Jan 23 2011
Page Turner: Shake Hands With The Devil
Read it.
Even if you aren’t familiar with the Rwandan genocide or the events occurring in Africa, you should read this book. The themes don’t just have to do with the crisis. Major themes also discuss how one’s own guilt, regrets, and personal mindstate can be one’s biggest enemy and the failure of large international bodies and humanity.
It’s definitely sad and a lot of scenes are very graphic. But there are also very poignant quotes and thoughts and passages that really made me smile.
Definitely recommended.
Click for my favorite quotes:
“What Brent and i were witnessing was the movement of over twelve thousand people of all ages in the dark in order not to draw RGF fire. We barely heard a shuffling as they went by. The RPF guards gestured their directions and people obeyed without a word. It was like a parade of ghosts, heads bowed, burdened with their possessions, moving in the dark of night to an unknown destination where at least they would be safe. I watched with an undermining feeling of helplessness but with such deep respect for these people. They had been without food and water for the best part of two weeks yet were able to move with discipline and order. Not even a baby cried as they went by.” (Dallaire, p. 335).
“The final salutation in UN messages is always ‘Best Regards.’ For the only time on this mission, I closed the document with, ‘At this point, FC [Field Commander] finds regards very difficult to express.'” (Dallaire, p. 433).
“We adhere to a tough brand of hockey back home. As play started, the Canadians dominated for about a minute – until one of the Ghanaians floored Major John McComber. … As the game progressed and the score went up, not in our favour, we realized that we had been had. The Ghanaians play field hockey as a national sport, and Henry had assembled a high-calibre team of fit, talented, young men to counter the older and somewhat less fit Canadians.” (Dallaire, p. 453-454).
“Kahn continued: ‘I have never witnessed such horror, such vacant fear in the eyes of patients, such putrid stench. I did not throw up, I did not even cry: I was too shocked. I was silent. My colleagues who had lived through the massacres were hardened: they had seen worse, much worse.'” (Dallaire p. 461).