Changes

This book is the follow up to Hatzfeld's [[''Into the Quick of Life: The Rwandan Genocide - The Survivors Speak]] '' which you should probably read first. In it, the survivors of the genocide give their testimonies. In a strange way, although it is more gruesome in detail, it is less harrowing to read. There is no effort required in one's attitude toward victims. One feels all the requisite emotions - shock, horror, sympathy, distress - automatically. After reading, one engages with paucity of one's reaction in comparison to what the testators have suffered and this can be difficult. However, not so difficult as to read the stories of the perpetrators and to realise that they are small, self-centric people who have done monstrous things but are not monsters. Terrifyingly, they're not so different from oneself.