Joe Alwyn Quotes
When I was growing up, my dad was away a lot. He did a lot of work in crisis zones, places like Uganda or Rwanda.
Lamont, Tom. "Joe Alwyn: 'I was not a name, I was not a face, I was nobody'." The Observer, 20 Nov. 2016.
The "trouble" was the terrorist attacks to gain an independent Pakistan that the Punjab Muslims were perpetrating against the Sikhs and the Hindus and the retaliations. At first organized in the cities they had become spontaneous and spread to the countryside. It turned out to be impossible for Governor Jenkins and the limited British troops and police to stop the violence in most places. By the end of the Partition of India hundreds of thousands of Punjabis had been killed.
The General’s plan was not accepted by the UN and the participating governments. The genocide was not abated.
His view, that America had no vested interest in Rwanda, was the prevailing thinking of the Republicans who controlled Congress and many of the Democrats as well. President Clinton considered intervention in Rwanda, but decided against it given all the opposition and little time to educate the American public to a different position. The result was the genocide in Rwanda where over 500,000 Tutsis were exterminated by the Hutus. Clinton, several years later not only admitted that he made a political and moral mistake, but officially apologized to Rwandan Tutsis who remained alive. He had intervened very successfully in Kosovo to prevent more murder of ethnic Muslims and was given a hard time politically by his opposition even though the brilliant effort cost no American lives. The United States and the UN, all bearing guilt for doing little in Rwanda, did help to set up the mechanism for the trials of the worst murderers and at least many of the most guilty were brought to justice.
The genocide when the Hutu tried to exterminate the Tutsis might have been curtailed with large nation intervention, but that would have interfered in the internal affairs of a sovereign state. Two important principles were in conflict. The rights of the Tutsi minority and the traditional prohibition of interfering in the internal affairs of another country. In this and many situations to follow, ranging from Darfur to Zimbabwe, the realization that the traditional prohibition against internal interference has to trump the most egregious violations of human rights.
Joseph Matthew Alwyn is an English actor. He has starred in films such as Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (2016), Operation Finale (2017), The Favourite (2018), and Harriet (2019).
