Why were the whites there anyway if they viewed those people as just Africans? Which apparently means that their lives are less valuable than other peoples.
They didn't help much at all anyway. I think for white people they just live there in Africa in doing those jobs to be able to pretend to themselves that they are making a difference and they enjoy the role of the hero of what they deem as black savages.
Well...after this happened, President Clinton promised that the United States government would never again ignore any act of genocide. I think there was some sort of policy passed over this. But, then again, look at Sudan.
shareNot all the whites in Rwanda viewed the victims as "just dead Africans." The character in the film who said that was expressing a point of view that was, unfortunately, alive and well among the decisionmakers at the highest levels (UN Security Council, governments of Belgium, France, U.S., etc.)
Some whites put themselves at great risk to stay in Rwanda during the genocide and help as much as they could. Notable among them: Dr. James Orbinski, of Medicines Sans Frontieres, who kept the hospital open and serving Tutsi victims; Gen. Romeo Dallaire, the Force Commander of UNAMIR, who refused to abandon the refugees in several of the UN-protected sites (he said afterwards he would have sent a contingent to guard the ETO site when the Belgians withdrew, but it happened so quickly he had no time to respond). Carl Wilkins, of the Adventist Church relief organization, did a lot to protect orphans and others in their care (he stayed in Rwanda with his family), Mark Doyle of the BBC was the only Western news reporter who stayed for the entire 100 days and reported on the genocide from the front. Dallaire and Orbinski are Canadians; Wilkins is an American.
Gen. Dallaire delivered an address at the University in Butare when he returned for the 10th anniversary of the Genocide in 2004. He told the assembled crowd -- mostly young people -- that he and the UN had failed the people of Rwanda. He explained the thinking at the higher levels: the UN sent thousands upon thousands of troops to the former Yugoslavia, because the combatants were European, white, and resources were at stake, while Rwanda was a poor country, with no wealth, and 'too many people.' No vested interests were at stake in Rwanda.
It was less about race than about money, but other African countries were willing to send troops to Rwanda to bolster the UNAMIR force -- however, they lacked transport for those troops, and the European countries refused to assist.
It was phrasing used to depict the inaction by the western powers who basically stood by whilst the slaughter happened.
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