Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Maus Discussion - image

Image: pg 74. bug spray.

I talked about this image a little in the discussion but it still is the one that jumped out at me the most. Art was so nonchalant about killing the bugs, it's ironic and I drew many parallels with it. All of the characters in this book are animals, but they symbolize people. He said the flies were bothering him and just eating him up, so with a quick spray of pesticide they were killed and taken care of. I drew parallels with the Nazis killing the Jews, especially because the language they used was very similar. This image especially impacted me because it was the last of the reading. I was taken aback, and then went back and looked at it again. I think the thing that was the most shocking was the ease and the nonchalantness that Art had when he killed them, then said it was too cold and he went inside to read.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Democratic Republic of the Congo Today

"UN releases 'heartbreaking' human rights report on the Congo"
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/10/01/congo.atrocities.un.report/index.html?iref=allsearch

This article is about the UN report that was just released about human rights violations in the Congo over 10 years in the Congo. It accuses Rwandan forces of committing these atrocities with the help of several armed Congolese groups. There have been thousands of murders and rapes in the Congo, with the violence being aimed especially at women and children. It says that Rwandans have been murdering ethnic Hutus who had fled to the Congo. I thought it was interesting that this article brought up the point that these children have only grown up with violence as a solution to problems, so that's all they'll ever know, and this strategy will deteriorate the situation in the Congo even more. Most of these atrocities had gone unheeded, but at the end of the article it said that hopefully justice will be able to be given, which I agree with.


"Rwanda threatens UN over DR Congo 'genocide' report"
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11122650

This second article was written 2 months before the first article I chose. It's about Rwanda's threat to withdraw cooperation with the United Nations if the report detailing the violence in the Congo, which accuses Rwanda of being responsible, is published. They say they will withdraw peace-keeping operations in various parts of Africa, which analysts say would be a huge blow because of the escalating violence in Darfur. The Rwandan governments says that they went into the Congo when it was known as Zaire to pursue the Hutu militias responsible for carrying out mass killings of Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994l, while the UN says they killed thousands of Rwandan and Congolese Hutus. I am interested to see what Rwanda will do now that the UN report was leaked. Will they follow up on their threat? And if they do, how will that affect the situation in Africa, especially in countries like Darfur and the Congo?