Left to Tell About the Rwandan Massacre

Left to Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza is an amazing book that incorporates the power of God through humble sincere prayer, pure luck, and the struggle to stay alive during a genocide. It takes place in Rwanda during the genocide of 1994 when radical Hutu’s decided that it was time for “pay back” to the Tutsi for a mass killing that the Tutsi did many years earlier. The author of the book tells the story through her perspective as the victim of this terrible crime to humanity. She, as a member of the Tutsi tribe, is targeted by the racial Hutu tribe and manages to survive with only a handful of other Tutsi—hiding in the bathroom of her Hutu pastor.

The story of her triumphs over depression and negativity as she sat in a hopeless bathroom are remarkable. I strongly recommend this book and promise that you will not be able to set it down.

Immaculee’s hardships that she described with such passion and explicit detail, persuaded to be a better friend, more accepting, and more tolerant to others, refugees especially. I recommend it to anyone that wants to connect better with people in tough situations because the imagery and diction help the reader get to the place the author has been.

Ilibagiza, Immaculée, and Steve Erwin. Left to Tell: Discovering God amidst the Rwandan Holocaust.                         Carlsbad, CA: Hay House, 2006. Print.

The Golden Ticket

Abdi the American got a golden ticket.

Against the odds, he was selected to become an American in a random diversity lottery. He could not believe it. He said that if he did not get through, he would have tried again to get to America in a new way. But, he got his luckiest break of his life and was selected! Being selected does not mean that one makes it to the United States, only about half of those selected every year pass through the visa interview.

Before he could make it to the interview in the embassy, the police started raiding his neighborhood, targeting refugees-- he was a refugee. He was rejected because he was short one signature on one transcript.

He put his ducks in a row and was able to get his visa through a course a miracles and his life changed!

This story was aired on the BBC for July 4th to give Americans an idea of what independence really means. It was amazing. I feel inspired to try a little harder to be a little more grateful for what I have. I have never had to worry about being safe, having food, living in a free territory, or needing to flee my home. I hope I can help others with arms more open!

"Abdi and the Golden Ticket | This American Life." This American Life. BBC, 3 July 2015. Web. 25 Feb. 2016.

When Wasted Lands Became Treasured Lands

I am super excited about the material for this weeks post! I just watched Waste Land. The movie is a documentary about Vik Muniz who is from Brazil and now resides in Brooklyn, New York. Vik, like most other Brazilians, grew up in the streets of ghetto Brazil. Because of an unfortunate event-- being in the right place at the wrong time-- he was shot on accident by a rich man that paid him off. With that money Vik traveled to the United States and became a world renowned photographer. 

His mission in the movie Waste Land is to take pictures of trash "pickers" in the world's largest dump just outside of Rio de Janeiro-- Jardim Gramacho. With these pictures, the pickers and he made collages out of the trash that they picked, took pictures of the trash collages and sold them in a London art auction. 100% of the proceeds went to these pickers. The 50,000 dollars that one of the pictures sold for meant almost nothing to Vik Muniz who has made his fortune BUT to the pickers, it changed their lives!

I am motivated by what I watched. My goal is to make it big in the world, so that I can build others. There is not enough generosity in the world-- too much greed. I want to change that and believe I can. Vik did. 

#eliminatepoverty

Waste Land. Dir. Lucy Walker. Perf. Vik Muniz. 02 Filmes, 2010. Netflix.

Rwandan Massacre of 1994

Since my last post, I have been strangely fascinated with the Rwandan Massacres that took place in 1994. My interest was peaked first by the images that I saw from Salgado's book Migrations and the movie, "The Salt of the Earth." This was one of those images. This is the depiction of a school where hundreds of Tutsi (a race in Rwanda) went to hide from the Hutu's who were blood thirsty because of killings that happened by the Tutsi to the Hutu's centuries prior. In their attempted genocide, the Hutu's left all of their previous Rwandan traditions of having mercy on those that are in school and churches. Thinking that they were going to be safe at this school, hundreds of Tutsi piled in-- all of them massacred. 

"Left to Tell" is the account of Immaculee Ilibagiza who was hid in her Hutu pastor's bathroom with 6 other women for 3 months. She recounts the story of her thoughts during the killings; most of her family died. 

This is hard for me to see. I thought that genocides stopped with the Holocaust? I had never heard of this one and it happened just before I was born. Awareness for situations like this needs to be raised.

Salgado, Sebastiao. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. Pamphlet. New York: Aperture Foundation, Inc., 2000. [pg. 206-207]. Print

God Grew Tired of Us

I am blessed. I have been given much; I must give. There is simply no other way to put it.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have watched God Grew Tired of Us in conjunction with reading portions of What is the What? Both of which have opened my eyes to the situations that go unnoticed in the world. God Grew Tired of Us is about a group of young men that have been estranged from their families for years due to a civil war that broke out between the Northern Muslims and the Southern Christians. The North demanded that all young men be killed in the south. This caused the demographics to change with all of the young men fleeing for their lives. The title comes because many of these "lost boys" feel that God is tired of the and humanity in general and he is trying to wipe us all out. What a sad out look on life?

Through the grace of God, they come to find that God has not forgotten nor forsaken them. They make it to America which is a very tough transition because they have to work 2, and 3, and 4 jobs to support themselves and send money back to Africa. It is a hard life for them. It makes me think of how truly blessed I am to have parents that support me financially, and to live in America and be established.

The lost boys are an inspiration. God has not grown tired of us, he loves us. He has given us the ability to choose how we will treat others. I hope that we can all treat others with greater kindness, love, respect, and tolerance because we are so blessed.

There are many ways to help humanity, do something.
Here is one way to help,
http://www.johndaufoundation.org/

Atroosh-- A kurdish Refugee Camp in Iraq

    Continuing on my voyage of studying Refugees, I decided it was time to write yet another post regarding the book that I am reading called Migrations- Humanity in Transition.  This is a photo that was taken in Iraq. It is the largest Kurdish refugee camp of Iraqi. Thousands of people live there.

What kind of a home would that be? I often wonder as I study about these things, how do refugees get food? Being a business major, I am very interested in the flow of money and from what I understand, there is no money that is being transferred. This means that they have no supplies and with no supplies they cannot make any money. I am reminded by the destitution apparent in this photo that they really have nothing. They need our help! I am glad that I have had the chance to study them both academically and on my own! 




Salgado, Sebastiao. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. Pamphlet. New York: Aperture Foundation, Inc., 2000. [pg. 110-111]. Print

Refugees from the Croatian population

Recently, I came across the book "Migrations." In it is a multitude of photographs depicting the human exodus world wide. Salgado has spent his professional career focused on different aspects of the earth starting with "Workers" then "Exodus" and "Genesis" is his most recent topic. Migrations is centered in his exodus campaign. As with all of his works, countless years, miles of travel, and photographs were taken to make is art as persuasive as possible. My favorite photograph was titled, "Refugees from the Croatian population."

The 1990's was not a safe era to be a Croatian. Due to much political strife caused from a push for independence by the leader of Croatia against the Serb population of Yugoslavia, A war broke out over who would control Krajina, a land that is thought to belong to multiple nations. When a peace offering was rejected by the Krajina Serbs, a war broke out and the result was thousands of Serbs fleeing during the middle of the war. ("History of Croatia"). this picture was taken by Salgado and is evidence of the dangers faced by the refugees (Salgado). 

I am deeply affected by this as I have been by many of the other refugee photos that I have witnessed. It causes me great concern that these "innocent civilians," as Salgado labels them, have to face such danger to be safe. Their goal is to make it to a better land where peace resides but the reality of that for them is grim. They like a herd of cows, really believe that the grass is greener on the other side but, like the cows, the fence to get to the other side is usually impossible to cross.

“Brief History of Croatia Serb Krajina Region”. Dalje.com. Kontineo. 11March 2008. Web. 6 February 2013.
Salgado, Sebastiao. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. Pamphlet. New York: Aperture Foundation, Inc., 2000. 22-94. Print