Shake Hands With The Devil

BadKarma

<div class="IPBDescription">The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda</div> This is a great book. It's written by Lt. Gen. Romeo Dallaire, the Canadian general who was the FC of the UN peacekeeping force in Rwanda during the genocide. It's a great, engrossing read. Other than sympathy and disgust, the main feeling I felt while reading the book was frustration. Throughout the crises, general Dallaire recieved little to no help from the UN, all the countries bickering about costs. While the actions of France, Beligium and the United States were shameful, they wern't really surprising. However, Britains attempt to short change the entire operation was shocking.

If you see this on the shelves, pick it up. It provides great insight into many current issues.

BadKarma

Small note, if any of you happen to see Hotel Rwanda, please don't take Nick Nolte's character as a serious representation of general Dallaire. Nolte plays a shambling drunk in the movie and Dallaire was anything but.

Dubbilex

I think that's a risk you're willing to take when you cast Nolte. Do you really think the man has had a sober day in his life?

Having just seen the movie, I might just go and do what you've asked.

Maus

Hmm, the Rwanda genocide is one of my favourite topics - I've pretty much been studying (well, "studying" might be too strong a word) it since it happened, mostly because it was the first international incident other than the Gulf War that struck a chord with me. All of this prattling is mostly just by way of saying that in all I have read and watched about the Rwanda genocide, Dallaire seems to be a reliable source of information, and so this book ought to be very interesting.

/me goes off to ABE to purchase it.

Another excellent and very readable book on Rwanda is Philip Gourevitch's <i>We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families</i> if you want to check that out, and Geoffrey Robinson's <i>Crimes against humanity</i> is an excellent source of information about the UN and human rights.

BadKarma

Dallaire said he wasnt contacted by any of the movie execs or even Nolte. He said Nolte "did a very good job of playing himself".