Hotel Rwanda I just got home from watching Hotel Rwanda - what a superb movie it was! It was a shocking reminder of just how important ethnic tolerance and harmony is.On a macro level, the horror and the atrocities involved in war and the importance on international relations and on a micro level, it strengthens my resolve to run for international students' officer at uni! I know it seems trivial to come to such an insignificant conclusion after watching one million people die at the hands of their own country in a bloody massacre that lasted till eleven years back, but it's the little bit that I can do at the moment.

Although New Zealand seems to be much better off than many other countries in terms of racism, I feel that a lot more can and should be done on campus alone, to integrate different cultures and expose New Zealanders to various other cultures. However tolerant people are, there's no harm with more exposure to difference. I feel that it can only do good!

I'm not sure what I will do to further educate uni students on cultures from around the world, but I'll think of something. Apart from that, we need a voice on campus. We've been silent way too long and as a community, I feel we have a lot to offer.

Back to the movie, it was excellent. It made its point very succinctly and effectively. It made us sit forward for two hours and fifteen minutes, hunched at the edge of our seats, with its account of the day-to-day terror of war, the atrocities perpetrated by people on their own, the trauma that the children went through and one man's courage in the face of horrifying adversity. Paul Resesabagina sheltered 1268 people with his courage and cunning and in doing so, saved their lives! Today, he lives in Belgium with his wife Tatiana, who's Tutsi, their three children and their neice and nephew whom they adopted.

The movie reinforces, above all else, the power of the individual. Never let the thought that you're alone and that you're a drop in the ocean stop you. That's what i've learned from today's movie. If you believe, follow through with the belief.

On that extremely profound note, I'm off to bed as I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow.  ¶ 3:35 am