The Rwandan Genocide was a horrific crime against humanity and yes the West could have done a lot more to stop it. The world should never forget.
But it really grinds my gears to see grandstanding by an authoritarian dictator like Kagame, who is running a state with terrible press freedom, torture, arbitrary detention, etc etc (and committed his own share of war crimes then and later, for that matter).
I think the real tragedy is that we humans when we form our group structures, often promote narcissistic sociopaths to leadership positions. We then tend to protect them like they are gods even when they are horrible people who would destroy you if you get in their way. Until we face this reality, we will continue the same patterns. Just look at how Israel is basically doing the same sort of things that was done to them because they have promoted narcissistic sociopath to the top leadership positions. Will we ever learn. No…instead we blame this country or this race or this person or that person versus inspecting ourselves and how we are also contributing by supporting or simply not stopping awful people from calling the shots.
@Immersive_Matthew that’s a good point. Blaming cultures or public figures is futile.
I think that (like climate change) it has at least as much to do with the structures we permit as it does our individual beliefs and actions as people…
@jeffw thanks, that’s a good article (archive here for anyone else).
The part it doesn’t really get into is who actually benefits from Kagame’s machinations and from him being in power (including in the West).
But of course the article would be twice as long if it delved into Museveni in Uganda and the invasions of DR Congo and the 2nd Congo War and mineral wealth etc etc etc.
The Rwandan Genocide was a horrific crime against humanity and yes the West could have done a lot more to stop it. The world should never forget.
But it really grinds my gears to see grandstanding by an authoritarian dictator like Kagame, who is running a state with terrible press freedom, torture, arbitrary detention, etc etc (and committed his own share of war crimes then and later, for that matter).
I think the real tragedy is that we humans when we form our group structures, often promote narcissistic sociopaths to leadership positions. We then tend to protect them like they are gods even when they are horrible people who would destroy you if you get in their way. Until we face this reality, we will continue the same patterns. Just look at how Israel is basically doing the same sort of things that was done to them because they have promoted narcissistic sociopath to the top leadership positions. Will we ever learn. No…instead we blame this country or this race or this person or that person versus inspecting ourselves and how we are also contributing by supporting or simply not stopping awful people from calling the shots.
@Immersive_Matthew that’s a good point. Blaming cultures or public figures is futile.
I think that (like climate change) it has at least as much to do with the structures we permit as it does our individual beliefs and actions as people…
Yeah, it’s the whole broken clock being right twice a day. And while he’s a dictator, he’s sort of in an interesting position. I read an article a while back, I think this is the one: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/11/opinion/paul-kagame-rwanda-britain.html
@jeffw thanks, that’s a good article (archive here for anyone else).
The part it doesn’t really get into is who actually benefits from Kagame’s machinations and from him being in power (including in the West).
But of course the article would be twice as long if it delved into Museveni in Uganda and the invasions of DR Congo and the 2nd Congo War and mineral wealth etc etc etc.