into two peoples and the Hutus decided to start killing off the other.
Over a million from the Tutsi people died, And that's about it.
This book doesn't shy away from what actually happened in Rwanda and I'm not going to lie, this is not a fun book and it's even hard to read at times.
It presents the situations as it was, what led to the genocide and what happened after it, Why did a million Hutus participate in the murdering and brutalizing of over a million Tutsis The truth is that tensions dating back a long time culminated in having the government systematically call upon every Hutu to kill all Tutsi, even their family, friends and neighbours.
And so they did. Where was the rest of the world and why didn't they interfere
“Rwanda had presented the world with the most unambiguous case of genocide since Hitlers war against the Jews, and the world sent blankets, beans, and bandages to camps controlled by the killers, apparently hoping that everybody would behave nicely in the future.
”
The way Gourevitch has written everything chronologically makes this book and the accounts of this part of history easy to follow.
I was left with no questions and after looking it up, sadly, the two sides are still fighting evenyears later, His writing is effortless and intelligent, every chapter has it's own meaning and no information seems unnecessary, You get the whole picture from different perspectives those who were almost killed, those who saved others, and those who killed and organized it all.
What struck me personally the most was the silence of the international community and the disasterous mistakes the UN and others made funding the genocide.
From a western point of view this is sickening, We, who claim to be intelligent and far from barbarious turned a blind eye when millions were crying for help, Officials from that time said things like "we can't truly say if this counts as a genocide or not", Are you serious Just because there was nothing in it for the 'big guys' means they do nothing, or just the bare minimum.
Some countries even openly supported the government organizing the slaughter this has to do with the Hutu government fooling the international community that they as a people were the ones being killed and hunted.
This deeply saddens me as my thoughts keep going back to countries in Africa and the Middle East where people are dying of hunger by the thousands right this very moment.
Yet we don't take action because of dangerous political tension in those countries, To every man themselves.
Highly, highly recommend for everyone interested in history, philosophy of the human race, and intelligent and thought provoking reads, .