Graveyard

The photograph that I decided to use for this week’s blogpost was taken inside a schoolhouse in Rwanda.  But instead of being filled with desks, paper, and students this schoolhouse is full of dead bodies.  The shutters have been ripped from the windows and skulls litter the floor.  These people were victims of the awful genocide that took place in Rwanda in 1994.  What happened in Rwanda is one of countless examples of when man has taken upon himself the role of God and decided who should live and who should die. 

One thing that must be understood about genocide is that there is no clear line between what groups live and what groups die.  It may seem like there is, but there isn’t.  Hitler didn’t just have the Jews killed, he also killed homosexuals, gypsies, the handicapped, and the educated.  In the Rwandan genocide Tutsis weren’t the only ones killed, any “moderate” Hutu that spoke out against what was happening was also killed.  This realization certainly sheds a lot more light on the nature of situations like this and the people that initiate it.  I can think of only one word to describe them: evil.  Evil does not obey the laws of reason or justice.  It has no rules, no boundaries, and it needs only the slightest motive to unleash the most terrible of punishments. 

Source:

Salgado, Sebastiao. Migrations. pg. 206 Paris: AMAZONAS, 2000.