Hansel: Hotel Rwanda

In my opinion, first world countries have no particular responsibility to intervene when such political insanity occurs. What I picture America doing in such a crises is similar to the scene in which the United Nations officers threw his beret to the ground as he finds out that just the foreign nationals are to be evacuated. Another scene that looks similar to what I believe would happen if America intervened is the one in which the United Nations try to carry the refugees to safety only to be thwarted by the Hutu militia. My third scene that compares with America’s hypothetical involvement in Rwanda is the scene in which Paul calls Mr. Tillens, the Dutch owner of the hotel. We see Mr. Tillens in another country in a completely different situation. This mirrors how I feel most American civilians would feel about Rwanda. As discussed in class, Americans see Rwandans as the lowest of classes due to their different lifestyle. Thus, Americans do not care about the Rwandan genocide. I would also like to refer back to my first point: first world countries have no particular responsibility intervening when such political insanity occurs. I prefer a strong isolationist policy where it comes to intervening with foreign affairs. Interventionist policies are often fueled by imperialism. America believes that they are some sort of super power who can make everything better with the sweep of their hand and some AK-47s. We  believe that we can show countries the magic of democracy and crony capitalism and their country will be fine. In addition, we believe this with countries who have things that we need. Rwanda is not a particularly large exporter of things that United States consumes. Therefore, we do not very much care what is going on. Possibly if Rwanda had oil, we would have been over there cracking skulls and saving lives in no time. I would really like to say that first world countries with the resources should go and assist Rwanda in their times of struggle, but I know it would wind up getting botched somehow, instead of a simple act of charity or a sort of country companionship.