The article JISA is using. :)

Hey guys,
I found this article on the NYTIMES website that Cam posted. I plan to incorporate & use the article in my script. My theme is going to be something like, "WHY were they there? Why were there so many deaths? Why did the government try to HIDE the truth?" & I figured, by using this article I'd be able to identify my reasoning behind these questions we'd be able to use media theories such as, GATEKEEPING, agenda-setting, cultivation, etc. I only chose some of the quotes in the article, not all.

The RWANDA Killings link:
http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/news/international/countriesandterritories/rwanda/genocide/index.html

THE link to the actual article:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9507E0DF133AF933A25755C0A962958260&ref=genocide

Officials Told to Avoid Calling Rwanda Killings 'Genocide'
By DOUGLAS JEHL,
Published: June 10, 1994
WASHINGTON, June 9— Trying to avoid the rise of moral pressure to stop the mass killing in Rwanda, the Clinton Administration has instructed its spokesmen not to describe the deaths there as genocide, even though some senior officials believe that is exactly what they represent.

But American officials say that so stark a label could inflame public calls for action the Administration is unwilling to take. Rather than compare the massacre with, for example, the deaths under the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, the State Department and the National Security Council have drafted guidance instructing spokesmen to say merely that "acts of genocide may have occurred."

Still, with independent witnesses providing detailed accounts of organized killings of members of the minority Tutsi ethnic group by the majority Hutus, some senior American officials acknowledge that the Administration's public posture reflects a certain lack of candor.

"Genocide is a word that carries an enormous amount of responsibility," a senior Administration official said this week. If the United States joined in describing the killings as genocide, the official and others said, it would be natural -- and unwelcome -- for voters to expect that the response would include dispatching troops.

"As a responsible Government, you don't just go around hollering 'genocide,' " David Rawson, the United States Ambassador to Rwanda, said in an interview. "You say that acts of genocide may have occurred and they need to be investigated." Cries of Hypocrisy

Herman Cohen, a former Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, used an op-ed article in The Washington Post last week to lambaste the Clinton Administration for what he called its "wimpish approach" in Rwanda. Mr. Cohen declared flatly that the killings there "must be called genocide."

"Another Holocaust may just have slipped by, hardly noticed," Mr. Cohen wrote.

Mekenzi's Sources

Here are the sources I used!

Historical Accuracy

http://www.carnegiecouncil.org/education/002/film/reviews/0004.html

Setting the Record Straight for Hotel Rwanda, By:Amadou Deme (April 24, 2006) (Amadou Deme was a Senegalese Army Officer who served in the intelligence team of the UN Mission for Rwanda from August 1993 to July 1994. )

http://www.africaresource.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=290:re-telling-hotel-rwanda-accurately&catid=36:essays-a-discussions&Itemid=346

Mekenzi's Script Draft

Hey guys.


I did my research and these are the things I came across. The last article is fairly long but I feel like it has a lot of important information. I would like to use the whole thing if possible because this man was there first hand. I can cut it down if needed. Let me know what you think.


P.S. I'm working on a catchy ending. I have trouble when it comes to being a comedian sometimes :) I'll come up with something and post the final script before we film Tuesday. I found a way nappy teal blazer in my mom's closet. It's from back in the day. I'm pretty sure I am going to wear it for my segment. Boo-yaa.

Thanks Kade.

Movies have a tendency to move and captivate us. Some are heartwarming. Others are bone-chilling. Whether they are fairy tales or blood battles, movies encourage us to think. What about those movies based on a “true story”? How can viewers know if all the facts are being presented? Well folks, it takes some digging. That’s why I’m here in Rwanda. Time to get down to the nit and gritty. Hotel Rwanda is an eye-opening film based on the 1994 Rwandan Genocide.  Personally, I felt like the film did a great job focusing on the most important facts of the historical event. However, as I researched, I found that there are a few eggs that got a little too scrambled.

First:

 According to The Carnegie Council: The Voice for Ethics in International Affairs, ‘The history of the peoples of Rwanda and its neighboring countries is complex and disputed, so inevitably this movie contains some simplifications.”

“A conversation between a journalist and a Rwandan at the hotel bar gives the impression that there were no social distinctions between Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda before Belgian colonial rule. The reality was not so simple.”

“Prior to Belgian colonial rule, it seems that were distinctions between Hutu and Tutsi, but they were primarily economic rather than racial. The Tutsis were the aristocracy and the Hutu were the common people. It was not impossible to change status, and "become" a powerful Tutsi (which means "rich in cattle") or an ordinary Hutu. The Belgians heavily favored the Tutsis and exacerbated and codified the formerly flexible divide between the two groups.”

Second:

Amadou Deme, an Army Officer who served in the intelligence team of the UN mission for Rwanda came out with this statement:

“During the film, a small convoy of refugees is confronted by a murderous mob at a roadblock. The UN troops protecting the convoy, led by a bold white commander, brandish their weapons. After some scuffling, threats and a few shots being fired, the refugee trucks are turned around and the passengers safely returned to the Hotel Rwanda. The hero upon whom the film is based has now written a book, An Ordinary Man, in which he describes that terrible incident in much the same way as the film. 



But in fact the crisis did not happen as depicted in the film and book. And that troubles me because I was one of the UN soldiers with the convoy. Mr. Rusesabagina, as he acknowledges, was not there, though his wife and children were among the refugees.



The convoy was saved through tense but patient dialogue with leaders of the unruly roadblock. There is no question in my mind, or in the minds of those who served with me, that many could have died if anyone had fired a shot or said the wrong thing. At one point I said to a Tunisian sergeant manning a 50mm machine gun, "Don't start firing" and he answered "Don't worry captain; we're not crazy". The talking went on, the armed crowd calmed down, and the refugees were safely returned to the hotel from whence they had come. No fighting took place between army and militias to provide diversion as mentioned in Rusesabagina's book and the movie.



I wonder why the story has been changed and the truth hidden. A possible answer occurs to me: The man who confronted the angry crowd and did the most to save all our lives is known to Mr. Rusesabigina. His name is Georges Rutaganda. He is an old friend of Paul Rusesabagina and is portrayed as a villain in the film Hotel Rwanda. Sometimes the truth can be very awkward.



I know that Mr. Rutaganda came to that roadblock because I am the one who brought him there. The UN and Rwandan leaders had agreed that refugees from the hotel should be transferred to the rebel side of the battlefront. Many in the convoy were prominent individuals opposed to the government. The crowd at the roadblock were very close to the front lines and very agitated. When the mayor tried to speak to them they slashed tires on the trucks. In this atmosphere of confrontation I made the decision to try to locate Rutaganda, who I knew ran a business nearby and was the 2nd Vice President of the Interahamwe.



As we raced back to the roadblock I told him what the situation was. Then he joined with me in trying to convince the angry crowd to let us pass and not to harm anyone. Rutaganda met the same rage we had encountered, but he persisted and eventually got some of the apparent leaders to enter into a grudging dialogue. That crowd did not know or like Mr. Rutaganda. They saw him as traitor trying to help their enemies. What he did was very dangerous. The afternoon was growing dark, soon killers and looters would be in charge. Had he been the cynical brute as depicted in the film he would have turned away. Fortunately, for our UN mission and everybody at that barricade, Rutaganda is in fact a large, friendly, soft-spoken and intelligent man who saved the day.



It is interesting to me that establishing a dialogue and listening even to angry armed people is one of the ideas stressed in Rusesabagina's story as portrayed in the movie and the book. Paul should know and should respect that it was his old friend Georges who showed that skill on that afternoon in Kigali. Maybe it is possible they learned this together in the schools of the Seventh Day Adventists. Paul's wife and children were in our trucks. Paul was back at the Mille Collines Hotel and Georges was the one without a weapon facing the machetes and guns at the barricade. By listening and reasoning, he found among them the "cooler heads" and got the convoy released.



There are other details wrong in the Rusesabagina account. No Bangladeshi UN soldiers stood with their hands up. There were no Bangladeshi soldiers on that mission. The soldiers were Tunisians and Ghanaians, all under a Ghanaian commander and they behaved professionally.



"Truth and Reconciliation" is said to be part of the mandate of international justice. Averting our eyes from the truth because it is personally or politically awkward is bad for our collective conscience. Georges Rutaganda is today serving a life term for crimes against humanity. I would like to hope that Paul Rusesabagina would join me in acknowledging that on May 3rd, 1994, Georges Rutaganda risked his life to save refugees, including Paul's wife, at a roadblock in Kigali.



In the film, a UN officer resembling General Dallaire takes Georges' place as saviour ... using a gun. In fact, there were no white commanders there that day and General Dallaire was not even in Kigali but in Rwamagana.”

The film Hotel Rwanda seems to simplify the relationship and history of the people. Some of the scenes are not completely accurate according to witnesses. 

All websites and articles I used for info.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9507E0DF133AF933A25755C0A962958260&ref=genocide

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DE0DE1E3BF930A35755C0A962958260&ref=genocide

http://www.unitedhumanrights.org/genocide/genocide_in_rwanda.htm

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/rwanda/etc/cron.html

First Draft of My Script. Let Me Know If Changes Needed.

Hello Schmedia Nation, and welcome back to Media Schmedia! Tonight! We get up close and personal with the Rwandan genocide that occurred back in 1994 and we find out the truth about what really happened and what the United States’ reaction was.  To get a closer look at what really happened, let’s go to my right hand man Mekenzi in 1994 Rwanda.

Kenzi: Thanks Kade. Because of our advanced technology, I was able to use this time machine to go back to 1994 to get a glimpse of Rwanda with my own eyes…

Thanks Mekenzi.  We have all just witnessed what it was really like in Rwanda at the time of the genocide.  As we saw, it was crazy.  I mean CRAZY.  People were running around massacring one another based on the separation of ethnic groups and political standing.  Let me get real with you for just a minute.  Nearly 800,000 men, women, and children died as a result of the genocide in Rwanda.  Where was the rest of the world while nearly 1 million people were murdered and many more fled from their homes?  There must have been a good reason for staying out of the picture, right? I mean, come on, we’re America! We get in everybody’s business!

I think that it was all just a little confusion, so for a little clarity we go to tonight’s Palabra.  And tonight’s Palabra is “The G Word”.

Due to the 1948 Genocide Convention, the United States as well as all of the other countries that signed have a responsibility to investigate genocide and punish all who are found responsible.  So obviously we can’t just toss that word around all willy nilly like.  At least that’s what the Clinton Administration and other world leaders felt. (And President Clinton knows best).

Many leaders at the time felt that by saying that the killings in Rwanda were genocide then that made them morally responsible to intervene and would cause the public to call for action that they didn’t want to take (heaven forbid the public speak up).  So they referred to them as “possible, iffy at best, could be a chance, acts of genocide, maybe, possibly, perhaps, who knows?” in order to remain impartial to the events and keep the public from bursting out (clever word play!).

But I believe that even saying the word genocide PERIOD sounds a little to ugly and could still ignite the fire that is the good in humans to speak out, so I have come up with a solution.  We call it the “G-Word”.  Now we can say it all willy nilly like without that ugly feeling we get and without the negative connotation that goes along with it.  It’s like saying Eff You instead of F*** You.  (See?  It’s that easy!)

Now instead of beating around the bush with lengthy word-play, the government can simply say G-Word and no one will feel the need to do anything.  Remove the bad word, remove the bad feelings.

But few spoke out.  There were a small number of articles in the New York Times and other news outlets that raised their voice.  To get a little more information we go to my top notch experts, Connie Servative and Libby Earl.  

BRENDA SAID WATCH THIS

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/ghosts/video/

This is a link for a documentary PBS did on the genocide... brenda said to watch it... So DO IT!

Tuesday Meeting

All of us met in the library today to discuss our plans for filming as well as assigned everyone's tasks. Good stuff!

Here is how the NY Times reported on Rwanda

http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/news/international/countriesandterritories/rwanda/genocide/index.html

Hotel Rwanda

Our team got together Wednesday night and watched our movie and ate Rumbi Grill... it was good:) Kade cried a little...

Movie Night.

Tonight the team is getting together at Amelia's to watch Hotel Rwanda. Each of us are bringing internet research we found over the past few days. We will compare our research to the movie content when it finishes. Tonight we will give assignments for filming our movie.

We got it!

Hey! We got Hotel Rwanda! Does anyone own it? I think we were getting together Wednesday night at Amelia's at 8 to watch it right?

Other parts to my script

Here is the other part to my script:

She is completely wrong, this cartoon is showing us that all of these different pictures are detrimental to society! Well what she failed to mention is that their will not be a global economic crisis btu instead a huge influx of AIDS and other world pandemic diseases! And I am sorry but I don’t think anyone is ready for what this can cause?? Also if same sex marriage happens it will now become a trend and there will now be less heterosexual marriages. Do you know what this will do to us?? Well in simple terms we cannot continue to reproduce and our population will not only suffer but greatly diminish! We need male and females to marry and reproduce because without it us as humans cannot continue to go on.

ENDING SCRIPT (Notes): 

negative towards gay marriage

as ridiculous as polygamy

and if gay marriage is allowed then what is to stop any type of marriage from occuring

i.e. polygamy

agenda setting: this cartoon follows under this due to the fact because of the current events which are occurring now

framing: this cartoon frames the concept that same-sex marriage is a bunch of nonsense and just simply ridiculous. it gives people the idea that if we allow for this to happen we are opening a whole nother door which can lead to new ideas of marriage which may or may not want to accept.

My Work

For this project my job was to put together all the cartoons and to make sure everyone's information was on there. I made the cartoons due on Tuesday so I could have the most time to make sure everyone's cartoons looked the same and that all their information was the proper ones. For having this job it also put me in charge of coding and comparing what I interpreted from the cartoon to their interpretation of it all. I also was part of the filming process and had to get together for the team meetings which I attended every single time.

Filiming on 11/01 for MEDIA THEORIES

Last night, Monday 11/01/2010, about 10:00pm, Cameron, Kade, Mil, & myself got together to film the LAST few clips incorporating Media Theories with project #2. The night went well and we stayed until we got what we needed. Great job team!

Jisa

PROJECT #3 - Movie Suggestion

Hey guys,
I think we should consider doing our project #3 on "The Social Network." It was a great movie and started off in a meeting with lawyers, and company share holders. Just a suggestion. I think we could do a lot with it! Xo

The fantastic day of filming.

Thursday Kade, Cameron, and I set out across campus to catch the scoop on Prop 8. We interviewed our peers to hear what they had to say. We definitely had an interesting time! Thursday night we met in a way sweet room on campus to film the other parts. Kade was hilarious as always. Jisa and Amelia rocked their scripts, Cam was the handy camera man, and I was there for moral support and to hunt down our yummy chinese food. It was a great day. We sure make an amazing team :)

p.s. Team. Thanks for everything you guys do. You are the best!

-Kenzi