Hotel Rwanda In the movie Hotel Rwanda, Paul thanks Jack (cameraman for BBC) for risking his life and filming the killing. Paul hopes Jack’s bravery will bring help. Jack replies: “If people see this footage, they’ll say ‘Oh, my God, that’s horrible,’ and then they’ll go on eating their dinners.” 1. Was Jack right? 2. Why do you think people are so indifferent to the suffering we are able to view on the evening news? 3. If Jack was right, would you try to get people to help? How?
When Jack said that people would "go on eating their dinners," he was absolutely right. Although thousands of people viewed the horrific results of the Rwandan genocide on the news, no one intervened. People are indifferent to second hand suffering. We might hear something horrible on the news, but since it doesn't really affect us, we simply go on with our day. Perhaps we are just wired that way. After all, for thousands of years humans only needed to be concerned about themselves and their own survival. However, in the past few centuries, the world has become one large global community where everyone is interconnected. Unfortunately, however much we might want to do the right thing, I think that most of us still have that primitive mindset where we are only concerned about what immediately affects us. In order to get people to help each other, we have to realize that what happens to one person or one country truly affects everyone on the planet. Although the suffering in Rwanda or Syria or China may seem so far away, we have to realize that those people are just like us. They are mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, employees, neighbors, and friends. It may be easy to push suffering and hardships out of our minds, but we have to stand up and protect our brothers and sisters no matter where they live.
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