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amanofjest 's review for:
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families
by Philip Gourevitch
Admirable reportage. But not without issues (but then again a book without issues is boring). Is moral ambivalence really a “useless notion”? Twenty years on “We Wish to Inform You” raises questions on the tricky aspects of history (i.e it’s not finished and stories of protagonists/antagonists could be recast in a better or worse light) and of journalistic reportage (can someone be really objective).
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Case in point Paul Kagame. His nuanced portrait of this polarizing “strong man” (see: current authoritarian rule, and catastrophic war in DRC not to mention the controversial conclusion of a long investigation implicating him as the mastermind of the assassination of Juvénal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira) raised eyebrows. In 2017 he was elected with 99% of the vote (like the 1978, 1983, and 1988 election wins for Habyarimana).
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As I was reading the book, a notification from Al Jazeera on my phone: Hotel Rwanda film hero Paul Rusesabagina held on terror charges (a well-known critic of Kagame). Surreal.
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And the role of the west. France backed off (was supporting the Habyarimana government), the US was indifferent, the UN ignored Dallaire’s proposals, etc.
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In the end, this book made me incredibly sad (the violence humans are capable of) and angry (politicians’ disregard of human lives, the weaponization of ethnic frictions, the indifference, callousness in the name of geopolitics). Also what about Kagame now?
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Case in point Paul Kagame. His nuanced portrait of this polarizing “strong man” (see: current authoritarian rule, and catastrophic war in DRC not to mention the controversial conclusion of a long investigation implicating him as the mastermind of the assassination of Juvénal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira) raised eyebrows. In 2017 he was elected with 99% of the vote (like the 1978, 1983, and 1988 election wins for Habyarimana).
-
As I was reading the book, a notification from Al Jazeera on my phone: Hotel Rwanda film hero Paul Rusesabagina held on terror charges (a well-known critic of Kagame). Surreal.
-
And the role of the west. France backed off (was supporting the Habyarimana government), the US was indifferent, the UN ignored Dallaire’s proposals, etc.
-
In the end, this book made me incredibly sad (the violence humans are capable of) and angry (politicians’ disregard of human lives, the weaponization of ethnic frictions, the indifference, callousness in the name of geopolitics). Also what about Kagame now?