of canadIA, rwanda, africa, and those bastardly filthy rich countries

arguing over whether the canadian embassy's hosting of a cocktail at the UP Film Institute is free and open to students or not:

andre: yung sa australian film fest, libre eh.. so siguro libre din yung sa CANADIA (read: ka-ney-ja).

adrian, kriz, tez: (tinatawanan lang ako)

mwehehe.

and yes, the cocktail was free and open to students. oh the usual pre-screening cocktail-cum-sosyalan-cum-eatallyoucangalore, food prepared by chocolate kiss. oh yessss! chicken fillet.. sausage wrapped in bacon... pesto... vietnamese spring rolls... veggie sticks... and oh those cakes! kahlua butter cake! carrot cake! devil's food cake!

i was so0o0o0o0o0o bloated! if only i have supper like that every night, i'd be fat by now.

speaking of devils... the canadian film fest at the up film institute opened this night with the documentary Shaking Hands with the Devil. it is also its premiere screening here in the philippines. it follows the story of romeo dallaire, the head of the canadian contingent sent by the u.n. to genocide-days rwanda.

honestly, it was the first time i've heard of the bloody and pathetic rwanda genocide in 1994. what started out as tribal conflict, became one of, if not, the worst ever case of mass killings in history. it is indeed such a senseless, pathetic mass killing which those western countries could have helped prevent. instead, all of those strongpowers focused on the trial of oj simpson and the yugoslavian conflict.

i was struck with a statement of dallaire. one big reason why u.n. member countries like france and belgium pulled out their peacekeeping troops from rwanda was that IT WAS RWANDA. rwanda was just a poor african nation. which they would have little benefit from. which was a nation of black people. those countries instead sent their peacekeeping troops to yugoslavia, also an ethnic war-torn country at that time. in yugoslavia, it was different. IT WAS YUGOSLAVIA. yugoslavia was a key european nation. which they would have bigger benefit from. which was a nation of white people.

...talk about self-interest, greater publicity, discrimination, and shit!

it was so awful seeing clips from the documentary of how an inhuman human being whack and slash to death another human being just because of a false tribal belief... lifeless and partless bodies lay on streets, churches, fields, one on top of another.

now, it all makes sense. look at just what kind of discrimination rich countries pose on african countries. now it so makes more reason why those bastardly rich countries should help africa economically and in any way possible. now it is so meaningful why the g8 should cancel all african nations' debts, why the g8 should double their african aid, why the g8 should charter a fair trade policy.

how our country needs them too and badly is how africa needs them the most.