Spring Break
FAS starts with controversial speaker
Issue date: 2/7/08
The audience remained attentive and quietly listened to the events and ordeals that Rusesabagina and his friends and family went through. He mentioned how his son did not talk for four days after witnessing "his friend, his [friend's] mother, six of [his friend's] sisters and two neighbors get killed."
Having acquired communication skills working as a hotel manager, Rusesabagina was able to maximize his diplomacy to help shelter and save 1,268 refugees in the Hotel de Mille Collines.
Many who came to see Rusesabagina were interested in what the ex-hotel manager had to say and lauded his efforts to save the refugees who sought his help.
"[Rusesabagina] has always been an inspiration for me," Jack Berger, a sophomore International Studies major, said. "It's amazing what he's done and that he's so powerful to withstand what he did. He's trying to spread his story so that people can understand what's going on. I really think he's a real power in the world and that he needs to be listened to."
Other attendees heard about the event through friends, in addition to watching the Academy Award-winning Hotel Rwanda. Café-Q manager Nick Johnson and graduate student Argie Kavvada thought seeing Rusesabagina speak was a can't-miss opportunity.
"A friend on the committee came by with fliers and said that he was coming," Johnson said. "We own the movie. We know about the story, and we feel that it's a once in a lifetime thing."
Kavvada added, "You can learn so much from what he's saying."
His underlying message throughout his speech was that people must start taking action against atrocities such as the Rwandan genocide.
Rusesabagina feels that Rwanda did not learn from the genocide, but maybe the world might.
"The world is silent. Silence is agreement. Silence is complicity," Rusesabagina said. "The world is silent. We close eyes and ear. We don't see anything."
He then to turned to the youth and asked them to make the world a much better place than it is now.
"Ladies and gentlemen, especially the youth, tomorrow is yours," Rusesabagina said. "Tomorrow the world will be yours, and you are the ones who can shift it. You can shape it the way you want it to be ... It is yours, and you can make it!"
Having acquired communication skills working as a hotel manager, Rusesabagina was able to maximize his diplomacy to help shelter and save 1,268 refugees in the Hotel de Mille Collines.
Many who came to see Rusesabagina were interested in what the ex-hotel manager had to say and lauded his efforts to save the refugees who sought his help.
"[Rusesabagina] has always been an inspiration for me," Jack Berger, a sophomore International Studies major, said. "It's amazing what he's done and that he's so powerful to withstand what he did. He's trying to spread his story so that people can understand what's going on. I really think he's a real power in the world and that he needs to be listened to."
Other attendees heard about the event through friends, in addition to watching the Academy Award-winning Hotel Rwanda. Café-Q manager Nick Johnson and graduate student Argie Kavvada thought seeing Rusesabagina speak was a can't-miss opportunity.
"A friend on the committee came by with fliers and said that he was coming," Johnson said. "We own the movie. We know about the story, and we feel that it's a once in a lifetime thing."
Kavvada added, "You can learn so much from what he's saying."
His underlying message throughout his speech was that people must start taking action against atrocities such as the Rwandan genocide.
Rusesabagina feels that Rwanda did not learn from the genocide, but maybe the world might.
"The world is silent. Silence is agreement. Silence is complicity," Rusesabagina said. "The world is silent. We close eyes and ear. We don't see anything."
He then to turned to the youth and asked them to make the world a much better place than it is now.
"Ladies and gentlemen, especially the youth, tomorrow is yours," Rusesabagina said. "Tomorrow the world will be yours, and you are the ones who can shift it. You can shape it the way you want it to be ... It is yours, and you can make it!"
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