Was absent from my blogging for a number of days...I was glued on watching movies throughout the holidays. 2008 had just passed and we are facing a new life with challenges. Everything that happened in my life in the past negatively was just a part of being me, may it be intentional or unintentional, it should be buried in the bossom of forgetfullness. Somehow it will reincarnate back in my mind but it will not be the reason of my survival of today but just a picture of yesterday that helps me to go on of what is today.
My celebrations of the yuletide season was just so simple and nothing but a primitive. I spent much of them all throughout in my cousin's house till the celebrations ended. Mostlikely, it was spent on watching DVD's, sleep, and watching tv.
There's not much of preparation being served on the table but a plain rice and native delicacies...honestly, we we're affected by the world crisis that prevented us to spend our pennies of buying goods for the Christmas and New Year.
Nevertheless, we enjoyed ourselves and extendd our greetings for friends and kins living nearby. It's because I love watching DVD's, presumingly that the movie that I shall be going to watch would relay a message that would builds a portal in my life somehow.
Among the movies that I love to watch over and over was Hotel Rwanda and The Notebook. These two movies were recommended by a friend but the title itself didn't tickle my interest but just ignoring them. Hence,I didn't watch them till no choices had been made but to view them as it was the only movies that topped on the selections.
When I viewed the movies, I was simply moved and unnoticed the tears slowly streaming down on my cheeks...
The Notebook movie was indeed a two thumbs for me:The movie starts by having an old gentleman reading to his companion from an old notebook. It depicts a beautiful tale of a set of teenagers, Allie and Noah, engaging in a lovely summer romance. They had to part because of differences and objections from Allie's upper-class mother.
Noah wrote a letter to Allie everyday for a year without any reply.That is 365 letters but Allie never get them at once. After a year, Noah stopped writing letter.Noah was recruited in to army and Allie pursued her studies. Noah went into World War II. Coming back from the War, Noah lost his father. Noah's father had left him his dream house. A dream house that Noah rebuilt to the exact specifications that Allie had wanted. It was really a torn down, old house with a lakeside view.Just as when Allie was in a "perfect" relationship with a military officer of a good background. Allie saw the news of Noah and the dream house. Allie could not forget and went to seek Noah. Only at this time, then Allie realized that Noah had not given her up. Only then does Allie get back the HUGE bundle of letters from her mother, who has been keeping it from her.
Towards the end of the movie, it is clear that Allie finally chose Noah over the wealthy businessman that she was engaged to. They had 4 kids but she could not remember any. The story brought memories to an old woman who had Alzheimers disease, knowing out that the story was told about her and the old man who reads the notebook.
This movie was another recommended by a close pal. I was convinced to watch it because I have a lot of friends coming from this country Rwanda. Between April and September 1994, Rwanda was in a political uproar leading to the massacre of million of Tutsi minorities by the Hutus.It’s supposed to be very easy for Paul,a Hutu himself, despite his Tutsi wife,to simply turn his back on if not joining the euphoria of the blood shed orgy.But instead,he opened his hotel as a secret refugee,saving more than a thousand Tutsis and risking himself as another “Tutsi cockroach”.
Of course it’s easier to be said than done.On the process,Paul was entangled in certain complexities.The most interesting one was how,in spite of his own mental deprivation,he insisted on portraying himself still as a professional hotelier.Not only so that their secret refugee left unattaked, but also it’s vital for the Tutsis to maintain a sense of hope in the verge of insanity. This was clearly seen when he avoided Dube,his ever faithful staff from seeing him in the middle of his tears.
Many ironic scenes were catched here. A cynical TV journalist said to Paul when he was elated for the possibility of the world to save them when they saw the video of the massacre: “If people see this footage, they’ll say how terrible it is and then go on eating their dinner.”
But indeed the world really turned their back. The UN forces’re not allowed to shoot as they’re told to be the “peace keepers”,not the “peace makers”. Although the Tutsis were defenseless without military power to support them, there’s clearly enough foreign army in Rwanda to do that.The problem was they’re ordered only to evacuate the foreigners, even not including Paul, who had swallowed all the ridiculous western manners,wine,and chocolates through his life. He’s still black and he’s not even a nigger.
To survive this tumult and save the people in his care,Paul was forced to be smart in making quick decisions.All along his years,he had been raised to understand the true strength of power.As a wheeler-dealer he realized the importance of trading favors here as well as how thousand of lives at his hand relied on his stock of cigars and scotch left to bribe the Hutumilitary.
And as if everything he had done was not enough, in the last second, when his family finally obtained the visa required to get out off Rwanda, Paul even decided to stay behind in the hotel with the rest of Tutsis which led his wife and kids to hysteria when they were evacuated by UN convoy. Hotel Rwanda was downlaying the actual gore. But still, the movie would bring you not only to feel that your heart was being squeezed out by the irony, but also to the brink of helpless alarm how the seething hatred would finally burst.
This has been an old movies but it will bring lessons that we need to learn as are living in this tight world
