Thursday, January 20, 2005

Everyone should read "World on Fire" by Amy Chua so that they understand not only globalization and the ethnic hatred it creates, but also to have the proper backing to solidify their false assertions about Rwanda, Yugoslavia, and various other nations. Especially Rwanda since certain people obviously don't know the history and the rising action that led to the genocide of the Tutsis.

Historically, Rwanda's roughly 85 percent Hutus were cultivators, whereas the roughly 14 percent Tutsis were herdsmen. "This was the original inequality: cattle are a more valuable asset than produce," writes Philip Gourvitch. After 1860, when Mwame Kigeri Rwabugiri, a Tutsi, ascended the Rwandan throne, the stratification between Hutus and Tutsis intensified. Rwanda essentially became a feudal kingdom in which Tutsis were overlords and Hutus their vassals. Still, the line distinguishing Hutu and Tutsi was much more porous than it would become later: Two two groups spoke a common language, intermarriage occurred, and successful Hutus could "become Tutsi."
-Amy Chua, World on Fire page 165.

I'll stick with credible information from a Yale Law School professor before I ever go with what someone's senior thesis noted on the Rwandan genocide.