There is no current resolution in the peace process in Kenya. At this time, Kofi Annan has called off the talks until the both leaders can meet face to face so as to get beyond the name calling and accusations of dishonesty within the discussions. Please read this article from BBC News for more detail about the events this week.
The killing in Kenya has stopped for the time being, Praise God! However, the estimated number of refugees is now over 600,000. I can't fathom that many people on the run, it boggles the mind. The beginning of this battle in Kenya has been compared by some to the first days of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, a massive extermination of 800,000 Rwandans in 100 days at the hands of their brothers.
If you would like to know more about the Rwandan genocide, I highly recommend the 2005 Portuguese movie "Beyond the Gates", also known under the USA title "Shooting Dogs". It is the true story of a Catholic Technical school in Kigali that was a base for the UN peacekeeping forces in Rwanda and then became an emergency refugee camp. A BBC reporter has a line in the film that was chilling in its honesty.
"In Bosnia, it was the best stuff I've ever done. I cried every day. Strangely enough over here, not a tear. Anytime I saw a dead Bosnian woman, a white woman, I thought, that could be my mom. Over here, there just dead Africans. What a thing to say. We're all just selfish pieces of work in the end."
Although I knew the facts about the genocide in Rwanda, seeing this movie so well acted in graphic detail with personal characters was very difficult to watch but made it all the more real. On the verge of genocide in Africa again, what will we do right now... do we have a responsibility to people half a world away?
James 4:13-17
13 Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." 16 As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. 17 Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.
Christians can not sit idle and allow genocide to happen when we have been given the chance to intervene.
1 comment:
Thanks for your blog posts on this issue Laura. Distance no longer determines who our neighbor is. Africa is our neighbor, and we are commanded to love them...
Matt 22:37-39 "And He said to him, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandement. The second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
If this was happening on American soil, what would we do? We are commanded to do the same for our neighbors.
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