15 Comments

Smells like two genocides to me. I understand why Corbett is saying no genocide though I don’t agree with that. But what is the point. If there was no genocide how does that matter in the scheme of things. Thanks for clarifying.

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If there's no genocide, that get's the current regime off the hook from a major crime. One genocide (of Tutsis) also lets the current regime off the hook, which is why they introduced legislation in Rwanda to ban any theory that contradicts the Tutsi-only genocide.

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Or maybe you explain that in part 4.

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As a member of the jury who paid close attention to all three parts, my verdict is “A Tale of Two Genocides” or, as you say, “double genocide”.

Talk about tribalism at its very worst … a picture of what divide and conquer looks like when it devolves into divide and slaughter.

“The visitor learned that the attempt to suppress ethnicity in Rwanda led to ‘Jew’ becoming short-hand for ‘Tutsi’.” — What a striking example of the law of unintended consequences in action.

“Proof, if it were needed, that dictatorships all around the world are merely taking their cue from the West, which has stopped pretending that it ever valued the civilised norms it claimed to champion.” — Nail, meet hammer!

BTW, without casting aspersions Corbett's way — as I'm sure we both hold him in highest regard, and would surely include his likeness on a Redpiller's Mount Rushmore — let it be said, that as a general rule, nuance is the enemy of clickbait.

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On the clickbait observation, I've seen Corbett devote considerable time to eschewing clickbait on the grounds that it's dishonest. I don't think he was clickbaiting and I also have too much respect for him to think he would consciously do that. That's not to say he won't choose a dramatic title, but not at the expense of what he believes to be the truth.

I genuinely think that he believes the title is accurate. I think he genuinely believes that ethnicity was not a factor in the slaughters of 1994. He said it plainly. I think he genuinely believes it was just a coup d'etat and civil war. As I said, it was that and more. Both he and Harmon Snow have not wrapped their minds around the fact that the country was bitterly divided along ethnic lines. I suspect they have been blinded to the ethnic hatred by a desire to side with the underdog, in this case Hutus. Perfectly understandable - that's my reflex reaction too. I see 2 pieces of flawed logic in operation that lead to the no genocide theory. (1) It's not ethnic, but class based conflict; (2) There is a Tutsi the elite which = RPF that is responsible for the whole mess.

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Agreed! Thanks for clarifying and adding nuance. My observation "let it be said, that as a general rule, nuance is the enemy of clickbait", has nothing to do with Corbett per say ... it's just a thought/concept that occurred to me in the course of reading. Clearly, I was not clear about this.

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Got it. Thank you.

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You have been forensic and my brain is frying. Whatever happened it was absolutely tragic and horrendous. The two things that stand out most to me from reading this are a) the horror of Tutsis identifying as Jews, and b) the way we are all constantly asked for our ethnicity, and now 'gender', on almost any form we fill in. The latter has always felt really off to me and now it's going to fill me with the horror I've already mentioned twice, each and every time. Just gathering information to improve our services - of divide and rule through nudging us into slaughtering one another at any point in the future when it may come in handy to the system (whatever name we want to give it).

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Preach it sistah! I was pretty horrified by your point a) above and, as I say, more in Part 4. I mean, it's proper howling-at-the-moon stuff. I stopped ticking the ethnicity box on those NHS and doctors' forms in about 2008. If we want to live in a world in which ethnicity doesn't matter, why is it being monitored so furiously?

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Totally unrelated, but important when I'm talking to people about your Substack - how do you pronounce your first name? In fact, both of them?

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This is unquestionably THE most challenging question that has been put to me in my short and unillustrious Substack career. So congratulations!

The consonants are straightforward. Same sounds as in English.

Use these words/phonetics to get the vowel sounds:

u – rude

e - egg

o – orange

i – ee

a - ah

Finally (you asked for it!), and this promises to be hilarious if you take it seriously and watch the video, you should roll the 2 Rs in Rusere, in the way that Italian, Spanish or Russian speakers do. (Scottish people are also very good at this as they love a good roll in the R). However, I do very generously provide an exemption from this particular rule on the grounds that it’s impossible for most English speaking people. Also it’s a bit unfair to ask people to roll the R when I myself have forgotten how to do it after hearing my name pronounced with an unrolled R for 24 years.

If you like a challenge, I have provided a high quality YouTube video lesson on how to roll the R. It gets funnier with every second that it progresses. Keep an eye on that Q-tip and note what the instructor does with it at time stamp 5:38.

Good night and good luck.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBZacz5w5X8

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This is very helpful. I can even roll the Rs, which I learned to do in Poland. But the challenge is not yet over, so it's probably good you've hopefully had a good night's rest. The most important part of it all is: where do you put the stresses?

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On the first name, almost all syllables equal. Last name - probably more on the -ni- but very subtle. Again, it doesn't matter. In the next audio version, I will start with saying my name and that should make this entire exchange completely redundant!

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I've enjoyed the exchange too much for it to be redundant! And excellent - you've prompted me to start listening to the audios!

So which language does your name come from? I'm interminably curious! And oh no!! I've already got to sink my teeth into part 4 of Rwanda!

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