Genocide of Rwanda

The word “genocide” is internationally sticking and brings countless debatable questions. In the country of Rwanda, two ethnic groups, the Tutsis and Hutus, shared the business of farming, culture, and their nationality for over 600 years. However, the stability of Rwanda’s society became unsettled when the Europeans took over and introduced the practice of choosing specific groups to govern and be governed. The Tutsis, who were more aristocratic in appearance, were chosen to behave as leaders, leaving the Hutus to feel treated like peasants. A wedge was driven between them and so began the feelings of hatred toward the Tutsis. The church, also introduced by the Europeans, taught Hutu to see themselves as oppressed, and inspired their revolution that began in 1956. By 1959 they had seized power and were stripping Tutsis communities of their lands. On April 6, 1994 the plane carrying Rwanda's president was mysteriously shot down and caused the Hutus to commence operation “Final Solution”. The Hutus government accused Tutsis of killing the president. Hutu civilians were then told, by radio and word of mouth, that it was their duty to wipe out the Tutsis. Up to a million people died before the RPF was able to take full control. Unlike other genocides, no-one tried to keep the genocide in Rwanda a secret. Journalists and television cameras reported what they saw and found. There was also a United Nation force in place, monitoring as people were killed in the street by grenades, guns and machetes. USA had even been asked to use its hi-tech skills to get the génocidaire radio off the air. There'd been at least 10 clear warnings to the United Nation of the 'Hutu power' action, including an anxious telegram three months before the event. Yet the Tutsis were never helped. After the RPF had finally taken control and put an end to the murders, around two million Hutu fled over the borders to avoid their consequences. 1996 the refugees were forced out of the countries they had fled to, leaving no place for the Hutus to go except for back to Rwanda. The governments of Rwanda surprised everyone by declaring arrests of any suspected génocidaires returning to Rwanda. Nearly a million suspects were already in prison awaiting trial and thousands more were returning home and placed in prison also. Due to so many imprisonments, many Hutus were set free by the RPF government. Only two years after the genocide, killers and survivors found themselves living side by side. For some génocidaires freedom meant another chance to kill. In the months after the genocide they murdered many of the witnesses whose evidence could have convicted them along with more innocent Tutsis. In 1999, the present of the United Nations wrote a report about the United Nation’s failures during the genocide. It criticized the USA and United Nation leadership for ignoring the evidence that a slaughter was planned and for failing to act when the killing began. At the end of 2001, around 125,000 prisoners still remained to be tried.

With this in mind, we are left with many unanswered questions. When I first read about how the Hutus government used the plane crash to turn the citizens even more against the Tutsis, I related it directly to 9/11. I thought they were similar because some people in America say that the government made the US citizens thinks it was the Iraqi people who attacked the towers. They believe the government did that to create more hate toward Iraq and eventually go to war. In the same way, the Hutus government used the attack on the president to increase the hate toward the Tutsis. Also, why didn’t America answer to the call of help when the they were asked to get the génocidaire radio off the air. The local radio incited the Hutus to violence by repeating quotes such as, “We must exterminate them, sweep them from the whole country.” I believe America didn’t respond because it would be going against freedom of speech and would then be hypocritical for us to take it off the air. I personally believe that hearing the instructions to kill over the radio made it much harder to ignore.

Poland After The Second World War

Post-war Poland was a drastically different country from the one it was before the war. A new political authority, economic instability, and lack of religious diversity marked the beginning of a new Poland. The new politically authority of Poland was the Soviet Union. Before the war, Poland had been independent and self sufficient. After the war, the Western leaders forced Poland to accept the conditions of Stalin. This is a matter of continuing resentment for some Poles even today. Some view it as a "betrayal” of Poland by the Western allies because they allowed Poland to fall entirely into the Soviet sphere of influence. Poland was now under Soviet military control who sought to turn Poland into a Communist country. Throughout the history of this Poland, there had been large variety religious populations. However, due to the Holocaust and the attempted annihilation of Jewish and other discriminated religions, approximately 97% of the remaining population after the war belonged to the Roman Catholic Church. Not only did the war damage the diversity of religion in Poland, it damaged the economy. Poland's urban centers were devastated as a result of war. Many people were left homeless, children orphaned, infrastructures were destroyed, and the rate of illness and infection increased. Prices were high, wages were low, and everyday supplies were difficult to get. There was also a growing gap between the rich and poor. Throughout Poland, there was much displeasure with the authorities who were unable to ease the economic situation. In 1945 The Soviet Union pushed the Communist party into control and the country was renamed "People's Republic of Poland." The rise of the Communist Party did not result out of public vote or appeal with the Communist Party. Because of this, many Poles were uneasy with this new political authority. In September 1988 a secret meeting was held to discuss the need to radically alter the shape of the Polish government and society. Throughout time, events in Poland, like the one in this video, led to the fall of the entire Communist party. Poland became the first Warsaw Pact state country to break free of Soviet domination and the first new non-Communist government in Eastern Europe.

Looking through the history of Poland, you can see many arguments that are still debated even today. After the war, Poland became an increasingly unwelcome place for Jews. Because the number of Jews, as well as populations of non-Polish ethnic groups, had diminished so much in Poland, Catholicism and Polish identity became more tightly intertwined and became important to Polish nationalism. Though Jews had been a part of Polish history for centuries, they did not meet the ideal nationalist standards and therefore they faced anti-Jewish sentiment in the form of encouraged emigration. In the late 1940s, large waves of Jewish people emigrated out of Poland until the Jewish population almost ceased to exist and left Poland with basically only one religion. It is easy to argue whether or not the country’s unanimous religion was really a good thing for Poland. Most people would think that a country with the same religion would be ideal and they would come together so powerfully, and this is true. However I don’t believe that that was a good thing in the case of Poland. That is because the Soviet Union used the fact that the majority followed the Catholic Church to secretly manipulate Poland. Until 1947, the Catholic Church was free from censorship and repression. Stalin found this to be a way to turn Poland to communism like he had originally planned. The Soviet Union told the church that in order to maintain its freedom, the Church had to cooperate with the Communist Party on some levels. The Communist Party, desiring to use the Church as a means of influence, often asked that it preside over political funerals and use its sermons for political manipulation. This indicated to those attending that the Church was in agreement with Communist Party. Another debatable argument is whether or not Stalin’s idea of communism for Poland was such a terrible thing. The people may have not voted the communist party into position, but the power the Party meant opportunities for individuals who were looking for jobs in the damaged economy and would help those attempting to rebuild lives and secure futures. I believe that Stalin’s idea was unnecessary and that he shouldn’t have been given control of Poland in the first place. I believe that Poland was betrayed by the Western leaders because they deserved to have control of their own government since they fought Germany just as all the other allies did. Although the communist party was helping the economy, I think Poland could have rebuilt them selves after the war and that is why they broke away from the Soviet Union to form and independent country again.

Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP)

For over thirty years, WASP were the forgotten heroines of WWII. These women lived during a time

where, for the most part, few people imagined that women should‚ or could‚ fly aircrafts. However, an opportunity arose in1941 that gave these flygirls a chance to do something with their lives that involved their passion for flying. The government was in short supply of male pilots needed for combat in WWII. They desperately offered female pilots, who were not legally allowed to be in battle at this time, a chance to temporarily take over the men’s noncombat jobs in order to free male pilots for combat service and duties. Twenty-five thousand women with pilot's licenses applied for the WASP and only 1,900 were accepted. Even though the main mission that these women were trained do was to ferry aircrafts from factories and airfields to military bases nationwide, they ended up doing so much more. As the WASP program proved successful, assignments expanded beyond ferrying. They began performing more dangerous jobs such as towing targets for the men’s gun training. The male trainees on the ground would shoot live ammunition at a large target being dragged 25 feet behind the plane that the women would be flying. Women pilots were also used to ease fears of airplanes with bad reputations. For example, the B-29 was thought to be a dangerous plane after word got around about the engine catching fire often during flight. The Air force had the women fly these infamous planes to prove to the men that these were not only safe, but not difficult to fly because even women could handle them. Lastly, the WASP tested newly overhauled planes before the men flew them. Unfortunately, the consequence of carrying out such dangerous jobs was the loss of 38 flygirls. Even more unfortunate was the fact that each woman was simply looked at as a civilian and was not accepted as part of the Air force. Therefore, the military was not required to pay for their funeral or pay for their remains to be sent home. The WASP women who died for their country could not even have American flag be draped over her coffin. The WASP expected that as a result of their bravery and answering to the call of their nation, they would become part of the military. However, they were wrong. After two short years of service, the WASP were dismissed from her base, without even the smallest ceremony or veteran rights. Most of the women stayed in touch as they continued on with their lives. Thirty two years after the disbandment of their group, the Air force made a statement that said they were going to allow women to fly for them for the first time. the WASP were so upset by this, because they were the first ones. The fact that the WASP were forgotten by their own Air Force brought the women back together again. They gathered and convinced Sen. Barry Goldwater in 1977, to finally grant WASP military status. It wasn’t until 2009 that they gained their well earned recognition when President Barack Obama awarded them the Congressional Gold Medal.

Many people still question why it took the government almost thirty-five years to consider these women apart of the Air force along with why were they deprived of the privileges that they so clearly deserved. This is because over the years it has been reported that the WASP records were stamped classified and unavailable to historians who wrote histories about WWII. According to archivists the WASP records weren't open to researchers for 30 years and the story was rarely told or reported until the 1970s. The reason WASP files were sealed, causing these women’s accomplishments to go unknown, was because these female pilots were underappreciated and often resented by the government and the men in the Air force. WASP played out their duties without the pay and entitlements enjoyed by men in the same positions all because of the fact that they were women. If the WASP had been granted part of the Air force and people of the country were aware of the courageous acts that they performed, imagine how differently women would have been looked at. There is an ongoing argument over whether or not women would have been accepted more simply if the country knew of their activities in the Air force. Some people believe that this story would not be relevant because during this time in history, women’s rights movements were becoming popular all over the country. They think that the WASP story would just be another tale of women who were proving they could do something men could do. However, the WASP women were so much more than that. WASP went beyond what the other women rights movements were doing in the way that they were not doing their acts to prove that women were equal. They did their duties in the Air force to serve their country. They also were risking their lives everyday and doing things that many men would never even think of doing. That is the reason why if these files had not been hidden, women’s rights would have flourished much sooner. It wasn't until over thirty years after the women had begun their services that congress began to see that women were as intelligent as men and therefore put an end to sex discrimination in schools. Had the WASP story been public, laws such as this (IX of the Education Amendments) would have been passed sooner than thirty years after the WASP and the time of equality between both sexes would have been closer. There are also many mysteries as to why these files were hidden in the first place. On these files it was recorded that the women who carried out the same jobs as the male pilots actually had better and more accurate records. It would seem logical that the government didn’t want this information to get out; otherwise their men would be replaced by women. It is difficult to comprehend that women who risked their lives could be forgotten and hidden by the government they loyally helped protect. Discouragingly, it did happen and over 65 years later, they were awarded of their duties.

Jazz Weakening Racism In Society

Jazz was a result of the first free African Americans living in new conditions. This discovery of uplifting and original music redefined expressions of African Americans and their heritage. Between the World Wars, the hostile racism throughout the American society had finally begun to diminish. However, before World War I, and for sometime after, Europeans believed that they were much superior to the African race. In fact, it wasn’t until 1863 that Africans living in America were freed from slavery (http://www.infoplease.com/spot/bhmtimeline.html). This attitude was developed from Social Darwinism which is the idea of natural selection applied to human society (http://www.allaboutscience.org/what-is-social-darwinism-faq.htm). From this theory, Americans looked at the Africans, free and not free, as people who were underdeveloped and on a lower scale of physical and mental development. Therefore, the white Americans would never expect the African race to compose a form of music that would gain international popularity by 1920. After WWI, between 1919 and 1926, African Americans left their rural southern homes to move to urban centers in search of creative freedom and fellowship. This urban migration combined with the rise of a group of radical black intellectuals, all contributed to the unexpected success of black artists. We remember this cultural gathering today as "the Harlem Renaissance," (http://www.jcu.edu/harlem/index.htm) a period when African-American artists, writers and poets produced works that celebrated their own traditions and cultures. In the twenties, white Americans found this culture increasingly fascinating, and in New York adventurous whites made their way to Harlem to hear the new sound. White Americans first heard jazz bands play in segregated clubs. The jazz performed by African Americans influenced and changed the views of African American culture, which was once thought of as insignificant. Between the wars, many people began to feel grief due to deaths in the war and they continually questioned world progress. Also, the stock market crash of 1929 caused the Great Depression which was an era of severe economic suffering for many people. Jazz soon became the escape from the depression that took place. The clubs which white Americans visited, played jazz and were also a distraction from the problems of everyday life, even if it was for only a few hours. Jazz made people feel secure, hopeful, restless, fulfilled, and gave other positive emotions during the difficult times.
The accomplishment of developing jazz from the African American society enhanced the image of the African American living in America. White Americans were so attracted to the new music that they began to think higher of the African race for composing it. The Africans, who were once looked down upon as an immature class, slowly became more accepted because of the musical progress they were making. The Americans knew that in order to make the original music of jazz, one’s mind could not be underdeveloped. The hardship of the times enabled the cultural power of African Americans to drive a small wedge into the wall of racism separating whites from blacks. It was the optimistic music of the black jazz bands that boosted the morals of white America and transformed American culture. This artistic and musical movement fosters a better, not worse, black cultural identity.