What I Read Last Week: Pizza in Somalia, Stretching in Your Office, The Trust of the Uniform and Choked Out in Joburg

Op-Ed: The Evolution of Thanking Those in Uniform
The Supe at the Naval Academy pens a thoughtful piece on receiving thanks for one's service.  I love his suggested response: "Thank you for your trust."

Navy SEAL: Here’s how to stay fit when you have no time to workout
I like his suggestion for 15 minutes of mobility work you can do in the office without getting all sweaty.

What Russian Literature Tells Us About Vladimir Putin’s World
Stavridis continues to kill it with these pieces--it's so intimidating to be confronted with such a prolific writer and academic.

The best pizza in Mogadishu
McConnel is one of the top pens reporting in Africa--I make sure to read everything he writes.

Glamorous Crossing: How Pan Am Airways Dominated International Travel in the 1930s
A story with excellent research that tells the story of the hard fought battles for growth within the aviation industry.

Marikana massacre: the untold story of the strike leader who died for workers’ rights
A rather brutal story that never made it to the international press back in 2012.

Assassination in Africa: Inside the plots to kill Rwanda’s dissidents
Yikes.  Flee Rwanda only to be choked to death in your hotel room.  From genocide to assassination in Rwanda.

WIRLW Archive:

What I Read Last Week: Trolls, Pirates, Wine Wars, $100 a Paris, Kidnapping and Arab Baptist
What I Read Last Week: $30 Aluminum Foil, Blind EOD Swimmer, Powerpoints, Jet Lag, Mother Tongues and Retro Afghanistan
What I Read this Week: Thanks for the service, Introvert survival guide and Pivoting a L'Afrique
What I Read Last Week: Leaving the Navy,

April 6th: 19 Years since the genocide in Rwanda and Eleven Things You Should Know About the Genocide in Rwanda

   April 6th: 19 Years since the genocide in Rwanda and

Eleven Things You Should Know About the Genocide in Rwanda

       A brutal and evil campaign started today 19 years ago.  Over the following 100 days, the Hutu government planned and sponsored the murder of nearly a million people: men and women, children and babies--most of them split open and hacked to death with machetes like this:

It's worthwhile to pause today and recall this heartbreaking tragedy and perhaps discuss it with 
your family and kids (once they are old enough).  When my daughters are older, I plan on sitting down with them each year and watching one of the films below, or discussing one of articles/books that I've listed below.  It's important that we acknowledge that this genocide occurred, that we analyze why and how it occurred, and that we recognize the brave sacrifices of the men and women who DID DO something during the genocide.  Finally, despite the rhetoric of "never again", its important to keep at the forefront of our dialogue that IT IS possible for such a genocide to occur again if we (i.e., the international community on the macro level and you and I on the micro level) don't remain diligent, vigilant and proactive.

Martin Luther King Jr.'s quote here is an apt one:
"In the end,
we will remember
not the words of our enemies,
but the silence of our friends."

Eleven Things You Should Know about the Genocide in Rwanda (and which I didn't know either until I wrote a paper about it):

1. In 100 days, Hutu extremists killed 800,000 men, women and children--507,000 of them Tutsis (77% of the registered Tutsi population).  That's about 11% of their population.  That would be the equivalent of 26 million people being killed in the US over a 3 month period.

2. The U.S. government (USG) acknowledged early on (on 28 April to be exact, when there were at least 100,00 already dead) that people were being slaughtered, but instructed its UN Ambassador to remain in "listening mode" and "not commit the USG to anything."

3. The best and most complete account of the genocide is the Alison Des Forges' (of HRW) Leave None to Tell the Story.

4. A shorter but equally excellent read is Samantha Powers' damning condemnation of the U.S. government's silence (i.e., inaction) in "Bystanders to Genocide" from the Atlantic Monthly.

5.The USG's belated humanitarian response (after the genocide was over) actual enabled many of the killers to escape the country through the refugee camps.

6.  Hutu hate radio broadcasts were used to incite and organize the killings--the USG had the capability to jam these broadcasts but deemed it too expensive.

7.  The NSA archive is a non-profit group run through George Washington University that archives thousands of previously classified documents (obtained through FOIA) that lend a primary source look into look at hundreds of events in our nation's history.

8.  Never again?  It could happen in Syria.

9.  What constitutes "justice" and reconciliation after the genocide is a lot different than you might imagine (See Gourevitch's top-notch New Yorker Article)

10. In 2001, there was a backlog of 100,000 perpetrators waiting to be tried--this is one reason Kagame instituted the gacaca "grass courts."

11.  President Clinton's March 1998 apology in Rwanda may have been technically accurate: "we in the United States and the world community did not do as much as we could have and should have done to try to limit what occurred," however, in reality the U.S. didn't just not do as much as it should have, instead officials in the U.S. government willfully and aggressively pressured the international community to not only withdraw peace-keeeping forces but also prevented others from intervening.

FILMS:
Most people have seen or are familiar with the superb movie Hotel Rwanda.


Another movie on the genocide is the vivid and heartbreaking Sometimes in April.  I wrote a paper evaluating the Raoul Peck's masterpiece here.



A few others that are on my "to watch" list are:
Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Romeo Dallaire (2005)


Shake Hands with the Devil (2007)

That Spring in 1994: What I Remember—Recollections of the Rwandan Genocide

That spring in 1994, I was 15 years old and a freshman at Bedford High School in Massachusetts.   Searching my memory of that period, I can't uncover even a faded polaroid recollection to give witness to the murder of almost a million men, women, boys, girls and babies. 

That spring

I remember working as a bagger at the grocery store on Hanscomb Air Force Base. 

I remember fleeing the base theatre with my friend CJ after we lit up cigars during a movie.

I remember the field where I would play soccer by my school.

What I can recall

I close my eyes and I can smell the dusty paper of the grocery bags.

I close my eyes and I can feel my heart racing as we were chased out of the theatre.

I close my eyes and I can see the long and overgrown green grass of the soccer field.

That same spring

Nearly a million people's last breath and smell was rotten and rife with

sweat, urine, and blood.

Murderers crushed and ripped apart nearly a million hearts.

Murderers smashed shut nearly a million sets of eyes. 

That same spring

Millions of people

knew.

And millions of people did

nothing.

Today

            Today

                        Today

                                    Today

                                                          and everyday

I trudge with the grief of my own ignorance

like an iron yoke

on the shoulders

of my soul.

That Spring in 1994: What I Remember—Recollections of the Rwandan Genocide

Newest rewrite (previous version available here):

That Spring in 1994: What I Remember—Recollections of the Rwandan Genocide

That spring in 1994, I was 15 years old and a freshman at Bedford High School in Massachusetts.   Searching my memory of that period, I can't uncover even a faded polaroid recollection to give witness to the murder of almost a million men, women, boys, girls and babies. 

That spring

I remember working as a bagger at the grocery store on Hanscomb Air Force Base. 

I remember fleeing the base theatre with my friend CJ after we lit up cigars during a movie.

I remember the field where I would play soccer by my school.

What I can recall

I close my eyes and I can smell the dusty paper of the grocery bags.

I close my eyes and I can feel my heart racing as we were chased out of the theatre.

I close my eyes and I can see the long and overgrown green grass of the soccer field.

That same spring

Nearly a million people's last breath and smell was rotten and rife with

sweat, urine, and blood.

Murderers crushed and ripped apart nearly a million hearts.

Murderers smashed shut nearly a million sets of eyes. 

That same spring

Millions of people

knew.

And millions of people did

nothing.

Today

            Today

                        Today

                                    Today

                                                          and everyday

I trudge with the grief of my own ignorance

like an iron yoke

on the shoulders

of my soul.

My paper is here.

I am writing a term paper evaluating Raoul Peck's portrayal of the Rwandan genocide in his film Sometimes in April so I find Rwanda's progress to date especially notable.

Following is an insightful article into Kagame's strides against poverty.  I am going to find the actual study and post it here once I get it.

Francine Orr

How did Rwanda cut poverty so much?

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/02/how-did-rwanda-cut-poverty-so-much.html

The small African nation of Rwanda recently announced that it had cut poverty by 12% in six years, from 57% of its population to 45%. That equals roughly a million Rwandans emerging from poverty -- one of the most stunning drops in the world.

It's a remarkable achievement for Rwanda, which has emerged from civil war and a bloody ethnic genocide in the 1990s. How did it happen? The Times quizzed Paul Collier, director of the Center for the Study of African Economies at Oxford University, about the  numbers.

Are there any doubts that the drop is real?

No doubts; I know the economics professor who did the data analysis, and he is highly experienced and painstaking, so it is genuine.

How did Rwanda cut its poverty so much?

There were one or two helpful events, notably the rise in world coffee prices, which pumped money into the rural economy, but, of course, overall the global economy since 2005 has not provided an easy environment for success. Hence, most of the achievement is likely due to domestic policies.

Rwanda is the nearest that Africa gets to an East Asian-style “developmental state,” where the government gets serious about trying to grow the economy and where the president runs a tight ship within government built on performance rather than patronage.

There were strong supporting policies for the rural poor -- the “one cow” program [that distributed cows to poor households free of charge], which spread assets, and the improvements in health programs.

Alongside this, the economy was well managed, with inflation kept low, and the business environment improved, both of which helped the main city, Kigali, to grow. Growth in Kigali then spread benefits to rural areas -- the most successful rural districts were those closest to Kigali.

When you say well managed, what do you mean? What choices did the government make that were signs of good management?

Basically, [President Paul] Kagame built a culture of performance at the top of the civil service. Ministers were well paid, but set targets. If they missed the targets there were consequences. Each year, the government holds a whole-of-government retreat where these performances are reviewed: good performance rewarded, and poor performers required to explain themselves.

An example is the strategy to improve Rwanda's rating on the World Bank's “Doing Business” annual rating, where over the course of six years the country moved from around 140th to 60th in the world rankings. Each component of the ratings was assigned each year to an appropriate minister. So over time, a cadre of government officials has been built up who believe in their ability not just to strategize but to get things done.

What changes can you see now in Rwanda?

Some changes are obvious to the eye -- houses that now have tin roofs instead of thatch. Thatch may look prettier, but the world over, a decent roof is one of the first changes people make when they start the ascent out of poverty. Some of the changes are psychological -- a sense that things really can improve, and a sense that individual families can do something about their circumstances.

What can other countries learn from Rwanda -- or is its story so unique that it can't be copied?

They can learn a lot. If Rwanda can do this well, with all its disadvantages -- landlocked, legacy of conflict, no natural resources -- other African countries should be able to do even better.

Do you think Rwanda can continue to reduce poverty at the same rate in the coming years?

The government has now set its sights on getting the country to middle-income levels. This will require a change in the growth strategy. So far, growth has come primarily from doing better the things that Rwanda is doing already. To reach middle income, new activities will need to be introduced and the economy diversified. Rwanda needs pioneer investors and aid to support them with public infrastructure; I hope that it gets them. If it does, then, yes, poverty can continue to fall fast.

[For the Record, 7:59 a.m., Feb. 16: In an earlier version of the post, the Rwandan capital of Kigali was incorrectly spelled as Kigale.”]