Hotel Rwanda

The point of filming Hotel Rwanda was to show how much people are suffering due to genocides happening around the world. The movie categorizes into the good side being the minority and the bad side being the majority. As the Tutsis are minority, the movie portrayes a situation of the Hutus brutally attacking the Tutsis. Thousands and thousands of Tutsis die, and run for their lives. There are Tutsi refugees all over the country, and the Hutus do what ever to kill and evacuate all the Tutsis. The scenes of this movie are alarming with images that have dead bodies covering the country. By watching these scenes, it allows people to understand the level of seriousness of people being tormented due to different ethnic backgrounds. Really, these people are of the same race, just with different beliefs. Due to the difference they have, the two have gone as far as killing one another. It’s rather ridiculous to see people killing one another. After all, we are all equally made.
By watching the movie, I’ve realized how blessed I am. While watching scenes of the Tutsis being killed, running away from the gunshots, hiding from the Hutu slayers, I imaged what it would be like if I was one of those Tutsis. Even thinking gave me the shivers. Then checking back to the reality, I was in the safest place around the Earth. I recognized whatever I was before life, it must’ve been something good; good enough to make me so fortunate. I’ve also learned how careless I was of the world that I didn’t even know how chaotic the other side of the world was. I would see the chases of child trafficking, poverty, and genocides. Then, I would go back to eating my dinner, just thinking that there’s nothing I can do to change the world. Though, the movie made me rethink that even small help can grow into big things and affect the world. Nothing in the movie had anything about small help. Those who were helping the Tutsis were remarkably brave,making big differences. It just made me think how foolish I was just watching, but not acting. Thus, I’ve decided to believe that even small help will grow into something big. I would get more involved in global programs that help those who are suffering around the world.

Hotel Rwanda

While watching Hotel Rwanda, I’ve notice the severe ness of people suffering due to the different ethnic backgrounds. Tutsis were dominating the Hutus over the history. Until the president was killed in a plane crash which the Tutsis are known to have planned, the violence didn’t go as far as killing thousands of people. The death of the Hutu’s president began the start of the genocide. The only reason why the Tutsis were in control was because they were backed up by Belgium. Other than that, the Tutsis were clearly minority in number, and the Hutus were majority. As the Hutus began to kill even the Belgium soldiers, the Belgium began to withdraw from Rwanda with other alliances that were helping the Tutsis. The only choice left over for the rest of the Tutsis was to be cruelly killed by the Hutus. The fact that same race were killing each other seemed meaningless. Knowing that majority of Africa was like this, it seemed as if these people were wasting their time. Actually, anything that had to do with killing each other due to disagreement seemed pointless. Then, to think of it, even I get angry at people and fight with people. That’s why the Hutus have to be understood in their perspective; sometimes people lose it and explode in their emotions. Afterall, the Tutsis have started the fight when they’ve killed the president of Hutu. Meanwhile, when one of the reporter said “people watch this, then go back to eating their dinners again”, it was really shocking. It wasn’t shocking because of how clueless and careless the people were, but because that was exactly what I did. I would watch news that had` to do with people suffering around the world, then go back to what I was doing and not do anything about it. I would think about it, but I wouldn’t move my thoughts into actions. Knowing that, i was always frustrated. Watching this movie dramatically changed my standpoint in crisis happening around the world. It pushed me to think deeply of how I can do more. It made me realize how I can join global clubs and get invloved in the world's crisis.

The poem is being told from a man visiting his mother. The man is fairly old judging by his ninety-three-year-old mother. Being a daughter myself, I’ve found it easy to emotionally relate to the texts. He, being wise enough to take care of his mother, “performs caretaker tasks”. He cleans the house and he washes his mother’s hair. Meanwhile, he notices how old and breathless his mother is with her “shallow breaths”. When he starts washing her hair, he sees how fragile her scalp is. He wishes he can take back all the years life has taken away from her. My favorite line is in the last stanza, “He senses what it was to be one with her, a babe in her womb,” I found him understanding how she might’ve felt when he was still in her womb. As helpless as she is, he wants to take care of her. Though, he realizes that it won’t be long until her death. The last two lines from the poem prove the point. He knows her final going and will be a heartbreaking moment for him. I’m sure I will feel the same way when I see my parents grow old. I will crave for the times I’ve depended on my parents, seeing them so vulnerable.

Washing His Mother's Hair

Visiting his ninety-three-year-old mother
he performs caretaker tasks,
dusting floors, scrubbing the toilet.
Her living circumscribed by shallow breaths
and a rickety heart, no longer
a gardener and a keeper of poultry.

"How about a shampoo?" he asks,
wishing to restore sparse wisps,
make them springy and wavy
as when he used to set and comb her hair.
Even more to touch her scalp,
find there the throb of life.
At the kitchen sink he washes, rinses,
carefully tempering hot water,
rinses once more, towels dry the handful of hair.

Winded, she sits while he combs.
Touching, breathing, touching, breathing,
He senses what it was to be one with her,
a babe in her womb,
and knows her final going--imminent--
will claim some vital part of him.

James Ross Bailey

Spring Love

The black smoke rises from the pan,
you smile and whisper that I will make a good wife.
Scrambled eggs with thousand island dressing
and oven-baken tortillas from the grocery.
You wince and eat the food all the same.
I don't mind you not liking breakfast
but that's all I have. Please leave soon-
your fiancee may wonder at
the sudden sweetness of your smile.

Your belly's a beer barrel's paradise- warmth in the cold night.
Your skin shines like moonlight and breath- the beat of my heart.
I notice a little mole under your armpit and
you try to peer with all your might. I laugh.
You shimmer among a million scattered dreams
and the haze arrives as you hold me in your arms.

I know there will never be another man like you.
And you, with a serious look, tell me I am your only Spring-
beauty with eyes of a doe and smiles of butterflies.
I worry about her but you just hold me in your arms.
For now, hush,
let the Spring be savored and our woes be gone-
two souls in a field of tulips and the smell of cut grass.
Sophie Leu