I haven't been blogging and it's mostly because I've felt like everything and anything I would say would be trite in light of my best friend Sarah's dad's situation. If you aren't aware, you can catch up on my facebook page but he is currently imprisoned in Rwanda for words written and spoken in conjunction with representing clients. Rwanda is a police state and there is no love lost between Peter and the current regime.
I have also felt like I haven't wanted to write too much about his situation for a few reasons 1) I don't know enough background on Rwanda and Peter's work to speak with any authority on it; 2) it's not about me and what I would write on my blog would be about me; and 3) I sort of hate Rwanda right now.
It's crazy, really, to hate Rwanda. I guess better said, I hate the government that has so little regard for human rights, free speech, free exchange of ideas, due process, an independent judiciary, the presumption of innocence, and all other sorts of things I like.
And at a very basic level, I hate the Kagame regime because of the way it has caused an upheaval in Sarah's life. I mean, she's my best friend. Remember the intense feelings of loyalty to a friend in elementary school and how that loyalty would become even mroe pronounced when some mean kid started picking on your friend? And remember those primal feelings of anger and detest for the mean kid-even though he wasn't picking on you directly?
Imagine that, but on a greater scale. This time the schoolyard bully is the Kagame regime. And I kind of want to punch his lights out to defend my best friend. (Note to self: this probably counts as a threat to Rwandan national security- do not ever travel to Rwanda so long as current laws still exist.) And this time punching his lights out means cutting off U.S. aid to Rwanda until they start respecting international law and human rights standards.
Zero dollars of U.S. aid to Rwanda? How would that affect Rwandan national security, huh?
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