Killing time, with thoughts of killing, killing, killing

Feeling: crap, frankly. Wicked old skool headache and sore limbs (no, not that limb). Worked from home today.

Writing: 'Citizen Zero'

Listening to: Vincius de Moraes (keeps me sane while I write)

Thinking about: how genocide is legitimised through recourse to an ideology unsound.

Genocides never just happen. They are argued for, under cover of intellectual debate and exploration of glories/injustices past, before they are justified, architected and finally, executed.

I think of the pseudo-intellectual arguments made by historians, scientists and poets, many of which suggest that your countrymen are in fact your enemies - foreigners from far lands - and are thieves, and that this mistake can be corrected for once and for all. I think of Ferdinand Nahimana in Rwanda and Dobrica Ćosić & Matija Bećković in Serbia.

Even more sinister are genocides such as that perpetrated in Cambodia (Pol Pot) and PRC (the 'Gang of Four's' Cultural Revolution), where the 'intelligentsia' were eradicated.

I think also of the broadcasts from Radio Mille Collines in Rwanda:

'Death! Death! Graves with Tutsi bodies are still only half full. Hurry, and fill them to the top!'

It wasn't just Hutu extremists. A Belgian-Italian broadcaster at that radio station, Giorgio Ruggiu, had broadcast:

'What are you waiting for? The tombs are empty. Take up your machetes and hack your enemies to pieces'

As I write 'Citizen Zero' I hear screams ringing in my ears and I cannot accept that people should just acknowledge or engage. They need to confront and fight. So many of us are all too passive. Why is that? Don't we share (and fight for) values anymore?

Looking forward to: 'Shooting Dogs' preview on Wednesday and 'Army in the Shadows' on Sunday at the NFT.