Maybe in the flood we'll build an ark
It gets you down
It gets you down
You've travelled far
What have you found?
Analyze: Thom Yorke
Tragedy and comedy live side by side here at the Tribunal. You read through transcripts of witness testimony that just rips your heart apart. You sit in that courtroom and hear smug defense lawyers saying there was no genocide in Rwanda in 1994. You watch them sneer at women who were raped and call them liars. You spiral down. Thom Yorke was right except for one thing- there is time to analyze and think things through. Things don't move fast around here- and I'm not just talking about the trials themselves. Things move desperately slowly. You could take it all in if you think hard enough but you probably shouldn't. 800,000 people died. Machetes, guns, rape. Women and children. Nothing existed in that vortex but sheer, incomprehensible evil of a magnitude no one could ever completely understand. It took this Tribunal nearly ten years to finally agree that yes, there was a genocide of the Tutsi in Rwanda and the prosecution does not have to spend months bringing in evidence to prove it in each case. Trying to get the United Nations to bring justice is a bit like training an elephant to dance the samba in a china shop without breaking anything.
I've taken the whole thing too personally. I thought when I came to the tribunal I'd be ready for the stuff that I was going to face, but I wasn't and I don't know if I could ever have been. There's too much death and too much tragedy to take in. So much is beyond rational analysis, so much is being dressed up in fancy legal terms with nowhere to go. Everybody knows but nobody understands.
And then I'm sitting outside with Nikki and we're having an ice-cream and having a mock debate about whether chocolate is better than strawberry and vanilla. We are young and in the sun. An old guy stops by and wonders about the point of having a metal detector at the entrance if it keeps going off everytime you walk through irrespective of the items you have on your person. It is a good question come to think about it. We laugh some more. He wanders away muttering and smiling to himself.
And that is Thursday afternoon- sitting outside with a friend and an ice cream having a good laugh. People stroll by lazily- it's nearly two o'clock and the lunch break is over. We deal with tragedy in the morning and we get away from it by having running jokes about dessert and rebellion at lunch. We take refuge under the umbrella of an ice cream gag and we wrap ourselves in the coat of irreverence.After two o'clock we walk back into the waiting arms of the hell that still hangs over us twelve years later and we carry on. We flirt with darkness and we embrace hope and we carry on. Thom Yorke said there was no spark and no light in the dark. There is, but we have to watch over it.
I think we will.
It gets you down
You've travelled far
What have you found?
Analyze: Thom Yorke
Tragedy and comedy live side by side here at the Tribunal. You read through transcripts of witness testimony that just rips your heart apart. You sit in that courtroom and hear smug defense lawyers saying there was no genocide in Rwanda in 1994. You watch them sneer at women who were raped and call them liars. You spiral down. Thom Yorke was right except for one thing- there is time to analyze and think things through. Things don't move fast around here- and I'm not just talking about the trials themselves. Things move desperately slowly. You could take it all in if you think hard enough but you probably shouldn't. 800,000 people died. Machetes, guns, rape. Women and children. Nothing existed in that vortex but sheer, incomprehensible evil of a magnitude no one could ever completely understand. It took this Tribunal nearly ten years to finally agree that yes, there was a genocide of the Tutsi in Rwanda and the prosecution does not have to spend months bringing in evidence to prove it in each case. Trying to get the United Nations to bring justice is a bit like training an elephant to dance the samba in a china shop without breaking anything.
I've taken the whole thing too personally. I thought when I came to the tribunal I'd be ready for the stuff that I was going to face, but I wasn't and I don't know if I could ever have been. There's too much death and too much tragedy to take in. So much is beyond rational analysis, so much is being dressed up in fancy legal terms with nowhere to go. Everybody knows but nobody understands.
And then I'm sitting outside with Nikki and we're having an ice-cream and having a mock debate about whether chocolate is better than strawberry and vanilla. We are young and in the sun. An old guy stops by and wonders about the point of having a metal detector at the entrance if it keeps going off everytime you walk through irrespective of the items you have on your person. It is a good question come to think about it. We laugh some more. He wanders away muttering and smiling to himself.
And that is Thursday afternoon- sitting outside with a friend and an ice cream having a good laugh. People stroll by lazily- it's nearly two o'clock and the lunch break is over. We deal with tragedy in the morning and we get away from it by having running jokes about dessert and rebellion at lunch. We take refuge under the umbrella of an ice cream gag and we wrap ourselves in the coat of irreverence.After two o'clock we walk back into the waiting arms of the hell that still hangs over us twelve years later and we carry on. We flirt with darkness and we embrace hope and we carry on. Thom Yorke said there was no spark and no light in the dark. There is, but we have to watch over it.
I think we will.
posted by Minzo at 12:09 AM
3 Comments:
This one is definately going in the book!! I can only imagine how grim some of the testimonies can be!
wow this was a deep one. They won minega. they carried out an annilhiation and got away with it. just remember this when you are a hotshot lawyer. your morals cannot be up for sale.
Rama
Very deep Minega, i am afraid to say beautiful because the feelings behind it are far from it but there is hope and faith beyond the here and now... Judgement and justice will eventually be for God to dish out. Hey, Rama is right, this is a lesson for you. Hang in there.
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