Doughnut Economics - Kate Raworth - Part 3 of 8

2020 Reading Challenge - Day 211

July 31, 2020

Book 58 - Doughnut Economics
Kate Raworth
Chapter 2 - pages 53-80

Reading Time - 60 minutes

This section looks at how we can See the Big Picture and move from a self-contained market to an embedded economy.

Raworth starts this chapter by comparing economics to a Shakespeare play... one in which there are characters. And like in a play, where the characters usually have small descriptions, those descriptions become self-fulfilling.

Traditional economics works on the circular flow model in which there are two primary actors on centre stage - the household and business. There are a few supporting actors like banks, governments and trade. But... the circular flow diagram, ubiquitous as it is, is deeply flawed, for it makes no mention of energy, materials or society.

In the circular flow diagram... these are the characters and their brief descriptions:

Market - efficient so give it free rein

Business - innnovative so let it lead

Finance - infallible so trust its ways (we all know how that turned out in 2008)

Trade - win-win so open your borders

State - incompetent so do't let it meddle

Household - domestic so leave it to women

Commons - tragic so sell it off

Society - non-existent so ignore it

Earth - inexhaustible so take all you want

Power - irrelevant so don't mention it

Putting blind faith in the Market however, means that we have ignored the living world and society and allowed the banks to have runaway power. Leaving us on the brink of ecological, social and financial collapse.

Raworth, however, has a different scenario, a new show, as it were, in which the economy does not simply float in a white space and concern itself solely with the flow of money and income. She sees the economy as embedded within society which is itself embedded within the natural world. And... at the heart of the economy is the household... The characters in this play would then be:

Earth - life-giving so respect its boundaries

Society - foundational so nurture its connections

Economy - diverse so support all its systems

Household - core so value its contribution

Market - powerful so embed it wisely

Commons - creative so unleash their potential

State - essential so make it accountable

Finance - in service so make it serve society

Business - innovative so give it purpose

Trade - double-edged so make it fair

Power - pervasive so check its abuse

Raworth then examines each character in more detail, well worth a read. Some key points that struck me...

The economy is not a closed loop (like in the circular flow diagram)... it is an open system that depends on the Earth to be a source (of materials and energy) and a sink (for waste). Right now... our economy is exceeding the Earth's regenerative and absorptive capacity through over-harvesting sources and over-filling sinks.

The Economy has four means of production and distribution - market, state, household, commons - and works best when all work together.

Mainstream economics is focused on the Household as the productivity of waged labour but completely skips over the unpaid work which makes waged labour possible. The Household is the core economy (original meaning in Greek) and sustains social life.  But... with the gendered division of paid and unpaid work... household work is undervalued and exploited. If every stay-at-home mom was paid for her labour... she would get $120,000/year. A working mom would get an extra $70,000/year. And yet the traditional economic models make no mention of this huge contribution to the economy.

The Market coordinates buyers and sellers but only for things that have a price tag and for those who can pay. The Market can become dangerous if it gets out of control and we can see that with widening social inequalities and economic instability. And the notion of a "Free Market" is a pipe dream. It doesn't exist. All markets are embedded and no market is a "Free Market"... think government bailouts of failing companies.

The Commons is the shareable resources of nature or society - forests, fishing, digital commons. Traditional economics has deemed the Commons to be tragic or doomed to fail  but... that doesn't have to be the case.

The State should support the household, market and commons in order to promote the common good... not just defend borders and enforce laws.

The 2008 financial crisis busted a bunch of myths about Finances. It is not infallible. Today's Finance has a dominating role but that needs to be flipped where Finance plays a supporting role.

Business needs a bigger purpose than making money and we need to look at the inequality between workers and owners.

Trade can be problematic as when manufacturing moves overseas resulting in domestic job losses. Raworth argues that there is no such thing as a "free market" or "free trade".

When 1% hold the same wealth as the other 99%, there is a power imbalance. We see this clearly in the US where the wealthy can reshape politics and economies in their favour. Money funds elections.

This chapter was fascinating and gives me hope that we can redevelop the world so that it is more equitable and just and safe for all concerned.... not just humans, but nature as well.

Doughnut Economics - Kate Raworth - Part 2 of 8

2020 Reading Challenge - Day 210

July 30, 2020

Book 58 - Doughnut Economics
Kate Raworth
Chapter 1 - pages 27-51

Reading Time - 60 minutes

This chapter takes a look at how we can Change the Goal. For decades, nations have focused on the GNP (Gross National Product) or GDP (Gross Domestic Product) to measure economic health and growth. But this has come at the expense of climate change which does not compute for the GDP economists. Using GDP is simply using a very narrow, single metric to measure a nation's economic health.

Raworth asks... what is our goal... she suggests... prosperity for all, within the means of the planet. And then she looks at how the goals have changed over the last few hundred years.

In the 1700s, the goal of economics was secure living and jobs for all. In the 1800s, with John Stuart Mills, that changed to the production of wealth and figuring out the laws of economics... laws that would make economics one of the hard sciences. Today, economics is the study of how society manages its scarce resources bu there is no mention of goals.

If we look at GDP... the goal is simply exponential growth upwards and forwards... words that are taken to mean something is "good".. but is more better? Is unending growth desirable? Focusing on GDP as the sole indicator of economic health omits a number of other indicators. In addition... it raises some interesting questions: growth of what and why? growth for whom? growth for how long?

Rather than a goal of unending growth... what about having this as a goal: advancing the richness of human life. What about enlarging people's capabilities so that they can be healthy, empowered and creative. The doughnut model looks at two areas... the area that humans need and the area that the planet needs. What if our goal were to provide for every person's needs and safeguard the world at the same time.

Shortfalls in the Social Foundation and Overshoots in Ecological Ceiling

If we look at the indicators of the social foundation and the ecological ceiling... we can see that we are not doing too well... Millions of people still live without the basic necessities of life. And the planet is under immense pressure as we blow past the upper limits of things like biodiversity loss and climate change.

We live in a precious time, the Holocene ,which has seen a remarkably stable climate... but we are now moving into the realm of human-induced climate change and we don't know what that might do. We live in a complex socio-ecological system and human thriving depends upon planetary thriving. In the same way that Copernicus rocked the world when he said that the Earth was not the centre of the solar system... we need to understand that we are not the centre or the pinnacle of the ecosystem. We are highly dependent upon everything from water to air to worms and bees.

Raworth argues that we don't need onwards and upwards... we need to come into dynamic balance. We could even map out our own lives on the doughnut model... are we living a doughnut life? Companies and cities can do it as well. To live in a society that is equitable and sustainable.

Doughnut Economics - Kate Raworth - Part 1 of 8

2020 Reading Challenge - Day 209

July 29, 2020

Book 58 - Doughnut Economics
Kate Raworth
  Introduction - pages 1-26

Reading Time - 60 minutes

I've been wanting to read this book for a while and finally got it from the library. It's amazing and well worth a read! One might expect a book about economics to be boring and/or dense... but it's not. And it makes so much sense. I admit to falling behind in the blogging department with this book, so am going to catch up by doing a chapter at a time, rather than 50 pages at a time.

Introduction

I had not idea but... apparently a lot of economics students are rebelling against the narrow and biased ideological perspectives of traditional economics... perspectives that are out of touch with reality. It's pretty clear to these students that the earth, and humanity, is headed for a day of reckoning and they want to reprogram the doomsday machine that is capitalism.

Buckminister Fuller once said that one can never change things be fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete. And that's what this book is about. Rather than capitalism's existing model of endless growth (which is ridiculous on a finite earth)... Raworth suggests a new economic model... the doughnut model. The book offers seven mind-shifting ways to think like a 21st century economist... rather than a 19th or 20th century economist. Part of the drive to a new model is what is happening on the earth and within society:

• gross, and growing, inequality - 1% of the population owns more wealth than the other 99% of the population
• deepening degradation of the planet
• rising population and a growing middle-class (globally) that wants the same things other middle-class groups have had

Economics will play a defining role in addressing these issues as everything has now been assigned a monetary value - from parks and rivers to fisheries and forests. But... traditional economics, that is running the world today, is rooted in textbooks from the 1950s which are themselves rooted in theories from 1850. These theories are based in flawed assumptions and have common blind spots which, if left to continue unchecked, will spell disaster for the 21st century.

The author studied economics and began to wonder... what would happen if it was flipped on its head... what if we started with what humanity's long-term goals are and then seek out the economic thinking to make that happen?

What if the lower boundary is the social foundation... above which there is a safe and just space for humanity and below which there is human deprivation.

And what if the upper boundary is the ecological/environmental ceiling beyond which planetary degradation takes us into disaster territory, but below which, we can live within the boundaries of earth's bounteous generosity. Voila... the doughnut model...

Within those two boundaries, there is a safe and just space for all of humanity to enjoy life. The question then becomes... if this is our goal... how do we get there. What ideas and theories would help to achieve this ultimate goal. Raworth decided that images hold a lot of power and many of the traditional economics diagrams are based on deep assumptions. So, Raworth came up with a bunch of diagrams that can reframe how we understand the economic world... moving from diagrams that are out of date, blinkered or just plane wrong... to diagrams that offer us hope for a different world.

She comes up with seven areas in which we can think like a 21st century economist:

1. Change the Goal from GDP to Doughnut model - shift from a model that fosters inequalities and destruction of the planet to one in which we can thrive in balance
2. See the Big Picture - move from the circular flow diagram (economics is just consumers spending money to business which pay money to consumers for labour) to a model in which economics is embedded within society and within the natural world
3. Nurture Human Nature - move from the image of the "rational economic man" to social, adaptable humans
4. Get Savvy with Systems - move from a simplistic supply and demand model which is based on mechanical equilibrium to systems thinking which is dynamic and fluid
5. Design to Distribute - move from inequality (the rich get richer and the poor get poorer) to one in which there is a network of flows designed to distribute wealth (not just income) equitably.
6. Create to Generate - move from pollution to regenerative by design - a circular economy
7. Be Agnostic about Growth - move from the idea of endless growth (impossible) to economies that may not grow but allow us to thrive

Let's go...

How to Give up Plastic - Will McCallum - Part 4 of 4

2020 Reading Challenge - Day 208

July 28, 2020

Book 57 - How to Give Up Plastic
Will McCallum
 Part 4 - pages 160-206

Reading Time - 60 minutes

This last section covers different ideas for giving up plastic in your community and is mostly focused on activism. McCallum offers tips on how to start local groups, campaign for a reduction in plastic production and, as a second-choice, arrange things like beach clean-ups. As we've learned from this book, recycling and clean-ups don't really address the problem which is indiscriminate production with no end-point in view.

McCallum says that when we are united, we can really make a difference. He suggest that instead of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, we should aim for Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. It's always good to remember that "Recycle" is at the tail end of the long chain of plastic...

How to Give up Plastic - Will McCallum - Part 3 of 4

2020 Reading Challenge - Day 207

July 27, 2020

Book 57 - How to Give Up Plastic
Will McCallum
 Part 3 - pages 44-159

Reading Time - 60 minutes

Ahhh... grocery shopping, so much fun... and such a huge source of plastic. Apparently some people say that plastic packaging actually reduces food waste but... when they have done studies, they've found that as plastic packaging goes up... so does food waste. The problem is that we are now buying things in bigger containers (with more packaging) and even going whole hog with BOGO offers which also leads to more waste.

Some options for reducing waste in the kitchen, and its associated grocery store run are:

• make a list and stick to it
• ditch the plastic bags - over 1 million plastic bags are used every minute... surely we can find a better solution - like reusable shopping bags
• go to local markets, delis and butchers - ask your local store to reduce its use of plastic
• pick loose veggies over plastic wrapped ones
• avoid non-recyclable plastic - like styrofoam and polystyrene - and avoid black stryofoam like the plague - it is cheaper for the store to buy but... its black colour means the machines can't sort it in the recycling stream (because the black colour blends with the black conveyor belts)
• take-away food is a huge culprit - talk to your favourite take-away about other options (one of ours still uses styrofoam) - we can make a difference... remember when burgers used to come in styrofoam shells?
• use bee's wax wrappers instead of plastic wrap (we do this now!)
• use dish and floor cloths that can be reused rather than paper towels... and stay away from microfibre cloths (darn... we have a bunch of these!)

There's a bit of overlap between the different chapters because the same culprits keep showing up again and again. So the next chapter was on Giving up Plastic on the Go... Here are some top tips:

• bring your own water bottle (try metal) - plastic bottles are horrible... 20,000 sold every second
• if you need a disposable drink - aim for a glass bottle, can or cardboard container - pick a brand with more recycled (cloudy) plastic - dispose of it responsibly
• bring your own reusable coffee cup
• carry your own cutlery (I do this!)
• make your own lunch rather than buying a pre-packaged sandwich or salad

Another big area of plastic use is in the nursery or kids' rooms... and the biggest culprit is disposable diapers. In the US alone, 27.4 billion nappies are used every year and 90% of those end up in the landfill where they take over 500 years to break down. Try going for reusable nappies or biodegradable ones. Some other tips:

• buy pacifiers made of natural rubber
  
• avoid glitter like the plague... all it is is tiny bits of plastic...
• for parties - try to go for plastic-free decor and use non-glossy wrapping paper (cause it is coated with plastic)
  
• for toys - look for quality hand-made, sustainable toys... or go for second-hand toys

If you are at work... McCallum recommends encouraging colleagues to give up the top five: plastic bags, plastic bottles, coffee cups, plastic straws and single-use plastic cutlery

How to Give Up Plastic - Will McCallum - Part 2 of 4

2020 Reading Challenge - Day 206

July 26, 2020

Book 57 - How to Give Up Plastic
Will McCallum
 Part 2 - pages 49-93

Reading Time - 60 minutes

All is not lost... if we begin to give up hope. McCallum gives us some stories of hope in the global movement against plastics. Cities and countries that ban plastics... it can be done. And when you think that the average plastic bag is used for just 15 minutes and yet will take 500-1000 years to break down... you know we have a choice to make.

We can make a difference... McCallum says that we if we just looked at the Big 4 Plastic Pollutants, each of us can make a difference:

• single use cups & lids
• straws
• bottles
• bags

Reduce our consumption of any of those and... we are making a dent in the problem. He also has some specific tips for different areas of our households...

In the bathroom... OMG... there is a lot of plastic! Think of all the bottles and containers and jars for shampoo, conditioner, lotions, make-up, etc. And let's not even talk about diapers or feminine hygiene products... Some tips that stuck with me:

• buy in bulk - shampoo and conditioner - bigger bottles are better
• try soap, shampoo and deodorant bars that come in non-plastic containers
• keep an eye out for microbeads and avoid any products with "poly-anything"
• get lip balm in a tin not a plastic tube
• try to get toilet paper in a box not a plastic package

Some ideas from the bedroom where, honestly, I thought I didn't have a lot of plastic. But... hello micro-fibre sheets and clothing! This includes polyester and nylon clothing... as well as fleece. Some tips to reduce plastic include:

• wash less frequently and wash in cold water with liquid soap and fabric softener
• buy fewer clothes
• buy fewer new clothes
• buy fewer synthetic clothes
• aim for cotton or silk sheets (not polyester or micro-fiber)
  

How to Give Up Plastic - Will McCallum - Part 1 of 4

2020 Reading Challenge - Day 205

July 25, 2020

Book 57 - How to Give Up Plastic
Will McCallum
 Part 1 - pages 1-48
Reading Time - 60 minutes

I ordered this book, and several other eco-books, from the library as they had zero wait time while some of the ones I really want to read have a lonnnnggg wait list. I take what I can get and this seemed kind of a pertinent topic. Mind you, with Covid-19... everything seems to be going backwards and single-use plastics are making a huge come-back.

The author, McCallum, is a Greenpeacer and one of the most common questions he gets is "what can I do to help". His standard answer is to make informed choices about plastic and to look at single-use plastics to start with: plastic bags, straws and coffee cups. Getting rid of those would be one way in which we can, individually have a big impact. But it's more than that as well... our entire society (Western society) is built on a disposable model, or as McCallum says: "We have developed a throwaway culture around single use that is not healthy, for society or for the oceans."

In the Introduction, we learn that Greenpeace ships have found plastic in every single ocean in the world, even around Antarctica, thousands of miles from any human habitation. By 2050, plastic might outweigh fish in the oceans. If there's one message he wants us to take away - it's this - plastic affects all of us and we all share responsibility, both individually and collectively. We created this problem and we are going to have to be part of the solution.

In Chapter 1, the author introduces us to a short history of fighting plastic and touches on a few key areas, like micro-beads and plastic bottles. The root of the problem, ultimately, is that we produce too much plastic and we have no plan as to what to do with it afterwards. Less than half of all plastic bottles in the UK will be recycled. We need to move from a throwaway culture to one where we minimize our footprint.

In Chapter 2, we learn about some of the problems with plastic... it never decomposes... it just keeps breaking down into smaller and smaller pieces. And because colourful plastic looks so inviting... 90% of seabirds have plastic in their guts. And it also ends up in, or tangled around, turtles, seals and whales, to name a few high-profile animals. Plastic isn't inert either... it's a petroleum product, so it releases toxins... which means that it migrates its way up the food chain as little fish eat little bits of plastic and bigger fish eat the smaller fish, etc. Not only that, plastics can soak up toxins from the water... like PCBs... nice.

There are 150 million tonnes of plastic in the oceans and clean-up efforts are a drop in the bucket. Clean up a beach one day and return the next day to see it covered in plastic again.The problem needs to be handled at the source. Five to thirteen million tonnes of plastic are being added to the oceans every year. What boggled me is that one third of the plastic is micro-fibres from our clothing. It's making me take a good, hard look at the micro-fibre sheets that we bought... every time we wash them, we are releasing more plastic in to the water system.

And while I might feel good that we are doing our bit with recycling stuff into our blue bin... the recycling system is broken. We all heard a few years ago when China started turning away recycling from western nations. And the Philippines... and other countries. Because, really, so much of what we send is garbage - things like coffee pods and single-use sachets... like ketchup packets. Companies just produce these things because they are useful but... there is no concern for their disposal... and that is the problem. Indonesia has actually banned single-use plastics and... it works. Maybe it's time to take that on here... The biggest resistance, of course, comes from the plastics and petrochemical industry... but we can make a difference too...

We Have Always been Here - Samra Habib - Part 4 of 4

2020 Reading Challenge - Day 204

July 24, 2020

Book 56 - We Have Always Been Here
Samra Habib
 Part 3 - pages 149-217
Reading Time - 60 minutes

Well, I finished this book last week and apparently took zero notes on this last section! I am only writing about it now, as I fell behind in the blogging.

I have to say I rather enjoyed this book. The echoes of my own life made it easy to relate to and yet it was different. Different context, different life path... but I find it interesting that these intersections of commonality gave me an engaging window into a different life.

I was intrigued that Samra found a queer-friendly mosque in Ontario, one that flies under the radar, since death threats are common. It made me wonder if there might be some faith community in my own city that is more open and welcoming than the faith of my birth. I mean... I know there are... but I've never looked for them... it just seems like too much energy to integrate into a new faith community... But I guess you never know.

There was one quote that stuck with me... after Trump won the 2016 election... Samra had this to say: "What they are trying to keep safe is white supremacy, what they are trying to protect is their own power." It rings sooo true.

We Have Always Been Here - Samra Habib - Part 3 of 4

2020 Reading Challenge - Day 203

July 23, 2020

Book 56 - We Have Always Been Here
Samra Habib
 Part 3 - pages 106-148
Reading Time - 60 minutes

After moving in with her boyfriend from high school, Samra reconnects with her Mom whose biggest concern is that Samra is in "sin" so to speak. Samra and her boyfriend get married, mostly to keep her mother happy. Sex with her now-husband was "meh" and Samra rather thought she might be asexual.

After university, Samra started to identify herself as queer even though she was still married to her husband. She began to feel the weight of the burden of hiding her authentic self and eventually broke up with her husband.

While working for an ad agency, she booked a holiday to Japan, a country she had always wanted to visit, and it was really there that she embraced her queerness.

As a lesbian who came out later in life (early 30s), I identified with different aspects of Samra's story. While the circumstances are different, the "hiding my authentic self" bit rings true.

We Have Always been Here - Samra Habib - Part 2 of 4

2020 Reading Challenge - Day 202

July 22, 2020

Book 56 - We Have Always Been Here
Samra Habib
 Part 2 - pages 43-105
Reading Time - 60 minutes

Due to increasing persecution in Pakistan against their Muslim faith (Ahmadi), the family decides to move to Canada. Samra's father came several months later and never fully adjusted to life in Canada. He had been an engineer in Pakistan and his inability to find fulfilling work in Canada, meant he spent a lot of time sitting on the couch watching TV. He rejected the idea that he go out and get a low-paying job like taxi-driver or bus-boy. Samra's mother, on the other hand, eventually opened her own salon and helped keep the family on its feet. It was a hard transition, going from being relatively well-to-do in Pakistan, to relying on welfare in Canada.

Samra herself had to deal with racism at school, being called "Paki" by other children. She was one of the only children-of-colour in her final grades of elementary school, but in high school, she ended up at an urban school with mostly children of colour from around the world. As I read about her experience in school, I thought back to my own time in school. In elementary school, I was surrounded by mostly white kids, with a fair smattering of Portuguese and one girl who I later learned had an Indigenous mother. I don't remember knowing that at the time, I just thought that she was a darker skinned Portuguese kid! And in high school, there were more kids of colour. I had several friends who were Chinese and East Indian but I don't ever remember them getting bullied. Mind you... I wasn't them, so what do I know. Maybe the fact that my parents had immigrated from Germany instilled in us less of a tendency to cast stones whilst living in a glass house.

And then... Samra's life diverges in a drastic way. At the age of 13, she learns that she has been promised in marriage to her first cousin (ten years her senior) and, at the age of 16, she is actually married to her first cousin in a religious ceremony. When Samra confronted her mother about the planned nuptials, her mother told her that "I know best". And yet, as Samra muses at some length, her mother did not know best and yet Samra was just a pawn.

At some point, Samra hears stories of domestic abuse from within the Pakistani community and when she questions her husband about his own views... he says he thinks its OK in some cases. That tips the apple cart for Samra who wants out. Her marriage was annulled at the local mosque and, after high school graduation, Samra left home to move in with a boyfriend from school.

We Have Always Been Here - Samra Habib - Part 1 of 4

2020 Reading Challenge - Day 201

July 21, 2020

Book 56 - We Have Always Been Here
Samra Habib
 Part 1 - pages 1-42
Reading Time - 60 minutes

I was actually reading this book at the same time as I was reading portions of Dallaire's book. Habib's book was my evening reading and part of a BIPOC book club that my partner and I joined on Facebook. It was a fairly "light" book compared to Dallaire's and I found echoes of my own life in its pages. Samra Habib, a Pakistani-Canadian, emigrated to Canada with her family as a child. She eventually came out as queer to her family and documents her own struggles with finding a place of belonging. An excellent book and an easy read.

The first two chapters document Samra's early childhood in Lahore, Pakistan where here family was moderately well-to-do. Her father was an engineer and built houses which sold for a good profit. The family belonged to a Muslim sect (Ahmadi)and experienced persecution from mainstream Muslims.

Reading about her early life in Lahore was like getting a window into a different world, one where women are valued only for their fertility, beauty and purity. And while women in the West tend to have more freedoms and rights, I wonder if we too are not often more valued for our beauty, subservience and politeness. Familiar as I am with the Christian tradition, the Bible does tend to emphasize those aspects of a "good woman" or a "good wife"... and it's not that  far off from the Muslim tradition as narrated by Samra. We just fool ourselves into thinking that we have handled it... but when the shit hits the fan, those deeply held prejudices still surface.

Shake Hands with the Devil - Roméo Dallaire - Part 10 of 10

2020 Reading Challenge - Day 200

July 20, 2020

Book 55 - Shake Hands with the Devil
Roméo Dallaire
 Part 10 - pages 448-505 (e-book)
Reading Time - 60 minutes

And we're in the final stretch. This last chapter seemed quite disjointed and I can only guess that it's meant to reflect Dallaire's own mental decline at the time or... it's due to the fact that his ghost writer committed suicide in the late stage of drafting the book. Either way, it's a tragedy.

Chapter 15 - Too Much, Too Late

Dallaire finally received a new political liaison guy, Khan, from Pakistan, and took him on a tour which included hospitals where dead and dying were packed in. Khan was utterly shocked and wrote in his own book: "The fact is that never in living history has such wanton brutality been inflicted by human beings on their fellow creatures [as in Rwanda]... even the killing fields of Cambodia and Bosnia pale before the gruesome, awful depravity of massacres in Rwanda." Khan was brilliant and Dallaire wondered how different things might have been had he been with them since the start.

The RPF wanted to set up a ceasefire after they had essentially won the war. They set up a new government minus the extremists. Millions of Rwandans fled to Zaire creating a whole new humanitarian crisis as Zaire was unable to handle the influx of refugees. And there were refugees still in Rwanda. Dallaire and Khan feared that the RGF, the génocidaires and the extremists would just set up shop in Zaire, strengthen themselves and resume the war in a few years. Millions in aid flowed into Zaire and hardly anything into Rwanda. RPF government in Kigali was trying to get refugees to come back. Some tried to leave the camps and were attacked by extremists with machetes. When others came into RPF territory, Dallaire suspected that there were secret tribunals as people were summarily executed by the RPF.

Thirty days after the reinforcements were to have been deployed, Dallaire was still waiting. He met with the American military who promised help in supporting refugees to come back... but the American administration pulled back. They didn't want to help if there was a risk of American casualties. All they did was help unload aircraft at Kigali and refused to leave the airfield.

Finally some reinforcements started arriving but they were outsiders and had not been part of what the others had witnessed. French implied that the UN mission had failed and laid blame at Dallaire's feet. The months of stress were taking its toll on Dallaire and on August 3, he asked to be relieved of his command. He had planned for his second-in-command, a Ghanaian, to take over, but learned that another Canadian would be appointed to replace him. Felt incredibly guilty for abandoning mission before it was done, but he had become a casualty. He left Rwanda almost a year to the day after he had arrived.

Conclusion

For Dallaire, one of the biggest impacts of such a civil war, is its effect on children - the ones killed or injured, the ones turned into child soldiers or soldier wives. In visiting Sierra Leone, he came to question the impossible task of disarming and reintegrating child soldiers. In his mind, the best way to avoid such a situation was to prevent future Rwandas.

Dallaire believes his UN mission could have prevented the resumption of the civil war and the genocide - with enough troops and logistical/administrative support. He believes that France and the US held the solution for the Rwanda crisis. They also did not help the refugee issue but worsened it.

As for his own role: "I was unable to persuade the international community that this tiny, poor, overpopulated country and its people were worth saving from the horror of genocide--even when the measures needed for success were relatively small."

Since 1994-2003, 4 million human beings have died in the Congo and Great Lakes region as a direct result of the Rwandan crisis. UN needs a renaissance from the Secretariat down to the member nations.

The youth of the developing world won't tolerate it anymore - Dallaire saw so much rage and it won't go away when human beings have no rights, no security, no future, no hope, no means to survive. Do we believe that all humans are equal? Or are some better than others. An American officer told Dallaire that 85,000 dead Rwandans were worth one dead American soldier. We have to move beyond national self-interest to human interest. We have to move from the 20th century (century of genocide) to the 21st century (century of humanity) when we can rise above race, creed, colour, religion and national self-interest.

And it's true... it's what needs to happen. Inequality is rampant, within countries and around the world. Something needs to shift as the rich get infinitely richer and the poor get poorer. And we can't be part of the solution if we are, inherently, part of the problem.

Shake Hands with the Devil - Roméo Dallaire - Part 9 of 10

2020 Reading Challenge - Day 199

July 19, 2020

Book 55 - Shake Hands with the Devil
Roméo Dallaire
 Part 9 - pages 412-448 (e-book)
Reading Time - 60 minutes

There was a tonne of information in this chapter as events sped up exponentially. When I saw the title of this chapter in the Table of Contents, I thought the Turquoise referred to the blue berets that the UN troops wore. Nope... it was Operation Turquoise by the French.

Chapter 14 - The Turquoise Invasion

France suggested that they lead a coalition force to stop the genocide and deliver humanitarian aid. Given that they had long been supporters of the RGF and that many extremist leaders had fled to France... Dallaire was less than enthused with the idea. But he wasn't really consulted.  High level talks had happened, unbeknownst to Dallaire and the French were not going to reinforce his mission but rather set up a Chapter 7 mission in the rapidly shrinking RGF-held territory.

When French media announced France's plan to deploy troops, the RGF and militia were overjoyed at the thought that the French were coming to save them. This gave them carte blanche to finish their gruesome work. Which did not just include massacres. At one point, Dallaire admits that he had been desperately trying not to see the obvious signs of whole-scale rape and sexual mutilation of girls and women.

As for the RPF, they would now have to distinguish between UN troops (the French) who were essentially supporting the RGF and UN troops who were desperately trying to stay neutral (Dallaire's mission). The RPF actually suggested that Dallaire's mission should be withdrawn but the UN completely ignored that request.

Reinforcements for Dallaire's UN mission would take two or three months to arrive but slowly some began to show up. His mission was a pittance compared with the well-equipped French forces in Operation Turquoise. As his reinforcements came in, Dallaire planned to put them along Operation Turquoise zone as a relief-in-place. He didn't expect French to last long as thousands of Rwandas fled to French area.

It's pretty clear to me that when Western powers meddle in other countries, things don't go well... from colonial days to the present. We might go in with the best of intentions but... ultimately, things will go sideways and it's usually the locals who pay the highest price.

Shake Hands with the Devil - Roméo Dallaire - Part 8 of 10

2020 Reading Challenge - Day 199

July 18, 2020

Book 55 - Shake Hands with the Devil
Roméo Dallaire
 Part 8 - pages 369-411 (e-book)
Reading Time - 60 minutes

The more I read this book, the more disgusted I am with the United States and former President Bill Clinton. Their inability/unwillingness to step into Rwanda resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands and suffering for millions. It is unconscionable.

Chapter 13 - Accountants of the Slaughter

Finally, in mid May, the UN Security Council passed a resolution to strengthen the UN mission but the resolution had been gutted by the US. Dallaire was expecting 5500 troops but days went by and no troops arrived. It would take months for troops to arrive, long past the point when they were needed. The soldiers of the UN mission were reduced to the role of accountants keeping track of how many were being killed. The US and UK resisted the use of the term "genocide" but with every day, new reports reinforced what was happening. When troops did start coming in, the burden fell to countries like Ghana, Ethiopia, Zambia, India, Nigeria and Canada. All of them, with the exception of Canada, were too weak logistically to deploy without First World assistance. The US graciously offered 50 cold-war era APCs (Dallaire had asked for hundreds) for a price (millions) and when they were arrived, they were stripped of everything useful - tools, radios, manuals, spare parts.

It was also clear, the more territory the RPF acquired, that they were conducting their own massacres, on Hutus that were isolated behind their lines. Both sides were complicit in the genocide but an even greater humanitarian crisis was building as over two million Hutus, egged on by extremist radio, fled westward in front of the retreating RGF forces. Thousands had already fled into Tanzania where extremist leaders kept them in the throes of fear. The same was likely to happen with the westward fleeing refugees who would end up in Zaire. This would create a huge regional problem in central Africa and Dallaire warned the US but... it came to nothing.

Finally, some reconnaissance officers from the second wave of troops started appearing, some of them Canadians. Dallaire expressed gratitude for the two Canadian Hercules aircraft who had ferried in supplies (water, food, medical supplies) while shuttling wounded UN troops out to safety. Until the airport had to be shut down due to bombardment by the belligerents. Meanwhile, the killings continued.

Dallaire began to suspect that the UN mission was a distraction which allowed the UN and its member countries to say that they were doing something. But... the UN mission was saving dozens, or maybe hundreds, while hundreds of thousands were massacred and millions became refugees.

I honestly don't know how the UN troops kept going and it's clear why so many of them were psychologically damaged by their time in Rwanda. The human psyche can only handle so much and those troops were pushed beyond that...

Shake Hands with the Devil - Roméo Dallaire - Part 7 of 10

2020 Reading Challenge - Day 198

July 17, 2020

Book 55 - Shake Hands with the Devil
Roméo Dallaire
 Part 7 - pages 327-368 (e-book)
Reading Time - 60 minutes

Had a minor hiccup here when the ebook expired from the library! Had to sign it out again and that took a bit of time... but, hopefully back on track. I am not taking such detailed notes on the book anymore... suffice to say... the genocide was horrendous.

Chapter 12. Lack of Resolution

With the departure of most of his troops, Dallaire decided to step up the media campaign, as any sort of media can be worth a battalion of soldiers. He offered a BBC reporter full access to all of the UN mission activities as long as he gave an accurate and truthful story. Other journalists noticed the BBC's stories and started to flow into Rwanda to document the slaughter. Dallaire wanted to use the media to try to prod the international community into action. And, on April 24, Oxfam was the first organization to use the term genocide to describe what was happening in Rwanda.

The killing continued and the Red Cross and Doctors without Borders were continually threatened. The extremist radio station broadcast a message to "kill Dallaire", the "white man with the moustache". Dallaire still tried to negotiate a ceasefire but nothing seemed to work. His troops continued to do rescue missions - a family here, a few nuns there but they were getting shot at by both sides, even though both sides said that they wanted the UN mission in Rwanda. At several points he met with leaders of the militia, the machete wielding génocidaires, and felt like he had shaken hands with the devil.

Dallaire submitted a plan for reinforcements and, had it been followed in a timely manner, experts later agreed, it would have stopped the killing. But while the UN debated, and the US stalled, the killings continued. Dallaire mused: "What was the spark that lit the fuse that blew up into all this degradation and perversion? And why were we so feeble, fearful and self-centred in the face of atrocities committed against the innocent?" Even after the high commissioner for human rights arrived and deemed what was happening a genocide, the Security Council did nothing.

It's depressing to read about such inaction on the part of an organization tasked with maintaining peace and order in the world. And, as I read this chapter, I found it much more disjointed than the preceding chapters, a reflection of the disjointed events from that time and Dallaire's own slow descent.

Shake Hands with the Devil - Roméo Dallaire - Part 6 of 10

2020 Reading Challenge - Day 197

July 16, 2020

Book 55 - Shake Hands with the Devil
Roméo Dallaire
 Part 6 - pages 268-326 (e-book)
Reading Time - 90 minutes

We're into the heart of it now... the massacres ramp up and the UN troops are witnesses to unspeakable horror. I've been reading some other news articles and watching some videos and it is incomprehensible. How could this have happened? After the Holocaust? And the Killing Fields. Whatever happened to "never again"...

Chapter 11 - To Go or to Stay

The UN compounds sheltered about 30,000 fearful Rwandans but were not equipped to act as refugee centres. There was no food, no water, few latrines. Some inevitable succumbed to dehydration, disease or hunger. The telephones, electricity and water system went down as well. If they ran out of fuel for the generator, they would be completely cut off, with no way to operate the satellite radio. The compounds had no supplies and no way to medi-evac the wounded.

Dallaire met with the Crisis Committee again who said that the swearing in of the BBTG would happen the next day and would include the extremist political parties. The same extremists who were hunting people down. Dallaire still hoped that he could broker a cease-fire or even a truce so that expats could be extracted, but both sides were dug in.

Some Polish officers from the UN mission drove to a Polish church to get some expats and military observers. The found a scene of unimaginable horror. Hundreds of men, women and children had been massacred in the church. The RGF had rounded up the people, herded them into the church, and then let the militia, armed with machetes, into the church. There was no mercy, no hesitation, no compassion. There were a few wounded survivors who would be cared for by the priests. But, the next day, after the mission had left, the militia came back and killed the rest and burned the bodies.

The massacred was not a spontaneous act but a well-executed operation that involved the army, the militia and other groups.

The French arrived to evacuate their expats and callously pushed aside black Rwandans seeking asylum. "A sense of shame overcame me. The whites, who had made their money in Rwanda and who had hired so many Rwandans to be their servants and labourers, were now abandoning them. Self-interest and self-preservation ruled".

The Belgians arrived to evacuate their troops and in one case, a group of Belgian soldiers were guarding a school where two thousand Rwandans had sought refuge. The Belgian soldiers were ordered to pull back to the airport. The Rwandans in the school were left to their fate.

The peace-keeping department at the UN apparently questioned if protecting civilians was the mandate of the UN peacekeeping troops. But no country wanted to send troops to Rwanda at that point... there were too many risks. The only person who though that the UN should strengthen its mission in Rwanda was the president of the Security Council, New Zealand's Colin Keating. The US wanted the mission pulled out immediately. Only Canada sent two planes and several staff officers.

Dallaire still tried to broker a ceasefire, even as the RPF slowly, calmly, coolly, gained territory. But they would only agree to a ceasefire if the killing ceased... bu the killing wouldn't cease without a ceasefire. The UN argued that if there was no ceasefire, then the mission had to withdraw. Dallaire argued for keeping a force on the ground, if only to bear witness.

Dallaire speaks highly of the Tunisian and Ghanaian troops - all of whom were spectacularly brave and never shirked their duty. He muses on the fact that his own father, a Canadian, fought to liberate Belgium. Decades later, the Belgians abandoned his son (Dallaire).

Ultimately the UN decided to leave a skeleton force, 250 troops, keeping 30,000 Rwandans in safety. "Ultimately, led by the United States, France and the United Kingdom, this world body aided and abetted genocide in Rwanda".

I sit here, and I read that last sentence and I think... how did this happen? How did countries, renowned the world over for being "First World", for being democratic, for being humanitarian... end up abandoning 800,000 Rwandans to their deaths? How can those same countries look in the mirror every morning and consider themselves to be anything other than butchers?

Shake Hands with the Devil - Romeo Dallaire - Part 5 of 10

2020 Reading Challenge - Day 196

July 15, 2020

Book 55 - Shake Hands with the Devil
Roméo Dallaire
 Part 5 - pages 210-268 (e-book)
Reading Time - 60 minutes

Reading the next two chapters in this book, I kept gearing myself up for the start of the genocide... And while there was no major killing, no genocide... it was the start of the genocide, which began long before there were massacres.

Chapter 9 - Easter without a Resurrection of Hope

As march flowed by, it was clear that both sides were digging in and that arms were still flowing across the border. On top of that, Dallaire still had problems with logistics, communications, vehicles and helicopters, not to mention troops. The Bangladeshi troops were only there to gain experience. Their army chief of staff had visited in February and told Dallaire that he needed to make sure all of those men made it home safely.

In mid-March, Dallaire went home for a two week leave, stopping in at the UN on his way back. It was clear that the growing crisis on Rwanda was on the back-burner, overshadowed by Yugoslavia, Mozambique, Haiti, Cambodia and Somalia. The US wanted the mission pulled out if the BBTG was not installed within the next two weeks. Essentially, the United States was willing to pull the mission out of the country and let it sink back into civil war and chaos.

When Dallaire arrived back in Rwanda on March 31, the BBTG was still not installed, mostly because the President had insisted on including an extremist political party into the agreement. The RPF was not pleased and refused to attend the installation. Things were beginning to fall apart and Dallaire had only 40-60 rounds/soldier which wouldn't last long in a sustained fire fight. But no country seemed to care that the country was headed for civil war.

As Dallaire noted: "The people of Rwanda were not an insignificant black mass living in abject poverty in a place of no consequence. they were individuals like myself, like my family, with every right and expectation of any human who is a member of our tortured race."

On Easter Sunday, Dallaire was still trying to broker talks for the BBTG installation. His helicopter flew over a village as crowds gathered for Easter Sunday services. A week later, those same devout Christians would become murders and victims, and the places of prayer, sites of calculated butchery.

The UN Security Council granted the mission a six week extension at which point the mission would be "reviewed" (i.e. pulled). Their decision confirmed for all Rwandans that the world didn't give a damn about Rwanda. And when the killing started, every nation, with the exception of Canada, declined to reinforce his mission. In April and May, Canada supplied two Hercules aircraft to the mission, as well as excellent staff officers and military observers.

Chapter 10 - An Explosion at Kigali Airport

On April 6, the president's plane crashed near Kigali airport. The Prime Minister was next in line but all of the moderate politicians had gone into hiding and the extremist ones had disappeared.

A Crisis Committee of army officers took control of the country due to the uncertainty and Dallaire wondered if their actions did not constitute a coup. The army officers said that the Prime Minister did not enjoy the confidence of the Rwandan people and was incapable of governing the nation.

The Presidential Guard carried out attacks and assainations and the army officers professed themselves unable to control them. Barricades were set up the Presidential Guard and UN vehicles were often prevented from going through. Officials at the UN repeatedly stressed to Dallaire that he could only fire if fired upon and was not to use weapons to prevent crimes against humanity, even though that was allowed under the rules of engagement.

The next day, Dallaire sought out the military officers again in a meeting at Camp Kigali (army base). On his way there, he saw some of his soldiers on the ground but the driver refused to stop. He would later learn that ten Belgian soldiers were executed at Camp Kigali that day, the same soldiers who had been guarding the Prime Minister, who was also executed at a UN compound earlier. Kigali's "hate radio" had been broadcasting inflammatory statements which said that the Belgians had shot down the President's plane.

Dozens of Rwandans came to the UN compounds, seeking refuge and many more phoned for help. Dallaire tried to send out patrols to bring desperate civilian staff and moderate politicians back to their buildings but was hampered by some of his own troops. The Bangladeshis were ineffective and disobeyed orders, having orders from Dhaka (capital of Bangladesh) to avoid all risk.

Dallaire was ordered not to take sides, not to try to coalesce the moderates... it was up to the Rwandans to sort things out themselves.

This is an extremely hard book to read... not that it's not readable... it is... it's just hard to read about a slow motion train wreck and know that 800,000 human beings lost their lives because some bureaucrats deemed their lives to be worthless. Ten Belgian soldiers were executed... and that prompted the Belgians to pull their entire contingent. The Bangladeshis were not far behind. Dallaire would be left with 250 soldiers (more or less) to be a witness to the horror that was to come.

Shake Hands with the Devil - Romeo Dallaire - part 4 of 10

2020 Reading Challenge - Day 195

July 14, 2020

Book 55 - Shake Hands with the Devil
Roméo Dallaire
 Part 4 - pages 152-209 (e-book)
Reading Time - 60 minutes

Everytime a new chapter in this book starts, I keep expecting it will be a horrific story. And it is, but it's not. We haven't gotten to the genocide yet but... it's still horrific how the disaster unfolded in the weeks before April 1994.

Chapter 7 - The Shadow Force

Dallaire opens this chapter in early 1994 and we learn that, even after several months in Rwanda, the UN mission still had very little office equipment, no defensive stores, no spare parts, no night vision equipment as well as a severe shortage of radios and vehicles. Not an auspicious start to the new year.

In early January, the swearing in of the BBTG (Broad-Based Tranisitional Government) was to take place. Unfortunately, there was a bit of a power sturggle going on. Most of the important portfolios had gone to the moderates and the former regime and president feared that when the new government was sworn in, that they would be sent to jail for their crimes. In negotiating the Arusha Accord, the leaders of the former regime had wanted amnesty from prosecution but they didn't get it... the new government could impeach the former president with a two-thirds majority.

When the day for the swearing in arrived, only the President was sworn in... it turns out that the document outlining the portfolios had been changed at the last minute. The moderates had been eliminated and the Hutu Power wings had been put on. Not surprisingly, the RPF stormed out of the proceedings.

Several other attempts at a swearing-in were made but there were violent demonstrations against the moderates, often egged on by Presidential Guards in civilian clothing. Dallaire got a tip that the demonstrations had one goal, to incite the Belgian soldiers into firing their weapons, at which point ten Belgian soldiers would be killed and... they would then withdraw from the mission. They knew that the Belgians were the backbone of the mission and if they withdrew, then the mission would collapse.

At the same time, Dallaire got a tip from an extremist youth group that militia cells were being told to make lists of Tutsis living in their area. When the time came, the Tutsis were to be rounded up and killed. The militia were being trained at army bases by army instructors and were armed with machetes, AK47s and grenades. Dallaire also learned that there were four separate arms caches in Kigali and wired the UN about his intention to go after them. He received a reply to stop immediately. The UN was reeling from what had happened to American soldiers in Somalia and thought Dallaire was being to aggressive. He was instructed to inform the President of his information but... the president's wife and her family were associated with Hutu Power, so all that would really happen was that word would get back to them.

By late January, machete-carrying mobs began attacking innocent civilians, partly out of frustration due to the failure of the BBTG installation. Moderate government officials were getting death threats and wanted UN soldiers as guards but there weren't enough to cover everyone. Dallaire felt that the installation of the BBTG needed to be sped up but the political liaison said it needed to slow down.

Chapter 8 - Assassination and Ambush

By February, Rwanda was still stuck in a political impasse and the World Bank was threatening to cut off funding. Dallaire again asked for permission to address public security issues in Kigali but, again, was denied by the UN. More soldiers had arrived from Tunisia and Ghana and were quite well-trained and disciplined. This stood in stark contrast to the Belgian troops who had numerous disciplinary infractions. Some Belgian soldiers had forced their way into the home of the head of the extremist CDR party and assaulted him in front of his family. They had then threatened to come back and kill him. Such aggressive and destructive attitudes did nothing to help the UN mission. On top of that, some Belgian soldiers, accompanying a convoy back into Kigali were told to hold the convoy as the roads into Kigali were dangerous. They disobeyed orders and when the convoy came under attack, abandoned it.

Again... it's hard to see how this mission was ever expected to succeed. And yes, there were issues with infighting within the different Rwandan parties but... still... rather than receiving all the support requested, the UN mission was essentially a second-rate shoe-string mission. And why? Because, again, the country had no strategic, geographic or human significance, at least not in the eyes of the Western powers...

Shake Hands with the Devil - Romeo Dallair - Part 3 of 10

2020 Reading Challenge - Day 194

July 13, 2020

Book 55 - Shake Hands with the Devil
Roméo Dallaire
 Part 3 - pages 100-151 (e-book)
Reading Time - 60 minutes

Reading the next two chapters in this book, I was amazed at the sheer ineffectiveness and massive inertia of an organization like the United Nations. It has no money, no teeth, no mandate. I'm not sure the word "United" reflects the organization... "Squabbling Nations" or "Side-stepping Nations" might be better.

Chapter 5 - The Clock is Ticking

Dallaire arrived back in New York after conducted a reconnaissance missio nin Rwanda. They had a plan and wanted it approved by the 10 September, the deadline laid out in the Arusha Accord. But... the UN does not work that quickly. Dallaire was shocked at the molasses-like pace of the bureaucracy but was convinced that it could happen and moved and pushed hard to get it to happen. Not only did he believe that the peacekeeping mission would help Rwanda but it would also be an Operational Command and he wanted it for that reason as well.

As negotiations proceeded, Dallaire realized that he would not be getting his 5500 troops but likely only 2600. On top of that, much of the equipment and specialized units that they requested would not be the same. He wanted helicopters but would only get them in late March 1994... and they would abandon the mission the day after the genocide started in April 1994. He wanted an HQ staff but that didn't handle either... nor the requested communications section. Basically UN peacekeeping missions were at the mercy of the countries who were volunteering their soldiers.

Still, with 2500 soldiers, he figured he could cover the demilitarized zone and have small, unarmed military observer teams for the rest of the country. He was also counting on the fact that Burundi, to the south of Rwanda, was a safe and peaceful country. They had elected a Hutu president in democratic elections after a minority Tutsi military-run dictatorship. He wasn't worried about Rwanda's southern flank. Later, he would wonder if he compromised too much but he kept getting reassured by UN staff that it was a good plan. "Instead of quitting an impossible task, I was determined to do the best I could to secure peace for Rwanda."

The deadline of 10 September came and went and the UN was still "reviewing the options". The big players on the UN Security Council (America, Britain) didn't take Rwanda seriously. The peacekeeping mission really needed a NATO country to step up and volunteer their forces but only the former colonial overlords of Rwanda, the Belgians, volunteered. Even Canada refused to supply 30 troops to coordinate the unloading of aircraft. Apparently, everyone was too busy with the Balkans and eastern Europe. There were some Third World countries who offered troops (e.g. Bangladesh) but they had very little material, sustainability and training specific to complex conflicts and vast humanitarian catastrophes.

Most UN staff thought that Rwanda was doable but one staffer reminded Dallaire that the Hutu hard-liners had only signed the Arusha agreement under enormous pressure. The UN wanted the mission to be "small, cheap, short and sweet". Dallaire is quite harsh in his assessment of the UN and its member nations:

"Member nations do not want a large, reputable, strong and independent United Nations, no matter their hypocritical pronouncements otherwise. What they want is a weak, beholden, indebted scapegoat of an organization, which they can blame for their failures or steal victories from."

Dallaire had no intelligence on Rwanda and was relying on other countries to provide it... which none did (e.g. France, US, UK). And so, he flew off to Africa on the mission, starting in Uganda where it was clear that arms were still trickling through the border which was riddled with mountain trails. While in Uganda, there was a coup d'etat in Burundi which completely destabilized the southern border of Rwanda.  Things were not off to a good start...

Chapter 6 - The First Milestones

The moderate Hutu leadership in Burundi had been toppled by Tutsi military leaders and that little country was headed for an ethnic bloodbath. Kigali was thick with rumours and the local media were full of hysterical talk about Tutsi hegemony. After arriving in Rwanda, some officers from Uruguay, Bangladesh and Poland arrived.

Dallaire got a crash course in UN bureaucracy, being assigned a CAO (Chief Administrative Officer) who was all about "process" and red tape. Dallaire was forced to fight a petty internal war over vehicles and office supplies. On top of that, the political liaison had not arrived so Dallaire was trying to wear two hats: military liaison and political liaison. After a month, and with nothing happening, Dallaire arranged a flag raising in the demilitarized zone and one in Kigali as well. All parties who attended the raising of the UN flag expressed high hopes for peace and cooperation and yet... beneath the surface, old grievances were simmering.

Attacks happened against the Hutu near the demilitarized zone and the RPF was blamed. Later, Dallaire wondered if the attacks were a test of the resolution of the West. Many of the Rwandan leaders had studied in Canada or elsewhere in the West and they knew that response would be minimal. The massacres were an immediate challenge to the UN mission but Dallaire didn't have all his personnel in place.

The Belgian troops arrived, 450 para-commandos with light weapons and few vehicles, despite the fact that Dallaire had requested motorized infantry. The Belgians also came from Somali where they had been part of a Chapter 7 UN mission. They were quite racist and also refused to stay in tents at the airport but settled throughout the city. This would cause problems later... In mid-December, the Bangladeshi soldiers arrived with no supplies other than their weapons and personal kit - no food, no tents, no ammunition, no soap. They were also very officer heavy, but with their arrival, the last of the French detachment flew home.

The political liaison finally arrived, working 9 to 5 on weekdays and rather disinclined to take the lead on the international political effort. Another massacre took place in northwestern Rwanda and again was pinned on the RPF. Later, Dallaire would learn that translator communicating with the massacre survivors was an RGF spy and that several other RGF spies had infiltrated the local staff of the UN mission. Other information seemed to indicate that at least one of the massacres had been carried out by para-commandos from an RGF base.

By December 1993, Dallaire was getting word from several sources that elements close to the president were out to sabotage the peace process. The conspiracy's opening act would be a massacre of Tutsis. He learned that there were several weapons caches around Kigali but the political liaison disagreed.

By the end of December, the UN mission had established the Kigali Weapons Secure Area so the RPF could attend negotiations with their leader. Plans to establish the BBTG (Broad-Based Transitional Government), however were stalled. Extremist parties who were not part of the Arusha Accord had infiltrated the other parties and were whipping up public paranoia. 

Thoughts

I'm not sure if this level of dysfunction and inefficiency is common in other endeavours but... it seems quite appalling. If this is standard operating procedure, then it's a miracle that anything gets done at all and that there aren't more disasters. Although... when you look at it... Syria is one long disaster with the world standing aside wringing its hands in despair... or covertly supporting one side or the other. It makes me wonder if the Cold War ever really ended. I've read elsewhere that the US and Russia are still fighting each other, it's just that they now use other countries to fight their skirmishes... Afghanistan, Syria, Ukraine...

Shake Hands with the Devil - Romeo Dallair - Part 2 of 10

2020 Reading Challenge - Day 193

July 12, 2020

Book 55 - Shake Hands with the Devil
Roméo Dallaire
 Part 2 - pages 50-100 (e-book)
Reading Time - 60 minutes

I covered three chapters in this section, and they were all pretty safe, if you can call it that.

Chapter 2 - "Rwanda, That's in Africa isn't it?"

This chapter covers Dallaire's rise in the army. I thought it was kind of interesting to learn that senior or retired officers remain intimately connected to their regiment. One of their key responsibilities is to select "streamers", young men or women who the elders believe have the right stuff to become future generals. It's like an invisible hand guides the young officer, nurtures their career - through a carefully selected series of command and staff positions that test and prepare the officer for higher command.

Dallaire seems to have been one of those streamers. He was also incredibly dedicated to the army. While other officers would marry and have kids, Dallaire was single and available. When he did get married, it seems that his first relationship was always with the army.

Dallaire was eventually promoted to Brigadier General in 1989 and posted as commandant of  the College militaire royal, training new officers. Those two years, according to him, were among the happiest, not only for himself, but also for his wife. But what he started to notice was that training soldiers for UN peacekeeping missions was problematic. The world had changed since the Cold War when class peacekeeping worked. It was less effective in the modern world and some of the peacekeepers had even been killed (e.g. Bosnia). As he was mulling over how best to train the next generation of Canadian soldiers, he got the call that would change his life, a peacekeeping reconnaissance mission to Rwanda.

Chapter 3 - "Check out Rwanda and You're in Charge"

Rwanda was in the middle of negotiating a peace agreement to end a vicious two and a half year civil war between the RPF (Rwandan Patriotic Front) and RGF (Rwanda Government Forces). Some of the parties had signed the agreement after a great deal of pressure and all sides felt that the UN could help to ensure that subsequent negotiations to form a new government went well. The reconnaissance mission included Dallaire, one other Canadian soldier and 80 unarmed observers.

Dallaire and his fellow Canadian tried to figure out the history of Rwanda from newspaper articles and some scholarly papers. They had no access to intelligence reports from, for example, Belgium, France or the USA. The history of Rwanda is one of colonialism. In 1916, the Belgians chased the Germans out of Rwanda. They found two main tribes, the Tutsi who were tall, light-skinned herders and the Hutu

were shorter, darker farmers. The Belgians elevated the Tutsi into positions of power, since they saw them as more "European" but the Tutsi formed a minority in Rwanda. The Belgians simply wanted to exploit the vast network of coffee and tea plantations in Rwanda.

In 1962, with Rwandan independence, a popular uprising slaughtered or drove out the Tutsi elite and installed a Hutu-dominated government. Over the next decade, violent pogroms against the Tutsi left in Rwanda continued and many more fled to Uganda, Burundi and Zaire (now the D.R.C.). The Tutsi diaspora coalesced into the Rwandan Patriotic Front which was a highly effective military and police movement. Living as unwelcome refugees in neighbouring countries put a lot of pressure on the Tutsi and in 1991, the RPF and the international community put pressure on the Rwandan government.

With this sketch of Rwandan history in his pocket, Dallaire went to New York to learn more about the mission. He found the DPKO (Department of Peacekeeping Operations) to be very underfunded and understaffed. The logistics in overseeing seventeen peacekeeping missions around the world was a nightmare. There was lots of disorder and not a few disasters (e.g. Bosnia, Somalia). Some within the UN thought that a small and quick success story in Rwanda might inspire member nations to place increased confidence in the United Nations' peacekeeping efforts and... be more generous with military and financial resources.

The Rwandan mission started with no support staff, no proper military maps of the area and borrowed laptops. Dallaire got the firm message from the DPKO that the reconnaissance trip to Rwanda needed to be small and inexpenisve... and that their recommendation for a Chapter 6 peacekeeping mission needed to follow the same format otherwise it would not be approved by the Security Council.

Chapter 4 - Enemies Holding Hands

Dalliare landed in Kigali, Rwanda on 19 August, 1993. According to the negotiated Arusha Accord, the UN needed to have the peacekeeping mission in place by 10 September... less than one month later. It was an impossible schedule and fraught with a lot of political uncertainty as the country attempted to transition from an acrimonious civil war to a multi-party, power-sharing, democratic system.

On top of that, as Dallaire conducted his fact-finding mission, he learned that there were extremist elements and militia who had inserted themselves into the youth wings of various political parties, even the moderate ones. He recognized that time was of the essence and that the UN needed to get boots on the ground as soon as possible.

The RPF was very well-organized but had limited logistical support (e.g. vehicles). They were unanimous in their support of the Arusha Accord and portrayed themselves as a group of Rwandan refugees who only wanted to go home and live in peace.

The RGF had less effective leaders but some elite units had been trained by the French and Belgians. Front-line units, on the other hand, were poorly trained recruits who lacked food, medical supplies, weapons. leadership and morale.

As his technical mission drew to a close, Dallaire was convinced that Rwanda could benefit from a Chapter 6 peacekeeping mission. As such, the UN forces would include unarmed observers and armed soldiers who could only use weapons in self-defence. Contrast this with a Chapter 7 peace-enforcement mission (e.g. Korea, Gulf War, Somalia) where the UN forces would come in and take over. But such a mission for Rwanda would never have been approved by the UN Security Council.

Dallaire came up with several different options for a UN force and would have preferred to to have 8000 troops at his disposal but thought the ideal number was 5500. He also came up with a reasonable viable option of 2500. Interestingly, the US, France and Russia thought a force of 500-1000 would be enough.

Dallaire ran his plan by both sides of the Rwanda conflict and gotten positive feedback. He thought that he had come to Rwanda to assess the different parties but, in reality, he was the one being assessed.

"Were they in fact already betting that white Western nations had too much on their hands to attempt another foray into black Africa? Were the hard-liners playing us, and me, for fools? I think so. I believe they had already concluded that the West did not have the will, as it had already demonstrated in Bosnia, Croatia, and Somalia, to police the world, to expend resources or to take the necessary casualties. They had calculated that the West would deploy a token force and when threatened would duck or run. They knew us better than we knew ourselves."

That is a sad commentary on the state of the First World... similar to the quote about the bureaucrats from the previous blog. Rwanda had nothing of value to the West and... when ten Belgian soldiers died in Rwanda... Belgium abandoned the peacekeeping mission. This was a hard section to read... to see the ineffectiveness and in-fighting that happens at the level of the United Nations. It does not paint a hopeful picture for the world. Clearly, given the situation in, for example, Syria, the world has learned nothing about how to prevent/avoid/handle humanitarian disasters.