Abolition of death penalty in Rwanda

Heres a couple of interesting articles about the situation post - genocide in Rwanda. The first is about the Rwandan traditional justice system (Gacaca) used for perpatrators of the Rwanda genocide. The second is about the recent abolition of the death penalty in Rwanda.

Any thoughts/comments welcome..

Concept Map (genocide) version 2

Figure 1. Social psychological variables of genocide concept map

Mikes plan to prevent genocide!!

Tips for the U.N

1. Identify vulnerable areas through SPSS analysis of correlations between current living conditions and similar living conditions that led to past genocides.

2. Dig deep, provide more financial aid, all genocides occur in economic crises.

3. Provide medical aid.

4. Make psychological aid availible.

5. When violence occurs have negotiators passively reason with leaders from outside the country

6. Do not send troops. To me this indicates forceing western cultural values onto another culture which I think is wrong and only serves to create more hate.

7. Encourage countries to have a strong education system that includes courses on history that are unbiased, emphasize that violence has never achieved anything and that much more can be achieved through negotiation.

8. Provide educational resources where required.

Any comments welcome!!

Would you help????

Hypothetical question! If there was a genocide starting in Rwanda tommorrow excactly the same as the one in 1994 and the military were asking for volunteers to help defend against approx 7 million machete wielding Hutu's would you lend your services??

I thought about this question long and hard and concluded that I would politely say no, I've tried sticking up for someone once before and got touched up! Operant conditioning lol! Also humans generally have an innate tendency to be selfish to aid survival and reproduction (lect 1 I think) and I did not miss out on this tendency! Plus If I did go, as soon we leave they would kill each other anyway! It would be just delaying the inevitable. Pointless!

Genocide is terrible and I feel for the victims especially the kids. I am generally an optimistic person but the more I research genocide the more I feel it is innevitable. It has been happening since time began and will - as far as I can see - continue to happen forever. Since 1945 there has only been 26days of world peace, that is a very alarming stat, not even a month!!!!. It seems that whenever there is economic or political crises people just go crazy and are capable of anything! Who Knows if Howard gets voted in again hah

Any comments welcome!!

10 worst genocides

I found this list of the 10 worst genocides.

1. Mao Tsedong: 27 - 73 million Chinese deaths (1945 - 1976)

2. Joseph Stalin: 4 - 60 million polictical purges (1922 - 1953)

3. Hitler: 15 - 50 million civilian deaths by democide and by deaths in concentration camps

4. Hideki Tojo: 6 million - 30 million deaths of Chinese civilians during World War II

5. Pol Pot: - 3 million deaths in Cambodia in the 1970s

6. Kim Il Sung: More than 1.6 million political purges and deaths in concentration camps (1946 - 1994)

7. Mengitsu Haile Mariam: 1.5 million deaths by democide in Ethiopia in the 1970s

8. Ismail Enver: 1.2 - 1.5 million deaths of Turkish civilians (1914-1916)

9. Yakubu Gowon: Over 1 million deaths in Nigeria in (1966-1975)

10. Leonid Breshnev: over 900,000 Armenian deaths (1979 - 1982)

Post-graduation options

Its hard to believe that that I've been doing psych now for almost 3 years. I have enjoyed the degree and learned a lot but I am begining to wonder whats in store after I finish.

-What does everybody plan to do when they graduate?

-What kind of jobs are availible for a person with an undergrad psych degree?

-Does anyone plan on doing honours or any other post-grad studies?

Any comments welcome!

Factors leading to genocide.

I've started doing a bit of research into the factors leading to genocide question for blog 1. Some of the factors I've found are things like in-group bias, illusory correlations, belief perserverance etc.

Do you think these factors are a problem here in Australia? Obviously we haven't had anything close to what happened in Rwanda but the sydney race riots were enough to send a shiver up my spine! What factors do you think lead to the sydney riots? Do you think our leaders could have prevented the disater? or done anything differently?

Any opinions welcome.