What lessons do we learn from the Rwanda genocide and other cases of political violence discussed in class? How would you apply those lessons to preventing conflicts and violence from erupting in Kuwait?
Explain the conflict between the Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda as discussed by Phillip Gourevitch. What lessons do we learn from the Rwanda genocide case? How would you apply those lessons to maintaining peaceful relations and preventing future conflicts from erupting in Kuwait?
“History repeats itself because no one was listening the first time.”
ReplyDeleteFor the last 2000 years, millions have perished as the world froze in a vicious and perpetual loop of violence and atrocities based on idealism, conquest, dominance, hegemony, racial superiority and religion. The greatest of all atrocities that shadowed humanity from everlasting before until this day and time is genocide. Genocide is simply the sustained systematic extermination overtly through murder, or covertly through interdiction of biological and social reproduction of a collectivity by a perpetrator regardless of the surrender or lack of threat offered by the victim. Genocides are unquantifiable as they flood the pages of modern history and are hard to pinpoint in older history due to the fact that historical records about the issue are undependable and ambiguous. However, contemporary genocides that took place around the same period of time as when Raphael Lemkin coined the term in the 1940s include the Armenian genocide, the Cambodian genocide, the Nazi holocaust and the Rwandan genocide. Every time one of those genocides happened the world passively condemned and stood in shock, which makes one wonder why they allowed it to happen again in the first place…have we not learned any lessons from the past? Can we not stop genocide? Can we not device a way to stop it? Well, to be quiet honest and rational, the battle against genocide has proved to be a catastrophic failure as “NEVER AGAIN” that was told countless times at the wake of any genocide proved false repeatedly. But! We did have significant progress in the last 50 years or so –phew!- at least now we have provided a term to explain genocide, because before that there was nothing recognized as genocide a.k.a a crime. While this seems discouraging, without studyng the failure of collective security to identify, prevent or stop genocide, the likelihood of the global community formulating a feasible plan of action in the near future is a little beyond wishful thinking. Clearly and bluntly, knowing the genocides that happened in the past and saving them in our memory alone is not a good plan to prevent them… sadly, merely studying genocides is not adequate; systematic, educated and powerful action must be taken to make “NEVER AGAIN” a factual reality not only a romanticized idealistic phrase.
Nevertheless, despite this lack of action, knowledge of genocide enables the spread of awareness of situations, which is the first step towards action in the future. In fact, in order to stop genocide we must become aware of what is happening and what has happened. Our awareness should become the beacon of light that will eventually draw others to it and inform them to take a stand against genocide. Seeking knowledge by cross-examining and analyzing previous genocides will prove fruit-full as lots of lessons can be learned. Lessons that should polymerize with us if we ever want to be serious enough to bring about change. I have brainstormed and listed all the lessons that really struck me after I learned about the Armenian, Rwandan, Cambodian and nazi Germany genocides.
Delete1) Genocides occur from a utopic vision and fanatic ideologies: the Khmer rouge and pol pot for example had their utopic visions in Marxism-Leninism, the Nazis in fascism and the notion of the master race. Both had their paths for their utopias littered with bodies of those who are not fit in their utopia. Nowadays, lots of fanatic ideologues are rising, but from such a lesson we should learn to be tolerate to others e.g. ghandi had his utopic vision of a free India but he tolerated and killed those who did not join him during or after his movement. The lesson is that you can have a utopia in your universe but do not force your vision into others.
2) Genocides make one self-aware: one of the most baffling things I felt while reading about Eichmann is how ordinary genocide perpetrators really are often. In fact, while reading the perpetrator testimonials, I caught an unfortunate glimpse at the inner depths of myself. How many times have I used stereotypes and euphemisms, displaced responsibility, followed instructions without questions, gave into peer pressure and turned a blind eye to what my government should not be doing… when one reflects and get enlightened by self-comprehension, one turns humble, tolerant and hopefully willing to take action when needed against genocidal behavior.
3) Rely on yourself to defend yourself: here I would like to quote Gourevitch from the book we are reading page 351 “ If Rwanda’s experience could be said to carry any lessons for the world, it was that endangered peoples who depend on the international community for physical protection stand defenseless.” The UN and international community did not do anything to stop the genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, march Arabs or even ISIS nowadays, not because they could not due to lack of power but because they cannot due to beaurucratic indifference. Gandhi stood for himself, the RPF in Rwanda for itself and ended the genocide, Vietnam stood up and stopped the genocide in Cambodia etc. we should too… the international community with a history of letting down the most vulnerable should ask itself some questions. Do they really believe in protecting civilians from atrocities? If yes, how can they do it?
4) DON’T BE SILENT! DON’T BE INDIFFERENT! : the case of Rwanda or the Holocaust –and I suspect without severe skepticism many other genocides as well- have succeeded because we the international community of the world stood quiet and silent in the face of evil… we knew it was happening but we kept silent and indifferent…doing nothing always means standing with the victimizer, never with the victim. The lesson here should teach us that being a spectator in a genocide is just as being a perpetrator. We should act, it is our responsibility.
Delete5) Forgive but never forget: this might be in my opinion the most important lesson of all. As I began this blog with a quote “History repeats itself because no one was listening the first time”, and here one can say that indifference equals not listening, but what is the worst is listening and then forgetting. We as students in Kuwait and as the pioneers of the future should remember and realize that victims of genocide are not mere abstract statistics but each had his individual identity, and each identity is a universe, a utopia of its own as I described before. We should remember from the holy quran verse 5:32 “if anyone saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of entire humanity” and we can flip it and understand that whoever kills a single person is as if they have killed all humanity. Those who died should remind us to act in the future, we keep them alive by remembering them and fighting for justice that they did not have.
All these lessons if remembered and put into action will decrease the likelihood of violence eruption. Let’s look specifically into Kuwait. First, we should tolerate and accept the diversity of ideas and ideologies of all people living in Kuwait. Whether it was a Kuwaiti or non-Kuwaiti, Muslim or non-Muslim. Arab or non-Arab for if we learn to tolerate others, Kuwait will be a better place for co-existence e.g. Kuwait should tolerate and give more freedom to other nationalities, other religious groups and other intellectual school of thoughts (not that they are not, but the more the merrier). Second, if we spread education and awareness throughout Kuwait about the self-awaring principle I discussed before, it will not be wishful to think that reflection on thy self can soften tensions and atmospheres here. For example, if all education centers and media agencies –most will suffice as well- take a serious step in spreading awareness against stereotypes and racial behaviors etc. many people will be better off including the poor Indians and other low wage exploited laborers as their chances and confidence will increase leading to better relations between them and the local populations. After that, the self-defense principle will prove useful in protecting Kuwait against a foreign invasion or an internal attack (maybe ISIS who are notorious for the genocidal behavior). Kuwait should not wait to be protected by others, Kuwait should apply such a lesson in order to strengthen itself in morale and munition. Finally, in Kuwait we should remember the victims of the past and know that what happened to them should not happen to anybody else. Let’s take for example if events at one point of time escalate with the bidoons, the government should remember those who died during the Iraqi invasion, how awful their deaths were…the bidoons hence should not have the same fate as them. Also, the educated masses such as us, should not be bystanders and should take assertive action to prevent any atrocity from happening similar to what happened to us in the past.
In the end, I thank you for reading this far –and sorry for talking for too long- and I would like to close by saying that WE have the power to make the changes we want to see. But in order for us to end genocide, we must study cases of genocide and excavate morally and rationally appropriate lessons that we can apply to ourselves and our countries. Ignoring or pushing the responsibility to others has obviously not, and will not solve the problem.
DeleteThe study of the Rwandan genocide and other forms of political violence has taught me a lot of lessons. The knowledge gathered through out this course clarified the process of genocide taking place on different levels. In this essay, I shall discuss the lessons learned from genocide cases, and explain how to apply it in conflict and violence resolution in the context of Kuwait.
ReplyDeleteIn the course, I learned that genocide is a process that takes a certain amount of time for violence to erupt on a large scale. Priming refers to targeting a certain group of people to create killable subjects prone to violence. Marginalization of minority and “inferior” groups prime them for genocide as they are seen as a threat to the nation-state’s safety and stability. Based on Lemkin’s(1944) techniques of genocide, genocide takes form in various aspects of life : political, social, biological, cultural, economic, physical , religious and moral. All of these techniques gradually occur as these individuals belonging in the unwanted group will be annihilated in direct or indirect methods of eradication.
Since priming certain groups trigger genocide, there are six stages of genocide as mentioned in class. According to the power point discussed in class, the six stages are: classification, symbolization, dehumanization, organization, polarization and preparation. Classification classifies individuals into groups that he/she belongs to based on race, religion or ethnic groups. For example, the identification cards classified Rwandans to be either Hutu or Tutus that was used to identify killable subjects through identity markers of group affiliation. Language is also an identity marker to classify people into certain groups set by society. Symbolization of people can be achieved through names, language, dress, religious symbols, ID cards, and group uniforms. One example of symbolization is the yellow star Jews had to wear during World War II to symbolize the Jews in Germany. Dehumanization is the third stage of genocide where people are seen as sub-humans and are treated like waste. In Rwanda, the Tutus were perceived as “cockroaches “ by the Hutus, which later lead to the indifference towards the mass killings of the Tutus by the Hutus. This indicates how the enemies to represent people who lose the right to a decent life can utilize a word. Organizations, social institutions, state and government, play a huge role in creating indifference to a certain group by denying them from their rights and privileges the majority to receive the benefits they desire. The polarization and preparation are the final two stages of genocide where the subjects are fully primed to be victims of violence in time of unrest in a country. The distancing of the perpetrator from the acts of genocide occurs when there is a distancing of a person from the victim of the genocide; therefore, it makes it easier from the perpetrator of violence to commit these crimes against humanity.
Indifference and discrimination are among the lessons learned in the genocide and refugee course. Indifference is when a person doesn’t show any concern or interest in a group’s matter. This was witnessed in many genocide and political violence cases like the maltreatment of Jews in German-occupied lands and the Cambodian genocide. Discrimination is the act of discriminated against a prejudiced group in a society through practices and policies. The discrimination against an unwanted group can be through the enforcement of sterilization campaigns in effort to control births in a certain population group. The discrimination in food supplies distribution to a prejudiced group is an discrimination action as they’re deprived from adequate nutrition needed to support their basic needs ; while , the privileged receive more food than they require.
Continuation of part 1:
DeleteGender is another area of genocide studies as gender is an important factor on how males and females are targeted as victims. Women, minorities and children are vulnerable subjects (Nagengast, 1997). Women are more likely to be rape victims with rape babies. The case of the Rwandan genocide and the Rape of the Nanking are example of the war crimes of rape. Unfortunately, the enemy leaves women with a constant reminder of the rape incident when they give birth to a child. As discussed in class, these children are often stigmatized and not accepted as the father is from a group where there is tension. Children tend to forcibly separated from their parents and adapt to the perpetrator’s culture in order to survive. Minorities tend to be marginalized from the society’s view and seen as holding back progress in a nation-state.
Genocide is an act of creation through the destruction of a certain group in society. The Utopian vision refers to the vision held by perpetrators of the violent acts to create the perfect nation operating based on their terms with little or no conflicts in the nation. This vision was prominent in the Nazi and Rwandan case, The Nazi perceived the Jews as a threat due to holding back progress in the German vision of the pure, Aryan race. Thus the Jews were scapegoats to any failure to progress in the German-occupied lands. The Rwanda case had a Utopian vision of Rwanda being Tutus-free; but, there was a struggle of power between the Hutu and Tutu before the colonization of Africa.
The lessons learned from the course are useful in preventing conflicts and violence from erupting in Kuwait. Firstly, the notice of subtle signs of violence ad prejudice towards a certain group is a red flag as it may build up to violence . The deportation of expats and the maltreatment of Bedoons are an example of red flags of political violence. People should keep note of the tension reaching the boiling point where riots and protests occur in the oppressed people’ residence areas. In Kuwait, there are areas with high violence rates like Jahra and other areas next to it. We as people should challenge the stereotypes held by the public that primes a group for genocide. For example, the scapegoat theory is linked to the concept of Bedoons holding back progress, and often blamed for political unrest and violence in the country. The classifications of people through ID cards and dichotomies present in the community should be understood on a deeper level. The dichotomies are Sunni/Shia, Muslims/ Non-Muslims, Kuwaitis /non-Kuwaitis, asil/ non-asil. Therefore, these differences create tension and powers struggle of who’s dominant and who’s subordinate. The majority and minority groups must be listened to and treated fairly from both sides. The government should treat all people equally based on the right to receive basic needs and provide a sense of belonging.
To conclude, theses are the lessons learned from the course and how it should be applied in Kuwait to prevent violence eruptions in the country.
References
Lemkin, R. (1944). Genocide . In A. Hinton (Ed.) Genocide: An Anthropological Reader (pp. 27-42). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
Nagengast, C. (1997). Women, minorities, and indigenous peoples: Universalism and cultural relativity. Journal of Anthropological Research, 349-369.
During the entirety of this course, it was almost gut wrenching to study and analyze different genocides that have occurred in history. The prevalent reason why it was so distressing was because it seemed as if history repeated itself in the most gruesome way possible. Genocides like the Holocaust, which is considered the prototype for genocide at times, the Rwandan genocide, the Cambodian Genocide along with many others, carry countless lessons. Lessons that can be implemented in order to prevent acts of aggression and violence that can foster into a dangerous outburst. Kuwait, as a humanitarian country, has not had the best history with the human rights of some minorities. In order for Kuwait to avoid violence at a large scale, there are many lessons that Kuwait and Kuwaiti students in particular can take away from these genocides. In addition, there are many subtle parallels in the reasoning behind some of the genocides, and Kuwaiti mentality regarding some issues, which are important to note in order to pinpoint what is to be learned exactly. Firstly, the Bidoon population in Kuwait is marginalized solely based on their lack of nationality. This breeds a strong “us vs. them” narrative among Kuwaiti people, which has placed them at a vulnerable position at the hands of the state. They cannot obtain jobs in the public sector. Public schooling at a higher education level is not offered to them, and many live in conditions where private schooling would be too expensive. In addition, they cannot register for driver’s licenses, birth certificates, marriage licenses and even death certificates. They also live in far worse conditions than most Kuwaitis live. Many Bidoon are cyclically stereotyped as criminals because of their financial states and lack of education. The strong us vs. them attitude that stems from ethnicity tied to nationality exists not only with Bidoon, but also with other minority groups in Kuwait such as domestic workers and expats in general. At a larger scale, this pattern of thinking can be traced back to the Rwandan case. Criminalizing Tutsis became the driving force that lead to the countless acts of violence that were committed. Also another narrative that is common with genocides is the unachievable “utopian vision”: a vision of a society that is stripped from all who do not belong, as was mentioned in Zygmunt Bauman’s article on Genocide and Modernity. This utopian vision is most commonly linked to the Nazi case, where the Jews were the outsiders who needed to be exterminated. This vision does not exist in the extreme Nazi example by any means, but a utopian vision of what Kuwait “should be” exists.
ReplyDeleteA common narrative that is usually heard is that Kuwaitis are the victimized minority, while the expats are the majority taking up space in the country, seeking to thieve Kuwait’s wealth, which can promote a dehumanized view of these minorities. A recent example that illustrates the marginalization is a report by Kuwait Times which states that a hospital (Jahra) were only permitting Kuwaiti patients in the mornings, while expats were to be taken in during the afternoon, due to overcrowding. However, their solution was based on racist discriminatory grounds nonetheless. Another driving force for genocides, and acts of political violence is the false notion of “modernity”, and what it means to be modern. In the case of the Holocaust, the Jews were seen as what was holding the Nazis back from progress. In addition, the violence towards indigenous populations that occurred in places like Bangladish with the Chittagong Hills people was also based on the idea that the nation should be moving at a certain pace, and that there has to be a force holding it back from its development. Some Kuwaitis view expats and even Bidoon as the factors that hinder Kuwait’s progression and modernity based on racist reasoning. A strong us vs. them narrative, utopian visions, and the notion of “modernity” are often times the triggers of political violence, as we have witnessed from several genocides. In order for Kuwait to end acts of violence and to prevent potential acts of violence, such examples must be studied, analyzed and assessed based on the country’s own political, social and economic context. Also, Helen Fein offers a sociological perspective to understanding genocide that is inclusive of more threatened minorities, by deeming the victims of genocides as “collectivities”. Studying the sociological perspective will help steer away from the Nazi prototype of genocide, and allows for the inclusion of more populations that can be locally understood, like the Bidoon population or expatriates. In addition, speaking up and denouncing state policies towards marginalized groups, whether it is in day-to-day conversations or from a larger position will aid in preventing acts of violence, because if more people speak up rather than watch from the sidelines as bystanders it will help prevent minor or major acts of violence.
DeleteThroughout this course, I have learned more than once case that involved genocide, however the main focus on the course was the Rwanda genocide. Not only did we have to study and learn about the genocide in detail, but we were provided with a great book that helped me understand the course in much great sense. The book plays a central role to this course because it views different writers perspectives on genocide and the aspects that come along with it. Raphael Lemkin, a Polish-Jewish Lawyer, was the person who created the term genocide in 1944. He defined genocide as "the mean of destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" (27). By that, Lemkin believes that there has to be a plan for deliberate destruction and mass killing so it can be considered genocide . The plans that make up genocide includes the breaking up of political and social institutions of culture, language, national feelings, religion and the economic existence of national groups. Lemkin's belief of the plans that makeup genocide also include the destruction of the personal security, liberty, health, dignity and lives of the individuals that belong in such groups. After a few years, the UN convention decided to put genocide as a crime for international law. The Holocaust was the main reason behind why Lemkin decided to create this term in the first place. Hitler has created the holocaust and did dreadful things to Jews because he believed that there will be a better world without them. He used harsh words like, "dirty and uncivilized" to explain Jews. The holocaust forced people out of their homes, made them follow laws that were set by the Germans in their own home land, couldn’t even study their own native language, which made the standards of living extremely difficult for the local population. It touched every aspect of people in society, including the religious, social, political, economical, physical and biological fields. I have learned for the Case of the Rwanda Genocide, the included groups that fell underneath the genocide term were hard to be applied on the genocide incident. The nationals of Rwanda, the Hutu’s and Tutsi’s, were hard to be defined as a racial, ethnic, religion, and national group. Anthropologists strongly argue that race is something that is not always biologically determined but can be socially and culturally constructed. The authorities who have higher power construct these kinds of differences so that they can distinguish themselves as superior to the inferior. Shockingly, the UN also decided not to take part of helping through the crisis because it was simply not interested. We also explored who were more prone to be victims of genocide, which are the minority groups and women in a society/country. We were also asked to imply the basic act of genocide into the Kuwaiti society, choosing who would be the perpetrator and the victims. For example, the Bedoon, women and Shia could be targets of genocide because they are considered as minorities and hated by half or even more by the Kuwaiti society. There are many reasons why genocide happens: 1) believing in the utopian vision-the world will be a better place if the extermination of inferior groups is performed. 2) to feel more superior and in control. 3) Government and selfish bureaucratic systems encourage such things by manipulating people for their own benefit. Before we actually started the material of the course, the professor showed us pictures of the Rwanda Genocide and it was shocking. Unfortunately, I was not aware of almost all genocide cases that we had talked about in class. Although it is a hard topic to learn and go over, it has opened my eyes and made me want to explore in depth about and research upon it. Learning about different cases of genocide allows you to be aware of important historical events that has changed the history of the world as well as people's lives, including ours.
ReplyDeleteRwanda genocide as well as other cases, why is genocide still happening? what have people done to prevent it and what can people do to prevent such horrible acts? It has been a harsh research to be able to answer these questions because no matter how many answers are given and are thought to help, no one seems to be doing anything as if we are all bystanders. The lessons learned from this course has to be getting rid of misjudgments, prejudice and stereotypes. Not only can it break a society apart, but the individuals themselves. We have to understand, appreciate, accept and respect people's differences and not consider them as norms. This will allow us to open our eyes and grow. Also, we can try our best to help whenever there is a crisis going on. For example, donating and volunteering in local hospital and increase humanitarian aid. This might not stop the genocide or crisis completely but it will help people from suffering. Finally and the most important thing I have learned is that people need to spread awareness and learn to speak up when they see something wrong. People should be encouraged and promote help to victims of genocide. One person can make a change to a person's life, so why not do it?
DeleteI grew up thinking the Holocaust was the yardstick of brutality because that is what I was taught in school. We never spoke of other genocides, and if we did study mass killings, the ‘g’ word would never be used. My first thoughts were that maybe there really had been nothing like the Holocaust, before or after it. That using the ‘g’ word downplayed the suffering of victims and survivors. Throughout this course, however, I understood that most people decide to see the Holocaust as the epitome of cruelty because it offers more solace to convince ourselves that the “Never again” mantra holds some value, than to bitterly accept that it has happened again, and again, and again. It is much more comforting to construct mental images of inhumane, bloodthirsty, Nazi monsters than considering that a family man could be driven to kill a child and then go home and kiss his son goodnight. Initially, I thought this way of thinking was attributed to the Hollywood exploitation of the Holocaust and how talking about it without a crapload of emotion was demeaning and insulting, but it is not Anti-Semitism that we fear, it is rather a crude confrontation to the banality of evil. Yes, it can happen to anyone, anywhere, at any time, and nothing spares Kuwait.
ReplyDeleteAlthough relieving, Bauman’s bureaucratic explanation of genocidal processes is terrifying. Relieving because it redeems human nature of its Hobbesian destructiveness and terrifying because genocide does not tangibly exist in a utopian conception of a world where the ultimate end is the creation of order, cleanliness and purity and the means are broken down into individual tasks that must be performed for the greater good. Without seeing the bigger picture, it is rather easy to write the names of Indian students at AUK on a spreadsheet and give it to the authorities requesting it. Their fate is none of your business; you have fulfilled a task as basic as recording the learning outcomes of your class, you are a good employee. This is terrifying. To think that we might be put in such position and only when thinking about it thoroughly, we realize that we are not the activists that our Facebook newsfeed advertise, but that we might consider, willingly or not, to play a role in the genocidal machinery for the sake of keeping our jobs, feeding our families or even saving their lives. This lesson is the most striking realization I faced in class; it is easy to talk about distant Nazi Germany and say the train driver could dissent, but when put in my context, in my hands, my true colors became rather questionable.
In this course we had a space to talk, question and dissect topics that ‘we don’t talk about’, but that I was always fascinated with, maybe out of a combination of morbid curiosity and a need to understand how things got this far and whether they could have been prevented. History often teaches us to powerlessly accept that things happened because they happened and trying to change them is futile, but an anthropological approach was much more refreshing. It offered us the opportunity to consider ways of preventing genocide in the future at a personal and societal level. Thinking of genocide taking place in Kuwait sounded rather silly when we were first asked to identified how a marginalized group could be ‘primed’ for genocide based on Lemkin’s conceptual framework. However, as we analyzed the cases of the Bedoon, migrant workers and religious sectarianism, I realized that ‘Us-Them’ dichotomies are already in place, stereotypes have already been constructed around Bedoon, Bedouins, Indians, Shias, Sunnis, Muslims, Non-Muslims, Ethiopians, men, women, etc. and the process of association and escalation of negative stereotypes of targeted groups was so subtle and innocuous that children are automatically socialized into rejecting the ‘Other’.
Causation is often mistaken with the trigger, according to Bloch. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand triggered the Great War, but it did not cause it alone. Imperialism, militarism and extreme nationalism were subtle, but more powerful causes, and genocide is no different. Tomorrow Iran may threat Kuwait, and it would be easy to point fingers at the Shia population because rejection and hatred against them was latent, but already developed. Was there a genocide against them, what would have caused it? The threat of Iran? Or the priming of the population through institutional, economic, religious, social and ethical alienation? This course taught me to draw attention to the latter and to identify the destructive effects of structural violence.
DeleteIf we were to prevent genocide against whichever group, we need to unlearn the assumptions we have been enculturated with: jokes, curses, popular sayings and statements that seem harmless. Exposure to members of other groups, appreciation of their ideas and valuation of them as individuals, not as members of a group are tantamount. Willingness to forgive and ask for forgiveness; in the case of Kuwait, from the Iraqi invasion. The construction of an inclusive identity that appeals to everyone’s humanity instead of uniting a group against another; this is particularly important in Kuwait, a multiethnic environment that remains unassimilated and lacks integration.
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ReplyDeleteGenocide is sustained purposeful action by a perpetrator to physically destroy a collectivity directly or indirectly, through interdiction of the biological and social reproduction of group members, sustained regardless of the surrender or lack of threat offered by the victim.” By Helen Fein a sociologist. We have studied several views and definitions of genocide and Helen Fein is one of them, Raphael Lemkin who have created the term genocide and defines it as the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group. It is the aim to annihilate a group of human for example a whole nation or a country. Since, it is not intend to destroy individuals, it is aim to dehumanize them as members of a national group. Lemkin have viewed the Nazis German mass killings toward Jews as genocide. Since Hitler have intend to destroy the culture of Jews and Poland, and as I learned destroying a culture is part of genocidal process. Also the Rwanda genocide between the Hutus and Tutus where mass killing happened and women being raped. In addition, he mentions that Nazis have expelled Poles from trade so it is an economic technique of genocide. And also other aspects that can prime genocide. Additionally, Lemkin believes that genocide is not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation. Moreover, the UN have also made a definition and a set of articles in genocide convention. It defines it as the denial of the right of existence if entire human group and when a racial, religious, political, and other groups destroyed entirely or in part. Unfortunately, I have find out that the UN did not make an effort to stop genocide fro, happening! It is simply tolerate it. That was shocking, people have lost their lives and their lives is in danger and the world is in silence. I have understand that genocide does not necessarily mean killing people at least in beginning. Genocide is a whole process. It can beginning with excluding people from their rights or trying to change their language or prevent them from practicing their norms or change it. All that can be considered as priming genocide. It can happen within months or years and also last for months or years and the result would many losses of people’s life.
ReplyDeleteIn Kuwait we have many indication of priming violence which can lead to genocide eventually, still it is an extreme perspective. For example, the Bidoon and how they are, marginalized and excluded of many rights and sometimes even the basic rights such as education, residency, and health care. And this problem is exist since long time and the government could not solve it yet. Or actually they do not want to solve it. They have been practice many repression acts toward the Bidoon. We can avoid genocide if it will happen before we loss people lives. We can learn a lesson from histories of wars and genocide. Simply the government can give the Bidoon their basic right at least a passport they do not have to make them enjoy the other qualities. Since as the government claim that they cannot afford good living for all the Bidoon so at least give them the basic rights. On the other hand, the Dichotomy between Shias and Sunnis can also be a warning sign. I cannot predict who would be the victim and who would be the perpetrator but the racism exist and to avoid any serious crisis in the future since I hear now many prediction that there will be a conflict between Shias and Sunnis since both of them want to have the power in the country. The government should find ways to prevent that from happening. The people need to have the awareness. We hope that these problems will not erupt in Kuwait or in the world but it seem like wars and mass killing is part of this world and it will exist forever.
So many genocides, if not all, are orchestrated through political means to achieve unattainable goal. I only say this because utopian visions are just that - visions. It is the attempt to push forth all ethical boundaries, and abuse and manipulate political situations to alter the societal constructs. To attain this vision, a collectivity would go as far as to commit atrocities to another collectivity, violate human rights, and blatantly go against the UN genocide convention even after it was formed. What we learned also proved how the United Nations genocide convention proved useless to protecting collectivities against political violence, nor does it view things from a sociological perspective. How many people die until we label a mass killing as genocide? Does it mean we cannot stop it before it reaches that? Do we have to wait until genocide occurs to feel the need to stop it?
ReplyDeleteThe Nazi case, and the Rwandan genocide, and other cases of political violence can be used to implement our understanding to our current surroundings. It IS happening around us. Maybe not to the extent that a genocide may occur, but enough to notice that the idea of “priming” may be used to explain what is happening to Bedouns, Shiites, and people of other nationalities and domestic workers. Kuwaiti government places more interest and priorities to Kuwaitis than, for example, Bidouns. They are not politically recognized as citizens - they are not able to marry, they do not receive birth or death certificates, and their identification card does not recognize them as citizens at all, making them unable to receive adequate education or health care. Moreover, there is a huge gap between citizens of Kuwait and expats and how both are treated.
A newspaper article in written in Arabic revealed that non Kuwaitis would not be able to be buried in Kuwait’s cemeteries. Now, this proved just a rumor, but has anyone stopped to realize, why were people not surprised by the rumor? The extent may have shocked people, but it definitely did reveal some form of pre-existing sentiment that made it somehow believable. Why is it harder for non-Kuwaitis to receive licenses lately? Why are they so intensely searched at checkpoints? It may seem like just protocol, but it is creating a more prominent distinction between Kuwaitis and everyone else. An ‘Us and Them’ dichotomy is establishing and that is the exact sentiment that has been expressed in so many genocidal cases. Kuwait is also creating a huge gap through health care. Non-Kuwaitis are able to receive healthcare in the afternoon while Kuwaitis get priority in the mornings – speculation about a Kuwaiti-only hospital establishing in South Surra is also circulating social media. Moreover, Kuwait Times also released an article on the 5th of January stating that expatriates might be forced to retire after the age of 50 - though it hasn't been signed and approved. Now, I’m not saying this is going to lead up to genocide, but what I am saying is that this is becoming a more serious form of discrimination – one that is assisted through bureaucracy, which is a dangerous route to take. What we learned clearly pronounced the effects of bureaucratic thinking, and how creating a distinction between different collectivities would eventually cause conflict. Let’s not forget Hutus and Tutsis managed to co-exist before bureaucracy, colonialism, and politics entered the picture. The fact that these are occurring are signs that the preexisting notions of elevating the Kuwaiti status are turning into something much more serious.
So how do we stop this? The ways are obvious! As simple as this may sound, education changes lives. Learning about different genocides or cases of political violence can help people identify patterns and trends and stop them from happening. People should speak up as soon as they notice ANY number of collectivity based on a common factor. Education can help bring awareness - like how many genocides occurred, how bureaucracy almost always plays a role, in what ways genocides can take place. Also, critically assess your government! Feel outspoken enough to call them out or at least state that what they’re doing is detrimental, or that someone’s method of thinking is detrimental. One of the reasons genocides could be carried out to achieve an unattainable vision started with the simple notion that… no one told them they couldn’t. This unattainable goal was attainable because they were prepared to do whatever it took and they saw no reason why they couldn’t. Rwanda, Nazi case, Herero, are all examples of those situations. So, people really must know that one person really CAN make a difference – one person influences another, a small crowd influences another, and that could incite a whole movement.
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DeleteStudent ID: S00023745
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ReplyDeleteIn this course we have covered about 5 different genocide cases; Native American genocide, Herero and Namaqua genocide, Rwanda genocide, the holocaust, and the Cambodia genocide.
ReplyDelete• However, the two main genocide cases that we have covered and focused on extensively in this course are the holocaust and the Rwanda genocide.
• We learned that the act of genocide when looking at it from the aspect of the German occupant as stated by Lemkin was carried out on eight different fields and each has different techniques, such as social, political, economic, cultural, physical, biological, moral, and finally religious. Under most of these aspects the Jews more than the poles and the Slovenes were the most demeaned and dehumanized during the act of genocide before their death. Especially under the physical field they received the lowest amount of nutrients and were deprived of one of their rights of even breathing in the fresh air (Hinton, 34). Even after the holocaust, in post- war Europe and after the German army’s defeat, the Germans will still be stronger than the people they subjugated.
The legal definitions of Genocide were not permanent and fluctuated as different instances of genocide took place. Another widely cited genocide was the Rwanda genocide. When Rwanda’s case was brought to the International Criminal Tribunal, a problem emerged when the ‘Hutu’ and ‘Tutsi’ could not actually be appropriately defined as a group, racially, nationally, religiously, or ethnically. This case concluded that emic distinctions could serve as the basis for prosecution (Hinton, 5). The evolution of the term is highlighted by this distinct case that brought about revision to the originally standing legal definition of Genocide. The very nature of the term is flexible, as it changes to incorporate new provisions on a case by case basis. According to Zygmunt Bauman “modern genocide is an element of social engineering, meant to bring about a social order conforming to the design of the perfect society.” It is essentially a mechanism that is used in order to establish an ideal image of society. This leads to the domination of a victimized group based on the perfect images imposed upon them by the genocidal community.
When it comes to all types of genocides, or genocide as a whole, it is not a question of understanding but rather a question of ‘what leads to killing?’ Another important question would be ‘who are the subjects involved?’ Also, ‘what defines their subjectivity such as race, ethnicity, nation, etc.’ and what makes people killable subjects?
Additionally, we had discussion about the possible targeted people of genocide in general around the world, such as women, indigenous people, Muslims, non-Muslims and refugees, we then went into specifics when examining Kuwait. We studied possible victims of genocide, which are the bedoons, beduins, migrant workers, and religious groups, such as, shias and sunnies.
We also had a class discussion regarding who ‘the others’ are. They can be identified as bystanders, activists, and government. Which of them might be able to do something to prevent genocide, but are they willing enough to do so?
We were also taught in this course about the related concepts of genocide, which are, ethnocide, that includes the destruction of culture, language, religion, and national feelings, and another synonymous term for it, ethnic cleansing, as referring to certain groups of people as dirt and that they should be removed.
• The way we learned to define genocide in this course is that it is one word that has many definitions, however all the definitions have the meaning of harming, destroying, or even killing a human race, this one word is known as genocide. In this essay I will be looking at and focusing on the famous two definitions; the definition that was first created by the legend Raphael Lemkin as he was famous for his opposition of genocide as he suffered and lost a big number of his relatives in the Holocaust as it was a genocide continuum, coined by Nancy Scheper-Hughes, as the second definition was created by the UN Convention of Article II, which is also known as the international legal definition of genocide as it is originally adopted from Lemkin and creating certain laws that goes within the definition.
Delete• Genocide is understood to be an act of creation, the will to create something new, defining who fits and who doesn’t, with the mentality of “you must die so we can live”, or “it’s our home and not yours, so you don’t belong here”. Also it is a social process that must be understood as a chain of historical events. It can be broken down into two words, according to Lemkin, that have different roots, one root is Greek the “genos” part of the word which means race, whereas the other word is Latin “cide” which means killing. A further addition to Lemkin’s definition of the word genocide is that it has the meaning of “destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group” and it also has two parts; one is the annihilation of the national arrangement of the oppressed group, and the other as the imposition of the national arrangement of the dictator. Genocide is directed to destroy the individual as a member of the national group (Hinton, 27), as each individual pays with their lives for being part of a certain group.
• However, in the past the word denationalization was used for the description of the annihilation of a national arrangement. When looking back at the history of genocide, words were created under the action of genocide such as, “Italianization”, “Magyarization”, and “Germanization” are words that stand for the stronger nation when it takes over the other nation and controls it through the act of genocide (Hinton, 28). When “the occupant has elaborated a system designed to destroy nations according to a pervious prepared plan” (Hinton, 29), I believe that this is known as genocidal priming, that term occurs when the oppressor has already planned the act of genocide and will be working towards it gradually.
In this course we learnt that genocide must be understood on a case by case basis, such as, local histories, or are there global-scale structural forces at play as well.
The main discourses that was held in this course when it comes to the act of genocide were how recent genocide is. Is it a modern phenomena? Is it an ancient phenomena? Or is just a human nature?
Why we should study genocide?
• We study Genocide so as to not forget the mistakes of the past and learn from them. That way, we can more efficiently prevent them from reoccurring. We also learn to understand it and relate to it, as it could effect any ethnic, racial, or minority group at any time. The study of Genocide also helps us set international standards to help protect those who are more vulnerable, and to duel out swift justice to those who are eager to oppress. In all, we study so that we can come to the realization that it is within human nature to be evil or to be good, and we must come to terms with this reality.
We are always affected by whatever happens around the world, as in “your problem, becomes my problem”, this is known as international connection.
DeleteWe also covered the discourse of human rights, and cultural relativism and how they are related. We also covered how human rights should be focused on the things that are within each culture. We examined how universalism Vs. cultural relativism is the main debate of genocide. In this course, we managed to define both terms separately. So we looked at universalist position and defined it as a standard of human rights that can be applied universally to all people despite their religion or culture. Where as when we looked at cultural relativist proponents, which we have found out that it has a great deal of cultural insensitivity.
Human rights abuses are often born out of international relations and global politics, and cannot be viewed myopically as a local cultural problem.
• We also learnt that bureaucracy produces indifferences that leads to being impersonal (as in we learn to play our roles without getting emotionally attached, and basically doing the job for the sake of getting paid (money).), establishing social distance, diffuses responsibility (such as pointing fingers at everyone above you), disassociation from outcomes (as in you do not relate yourself to the outcome of your action/ job), people will be expressed in technical terms, and finally people will be reduced to objects. According to Buaman, bureaucracy is “the way otherwise moral people can be directed to immoral ends”. By that he means that bureaucracy in a way forces people to act immorally without really thinking about it or that they are not provided with a choice to decide. They become almost like robots they do what they are programmed to do. And that’s how genocide is and can be easily committed.
• In addition, one of the strong points that we discussed in class were “stereotypes” that are defined to be the steps of genocide, for example; The 1st step is identifying the stereotype, 2nd step is dissociating the stereotype to anything positive, 3rd step is associating the stereotype with negative ideas. Those steps make genocide possible, and we also discussed in class that having a universal stereotype means you have a universal threat.
• When thinking about these steps of stereotypes and relating it to Kuwait and how people in Kuwait stereotype the different groups increases the fear of a possible genocide in Kuwait, as most people have negative stereotypes of other groups who are somehow dehumanized by those negative stereotypes, such groups could be the bedoons, beduins, sunnies, sheias, non-muslim, and religious groups. So therefore I believe that people should start with removing pre-existing negative stereotypes of other groups because it will eventually build a hate relationship between those different types of groups.
• We had also watched many videos that helped us understand the different genocide cases better, and those videos that we have been watching in this course taught us critically how genocide can be prevented.
• This course has taught me that history is repeating itself and it is in our hands as individuals to stop it from happening again. Dr. Pellegrino has provided us with many ideas for creativities on the prevention of genocide, by assigning us to make a 4-minute video about genocide and how it can be prevented, the purpose of this video is to raise awareness, and to covert our understanding and knowledge of genocide into action, and that’s how the course ends.
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ReplyDeleteProfessor Pellegrino A. Luciano
ReplyDeleteSBSA 360
14 January 2016
Genocide Prevention:
Lessons Learned
There are a lot to learn from the Rwanda genocide and other cases of political violence. "Remorse, reconciliation, and reparation have emerged as master narratives of the late twentieth century/early twenty-first century as individuals and entire nations struggle to overcome the legacies of suffering ranging from rape and domestic violence to collective atrocities of state-sponsored dirty wars, genocides, and ethnic cleansings" (Hughes 374). There are a lot of attempts, on individual and collective levels, to reconcile, heal, and repair “fractured bodies, broken lives, and destroyed societies” after genocides occur (Hughes 374).
A lot of experts on genocides around the world talk about the terrifying situation of irreversible and impossible ability to heal from huge scars and wounds caused by the Jewish Holocaust to German youth, grandchildren of perpetrators, and also bystanders from several countries. Young German men and women are trying to escape history, which is always chasing them non-stop by repressed groups, and rediscover themselves, and also partially isolate their identities from such guilty inheritance.
In rural Cambodia, an uncomplicated picture is presented of the recovery of the community after almost twenty years of the Pol Pot regime. The destroyed essence, from Buddhism to peasant farming, was relatively returned with an imbalance in the number of men in rural villages that is being slowly corrected. In the case of the history of Khmer Rouge, and in comparison to the German experience, it is too soon to see the real damage that can return to chase later generations of perpetrators, victims, or bystanders. Because of this, a lot of healing populations from genocides, from after the dictatorship in Chile to after the massacre in Rwanda, looked up to tribunals and truth commissions to deal with wounds of the past. Sometimes, in order for them to heal, they would look up to discover new mass graves and move them to new sites and locations for proper burials. Another example for healing is the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which was formed after the Chile experience, that demanded for telling the truth in order for political and social justice to occur.
As anthropologists in the process, a lot of heavy weights are on our shoulders to make people talk about mass violence and genocides. A lot of criticism was directed towards anthropologists for their ways of seeing and knowing things and situations which resulted in lack of analysis by institutions as well as individuals. Under the pressure of genocides and mass killings, anthropologists were asked to “transform their central and defining practice of fieldwork and to decolonize themselves,” and also to change their relationships with their subjects, victims of genocides, and perpetrators of mass killings (Hughes 375).
What we know, as we study anthropology, that it is about “meaning, about making sense in a world that is so often absurd” (Hughes 375). So we need to figure out the lesson learned from mass killings and genocides and to make sense of it. During last years, cultural anthropology was directed towards what was called as “the anthropology of suffering” which is defined as an interest and curiosity about how people around the world can explain pain, death, and evil. It is an old inquiry faced with huge uncertainty but continually wanted to be explained by people who ask for a just God or a fair world.
Our job is a complicated mix of seeing, hearing, reading, and personal analysis of culture around us but we are faced, on daily basis, with unwritten and unspoken rules and regulations of the world. Questions about political violence that we can learn lessons from but very confusing to us are “what, during periods of genocide or ethnocide, is an appropriate distance to take from our subjects? What kinds of “’participant-observation,’” what sorts of eyewitnessing are adequate to the scenes of genocide and its aftermath? When the anthropologist is witness to crimes against humanity, is mere scientific empathy sufficient? At what point does the anthropologist as eyewitness become a bystander or even a coconspirator?” (Hughes 375).
DeleteIn case if conflicts and violence erupted in Kuwait, we need to apply our lessons learned from genocides around the world to prevent them from happening and repeating. Let's assume that a hypothetical genocidal situation was to occur in Kuwait, what would the situation be like? Let's say that perpetrators would be Kuwaitis and victims would be bedoons. Kuwaitis would say that bedoons needed to go to another GCC country, where they came from originally, and stop claiming they are Kuwaitis. They would be pushed into a corner by Kuwaitis and the Kuwaiti government. Kuwaiti people would defend themselves by saying that not only Kuwait has issues with bedoons but also Saudi Arabia and UAE have the same issues. They would accuse them of being illegal immigrants and foreign nationals who came from neighboring countries to only benefit from living in Kuwait. The conflict would probably erupt for political, social, cultural, economic, biological, physical, religious, and moral differences. The genocidal rationale to the situation would be promoted by saying that bedoons ask for too much for something they don't deserve in the first place. The international community’s response would be to support bedoons’ side and their rights for equal treatment by the Kuwaiti government, and they would accuse the government of their inhumane acts against bedoons. I suppose the aftermath of the tragedy would be people commanding Kuwait of ending bedoons’ problems and start treating them with equality by giving them their nationality back.
With all the hard complicated problems that anthropologists deal with, it is still their duties to side with “humanity, world-saving, and world-repair” with everything they can offer like fairness and discipline (Hughes 375). Even at moments of confusion and uncertainty, there should be nothing to spare for the quality of life of their research subjects. Hope of a better future guided with empathetic engaging will lead to a better life for all.
Works Cited
Hughes, Nancy Scheper. “Coming to Our Senses: Anthropology and Genocide”. Annihilating
Difference: The Anthropology of Genocide. 2008: 374-75. Web. 14 Jan. 2016.
After studying Rwanda genocide and other cases of genocide such as; The Holocaust, Cambodia genocide..etc. We have understand that genocide is the act of violent crimes and mass killing.Which means when you are a part of superior group and your group kill the whole group that is different from you (The Others). I’ve learned that their is similar causes and reasons to genocide. although the way of killing is different from a case to the other. For example, in the Holocaust they murdered people by gas and other methods while in Rwanda the killing was by guns. However, both of them are same in some ways. In both of them the powerful group is the one that is responsible to committing this crime. And both of them the conflicts started when the superior group didn’t accept the other group and they treat them badly even when they share the same nationality.
DeleteMoreover, before studying those genocide cases I wasn’t sure enough what does genocide mean. But throughout this semester I’ve realized the level of danger that genocide have. I mean that genocide is really a huge disaster and we really learn how to prevent it. We might don’t feel it because those things happened in other countries and not in our country. However, when we apply what we have learned to Kuwait in order to prevent conflicts and violence. we should learn how to be united and act like a whole group. When we treat each other like a whole group we will prevent those conflicts. Although there is a lot of different groups in Kuwait such as; Sunna and Sheia, Badu and Hadar, Kuwaiti and Bedoon…etc. It’s not about those groups but to realize that it’s original that each country is decided from inside some who. People should understand how to respect the others. It’s ok to be different than me but you shouldn't insist that I should follow same ideologies and rules that you follow.
Rawan ALZamel 24547
ReplyDeleteBefore taking this class, I assume that all people have some sort of knowledge about political violence that have happened through the passing years, but what I have learn through studying Genocide and the Rwanda genocide cases a lot of things have changed. What I mean is, studying political violence and Genocide let you see things differently. For example, I used to think that people from outside Kuwait, come to Kuwait to work as streets cleaners, maids, or drivers because they choose to. In fact, I did not see that is a problem at all since I saw a documentary about labor in Kuwait. Let me be specific about this subject, the documentary was about the street cleaners, who make them come all the way from their countries to Kuwait to clean streets. The progress goes like, they tell them that they would provide them with a place to stay in, a salary about 40 KD per month. But what really happens is that, the worker stays collecting money for so long to buy a ticket to come to Kuwait. Aster that when he or she arrives to Kuwait. They put them in an apartment that contains only one bedroom and a bathroom, and the shocking thing is they would have to share it with other 8 to 10 persons. And finally cloths which is the uniform that they might wear for a whole year. After seeing the whole documentary, what made me angry the most is that the contract that those people singed on is to have 40 KD per month which is quite low to be honest, and the shocking part is that they give them only 18 KD per months why? Because they subtract the electricity, water and the apartment payments. 18 KD per month does not provide you a living specially in Kuwait since all prices went up suddenly. A man who left his family to work and help his family through his income needs more than 18 KD. They not only lied, and cheated to bring these people to work they also made a huge mistake with misleading the image of Kuwait by this foreigners. The contract says 40 KD per month, not 40 KD per month subtracting electricity, water and apartments payments. Second issue is making 8 to 10 persons share one bedroom and one bathroom is something cannot be acceptable, because think of this people have some privacies. Putting all these people in small bed room kills their privacy. And sharing one bathroom, no wonder we
complain about dieses in Kuwait. It is of course not healthy, and I am sure 100 percent that no Kuwaiti would accept to live in a room that contains only one bathroom and he has to share it with other 8 people even if they were from his family members. Third issue, these workers have to start work at 6 am, so they need to wake up at 3 or 4 am to wash, dress up, and wait for the bus. The bus drops them the spot they were assigned to work on. And by "the bus" I don’t mean the bus that we all know, it is a truck with two seats and all workers should get to the back of the truck standing till they reach the place they want. And Kuwait is known with its hot weather in the summer and very cold weather in the winter, and these workers should work from 6 am till 9 pm collecting garbage through the areas. And some of these workers have been living in Kuwait for 15 years, they want to go back to their country and family but with a very low salary like this they, of course, cannot afford a ticket to go back. The work itself hard, because they wake up very early, and stay for long hours working. The weather is bad, and they do not provide them with suitable clothes that help them work through bad weather. And the place they live in is not comfortable, so after a long day they don’t have a place that they go back to for a piece of comfort. And finally a very low salary that they did not sign for in the contract. This example among other examples that shape and show political violence that have been practiced in Kuwait and still. This class, have taught me that you may have thought of others, but you never made an action to stop it. A lot of people have suffered during their living, Kuwait have more and more other examples that contains political violence but I have never seen or seen deeply around me only after this class. So what I am suggesting to try to prevent these political violence around Kuwait is EDUCATION, people need to be taught and about these kind of violence through schools, collages, campaigns, and the media intensively. Because with education they might do something in the future that would change the whole citation of political violence.
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ReplyDeleteThis semester I took this class on genocide, expecting to learn more thoroughly about a phenomenon I already knew to exist. We are taught about genocide casually through out life, in history class, or from peers in pop culture references, but what I didn’t realize is what we knew was very limited. Through out this class I was in awe over and over again. I was shocked by the numerous cases as well as possible degrees of genocide that had taken place both historically and currently, I was simply unaware. What’s worse, is that I noticed most people are. What I mean to say is, we all know genocide is a big deal, it’s an atrocity, most people would agree, but if most people knew, what I learned this semester, would the issue of genocide have received greater attention?
ReplyDeleteI was originally curious about the factors that would drive a human being to preform such acts of atrocity. How could an individual, let alone a group of individuals, agree to come together with such a purpose as to kill an entire other population? Kuper claims that though the term genocide is new the act or in his words “the crime” is ancient and that the problem historic. Before I could answer this however, I needed to first expand my understanding of what genocide really even was. I learned that genocide is much more complicated than the U.N. defined it to be. The definition is limited and one dimensional, it says nothing of the many forms and degrees of genocide that can and do exist, such as ethnocide. In learning about these layers excluded from the definition, I realized that our world is and has been saturated with genocide in varying degrees, and that in failing to fit our holocaust defined notion of what a genocide ought to be, many have fallen through the cracks of our awareness. Something else that I learned in class and through the texts is that sometimes through the portrayal of genocide as a tragic and traumatic process we forget to acknowledge the struggle each time of those to fought against it. For example, in the case of the genocide in Rwanda, one story particularly struck a chord with me, an employee at the Hotel des Mille Collines who used the hotel’s working fax line to reach out to powerful clients and the connections he had made working at the hotel to ensure the protection of his guests. Though his impact was minute, and perhaps forgotten, I learned from his narrative and those like him a powerful lesson about the resilience of good.
I also learned Genocide can also be viewed through different lenses to truly understand the factors and aspects of life it plays a role in. It can be viewed from a sociological standpoint for example, Helen Fein calls for a more comprehensive definition, asserting that we must take into account the consistency of sociological information when identifying a group, and that it should comply with the universalistic convention and meaning of justice, and should accept and include the morals of all nonviolent all encompassing classifications which exist in harmony despite their differences. Thus taking into account those morals she goes on to define genocide as any “sustained purposeful action… that physically destroys a collectivity, directly or indirectly… regardless of surrender or lack of threat” explaining how in some places, quietly, indirectly, genocide is taking place in some form we perhaps did not originally recognize. This expanded my definition of genocide to include cases not even covered in class such as the Israel Palestine conflict currently ongoing. It’s harder to call cases like this genocide I think, because it hard to accept that we so casually consciously or not, allow it to continue.
At the start of the semester, the Holocaust was really the only official case of genocide I was truly familiar with. Quickly though I realized there was much even about that case that I had misunderstood. As the class progressed, I learned that though Hitler was in fact Anti Semitic, the holocaust targeted other populations as well, basically anyone besides the Aryan Race. I began to wonder what it was then, motivating people to completely destroy other collectivities, which is when I learned it was simply because of exactly that, they were “others”. It was through this that I learned about the concept of ethnic cleansing and began to understand that as far as causes went, what it boiled down to at least, was as simple as some perceived difference. In the case of Rwanda, the divide between Tutsi’s and Hutus was only defined when the land was colonized by Belgians, creating the perceived difference that prior to that did not exist, illustrating perfectly the transience of it all.
ReplyDeleteIn examining Kuwait, we found it to be already predisposed to the factors that appear preceding genocide. Already in place are cultural and systemic practices discriminating against “others”, targeting all minorities within our community such as the migrant work force or Bedoons,. Bedoons are a subpopulation of inhabitants in Kuwait lacking any citizenship to Kuwait or other countries. A colloquial Arabic term literally translating into the word without, Bedoons are denied rights considered basic and mandatory almost universally. Without a passport, birth certificate or citizenship they are designated stateless and as a result stripped of their abilities to travel, struggle to gain access to basic resources such as education and health care, and in Kuwait are faced with the challenge of integration into a community that literally considers them to be nonexistent. This falls in line with Baumans assertions in the sense that the Bedoons do not fit into the utopian social vision and thus have inadvertently become the “weeds” of our society. Thus as a subpopulation in Kuwait the Bedoon are being structurally marginalized leaving them vulnerable to extermination. Even within each minority the discrimination continues, differentiating between different types Kuwaiti citizens, there are levels of citizenship, the implications of your tribal ancestry, or even your basic socioeconomic status. Since a population’s susceptibility to systemic discrimination arises from perceived differences between the different subcultures of a community prevention then must be centered around eradicating a society’s perception of those differences. Grassroots organizing in the past has been effective at raising social awareness and even fighting for systemic changes for marginalized communities all over the world thus for Kuwait, I think it would be a start.
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ReplyDeleteSaja AlRkhayes 27288
ReplyDeleteThe Rwandan genocide as well as many other genocides impact and influence the lives of both the people that are involved as well as the ones who are not; and the wounds both physical and emotional still live on till this day. Genocides occur because racist seeds are planted within the hearts of the people and are groomed to believe that it is their duty to take action. This comes from a lack of education and an ideology that is being egged into the minds of people by a whole society.
In all the genocides that were studied whether it was Namibia, the Holocaust or even Cambodia similarities can be seen throughout all of them. According to Zygmunt Bauman, “Modern civilization was not the Holocaust’s sufficient condition; it was however, most certainly its necessary condition”. In all these genocides it seems imperative to the perpetrators to take violent action to remove these inferior and useless citizens from their soon to be utopian land. The culprits also seem to dehumanize these innocent victims as to make their goal easier to achieve and it almost seems that they live by the quote, “the ends justify the means”. They think that whatever crimes however much heinous they may be they are the necessary to do to get to their goal.
Although genocides have happened more than enough times throughout history it is not talked about enough. People need to communicate and learn about these horrific wrongdoings as to know how to deal with them and understand the root behind all of these genocides as to make sure it does not happen in other situations and know that even if it just commences serious action can be taken to prevent its continuation. We could also predict the direction of various political actions or even corrupt leaders that can or want to lead a genocide and stop them. A better understanding of what, how and why genocide occurs can help with understanding genocide further. Serious punishments and prosecutions should also be practiced because in cases of Rwanda for example the perpetrators weren’t harshly penalized for their actions and were able to live their lives again. We can also learn what actions should be taken for such crimes such as retributive justice that is to correct the perpetrator by means of prosecution and punishment e.g. Trials, tribunals. Restorative justice which is to restore the dignity of the victim, to restore the perpetrator back into society e.g. Truth commissions, healing circles. Lastly reparative justice and that is to repair the injury suffered by victims through restitution and apologies. This was used in Rwanda to reintegrate the Tutsis and Hutus back into society because they had to live with one another again even if terrible offenses were committed against one another.
A lesson that can be learned for all people is even small comments that are racist without the intention or that have the intent of harm towards another group of people can deteriorate a society and demolish them. People shouldn’t view people who are not similar to them as the “other” because that automatically dehumanizes them and are not considered to be real people anymore.
Saja AlRkhayes 27288
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These lessons can definitely be applied to the Kuwaiti society with groups such as the expats, especially the Indians Bangladeshis, Sri Lankans and people from the Philippines, as well as other Arabs and people from other countries. Another serious issue is the Bedoons and how ill-treated these people are both from the government and the Kuwaitis themselves. We first need to be honest with ourselves and admit the problem is happening and needs serious attention from people (thankfully there are people who are trying and have made awareness campaigns and tried to change laws and better the lives of these victims (a little positivity is always good)). However we need to do more and try to make this dream a reality. We also must teach our children and the adults that if any negative action taken against these people serious reprimands will be taken. Most importantly government intervention and law enforcement must be taken to ensure that these matters are taken seriously if anything is to occur in disfavor of the expats or Bedoons. Even issues with Sunna, Shia’a, Hathar and Bedoo serious problems occur just because people fear what they don’t know. If people would just sit with one another and discuss matters that they think they know or understand about another group they would be able to form friendly connections and understand the actual opinions of those other groups. Hatred can be spread like wildfire because people speak to their friends and families about another group instead of hearing it from the group members themselves and misjudgments arise from there.
The world is becoming a smaller space, more interdependent, and the need to find rules, regulations, and laws that help protect one another from one another that can be applied to all citizens is a must to be able to live a life that is just without anyone taking the rights of other people.
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ReplyDeleteI was always taught that the Holocaust was the biggest evil of them all but other events in history are actually as evil and “inhumane”. No matter how much the international community discussed genocides, wasted time agreeing whether the term can apply or not and how many people died, genocides happened over and over again. Even after Lemkin first coined the term and the UN convention was passed, with more discussion on the topic, genocides seem to till haunt humanity. Even today in Syria with ISIS, in Sudan, Burma and Congo. Its become a theme in history repeating itself but within different contexts and with different details. But in the end, its one group seeing themselves as more superior and entitled that they actively try and eliminate the inferior group. This inferior group was primed over a period of time to the point that killing them has become a justifiable act (which happened to the Tutsis in Rwanda for example).
My main problem with all this is that genocides are so extensive and destructive. The world has seen over and over what harm can be brought about from them. And in my opinion, after genocides have happened, not much can come out of trialling perpetrators. So the aim should be to prevent genocides from occurring in the first place and not how to persecute criminals. Is justice even possible when genocides not only kill people but destroy the pride and culture of a nation who may be scarred for years to come? Can punishing perpetrators to life sentences or execution even make up the countless lives they've taken or the culture they’ve destroyed? And can all the perpetrators, from those who gave orders, to the lowest on the hierarchy even be captured? If the punishments and convictions were harsh enough, genocides should not even have been committed. In fact, the international community does not hold the perpetrators accountable enough for their actions.
But the sad truth is that as long as we are driven by our own personal advantages then nothing here will change. Perpetrators of genocide will continue to attack victims for their own advantage. And the international community will act as bystanders until their own interests are at stake. This brings up the idea of indifference and I see this as the root cause of my main problem mentioned above. Genocides happen over and over, and perpetrators are not punished sufficiently because, somewhere deep down we are indifferent; we don’t really care. We are shocked by humanity’s atrocities but seem so shocked that we foolishly think genocides won’t happen again. But they have. Changes here will need a shift in perceptions and humanity to fight for its common progress as one. Until that, it seems that with regards to genocides and ending them, its every nation for itself.
This brings me to whether all these genocide criminals have lost all their humanity and become monsters. But I believe we just like to label people like Pol Pot as monsters to fathom the idea that humans with the same biological and chemical compositions as all of us are capable of such atrocities. Instead atrocities can come from the most “normal” man, this is what Hannah Arendt refers to when she spoke of the “banality of evil,” when describing Eichmann.
DeleteThrough examining different examples and looking at testimonials, I argue that all of us have a seed within us that has potential of growing into evil. Some seeds can then easily be cultivated by stimuli such as propaganda, media or leadership for example. This happened in the Nazis’ fascist regime and in Rwanda as radios perpetuated hatred towards Tutsis. These stimuli worked to internalize a superior-inferior relationship in perpetrators which primed the victims as less worthy and set up the stage for political violences and genocides. The role bureaucracy plays in genocides can help us understand this. Seeing people as numbers on a list, deflecting responsibility, justifying hatred and being indifferent can cause individuals to be “unethical.” We must be aware of this potential in us and any stimuli that encourages it, to counteract evil from within.
Genocides and justifications for unethical acts don’t just happen over night or out of the blue. Instead failing to see humans as valuable souls that have so much to provide humanity and seeing them as a the next target on a list instead, requires mentalities to be adjusted and victims primed over time. One way of doing this is by setting an “us” vs. “them” split in society and associating racist notions with the target “them” group. These inferior groups then become marginalized and are seen as a threat to the nation-state. I see examples of this happening in Kuwaiti society across several groups which provides the first steps that might lead to political violences and instability in the country.
The “us” vs. “them” in Kuwait occurs between different groups but these groups overlap because one can both be an expat and a Shia for example so its hard to speak in exclusive categories. Instead I will speak of how different groups in general become inferior.
In Kuwaiti society, I see the internalization of racism very evidently and persistently. There is always some sort of Other group that is seen as less or unequal, whether it be expats (especially those who occupy less socially prestigious jobs such as house helps or street cleaners), Bedoons, Sunnis or Shias or Badou or Hadar. One group holds racist notions against the other and these play out through Wastas, relationships, jobs, education and healthcare provisions and basic matters of life in Kuwait. We then realize one treatment towards Kuwaitis and a completely different one towards Indians; one towards Muslims and another towards non-Muslims.
Whats happening is that from a young age, I’ve realised children are taught to view different groups in a certain way. To stay away from the Indians or to not deal too much with Shias. I remember very well how in high school I would hear the word “Egyptian” told to someone in a downgrading tone to imply its use as an insult. Or how when our class had one Nigerian student, he would be harassed the most. Even if its meant to be “fun” as the students always claimed, its still targeted at someone specific because of their race. Thus racist notions begin to arise from a very young age and individuals internalise them.
DeleteSome may even accept this subordinate role. A personal story that epitomizes this I've witnessed recently. After going to the police station to record an accident between me and an Indian driver, in the detectives office, my father and I go in and sit down within seconds not waiting for an invitation to get comfortable, yet the Indian men stands there almost like he knows he cannot sit down and be equal. Even though my father urges him to sit down, I can see his unease and uncomfortable pose, then once the detective talks to him again he jumps to stand up, replies very quietly and then remains standing for a few minutes till he is told to sit down again. I believe these attitudes do not stem from modesty, instead some individuals know they are seen as less so choose to stay quiet and give up their rights fearing deportation or problems. There are of course those who stand up for their rights still though.
These forms of structural violence, racism and discrimination can be seen as the first step towards conflict and hate crimes. A point can possibly be reached when the majority group have had enough of minority “inferior” groups that are looked down upon and decide the best thing to do is to force them to leave.. at least thats what Trump would do.
These discriminatory notions can be dealt with by several ways. First media coverage must be objective and not imply hatred to one group. If a crime is committed then the race or religion of the criminal should only be mentioned when its relevant; not redundantly added to imply their race is connected to crime. The media should also work on encouraging equal treatments by spreading awareness of and condemning discrimination against victim groups.
There should also be a decrease in the inequality gap between different groups by not favouring jobs or paying more to certain nationalities/ groups over others. Policies should be implemented to protect against such discrimination as well as the unfair treatment of domestic help for example and violence against them. Instead society must acknowledge their work and efforts as worthy as well and give them more fair pays, this should be true to all of Kuwait’s society. Anyone who opposes these should then be severely punished such that racial conflict is minimal.
Then because the government is sometimes the perpetrator as we’ve seen from previous genocides then its up to society itself to carry out these reforms against racism. Minority groups should speak up from within and demand power, but this must be done peacefully and in this age with globalization and entrenchment of social media worldwide, voices of the weak are heard and the government, even if it does not act from within, will be forced to act against racism.
Tolerance should be encouraged and all groups appreciated for what they bring to the Kuwaiti culture and society.
In the Rwanda genocide, the Tutsi’s group, were killed by Hutu radicals in what has become known as one of the most shocking incidents of the twentieth century. The Rwanda genocide led to the occurrence of the fastest relocations in the history. Tutsi and moderate Hutus who were against the violence act that was taking place back then, left the chaos behind and their birthplace to become refugees. What makes the Rwandan genocide very revolting is not only the genocide itself, but also the fact that it was avoidable. The primary lesson that can be learnt from the Rwandan genocide is that those kinds of political violence that took place because of the machinery of death, the state-sanctioned stimulation of hatred and also because of the crimes of indifferences and conspiracies of silence. The Hutus metaphorically referred to the Tutsi ethnic group as “cockroaches” as a justification to their action towards them, which was “exterminating” them. Another lesson would be acknowledging the risk of the indifference and the consequences of inaction and the danger of a culture of exemption that repeatedly encourages those who plan to commit actions like mass murders and genocide. Continuous violence against women also took a huge part during the Rwandan genocide and in particularly raping them as a weapon of war. They systematically used sexual assaults during the time of the mass murders as a way to humiliate, torture and devalue. The danger of attacks on the most defenseless groups in the society is something that is also worth highlighting. In mass murders, it is often the most vulnerable of the vulnerable, the assaulted children, women victimized by massive sexual violence, fleeing refugees which are the first marks of oppression and violence. Therefore, because of the continuous denial of the Rwandan massacre, and justifying it with fabricated causes and facts such inhuman actions will keep on taking place and become more acceptable throughout time.
ReplyDeleteAnother genocidal act that took place is the Holocaust. Which is basically a bureaucratic persecution and the murder of millions of Jews organized by the Nazi regime and its agents. The Nazis believed that the Germans were ethnically superior and that the Jews were a threat to the societies growth and progress, which lead to the awful action of genocide and destroying them. People must know the importance of remembering the horrifying events that occurred during the Holocaust, one must acknowledge that the mass murder of millions of Jews is not only abstract statistics and for those millions of sacrifices, meant the next generation’s survival. It is also important to emphasize the risks of being silent and the responsibility to prevent such ideology. Most importantly, is the responsibility to educate those generations by the hateful crimes committed by those before them to avoid the escalation of such behaviors.
Thankfully, Kuwait even with it’s dark history during the invasion, yet its not close to any kind of barbaric actions towards those Kuwaiti and non-Kuwaiti. However, it is always important to be cautious especially in an incredibly sensitive matter such as this therefore it is crucial to take certain measures into hand, such as including some kind of education in both schools and universities pointing out what encourages this behavior and how it all begins. Also, it is well-known that Kuwaitis are indeed hostile to those non-Kuwaiti which are most likely taxi drivers, waiters, cleaners and all sorts of low-paying labors therefore it is important that the Kuwaiti community becomes aware of the limit that they should not come close to. Finally, the most powerful tool in our current time, the media. It is essential that the media when covering such events to cover all the bases and facts because in the end, the media is extremely influential to the state of mind of every individual that follows it. May god bless and protect the greatness of Kuwait.
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ReplyDeleteGenocide, I didn’t know much about it, in fact I have only heard of the word a short while before taking this course I did not even understand it fully my first understanding of the word was “mass killing” which is even close to the actual meaning of the word. So as I am a curious one I started searching the word “genocide” on the Internet and coincidently I found out a course was being given on the topic and so I registered for it.
ReplyDeleteThe course began with understanding the word itself “Genocide”, at this point right now the word just feels ugly? Sickening? Not quite sure how to describe it but it’s just unpleasant even saying after fully understanding what genocide is.
So genocide, a word that did not exist before the twentieth century by Polish jurist Raphael Lemkin, who coined after all the brutalities that happened during the Holocaust. Which was convicted under three main categories of international law: 1) Crimes against peace 2) war crimes 3) and crimes against humanity, now logically well at least to my understanding of logic after having such a horrifying moment in history occur, people or THE WORLD would learn. No? Maybe not
And this was just the beginning of what we began covering in the course, after some time I found out there were other incidence that happened before? Some cases never even heard of or denied that they even happened such as the Armenian genocide in 1915 and that was not even half as shocking as finding out about the cases that happened after the holocaust, which were in Cambodia, Rwanda and Bosnia.
Okay… so at this point in the course I was just AMAZED by what happened in the world, going back to the logic I thought humanity had, is if something horrible happens you learn from it, not repeat it; I mean isn’t that what we’re taught growing up if something horrible happens in our life we learn from it and try to avoid having it happen again?
According to Leo Kuper genocide should be looked at as a process and not a uniform. A process that is generated by several of factors and go through metaphors of priming, which is called “ genocidal priming”. Now let that sink in a bit, because what I realized after understanding this is how significant our day-to-day actions are towards genocide. Let’s look at Kuwait for example; Kuwait is a diverse country with a large number of foreigners who live in it, now if you personally have lived in the country long enough you would have already noticed some of the categorizations and marginalization of some ethic groups, as well as labeling and stereotyping that is quite common. You can clearly see the way different nationalities would separate themselves from others. Something I heard recently is that the country is building a hospital just for the Kuwaiti citizen, and it made me wonder why? To me it’s just strange to purposely-separate individuals who live in the same country for something such as health care. It’s like the government is trying to create this gap between people, these could to some people imply that one national deserves health care and the other doesn’t. The real question is, why would you prevent other PEOPLE, HUMAN BEINGS from getting good health care because they do not hold the same nationality as you do?
Now so we don’t get off topic these may not be signs of genocide that is going to occur but they are primers, they do help create heat between groups and discrimination and at an extreme level that contributes to genocide.
ReplyDeleteSo is there hope for this world to live peace, war free? Well I might sound like a pessimist saying this but I don’t think world peace is possible it’s more of the ultimate dream that would be a miracle to happen, to actually maybe live together with less conflict.
Which leads me to conclude with the lessons I’ve learnt from this course, the important lesson and prevention to genocide as well is the fact that I learnt, education. Yeah, you heard someone say it before well it’s true and maybe everyone should actually try listening!
And it’s not just educating people about genocide and the history of genocide but of history in general, about how we should understand and learn about different cultures before pointing fingers and assuming someone is less civilized or modern than you.
Learning will help people realize how we are all the same even with all our differences and this will help us accept each other more and understand what it is we don’t about other cultures.
When we learn, we should also share, this is the one time you should not keep your mouth shut and be the silent one. This is the moment were you should talk, you learned something new share it with someone and this blog is an example of how education is not something to be kept with ones self but to be share and hope that someone might learn something to, to pass it on to someone else.
With learning I also believe people should start being more aware of themselves and their everyday actions. Watch what you say that might have been a joke, or what you label your friend, how you mock people and treat them as well.
We are all human in the end, blood and flesh alike so let’s teach each other a thing or two that’s new and be kind, kindness can go a long way especially when it comes from the heart.
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ReplyDeleteAfter many decades of the Genocide Convention, the international community must bear in mind -- again, as the jurisprudence from the Rwandan genocide, including the Mugasera case decided by many countries courts and UN reminds us that incitement to genocide is a crime in and of itself. Taking action to prevent it, as the Genocide Convention mandates us to do, is not a policy option; it is an international legal obligation of the highest order.
DeleteAlso there are some lessons we have learned in the class from the Rwanda genocide and other cases of political violence such as the danger of indifference and the consequences of inaction, for the Rwandan genocide occurred not only because of the state-sanctioned culture of hate, but because of crimes of indifferences and conspiracies of silence. On the other hand, The danger of a culture of impunity that repeatedly emboldens those intent on committing mass atrocities and genocide.
The persistent danger of violence against women during mass atrocities is a lesson as well we have learned, in particular, rape as a weapon of war. Indeed, evidence from the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda dramatizes the systematic use of sexual assault during the genocide as a means of continued degradation, humiliation, and torture. Therefore, rape emerges not just as a consequence of atrocity, but as an instrument for pursuing it. The danger of assaults on the most vulnerable in society is very important lesson we have discussed. The Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide occurred not only because of the vulnerability of the powerless, but also because of the powerlessness of the vulnerable. In mass atrocities, it is often the most vulnerable of the vulnerable, the brutalized children, women victimized by massive sexual violence, fleeing refugees who are the first targets of oppression and violence. Regrettably, this pattern is playing out in Syria, with its massive incidence of rape, the targeting and torturing of children, and the dramatic refugee plight.
The last but not least lesson that we have learned through our discussion in class that is the cruelty of genocide denial , the denial of the Rwandan genocide, an assault on memory and truth, not unlike the case of Holocaust denial. In its most obscene form, as in both the case of Holocaust denial and the denial of the Rwandan genocide, it will actually accuse the victim of fabrication and falsification of the crimes. Remembrance of the Rwandan genocide is itself a repudiation of such denial -- which becomes more prevalent with the passage of time.
Finally, we should recall the heroic rescuers, those who remind us of the range of human possibility; those who stood up to confront evil, prevailed, and transformed history.
If the government wants to be the P in a PG movie and wants to parent, I highly recommend stable enforceable rules and consistent implementation because going from one extreme to the other just doesn’t work and causes conflict and violence. Either ban smoking or make smoking legal. Either ban Niqab driving or make Niqab driving legal. Do not make it illegal and then not enforce the law. That causes a violent society. And we are going from bad to worse. And maybe when our rules are consistent, and our laws are enforced and our society less violent, maybe, just maybe the World Economic Forum’s rating of the world’s friendliest nations will no longer have Kuwait as the 4th unfriendliness country in the world.
Before taking this class, the word genocide meant nothing more than some violent attack between two groups of people. I did not know the technicalities that go into calling something a genocide, or the ways in which a specific group of people or country is being prepped for genocide. Studying the depths of what went into some of the most well known genocides in class gave me a lot of insight on how people go straight down the violence route when in disagreement with someone rather than finding ways to prevent or fix things between them. As for Rwanda, the Hutu’s and Tutsi’s were a clear divide and were also known to be told apart based on their facial features which wasn’t exactly accurate. When a certain group of people don’t agree with something the minority is doing, they immediately want to find ways to make them “vanish” out of their way. Rather than taking the sensible route, which is trying to solve differences they have in between them, they immediately attack them with violence and accuse them of whatever faults just so they can have an excuse for their attacks. Before any of the attacks/killing begins, the dominant group tends to dehumanize the targeted group, causing those minorities to live in situations which are barely enough for them to survive, causing them to weaken and be more submissive to the dominant group. If some disagreement or difference in opinion occurs, the more dominant group immediately wants to diminish the minority, as it does not like the fact that there is someone who does not agree with their way of thinking. Eventhough we did study the Rwandan genocide case the most in class, but the genocide that I and most people know about the most is the Nazi Holocaust genocide. It serves as a perfect example of the steps the Nazi’s took before they started the massacres; but what I found interesting about this case is that until this day, Germans display their victory very clearly through the history they teach their people, so there’s not much shame about the issue more than there is a sense of victory over a minority they had in their country. What I took from those cases of genocide is that there was always the problem of the dominant group thinking the minority was disrespecting them or that they simply didn’t agree with the way they live their lives. I think we could learn from that is: you should always give yourself a chance to understand people who you have problems with, take in their point of view on things and make sure the misunderstanding is because of different cultural backgrounds/beliefs/economic standing rather than the intention of disrespecting someone.
ReplyDeleteIn Kuwait, there are several “classes” in one society, which are separated based on several factors, but the one specific group of people that most of us know about are the Bidoons. The Bidoon’s issue has been an ongoing problem here in Kuwait for several years now and it has become evident that not only aren’t they able to solve this issue but at times, it seems like they don’t want to solve it. This could be very dangerous in the long run, as for now, the Bidoons are a huge minority in Kuwait, they don’t have the same rights, if any, as all other citizens, a few of them only get educated, all in all they are very excluded from the society they live in. When crimes are committed here in Kuwait, you will rarely not find a Bidoon involved with the problem. In my opinion, boredom and loss of hope play a big role in influencing people into committing terrible crimes, and if Bidoons keep showing up in criminal charges, that will not help their case one bit. To be able to prevent those problems from happening, I would suggest that Kuwait starts treating them with some equality because it will be in their benefit, educating the Bidoon children and providing their families with basic needs can give them a sense of hope that they can one day have a future that doesn’t include problems and violence. Domestic workers is also another minority in Kuwait that faces a lot of discrimination as they aren’t all treated with the respect they deserve and aren’t given their basic needs for living. If this continues, those workers will reach a breaking point and it would be good news to the people and the government of Kuwait, because with all the disrespect and degrading behavior they receive on a daily basis, calming them down once they reach their boiling point is close to impossible. Things we can do to prevent violence in Kuwait is providing much more Bidoons/minorities with education and the attempt to provide equality for people of all social and economic status.
DeleteLearning about what a genocide really is and the mechanisms that enable it to become such a massive atrocity really helped me understand major genocides throughout history. From the Holocaust to the Bosnian genocide, some things remain constant. Firstly, they all stem from the mentality of hate and us vs. them. People of a community come to resent one another for mere differences of ethnicity, language, culture and things that more times than not are not something an individual chooses. furthermore, one group always seems to feel like they are more superior, entitled to more things and therefore have the "right" to marginalise and de-humanize the other group. secondly, we have come to learn that genocide is a type of mass violence that requires organization and is rarely ever sporadic in nature (As Gourvetich explains in his book, We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families.) There is six steps that lead to the act of genocide, which are as follows: classification, symbolization, dehumanization, organization, polarization and preparation. We come to realize that although genocide might erupt over night, it takes many steps to achieve and execute. People are primed to hate, people are encouraged to degrade and then are finally able to carry out their mass killing. Thirdly, genocide, although is usually executed by the state, can not fully succeed without the help of the people. and so we see a the state's role; which is enabling one group to act out as superior and better than the other as to dictate and facilitate the idea that they are not in fact the same and that one group is better than the other. Furthermore, a constant that could be held true for many cases of genocide is the effect of colonization on a state's likeability to experience a genocide. we come to see that the colonizers of a state create a struggle of power and identity within a community and so the people within this community unaware of what to do, break out into acts of mass killings and violence to exemplify their hatred towards the other group. Although genocide has been given an official and legal representation and definition by the United Nations, people who commit genocide, the perpetrators in other words, rarely ever confess or acknowledge the act itself. furthermore, the international community seems to rarely ever act upon stopping a genocide at the time of occurrence and would rather wait several years later to address the issue which i feel increases the damage. why? well, the victims feel more like victims because it feels like they aren't given justice and the perpetrators are basically not reprimanded and are made to feel like what they did was okay and so are less likely to acknowledge the atrocity later on. What we come to learn about genocides based on history is that although arguably unavoidable, people can be programed to slowly change their way of thought (from hate towards acceptance or love for the person in front of them no matter how different they may appear to be.) also, the international community should urge states to not facilitate or encourage hatred amongst different group within its' state and to ensure better communication and acceptance amongst all groups. the state, through education can truly get through to the people that color or language is not an excuse to act in a violent manner and mass kill an entire group of people.
ReplyDeleteIf i were to apply the lessons learned from previous genocides and acts of violence in history to Kuwait, i would say the number one thing it would need to avoid this atrocity is education and the abolishment of marginalizing minority groups. Although for the most part Kuwait's society is hand in hand and doesn’t face major strife, the lack of understanding and acceptance of other groups does exist. A way that this can be targeted and fixed is through education. People need to be educated about what racism and dehumanization is because many act very racist and degrade other people within the society because of their skin tone, religious belief/sect, or for the mere fact that they are foreigners and not Kuwaiti. Through education, we can enable groups within Kuwait's society to act responsibly and realize that we are all humans at the end of the day and that hating one another will only make matters worse and more complicated. Furthermore, we see a heavy marginalization of the Bedoon in Kuwait that i believe is really wrong. To make matters worse, I really feel that they way the state is treating them makes people of the society more susceptible to hating on the Bedoon marginalizing them further.
DeleteBy studying cases of genocide in Rwanda and in other spots of the world, it comes as a shock how massive killings of so brutal nature can be launched between citizens of the same country. However, understanding the conditions that have led to each case of genocide, gives us significant insights about how to prevent the repetition of such inhuman incidents. For example, from the case of Rwanda, it's noticeable how absence of mutual respect between ethnic groups, and legal preservation of rights of minorities have eventually led to developing a sense of inferiority towards the minorities which can be a continuous trigger for acts of violence against them.
ReplyDeleteCases of genocide and political violence discussed in class have also contributed in raising our awareness towards the value of democracy, equality and preservation of human rights. Usually, in societies which resents democracy; which don't treat citizens on equal terms; and which don't offer sufficient legal bases for protection of human rights, there is a high potential of indulgence into political violence. An incident like hitting the plan of the Rwandan President in 1994, may easily trigger a violent conflict, that in light of loose ruling regime can indulge into acts of killing between citizens of the same country.
To prevent incidence of political violence in any country, it's important to set a tight political and legal system that organizes relationships between citizens under the broad rules of equality and respect of human rights. It is also equally important to raise awareness to citizens of the same country to the value of coexistence between different ethnic identities, and to assert the concept that living together in a just community, ruled by laws, governed by equality, and giving sufficient space for democracy and freedoms, constitute the golden formula for protecting our community from any forms of political violence.
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Nourah Adwani
This class has perked my attention about something that has been taking people’s lives away for years. What’s beyond me is that regardless the series of sickening events, us humans have not seemed to pinpoint how to prevent it, what to do about it, or how to stop it before it exterminates thousands or millions of people. I understand that these things could have taken place a long time ago when people weren’t as civilized or informed as we are today, but why does it keep happening? How does one have the audacity to belittle someone so easily and blindly? Barbarically wipe them out, and think, “There is now more room for the civilized. We no longer have to face threats that were caused by minorities.”Minorities will always exist (however we have to look at it from different perspectives)
ReplyDeleteYou’d expect people to have learned something from the previous genocides, but apparently not. It’s difficult to pinpoint specific ways to prevent Kuwait from tipping over to the downside. However, it is possible to raise awareness by simply educating people. Seeing as Kuwait does not have a secular government, conflicts regarding religion are bound to arise. In fact, they already have. I strongly believe this because coming from a half Sunni half and half Shi'i family, I've witnessed people feeding themselves with the lie that unity between citizens exist. The state does not recognize religious groups not mentioned in the Quran, such as Buddhists, Hindus, and Sikhs. Members of unrecognized religious groups are unable to apply for visas and residencies, build places of worship or other religious facilities, or request security and police protection for a place of worship.
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I also say this because people are not aware of the laws Kuwait has set to marginalize anyone who isn't a Kuwaiti Sunni, or just foreigners in general. If Kuwait was a perfect state, why do Bidoons exist? I asked family members this question, and asked them if they can make a coloration between Kuwait's marginalization of people that apparently don't deserve to partake in basic everyday life, and politically violent events that have happened (and are still happening), "But that's different. They're Bidoons. It's totally different, Bidoon's are criminals." is what they responded. What I'm trying to say is the law will always primarily affect non-Sunni Kuwaitis or just expats in general, and soon enough political violence will erupt if nothing is changed. However it’s definitely not a religious matter, it’s also a matter of “my background is better than yours, I am the majority, therefore you are wrong and I am right. I will always be right, and you will always be wrong, thus you need to leave my bubble.” This superiority that most people in this country seem to feed on can lead to dispute from a lot of different aspects. Zygmunt Bauman’s argument about the utopian vision has honestly never sounded so accurate to me until I started seeing slow signs of theoretical gardeners picking out unwanted weeds in Kuwait. It's not a matter of hate, just like the Holocaust was not a matter of hate either. Not so long ago, my friend’s dad received a text message from the ministry of interior that more or less said that if you are a non Kuwaiti employee over the age of 60, you need to leave the country.
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My dad being a non-Kuwaiti was threatened to be deported for passing a red light if payments weren’t received as soon as possible. Very unnecessary deportations. That being said, it is quite obvious that there is a fear of different minority groups “taking over.” Or a fear of being “westernized and losing your original culture." “America is taking over the world,” something I hear on a daily basis. It gets old and sickening to keep having to hear about how people are the victims when in reality, they're the ones who are in power, and there is absolutely nothing to fear. In any case, genocide is a slow paced process with several factors that contribute to it. From what I've learned throughout this course, genocide is not inevitable. We have enough examples of poor interventions during past genocides; enough to be able to finally contribute to preventing one. So how do we prevent genocide here in Kuwait? I'm aware that everyone has been saying this, but, education! Lots of it. Additionally, I've learned that looking at these things from a sociological perspective can help understand "outsiders" a lot more. So I think people need to infuse that into their daily lives as well in any way possible to be able to cope with foreign surroundings without feeling inferior. Most importantly, shoving issues under a rug won't help. Hence, people need to be given the freedom to talk about these issues without being shamed for it. No country isn't prone to genocide if not careful. Is Kuwait going to be next? It's really up to the state and the people who live here.
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ID: S00024005
ReplyDeleteThroughout my course of learning to identify and prevent genocides I had always asked myself a question, do I care what happens to others? The sum months of asking this question repeatedly has given me an answer, I don't know. It's one thing to intellectually discuss and dissect events such as the genocides in Rwanda or Namibia, it is another to "feel" what is apparently expected of me. And what is "expected" of me? Empathy, sadness, horror or loss. I have felt none of these things. The only identifiable emotions that I can recall are intrigue and excitement. I had wondered if I would be considered as monstrous as Nazis were made to be as they put Jewish minorities in concentration camps. Was I the same as these boogeymen? Was I beneath contempt like other ethnic minorities were during the Rwanda genocide, which saw Hutu militia mobs killing Tutsi men, women and children on sight? Was it disturbing that I could so easily understand the motivations and symbolic meanings of genocidal acts, such as raping women to remove their sense of power over their sexuality and eventually causing death via AIDS transmission? But perhaps from these questions of self doubt I had the epiphany of how I can add to the progression of prevention of genocides.
By observing my position in Kuwait, I have come to realize that my very upbringing, coupled with the education in Cultural Anthropology, has given me the ability to identify and understand pre-existing patterns of socio/political functions of genocide in Kuwait. I am defined as the privileged Kuwaiti born middle class. My socio-economic group is substance or filler of the Kuwaiti population in Kuwait.
When you picture a Kuwaiti, you are thinking of this group. Then there is the ruling political body of Kuwait, this composes of the Amir, the Shiekhs and then the ministers of the government and the members of parliament. What are the objective of the rulers of a domain ? To establish ownership over a quantity of land to supply it's linked ethnic/national group with space to live and to give said group power over all "other" groups present. To step away from the theory and look at the reality, The policies in Kuwait award resources such as ownership of land and money to it's citizens solely because they are Kuwaiti. Expatriates are forcefully assimilated to behave in ways that is accepted by Kuwaiti standards, No crosses must be displayed outside in public areas or to engage in romantic acts of affection such as kissing in malls or other ares where Kuwaiti families frequent. Whats more, should an expatriate betray any reason that he should not be allowed to live in Kuwait, whether because of illegitimate business dealings or because a member of parliament is upset at him, said expatriate will be deported home. The expatriate group does not have this access to living resources available to them. the example I compare this to is drawn from Namibia. The Germany in the 1900's colonized the region of Namibia, Africa for her citizens to provide living space for their population and jobs to establish themselves in economically safe lives. The Germans at first assimilated the Herero and eventually they dressed like Germans and even converted to Christianity. However, when a splinter from the Herero attacked the German colonists to show their dissatisfaction at the occupation, the Germans retaliated with full force. The Herero were almost annihilated in the fighting and after when the surviving Herero were put in proto work camps to be worked to death and dehumanized.
ReplyDeleteAn important note to make about how a group can be primed for a genocide is by making it inferior to the perpetrator. In Rwanda, the policy of identity cards served to cause a population that was socially and religiously identical to be separated and identifiable by facial differences and other physical traits. From this point, you establish a constant propaganda of how the ruling ethnic group is superior and how the minority or "perceived other" have undesirable traits and behaviors which is seen as a threat. The Nazi propaganda did this by displaying constant messages in the media relaying caution from Jews and how they are targeting attacking the morale and religious sanctity of Germany. So how do these examples relate to Kuwait? The socially enforced racism in Kuwait is centered on Superiority rather than inferiority. Kuwaitis are raised to believe they are superiority in economy because of the natural reserves of oil and thus they have an elevated status in life to those who are not so fortunate. The superiority of religion, the belief that Islam is the one true religion is interpreted as evidence that all other religions such as Christianity is false and thus those who follow it are morally and religiously bankrupt and impure.
To look at a situation and make an observation is one thing, But to understand the events that transpired to cause the future to occur is a gift of its own. The Rwanda Genocide could be said to have started before the Hutu power campaigns that built a regime of hate and murder that eventually exploded all at once. What is better is to understand that the Hutu hate of Tutsi came from the oppressive past reign of the Tutsi, which was orchestrated by German colonists that interpreted the pastoralisim of the Tutsi as a sign of a ruling class lording over the Hutu agricultural serfs. To understand the history of a subject is to understand its potential future. So an in depth study of the past of Kuwait and how it's national attitudes have changed may prove useful in understanding what populations are Kuwaiti nationals being primed to exterminate in a possible genocide. the next step to stopping genocides is one that has yet to occur properly: action. The UN has proven incapable in preventing genocides and in putting an effective stop to those occurring. Rwanda is the one of the most successful genocides to date. At first, the members of the UN were unwilling to intervene or even recognize that a genocide was occurring for fear of the loss of support from their respective national groups, and the prioritizing of the safety of said groups. As Edmund Burke once said, "all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing".
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ReplyDeleteFor centuries, the term ‘genocide’ had taken place within various civilizations with various ideologies. For centuries, certain groups of individuals had been a target of another dominant group, regardless of the reason. Regardless of the reasoning, the act of genocide in itself had been excusable up to a point, till its meaning had a value. This value may be the recurring events of horrific acts, or it may be the blindfold removed off of humanity’s eyes. Once again, ‘human beings’ were brought to the horrid truth of an unjust world and its systematic genocidal tendencies, where the truth had to be revealed, and injustice brought to light. One would say that the act of dominance is of a primal feature; one of an instinctual habit. But if this is the case, what happens to the concept of evolution? Was it a physical event, taking place on the outside, while the inside remained stagnant with its perpetual instinctual primal features? One might say that we as Homo-sapiens, have come a long way in comparison to our ancestors. But the occurrence of the act of genocide, even after a more ‘civilized’ world, proves wrong. The act of genocide is not natural, it is taught. The act of genocide is not instinctual, it is bred. So, why and how does genocide still exist? This paper will follow-up on these questions.
According to the readings and lectures of this course, the act of genocide did not gain its full-blown fame or capacity, up until 1944. Though, it had been taking place centuries earlier, the act of genocide or mass killings did not have the ‘value’ or ‘awareness’ to be defined or named, up until the unfortunate events of the Second World war. With this said, due to the horrific acts of the Nazi-holocaust, the term ‘genocide’ was labelled and defined, primarily by Lemkin- a Jewish, Polish Lawyer and activist of his time. Deeply moved by the mishaps, and the actions of Nazi- Germany, Lemkin dedicated his time and efforts to the Jewish cause, and with that, the definition of genocide according to him follows as: ‘A coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves…’. This definition, though vague in what type of groups, or individuals that make up that group, helped bring about the attention needed to such horrific acts against humanity. Refined a few years later, it consisted of ethnic, racial, religious and social backgrounds of victimized groups. Generally speaking, it is the act of violence, based on the ideology of superiority and dominance, to a less able group of people, which eventually have no means of retaliation, except losing lives against the perpetrators. It is an act that is dominated by hatred, insecurity, pessimism and lack of social awareness- even if the perpetrators seem to be educated and able to do so. And so, with the understanding of the essentiality of its definition, and its emergence, a new international watchdog was to be created- with the power of the people and international organizations and international laws.
A massive misconception of the act of genocide seems to cloud our judgement, regardless of its demeanour. Just as anything else in this world, we expect it to take place within a night. Genocide is a gradual act, through careful calculations and actions. One cannot make a group feel and act inferior, without their consent. Therefore a gradual psychological process of fear, discrimination, and division is needed to complete the mission. The stages of genocide are categorized into six stages, however, it would take much more complexity for it to actually be processed and implemented. This is true with human nature, and nature in itself. The stages consist of classification, symbolization, dehumanization, organization, polarization, and finally, preparation. To classify is to generate a stereo-type, or generalized ideology of a group or subgroup. Doing so, an ‘us- versus- them’ scheme is put into place. This creates a bi-polar society, where division is key, and one group is the more dominant one. With symbolization, a division is made where one can be distinguished from a majority group. By symbolizing groups or individuals, a distinction is made to the general public. This psychologically triggers people to differentiate rather than find commonalities. Just as we symbolize our flags and our religions to create a distinction, so is made with target groups. As for dehumanization, individuals or groups are dehumanized- in terms of lacking an essential value or meaning for being a human being. This ‘value; or ‘meaning’ is usually appointed by the perpetrator- under a false pretence of beliefs. With the last three stages of genocide, which are ‘organization, polarization and preparation’, a combination of a political mind-frame, a militaristic method, and a calculative approach is all it would take for genocide to flourish. It is safe to say that all six stages have been somewhat revised by the mass public, with the Nazi-holocaust case, the slavery/colonial case, and specifically, the Rwandan case. This may be due to the level of indifference, rather than ignorance, which had taken over the world in the early 90’s.
ReplyDeleteIn the case of the Rwandan genocide of 1994, indifference seemed to be the key to creating a difference between previous cases and the future. When having all means of avoiding or ending such a misfortune of an event, and not doing so efficiently or effectively, something is wrong, no? Perhaps this is the reason why the Rwandan genocide is seemingly always prominent in topics. Perhaps the guilt of global citizens and the failure of an effective international system and law had brought about the mass killings of young children, women, and men, for the reason of only belonging to an ethnic group. With that being the only reason for its occurrence, and with its damages being easily avoidable, the international system was blamed, as it should probably have. Almost an entire population of Tutsi’s were exterminated, and for what? Nothing. Even though government officials, international actors, and organizations were informed of a possible attack, no action was taken. For reasons including non-interference, fear of consequences, and or lack of interest, a bloodshed was created instead. With the previous genocide cases, a list of arguments could be given which could lessen the burden of its occurrences. Whether it be lack of awareness, a superior colonial spirit, a divided world, and without the transparency that the media brings about nowadays, reasons could be created to diffuse the blame. As for the Rwandan genocide, none of the reasons seemed relevant or strong enough to support its occurrence. And if they did so, they were irrevocable and inexcusable.
ReplyDeleteWith this said, once genocide was studied and analysed as it has been in this course, a new perspective was created. One that would understand that genocide is a much more complex form of action, proposed by an indecent psychological, physiological, and intellectual state. Once that was understood, it was easily applicable to other cases in history and the present, allowing us to prepare for the possibility of a more prosperous future. The lessons were learned through education, an important mean to an important end. For, through this, we were able to dig into the depths of genocide as a term, then as a meaning, then as an event, increasing our empathetic features that make us human. These lessons include education as its essence itself. Without education, one would not know their position in a system, one would not be as aware, hence, promoting indifference. Without a secure and stable state or nation, instability is easily created through the cracks of a weak government or state. Without just political officials, corruption would be the key factor of the downfall of an entire nation. Without the promotion of peace and ‘brotherhood’ in a nation, and without a multi-ethnic majority, discrimination and hatred would be the mechanisms of a ‘genocidal’ society. And without a united international system, others will be left behind. This is why the promotion of international peace and unity is significant and must be endorsed by all global actors. It is a shame that we as a people need to be constantly reminded of our differences and our flaws, instead of our similarities as one of a kind. And ironically, it is a shame that we need to be reminded of our similarities at times, because we have been mentally conditioned to forget them.
In the case of Kuwait, a wonderfully small country in the Arabian Peninsula, seemingly stable and secure, with a minority of locals and a majority of foreigners, a cautious approach should be taken into account. Though many may agree, the Kuwaiti society can be of a discriminative one, in regards to local minorities. Seeing that Kuwait is a multi-cultural society, certain issues may arise. Currently, we have two main ones: the issue of the Bedoon, and the issue of expat workers. In the first case, more sensitivity is required with the group that is marginalized. The Bedoon issue is of a complicated case, that we hope can be resolved as soon as possible. It cannot be resolved in the short term, but some improvements or efforts could be made to create better opportunities for them as a community. As for not addressing the issue at hand, more complications were created as well. Seen as a heavy burden, the pros and cons of addressing such a situation remains under careful consideration. Additionally, regarding expat workers of South Asian descent, the mistreatment and violation of humanitarian laws has sabotaged the image of Kuwait and its development in the past years. With more than enough means to address this issue, officials still remain indifferent, whilst small organizations have helped to spread awareness and attempted to resolve the issue. Though governmental support is needed, and an enforcement of policies as well, companies and individuals still seem to disregard these laws. This seems to be a matter of self-education, manners and morals- which unfortunately cannot be taught in schools, but rather, at homes and in minds. All in all, seeing the probability of genocides taking place, one can only hope that it does not occur in their home country, let alone in another. This is why proper policies need to be created and implemented, equality and tolerance needs to be promoted, a good standard of living should be provided to the people by the government itself, and public services provided for all. Instead of being fearful of the fact that we as Kuwaitis are a minority in our own country, we should be thankful and grateful for those who work day and night (literally) for the foundation and well-being of it. Instead of dividing ourselves with our privileged services, we should celebrate our similarities and, again, be grateful for what we have. Whether with the stability of the country, the diversity of the country, with the freedom within the country, we are better off than many others that cannot and do not have half of what we do. Therefore, the primary lesson learned from the genocide cases and lectures is to continuously promote equality, tolerance, kindness and most of all, understanding that though we may be different in all aspects, we in the end, are all the same. There is no doubt about it.
ReplyDeleteThe first thing I learnt in this class which is probably the foundation of what I needed to understand everything else, was that genocide doesn’t mean killing a mass number of people who are of the same nationality or ethnic group. What is meant by genocide is something more planned. An act that requires intent. An act that does not necessarily mean the perpetrator kills their victim.
ReplyDeleteOne of the most profound lessons that I have learnt in this class is that people are capable of doing anything, from the most sinister things like letting a camp in Poland full of Jews starve to death, to a hopeful story of how a Hutu Rwandan would put their fate on the line regardless of the consequences to help a fellow Rwandan who happens to be Tutsi. The latter, however, is more rare to come by during a conflict, as the fear factor is much stronger when it comes to sinister things.
Throughout the course, while discussing all the different cases of genocide starting from the Namibian to the latest Rwandan, I found myself continuously asking the same question. How could a group of people be so evil? How could a German travel all the way to West Africa and believe that he is more entitled to the land than the population that was already there? Then again, when the Holocaust was discussed, how could people watch as their neighbors disappeared to concentration camps where death was inevitable and go about their day like nothing happened? I thought by 1994 people have become more ‘civilized’, smarter, or even too busy with the changing world so why should they care about something that cant even be seen? However, Rwanda was the most astonishing one out of all cases. Rwanda was a blood bath, it was overnight the way people turned on each other, stories of Hutu husbands killing their Tutsi wives to prove an invalid point.
Reflecting back on all of them, an obvious trend can be seen. Namibia had a white supremacy ideology to justify it. The German’s wanted to expand, and they would expand where they wanted to, when they wanted to. The ‘living space’ of White Christian Germans was more important than any Black African. When a tribe in Namibia resisted that, the German’s were not happy so they killed whom they could and let the rest get lost or starve to death in the desert where conditions were too harsh to live. What is learnt from this case is the fact that when people do not understand another’s differences, it makes them more likely to disregard the way they live or
DeleteThe Holocaust had sort of the same ideology, where Hitler had the aim to achieve a truly Aryan race, and to eliminate all the weakness of the German society. Thus, Jews were killed as they were blamed for everything that was wrong with the state, handicaps and gypsy’s were also massacred as they represented weakness.
The Rwandan genocide was unique in the way that it was a government-sponsored genocide, so the people were doing it out in the open and no one really resisted against the acts. However, with the other two genocides, the acts were a little more discrete as it was the government doing the atrocious acts instead of the people.
In all of these cases another theme that it consistent is that before all the physical acts come in to play, the victims go through a 7 other stages of genocide which Raphael Lemkin goes names these stages as; classification, symbolization, dehumanization, organization, polarization, preparation and the eighth and final stage, extermination. All these stages are a way of getting the society 'ready' for what is about to happen. It is a way to justify, and to prepare the whole of society as propaganda to allow them to be desensitized to the 8th stage which is extermination.
The Bidoon in Kuwait are a sector of the society who are considered "stateless" as they do not have any nationality. Because they do not have a nationality, the state deems them unworthy of an education, job, healthcare, or any real rights. They are separated from the rest of society and stereotyped as "bad", "thieves", "violent" and many other appalling things. It could be said that Kuwait is in the organization stage of genocide because of the following:
Classification: The bidoon are given special identification cards that state that they are Bidoon.
Symbolization: The name in itself is a symbol, the literal translation means “without”, to be without nationality, to be without anything really.
Dehumanization: The Bidoon are not considered to be part of Kuwait’s population in statistics. Neither are children of Bidoon parents entitled to the nationality even if their family has been in Kuwait for countless of generations.
Organization: The majority of the Bidoon community live in a separated area in Kuwait called Tai’ma. This makes them isolated from the city, and where all the active civil society takes place.
To this day, Kuwait could be seen as being in the fourth stage of genocide according to Raphael Lemkin, the question now is; is it going to continue this way to a point where the act of physical genocide is going to happen in Kuwait? Or is another case of simply violating ones rights? One thing is for sure is that Kuwait needs to start integrating this isolated community to avoid further damaging the relationship and start working towards a better future.
Throughout this course, we have studied multiple cases of genocide and political violence and the seminal work conducted in that field. We have read and discussed various cases and anthropological definitions and arguments which surround the genocide discourse. In the process, we have learnt to critically analyze cases of political violence from various angles and theories. Primarily, we learnt that genocide must be understood as a multi-causal process, as a means to an end, and not an end in itself. Zygmunt Bauman theorized that genocide is an act of creation not destruction; the bureaucratic creation of an ‘ideal’ society through the ‘Utopian vision’ paradigm.
ReplyDeleteGenocide does not start and end with the mass extermination of a group of people, but leads to a wave of byproducts and repercussions that have a perpetual effect on a nation or society. This can exist in the form of a generation of babies that were a product of rape, in cases of political violence; or in the form of years of resentment and tension. Hence, we must study genocide to learn to ask critical questions, and prevent the reoccurrence of such atrocious crimes against humanity. In the process, we will develop a human rights based approach in support of the international protection of human rights. We must also take preventative measures against cases of potential genocide through an application of Gregory H. Stanton’s 8 stages of genocide: symbolization, dehumanization, organization, polarization, preparation, extermination, and denial which offer a structural understanding of the genocidal process. Given the case of Kuwait, there are clear indications of oppression of the Bedoon; one that showcases clear signs of indirect violence. Hence, in order for us to prevent conflicts and violence from erupting in Kuwait, we must first and foremost acknowledge the level of indirect violence that is unmistakably committed against the Bedoon. We must focus on the mechanisms through which indirect violence exists against the Bedoon in the inefficient systems of administration, the cultural violence used to justify and legitimize their oppression, their marginalization, etc. to allow for a radical shift in mentality that should transform the stifling “us vs them” narrative and societal division that impedes the prospect of coexistence.
In the present day scenario, one of the major consequences of science is violence. Genocide is a kind of political violence that is meant to destroy a particular ethnic groups or a group of people belonging to particular nation or race. Other kinds of political violence includes the Great Revolt of 1857 in India, European Colonialism, etc.
ReplyDeleteThe genocide at Rwanda created a profound impact on other nations and people. Rwanda is a small country in Africa where there is the highest population with good agricultural economy. Most of the population belonged to the Hutu group i.e.., 70% of population and the rest is the Tutsis. After the World War II, Rwanda came under the League of Nations under Belgium mandate. The Belgiums favored the Tutsi to protest against the Hutu people. However, in the year 1994, there was an airplane crash that carried Habyarimana and the Burundian president. All people including the presidents were killed. After this genocide attack, there was a continuous attack in the country by the Hutu extremists. Thus there was an ethnic hostility among the Hutu and Tutsi people. The Rwandan genocide is a major political violence in Africa.
Violence is the language of Political power. Therefore, political history uses reappraisal that considers force as a legitimate good play. Many lessons can be learned from all these kind of political violence or genocide since one understands the positive as well as negative part of the violence. Dispute between two tribes is a heart wrenching attitude. The violence among the two tribes Tutsi and Hutu is created by revenge. One killing the other and the other killing back out of rage is the major crisis. So many lessons have been learned by the world from this Rwandan genocide with the idea of preventing such acts further in any nation.
This kind of disputes can be prevented from happening in Kuwait. The basic thing needed in Kuwait is the correct treatment of expats. Eruption of violence and conflicts can be prevented by some treatments. The foreigners should be treated the same as the citizens or original tribes of Kuwait that they must not be treated as slaves. They can be provided with good jobs out of equal treatment of human. Otherwise the expats can be deported to their own nations.
It is the duty of the teachers in Kuwait to teach the students about the history of past for any incident since this would help in interpreting the present and can conduct best practices in the future in a well manner. Violence and conflicts can be best prevented if one learns to weigh the merits and weaknesses of rebellions and riots.
DeleteIf one wants to know about violence, then automatically and absolutely, the teachers in Kuwait must teach or include such kind of subjects in academic syllabus in order to make one know about the terms of power and its attitudes because violence is linked with power and it acts as its language. It can be used as a weapon to avoid change and prevent opposition as did by the European colonizers. It is not that violence can be exhibited only in physical means but also through writings and arts, violence is picturized and described. Therefore it is better to know about the history of any political conflict if to prevent it from happening in Kuwait. Education and best educators are essential for this. The Bedoons and domestic workers must be treated well by the laws and customs of the government. The people of Kuwait must never remain indifferent to the sufferings of other people within the same nation. There must be an act of humanity in all that one does wherever he/she goes.