While the World Slept -or- Rwandan Genocide
Shake Hands With The Devil
Recently, I heard a presentation by David L. Kahn about the dreams of survivors of the Rwandan civil war and genocide. Reportedly, between 800,000 and 1.1 million people along with their dreams died in the conflict. A number of years back, I had already watched the film Shake Hands With The Devil (see video), which featured a reenactment of Canadian General Romeo Dallaire's role in Rwanda. Dallaire, was the commander of the United Nations mission and forces in Rwanda at the time of the genocide. General Dallaire has reportedly been left with post-traumatic stress disorder as a consequence of what he helplessly was forced to witness. It would not take a great stretch of the imagination to understand that General Dallaire most likely also suffers from flashbacks and post-traumatic nightmares. Hearing the presentation of David L. Kahn, While the World Slept, the stories and the dreams/nightmares of those that survived, underscores what Thomas Hobbes Leviathan at the time of the English civil war said, lives are "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short."
I welcome such investigative dream research work, much more needs to be done, for example is anyone interested in how the recent earthquake in Haiti has effected the Haitian's dreams?