Reading the gory details described in Philip Gourevitchs Letter from Rwanda: After the Genocide

gave me goosebumps and made me cringe thinking about the world we live in. I constantly drew
parallels to other wars and conflicts I know about (the Holocaust and the India-Pakistan partition) and
felt like it distills down to the following:

- We love dividing ourselves into groups. One group always tries to get ahead of the other
- Power matters more than anything else in the world and it is worth killing other people if that
gives you greater power
- For being animals with high IQs, we are far too easily fooled to believe in the mission (e.g.,
Radio Rwanda reported that a renowned local visionary had had a colloquy with the Virgin
Mary, in which the Virgin indicated that Habyarimana was with her in Heaven, and that she
approved the killing of Tutsis)

I also cant stop myself from making parallels between the British dominating India and the Belgium
dominating Rwanda. The colonial powers always seem to have played by the philosophy of Divide and
Conquer whether that was creating a divide between Hindus and Muslims in India, or between Tutsis
and Hutus (with the launch of the identity cards) in Rwanda.

All the above not only led to the Rwandan genocide but also to the killings of millions during India and
Pakistan partition (1947), the Holocaust or the Sikh riots. I find it hard to believe that and it raises a lot
of questions: do people have no empathy left in themselves that they can execute their own neighbors?
Why do people not question violent-igniting speeches? Are we

I was asking myself the same questions that are posed at the starting of Philip G. Zimbardos essay on
Understanding How Good People Are Transformed into Perpetrators. Why and how is it possible for
such deeds to continue? How the unimaginable become so readily imagined? How can you lose all
empathy and human emotions that you can kill your neighbors?

The reading on .provides some answers and also raises some questions.

- Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE): the tendency to attribute behavior to dispositions without
accounting for situational variables. When Philip Gorevitch says that young males are the most
dangerous in the world,- is this an FAE since we need to also take into account the situational
variables at play during that time?
- I am not that kind of person I found his incoinatin towards situational factors very interesting
because before this, I had generally been biased towards explaning through disposition.
Situational factors being so important explains more why people can kill neighbours today that
they yesterday had dinner with in a genocide?
- Found the ten ingredients in the Situationists recipe for Behavioral Transformations to be
applicable to the Hutus accepting extermination of Tutsis as a mission.
- Deindividuation: anything that makes someone feel anonymous creates the potential for that
person to act in evil ways, if the situation gives permission for violence (e.g., in the genocide, the
law supporting and encouraging killings)
I could relate to the emotion expressed at the end of the Letter that I thought Rwandans were the most
wonderful people in the world but I could have never imagined--- Does this mean we cant trust
anybody? Are all of us so fickle-minded

Lastly, role of the international community. I found this line very true to the core- international
community likes situations that let it assume a neutral position. The international dynamics are also
determined by power play (e.g, the French supporting the Hutus and providing arms throughout the
genocide).

Finally, it does seem like Rwanda has done a great job at rebuilding itself after the genocide that greatly
reduced its GDP, hurt the infrastructure and .However, I would want to understand the concrete steps
that have led to this chance. I wasnt impressed reading the Vision 2020 document because the text
could have just as easily been written for any other developing country. There were very few things that
were specific to Rwanda and concrete enough to provide as goals.