The movie “Hotel Rwanda” was intended to make audience feel guilt and sympathy. From the Tutsis’ view point, the movie accuses us, especially western countries in general, for the unconcern and apathy towards the catastrophe. Like other types of mass media, the movie makes dramatic effects and purposely includes and excludes facts to accomplish the intention. The visual effects and lines of the movie were very strong. The scene that shows thousands of dead bodies covering the road shocks the viewer. The audience feels pity for countless vulnerable Tutsis taking refuge from Hutus.
Personally, one of the reporters from the United States in the movie is memorable for the lines he spoken. The reporter speaks to Paul how oblivious we are. When he leaves the hotel with the European troops, he says, “Jesus Christ, I am so ashamed,” which is similar to how the audience might feel while watching this movie.
The movie is criticized by some film critics that the producer exaggerated the reality to trigger the audiences’ mind. I agree to the critics to some point that the movie did make intentional scenes to attract people. However, we should not expect movies to be neutral and objective and the movie did a good job affecting the audience in the way they intended to.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Media Unit - Rwanda
The media handled the tragedy in Rwanda differently from the way the movie “Hotel Rwanda” did. While the movie invoked sympathy by viewing the war from Rwandan perspective, news articles and interviews mostly covered the reaction of U.S. government and U.N. on the catastrophe. The media source I have looked at was the press from the western world such as PBS and Atlantic.com, which is possibly the cause of such viewpoint. Yet, the way each article was biased varied.
There are many scenes in “Hotel Rwanda” which the director intentionally put to dramatize the cold-heartedness of the whites. For example, the audience would get strong impression that the whites do not care the genocide in Rwanda when they see two whites in the bus on the way to escape who are taking pictures of helpless Tutsi. This movie does not analyze the situation but instigates to criticize the UN and western country, which is quite natural because strong one-side view point could attract more people to the box office.
The article “Bystanders to Genocide,” from Atlantic.com, the article criticizes U.S. army and President Clinton for not intervening for Rwandans. It referred to the Clinton’s apology that stated many Americans were not “fully appreciated” about the catastrophe. The sentence that author wrote, “…Clinton wrote with a thick black felt-tip pen beside heavily underlined …..” cynically implies that Clinton must have known about the genocide and that he was lying. The author believes that there is no way President Clinton was not aware of the genocide few weeks after the it started because numerous non governmental organizations and the press exposed videos of killing Tutsis and requested to the government to use the term “genocide” for the catastrophe occurred in Rwanda.
There is another article from PBS that contains an interview of the BBC reporter, Mark Doyle, who stayed in Rwanda during the happening and had the first hand experience of the genocide. The interviewer asked questions related things that the interviewee saw rather than questions that ask the interviewee’s personal opinion. During the interview, Doyle says “it wasn’t clear for several weeks that there were these two parallel wars [regular combat and genocide] going on”. His statement implies that even the westerner who is staying inside Rwanda could not know of the genocide for sure until tens of thousands were killed. Doyle also says that a French soldier did not take any action when Tutsi was attacked (and probably killed) in front of them. But according to Doyle’s description, the French soldier was definitely not enjoying the happening, unlike the two whites who are taking pictures through the window in the bus of the movie “Hotel Rwanda”. This interview article is most faithful to the fact, but does not give deep insight on the nature of the genocide.
The article, “Frontline: ghosts of Rwanda: Responsibility to Protect” also from PBS gives excellent perspective on what western countries should have done in Rwanda. The author says what is important is “the responsibility to protect”, not “the right to intervene”. He says that if someone suffers, and the person who should take care of him does not do his job, then others who are not directly connected to the sufferer should go and protect him. This article tries to put a general guideline that western countries should follow if something similar to the genocide in Rwanda happens. The author says that foreign country should not hesitate to intervene an internal affair of another country if that affair involves severe injustice. On the other hands, this article does not pay much attention on or sympathetic to the particular genocide in Rwanda.
There are many scenes in “Hotel Rwanda” which the director intentionally put to dramatize the cold-heartedness of the whites. For example, the audience would get strong impression that the whites do not care the genocide in Rwanda when they see two whites in the bus on the way to escape who are taking pictures of helpless Tutsi. This movie does not analyze the situation but instigates to criticize the UN and western country, which is quite natural because strong one-side view point could attract more people to the box office.
The article “Bystanders to Genocide,” from Atlantic.com, the article criticizes U.S. army and President Clinton for not intervening for Rwandans. It referred to the Clinton’s apology that stated many Americans were not “fully appreciated” about the catastrophe. The sentence that author wrote, “…Clinton wrote with a thick black felt-tip pen beside heavily underlined …..” cynically implies that Clinton must have known about the genocide and that he was lying. The author believes that there is no way President Clinton was not aware of the genocide few weeks after the it started because numerous non governmental organizations and the press exposed videos of killing Tutsis and requested to the government to use the term “genocide” for the catastrophe occurred in Rwanda.
There is another article from PBS that contains an interview of the BBC reporter, Mark Doyle, who stayed in Rwanda during the happening and had the first hand experience of the genocide. The interviewer asked questions related things that the interviewee saw rather than questions that ask the interviewee’s personal opinion. During the interview, Doyle says “it wasn’t clear for several weeks that there were these two parallel wars [regular combat and genocide] going on”. His statement implies that even the westerner who is staying inside Rwanda could not know of the genocide for sure until tens of thousands were killed. Doyle also says that a French soldier did not take any action when Tutsi was attacked (and probably killed) in front of them. But according to Doyle’s description, the French soldier was definitely not enjoying the happening, unlike the two whites who are taking pictures through the window in the bus of the movie “Hotel Rwanda”. This interview article is most faithful to the fact, but does not give deep insight on the nature of the genocide.
The article, “Frontline: ghosts of Rwanda: Responsibility to Protect” also from PBS gives excellent perspective on what western countries should have done in Rwanda. The author says what is important is “the responsibility to protect”, not “the right to intervene”. He says that if someone suffers, and the person who should take care of him does not do his job, then others who are not directly connected to the sufferer should go and protect him. This article tries to put a general guideline that western countries should follow if something similar to the genocide in Rwanda happens. The author says that foreign country should not hesitate to intervene an internal affair of another country if that affair involves severe injustice. On the other hands, this article does not pay much attention on or sympathetic to the particular genocide in Rwanda.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Comment on 'On the Seashore'
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)
On the Seashore
On the seashore of endless worlds children meet.
The infinite sky is motionless overhead and the restless water is boisterous. On the seashore of endless worlds the children meet with shouts and dances.
They build their houses with sand, and they play with empty shells. With withered leaves they weave their boats and smilingly float them on the vast deep. Children have their play on the seashore of worlds.
They know not how to swim, they know not how to cast nets. Pearl-fishers dive for pearls, merchants sail in their ships, while children gather pebbles and scatter them again. They seek not for hidden treasures, they know not how to cast nets.
The sea surges up with laughter, and pale gleams the smile of the sea-beach. Death-dealing waves sing meaningless ballads to the children, even like a mother while rocking her baby's cradle. The sea plays with children, and pale gleams the smile of the sea-beach.
On the seashore of endless worlds children meet. Tempest roams in the pathless sky, ships are wrecked in the trackless water, death is abroad and children play. On the seashore of endless worlds is the great meeting of children.
Many religions emphasize the insignificance of humans compared with their creator and the world. This is common also in science, where the enormity of the galaxy and the universe are revealed through theories and mathematical calculations. The poem, “On the Seashore” written by Rabindranath Tagore, clearly shows humble human’s status through a metaphor.
The surface description of “On the Seashore” is not about human and the universe but about little children playing in seashore. Children first meet each other in the endless seashore. The first three lines show the readers how motionless, restless, and boisterous that environment is. It also explains playful nature of children. The second paragraph only focuses on what children do. The third stanza includes comparison between pearl-fishers, merchant, people who live for specific purpose, to the children in the seashore who play, gather and scatter pebbles for no purpose. After these series of stanzas that emphasize the playfulness of children, the focus turns to the shore. The forth one describes the generosity and enormity of palely smiling seashore and compares its harsh waves to children who know nothing but full of playfulness. The last stanza summarizes the situation in which weak children are dangerously playing in pathless, dark, and boisterous seashore.
I interpret that the whole story is a metaphor of the human world. The seashore represents the universe and children represent human beings. This implies that all the actions we do are just like plays of children such as “building their houses with sand” and “playing with empty shells”. Seen from the universe perspective children’s plays are insignificant to vast sea and seashore. Supports of my interpretation can be seen in the second stanza. Building one’s house with sand is a clearly meaningless and absurd action to do since one surge of the wave or tides can demolish the house in a second. Playing with empty shells does not give a positive impression because of the word ‘empty’. The word ‘shell’ originally means the hard outer structure of water creatures and thus the word empty is restating the emptiness. ‘The pale gleams of the smile of the sea-beach’ represents benevolent oversee of the universe or the creator on what human does. Wars, revolutions, and inventions can be considered as playing and ‘gathering and scattering pebbles’ in the universe perspective.
I first encountered this poem translated in Korean in the blog (http://my.dreamwiz.com/itrue/foreignmunhak/foreignmunhak/bdasga.htm) where the blogger interprets the children as pure minded person and the pearl-fishers and merchants as calculating person, concluding that we all should live like children to harmonize with the world. My interpretation, however, is that ‘clever’ pearl-fishers and merchants are indifferent from children viewed from the endless and unlimited scope of the universe. There is no difference between clever fishes and dumb fishes in a fish bowl lying on a desk.
On the Seashore
On the seashore of endless worlds children meet.
The infinite sky is motionless overhead and the restless water is boisterous. On the seashore of endless worlds the children meet with shouts and dances.
They build their houses with sand, and they play with empty shells. With withered leaves they weave their boats and smilingly float them on the vast deep. Children have their play on the seashore of worlds.
They know not how to swim, they know not how to cast nets. Pearl-fishers dive for pearls, merchants sail in their ships, while children gather pebbles and scatter them again. They seek not for hidden treasures, they know not how to cast nets.
The sea surges up with laughter, and pale gleams the smile of the sea-beach. Death-dealing waves sing meaningless ballads to the children, even like a mother while rocking her baby's cradle. The sea plays with children, and pale gleams the smile of the sea-beach.
On the seashore of endless worlds children meet. Tempest roams in the pathless sky, ships are wrecked in the trackless water, death is abroad and children play. On the seashore of endless worlds is the great meeting of children.
Many religions emphasize the insignificance of humans compared with their creator and the world. This is common also in science, where the enormity of the galaxy and the universe are revealed through theories and mathematical calculations. The poem, “On the Seashore” written by Rabindranath Tagore, clearly shows humble human’s status through a metaphor.
The surface description of “On the Seashore” is not about human and the universe but about little children playing in seashore. Children first meet each other in the endless seashore. The first three lines show the readers how motionless, restless, and boisterous that environment is. It also explains playful nature of children. The second paragraph only focuses on what children do. The third stanza includes comparison between pearl-fishers, merchant, people who live for specific purpose, to the children in the seashore who play, gather and scatter pebbles for no purpose. After these series of stanzas that emphasize the playfulness of children, the focus turns to the shore. The forth one describes the generosity and enormity of palely smiling seashore and compares its harsh waves to children who know nothing but full of playfulness. The last stanza summarizes the situation in which weak children are dangerously playing in pathless, dark, and boisterous seashore.
I interpret that the whole story is a metaphor of the human world. The seashore represents the universe and children represent human beings. This implies that all the actions we do are just like plays of children such as “building their houses with sand” and “playing with empty shells”. Seen from the universe perspective children’s plays are insignificant to vast sea and seashore. Supports of my interpretation can be seen in the second stanza. Building one’s house with sand is a clearly meaningless and absurd action to do since one surge of the wave or tides can demolish the house in a second. Playing with empty shells does not give a positive impression because of the word ‘empty’. The word ‘shell’ originally means the hard outer structure of water creatures and thus the word empty is restating the emptiness. ‘The pale gleams of the smile of the sea-beach’ represents benevolent oversee of the universe or the creator on what human does. Wars, revolutions, and inventions can be considered as playing and ‘gathering and scattering pebbles’ in the universe perspective.
I first encountered this poem translated in Korean in the blog (http://my.dreamwiz.com/itrue/foreignmunhak/foreignmunhak/bdasga.htm) where the blogger interprets the children as pure minded person and the pearl-fishers and merchants as calculating person, concluding that we all should live like children to harmonize with the world. My interpretation, however, is that ‘clever’ pearl-fishers and merchants are indifferent from children viewed from the endless and unlimited scope of the universe. There is no difference between clever fishes and dumb fishes in a fish bowl lying on a desk.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Commentry on "Is Love"
Is Love
Midwives and winding sheets
know birthing is hard
and dying is mean
and living's a trail in between.
Why do we journey, muttering
like rumors among stars?
Is a dimension lost?
Is it love?
by Maya Angelou
“Still I rise”, the poem I read in my English class, is a poem written by Maya Angelou. I shall comment on this poem “Is Love” which is also one of the poems of Maya Angelou. This time, I decided to comment this poem using SIFTSEI.
(Sense)
Birthing process is difficult both for the baby and mother. Dying process is also abject and meaningless. Our lives are nothing more than tests that are more or less difficult and abject. Why do we live like street loafers not getting close to the meaningful and eternal objects like stars? Do we get lost in the space? Or is the purpose of our lives to love others?
(Intension)
Maya Angelou says that our lives may appear to be tough and meaningless, but she suspects that the purpose of our life may be to love others.
(Feeling)
This poem says that the only meaningful things that we could do in my life is to love others. The beginning of the poem reminds me that I shall be dying soon or later leaving all the possession that I have cared so much behind. Then I have to agree with Maya Angelou that all things I have done or I will be after are meaningless like rumors although I want to thinks that they are valuable things. This realization makes me feel sorry, but then Maya Angelou suggests that my life could become meaningful if I love others. I agree with Maya Angelou and feel that I should learn to love and help others.
(Tone)
The tone of the poem is sadness and sorrow.
(Style/Symbol)
The poetry style of this poem is the free verse that does not have any rhyme or rule. This makes the poem easy to read. Symbols used are winding sheets, journey, rumor and stars, which mean, respectively, abjectness, life, street loafers, and eternal value.
(Emotion)
This poem invokes sad emotion.
(Imagery)
Visual imageries used in this poem are winding sheets and stars while auditory imagery used is 'muttering'.
Midwives and winding sheets
know birthing is hard
and dying is mean
and living's a trail in between.
Why do we journey, muttering
like rumors among stars?
Is a dimension lost?
Is it love?
by Maya Angelou
“Still I rise”, the poem I read in my English class, is a poem written by Maya Angelou. I shall comment on this poem “Is Love” which is also one of the poems of Maya Angelou. This time, I decided to comment this poem using SIFTSEI.
(Sense)
Birthing process is difficult both for the baby and mother. Dying process is also abject and meaningless. Our lives are nothing more than tests that are more or less difficult and abject. Why do we live like street loafers not getting close to the meaningful and eternal objects like stars? Do we get lost in the space? Or is the purpose of our lives to love others?
(Intension)
Maya Angelou says that our lives may appear to be tough and meaningless, but she suspects that the purpose of our life may be to love others.
(Feeling)
This poem says that the only meaningful things that we could do in my life is to love others. The beginning of the poem reminds me that I shall be dying soon or later leaving all the possession that I have cared so much behind. Then I have to agree with Maya Angelou that all things I have done or I will be after are meaningless like rumors although I want to thinks that they are valuable things. This realization makes me feel sorry, but then Maya Angelou suggests that my life could become meaningful if I love others. I agree with Maya Angelou and feel that I should learn to love and help others.
(Tone)
The tone of the poem is sadness and sorrow.
(Style/Symbol)
The poetry style of this poem is the free verse that does not have any rhyme or rule. This makes the poem easy to read. Symbols used are winding sheets, journey, rumor and stars, which mean, respectively, abjectness, life, street loafers, and eternal value.
(Emotion)
This poem invokes sad emotion.
(Imagery)
Visual imageries used in this poem are winding sheets and stars while auditory imagery used is 'muttering'.
Monday, January 21, 2008
Commentary for 'The Road Not Taken'
Robert Frost (1874 -1963)
The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
The main character of The Alchemist, written by Paulo Coelho, goes through a series of decision making. Santiago, the main character, chose to become a shepherd rather than a priest, chose to travel to the Pyramids rather than staying in Spain. The Road Not Taken, a poem written by Robert Frost is also about making decisions.
The poem, written from present point of time, is about choosing between two diverged roads when literally translated. Choosing what road to take is a metaphor of making decisions in life. The author presents his viewpoint that people always hesitate when making decisions, but should be responsible for their determination and should not regret once the decision is made. The vacillation of people is shown in the first three stanzas and the attitude of people that Frost believe as proper is displayed in the last stanza.
Among the four stanzas, I shall focus on the third and the forth stanza. The third line of the third stanza, “Oh, I kept the first for another day!” represents the tendency of people to think that they can go back someday for the other choice. The following lines in the same stanza suggest that yet we cannot take both paths perhaps because our lives are too short. After talking about the current situation which is not long after taking one of the roads, the author turns to the future in the last stanza. The word ‘sigh’ in the first line is an estimate that he would feel lingering attachment to the road he did not take. Although he would feel slight sorry, the following lines shows the narrator’s determination that he would not regret and shall be able to tell boldly to other people that the decision he chose gave him great changes.
The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
The main character of The Alchemist, written by Paulo Coelho, goes through a series of decision making. Santiago, the main character, chose to become a shepherd rather than a priest, chose to travel to the Pyramids rather than staying in Spain. The Road Not Taken, a poem written by Robert Frost is also about making decisions.
The poem, written from present point of time, is about choosing between two diverged roads when literally translated. Choosing what road to take is a metaphor of making decisions in life. The author presents his viewpoint that people always hesitate when making decisions, but should be responsible for their determination and should not regret once the decision is made. The vacillation of people is shown in the first three stanzas and the attitude of people that Frost believe as proper is displayed in the last stanza.
Among the four stanzas, I shall focus on the third and the forth stanza. The third line of the third stanza, “Oh, I kept the first for another day!” represents the tendency of people to think that they can go back someday for the other choice. The following lines in the same stanza suggest that yet we cannot take both paths perhaps because our lives are too short. After talking about the current situation which is not long after taking one of the roads, the author turns to the future in the last stanza. The word ‘sigh’ in the first line is an estimate that he would feel lingering attachment to the road he did not take. Although he would feel slight sorry, the following lines shows the narrator’s determination that he would not regret and shall be able to tell boldly to other people that the decision he chose gave him great changes.
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