Groupthink In Rwanda

The movie Hotel Rwanda covers a recent tragedy in Africa. The focus is on an innkeeper, Paul Rusesabagina, who manages the Hotel Rwanda. The hotel hosts many international travelers and Paul knows many of the powerful people in the area. His connections leave him in the middle of the outbreak of the Rwandan Civil War. Many of the people he knows are directly involved in the conflict whether they be Rwandans or UN peacekeepers. The movie highlights several issues that affected the Rwandan people.

The continent of Africa has been continually engaged in civil, tribal and cross national conflicts from colonial independence up until present day. What historians regard as the most ‘efficient genocide’ in history, occurred in a mere 100 days in the small central African country of Rwanda. The Hutus and the Tutsis, two ethnic groups within Rwanda, have been at continual unrest for the past half a century. During the 100 day massacre of 1994, a murder occurred every two seconds; resulting in 18% of the Tutsi population being killed. A decade after the war, in 2004, the film Hotel Rwanda was released. The film followed the story of a Hutu man; Paul Rusesabagina as he housed over 1200 Tutsi refugees in his hotel. The Hotel De Milles

Rwanda is located in East Africa. Rwanda has a population of 12 million people and only 23% of this population has access to the electric grid. Rwanda boarders with Burundi in the south, Democratic Republic of Congo in the west, Tanzania in the East and Uganda in the North. It is a small, densely populated country, with an area of 3/4 of the Netherlands. Rwanda belongs to the 20 poorest countries in the world. However, economic growth was high in recent years, and the prospects for further development are good (World Bank, 2015).

Hotel Rwanda Essay In the movie “Hotel Rwanda”, The Rwandan genocide is described through the experiences of George Rutaganda, Colonel Oliver, and Paul Rusesabagina. Their experiences explain the horrors of the genocide which began on April, 1994. Before the genocide, the Belgians controlled Rwanda and they felt that the Tutsis were superior towards the Hutus, so they treated the Tutsis much better by giving them better jobs and treated them with more respect. When the Belgians left Rwanda in 1962, Rwanda and Burundi became two separate countries, and the Tutsis were forced to flee.

In Hotel Rwanda, their are two cultures who do not getting along, the Hutu and Tutsi. The Hutu feel indignation towards the Tutsi because years ago they were given special privileges and power based on their skin tone, nose width, and height. The Hutu anger started to brew, and cause people to bring about the idea of riots. The Hutus then started a genocide against the Tutsis because of the special treatment they had been given years ago.

The year is 1994, and Paul Rusesabagina, the manager of Hôtel des Les Milles Collines and a Hutu, lives a happy and successful life with his Tutsi wife and three kids. During the conflict against the Hutu militia in Rwanda, Paul struggle to house over one thousand Tutsi and Hutu refugees from being slaughtered by the Hutu militia. The two primary causes of genocide as portrayed in the movie are the RTML radio station and the UN lack of support.

From the beginning of AP World to the end, we have been using the 5 basic themes of AP World. Theme 1 is Interaction Between Humans and the Environment. Theme 2 is Development and Interaction of Cultures. Theme 3 is State-Building, Expansion and Conflict. Theme 4 is Creation, Expansion and Interaction of Economic Systems. Theme 5 is Development and Transformation of Social Structures. All of these themes apply in the movie Hotel Rwanda. Hotel Rwanda portrays how the Rwandan Civil War went down and how the Milles Collines helped save many Hutus from being killed by the Tutsi.

During the Rwandan genocide more than 6 men, women and children were murdered every minute of every hour, and up to half a million women were raped or sexually mutilated. The event of genocide in Rwanda was a horrific event between the Hutus and Tutsis. There are many different representations of what happened in Rwanda during that time but two of the most powerful are the Ghosts of Rwanda documentary which shows a true version of what really happened in Rwanda and the effects it had on the country and the world. The second powerful representation was Hotel Rwanda a film.

George Rutaganda, who runs a storeroom and is the leader of the Hutu militia, was disgusted by Paul’s thought that he couldn’t kill all the Tutsis. The scene following Paul and George’s meeting made me upset and was appalling

Groupthink: Groupthink is a way that groups may try to keep levels of conflict low. The problem is that all members pretend that they agree with a decision, which discourages creativity. Without counter arguments being presented, the group is susceptible to bad or even irrational decisions (Beebe p. 191).

     What is groupthink? There is a simple definition for it, but is it truly that simple? The term groupthink refers to the inclination of group members to have the same opinions and beliefs; it frequently leads to mistakes. It often occurs without an individual being aware of it. Conflict is considered to be a harmful element when related to groups, but conflict is good when considering groupthink because it helps to eliminate the existence of a groupthink. The explanation sounds simple enough, but it is more complex than the description given.

800,000 Tutsi people were killed by the Hutu’s over one hundred days, that is 8,000 everyday. The Rwandan Genocide was sparked after the killing of the Hutu, Rwandan President he was allegedly killed by Tutsi rebels. There are stories that say otherwise and they blame the Hutu’s, no one knows who shot down the plane there are only theories. There had been tension for many years after the Hutu’s took power off the Tutsi’s after the Belgians left. Tutsi’s then did small terrorist attacks on them. It had been brewing for years. This is similar to the Holocaust in the way that the Tutsi’s were made out to be evil as Hitler did to the Jews. If one was half Tutsi and half Hutu how they determined if they were one or the other was that they would measure their nose, how far apart their eyes were or if their skin was a certain colour etc. Once they determined what they were they would give them a ‘passport’ that stated whether they were a Hutu or Tutsi. This is very similar as to when Hitler picked out all the different measurements or way a Jew looked. When the killings started they used machete’s, garden tools or anything they could get their hands on because if a Hutu was neighboured next to a Tutsi they would go next door and butcher their whole family. A lot of bodies were thrown into rivers similar to when the Jews bodies were thrown into pits at the time of the

Lack of identity played a huge role in the Rwandan war. Identity is how a person classifies them self. As a whole, all of the people in Rwanda classify themselves as Rwandan. This means that they shared similar values, languages, and traditions. The war would have been completely avoided if they has united as a nation, instead of separating into different categories. Paul represented a member of the Rwandan society who looked at everyone as Rwandans instead of Hutus and Tutsis. This is shown in the film when he brings his friends and family who are Tutsi to hide in the hotel. By doing this he is keeping them safe and preventing them from being killed by Hutu members. People like Paul who were willing to unite as a country instead of individual groups are the reason that the war came to an end. If Rwandans had united by the identity of being Rwandan, the war could have been entirely avoided.

Hotel Rwanda is a film about a man named Paul who helps save Tutsis during the genocide that occurred in Rwanda 1994. There are many instances of dehumanization that are presented in the film one of them been the genocide. The genocide occurred when the president was killed in a plane crash in which the Hutus found it as a chance to begin the genocide against the Tutsis. In this quote by the BBC NEWS they state that “The two ethnic groups are actually very similar - they speak the same language, inhabit the same areas and follow the same traditions.Tutsis are often taller and thinner than Hutus…”(Rwanda: How The Genocide Happened). Even though the Hutus and Tutsis are alike, Tutsis were been murdered for their physical appearances. In the film we hear people call the Tutsis “cockroaches” because they were seen as less than them. The Hutus were also targeting the

Groupthink theory often occurs without the group’s realization. Irving Janis formed 8 different symptoms that indicate groupthink. The first of these symptoms is illusions of vulnerability. This occurs when members of the group are overly optimistic and believe that nothing negative will arise from their decision. Janis describes it as taking great risks and acquiring the attitude of “everything is going to be OK, because we are a special group”. Secondly we have belief in inherent morality. This symptom is characterized as the groups thought that they could do no wrong. They believe that they have high morality, that they are right in all situations and they ignore the ethical consequences that could arise because of their decisions. As the third