Relating size to Rwanda:

Relating Size to Rwanda: A funny connection, I know, but I think size has some relevance in social behaviour/thinking. In the first lecture where we considered the Earth's size in comparison to the universe, I felt pitifully small, quite insignificant and remembered my teenage depressive years where I thought that nuclear war was inevitable in MY lifetime so what was the point in even going to school or planning on a family if it was all going to be blown to smithereens anyway. I felt I had no control and that my opinion/input/impact was insignificant - I couldn't make a difference, the problem was too big.

A bit sad really as I had earlier gone through a naive optimistic period where I campaigned to save the whale!

Times, they are a changin'....

Anyway, I felt that people who knew about the Rwandan genocide may have felt too small, too far away, too lacking in power or control, to really make a difference. But then there was one man in the DVD who felt completely differently - the UN guy (whose name escapes me right now but I will check the transcript later and get back to you) who believed without doubt that he could make a difference. He was unarmed but fuelled with charm, charisma, and absolute belief in himself, that any one life was worth saving and that it was worth the risk of losing his own life - which he did in the end.

That kind of blew me away. It was uplifting and shaming at the same time.

What makes this guy different to others? Why was he so successful? How could he hold such belief in his own capabilities? And was it this strong belief that shined from him and convinced others of his integrity?

And also in the same vein - is it this type of self-belief and determination that turns a human into a monster?

I remember a comment in the DVD that said humans have the capacity for so much good and also so much evil - or words to that effect.

The extremist who convinced ordinary people to slaughter innocent men, women and children may have had the same traits as this unarmed UN guy who almost single-handedly saved 100s, against all odds. Extreme opposites who chose to use their personal power for either good or evil - of course, depending on whose side you're on.......

Did Hitler believe he was doing the best for his nation when he tried to wipe out the Jews? Probably. Sadly...

The other guy that stood out was the one American, Carl Wilkens, who decided to stay behind with his Rwandan friends - he couldn't leave them there to die, even though he had his own family to consider. He wasn't as confident of his capabilities to change anything as the UN guy was, but he did believe that staying behind was the right thing to do. And he did make a difference - he saved the lives of all those kids in the orphanage by asking the very man whose aim it was to wipe them all out to spare them.

Human to human - the extremist must have felt a connection and ordered his troops to spare those children. They were no longer seen as vermin - but real people that at least one man cared about. The 'dehumanised' became 'humanised' again - see Lauren's link on the 8 stages of genocide.

Basically, what I'm trying to say is that we can surprise ourselves with the 'power of one'. Some of us believe it from the 'off', some of us need to see it to believe it, and some of us don't believe we are 'the one' to make that difference - leave it to someone else.

Our perception of this may change as our circumstances change - for instance, in my teens, early twenties, I would have been the first to jump in to save a mate in a punch-up, regardless of the risk to me. But now I'm a mother, I have to think first about the consequences of my actions on my children - do I risk harming/losing THEIR mother?

That's why I think the lone American who stayed behind with his Rwandan colleagues made the ultimate sacrifice - risking depriving his own family of a husband and father - but would his family have thanked him for that if he'd been killed? They may have been proud, but may have felt neglected.

Who knows....It's a difficult dilemma and one I'm so thankful that I've not been put in the situation where I'd have to decide....