Hotel Rwanda is based on a the massacre that happened in the 1900s in the country of Rwanda. In the movie, Paul Rusesabagina played by Don Cheadle was a hotel manager for Hotel des Mille Collines (Hotel Rwanda. (n. d. ). Retrieved October 5, 2015. ) during the genocide. In the 1990s the population of the Rwanda was overtaken by Hutus; about 85% and 14% of Tutsi, A number of Hutus believed they were the superior race over the Tutsi. The Hutus considered the Tutsi as “inhuman” and wanted to get rid of number of Tutsis (Genocide in Rwanda. (n. d. ). Retrieved October 5, 2015.
Paul Rwanda took over 1268 Tutsi refugees over the three month period of the civil war. But along with the number of refugees he did protect over one million Tutsis and rebels were murder wiping out 13 of the country. The movie was unethical because certain characters expressed unethical behaviour in the evident in the film. Three scenes that were unethical went against the three Ethicist; Aristotle, Kant, Levinas. Aristotle born in 384 BC in Stagira. He studied the concept of the natural world and human experience. Aristotle developed four different ethics based on Teleological ethics (CCCB: page #11).
While Levinas born in 1905 studied on the ethics of the face (CCCB: page #17). And Kant born in 1724 in Konigsberg, developed six ethics that have a similar concept of Deontological ethics (in the search of the good, p14). In Hotel Rwanda, they show three unethical scenes that did go against Aristotle’s explanation of community, Levinas’s ethic on how the face can lead emotions, and Kant’s description on moral maxim. One example of unethical behaviour is the concept of community. Aristotle constantly stressed the idea of “community”. Aristotle states that “the human life is shaped to ts full extent in the context of a community” (CCCB: page #12). A community is about a group of people living in harmony, with the ability for them to share and express emotions or ideas in order to benefit one another.
In Hotel, Rwanda Paul was able to keep over one thousand refugees which were men, women and children during the genocide (Hotel Rwanda). Paul did live in the community. But one employee who went against Paul was Gregorie. Gregorie expressed unethical behaviour, by driving to the extremist Hutus’ area and explained about how Paul was keeping a number of Tutsi refugee in his hotel (Hotel Rwanda).
Gregoire did not care for anyone but himself, he believed that Paul was going against the Hutus, therefore, he went against Paul. He did not respect Paul, although he should have because Paul was his boss (Hotel Rwanda). Aristotle also states “Community takes precedence over the individual” (CCCB: page #12). Community was the reason why Paul was able to keep over a thousand refugees; he had a number of officers worker by his side but, if one tried to go against the community it will slowly break apart- which was Gregorie. What is not a community is the idea of going against each other to benefit only yourself.
It is considered as a selfish act. It was important during the film to have each other’s back. He expressed unethical behaviour by disrespecting Paul and showing that he believes that he is more superior than the group because the title of a Hutu was claimed as stronger. Immanuel Kant expressed the idea of “moral maxim”. He explains the idea as “every rational person would necessarily act if reason were full charge of his or her action” (CCCB: page #16) this means that every person is responsible for their actions and needs to understand the consequences of what they do right or wrong.
In the movie there is one particular scene in the beginning that shows Paul’s neighbour, Victor getting attacked and questioned by the superior Hutus (Hotel Rwanda). It was clear in Paul’s face he did not enjoy what he was seeing. Paul expresses concern and looked mortified, watching his neighbour who he has been across the street from him for multiple years was being attacked. But Paul did not act ethically. With the concept of “moral maxim,” Kant also expresses “I should act in a way that I would want everyone else in the world to act” (CCCB: page #16).
Paul continued to watch his neighbour be brutally acted by a man who did not know him but did not do anything to stop him. If Paul thought about being in Victor’s shoes, he would have wished that someone stopped him from being attacked. Paul was unethical because he did not think for his love one but he only thought of himself. Therefore what he did was unethical. Paul thought only for himself, he was only concerned for his own being. In this particular situation, an example for it to become an ethical act is either for Paul to step into the situation and try to find a medium common ground between him and the extremist.
