I still remember how I spent my last weekend

Last weekend was both fun as well as saddening. My roommate and I were invited to a dinner by an Eritrean friend. So, we were excited to have an exotic Eritrean dinner since my roommate was leaving to join a job with Bloomberg, NY. Eritrea is small country located in Eastern Africa, bordering the Red Sea, between Djibouti and Sudan. In dinner we had delicious chicken-egg curry, spinach, and soft Eritrean traditional bread called "Injera", something similar to South-Indian Dosa and is made from tiny grain called "Taff" which is mainly produced in Eritrea and Ethiopia. Actually I trivialized the essence and one has to try the taste. We spiced up the food by watching the movie, Hotel Rwanda. Eventually I had to part with my roommate later that night.

The next day I watched Munich by Stephen Spielberg. I would have felt guilty for watching two movies back-to-back when lot of work was piling up. But I was thoughtful with no guilty conscience in me after watching the movies because of what I learned from them. It was because I could connect myself with the themes therein.

It is different matter that I am doing computer science research but I always had two goals in sub-conscious mind. First goal was to become an astronaut and second goal was to become an international spy. Both seemed dangerous, challenging and both of these professions affect common people in different ways (One has to read Eleventh Commandment by Jeffrey Archer to understand how does a fate of a bill in US congress might depend on the result of Russian or Chinese Election). I had the reminiscences of these dream goals on watching Hotel Rwanda and Munich.

Hotel Rwanda can be compared to Schindler's List (Schindler's List was a novel). A hotel manager named Paul Rusesabagina saved more than 1000 people (mostly belonging to Tutsis tribe) from the attacks of dominant Hutu tribes after a war outbreak in Rwanda in 1994. More than 800,000 people were killed within 100 days of war. Paul used to bribe police and military officials to save Tutsis people as Oskar Schindler did to save Jews from Nazi forces. I was wondering all along how can people be so barbaric even in the 21st century, Africans killing Africans. What were UN forces doing then ? How can the countries where people don't have food to eat can manage to buy weapons ? Why are Western countries dumping their weapon junkyards in those poor countries ? Relating it to my previous post, it was sad to know that even Africans have prejudices against themselves (How can Tutsis be different from Hutus ?).

I cannot emphasize more how well-made movie was Munich. Who else can portray more about Jews and Palestinians better than Spielberg, a Jewish himself. A bunch of Jewish were killed in Munich during Olympic games in 1972. So, Jewish counter-terrorism group hired 5 Jewish spies to eliminate 11 Palestinians leaders (a matter of more than $2million dollars) in retaliation. These 5 people would travel almost every city in Europe to hunt and kill these leaders. It was a nail-biting adventurous game and involved a lot of spying and killing. There were emotional aspects showing family bonds, moral values and friendship. So exciting !! Although I cherish my dreams but I realize one to be brave, shrewd, quick and be ready to die in order to serve as a spy. At the end of the day, I made several conclusions:

a) never yield to any temptation in a job and watch out for honey pots laid down by pretty girls; thats why Avner, the leader of the Jewish team, could survive
b) Gandhian principles hold; Killing of Jews and Palestinians will never lead to peace on either side; replacements of killed leaders could be even worse and dangerous
c) one should fight for a cause which affects common people as Paul did in Hotel Rwanda than fighting for establishing supremacy based on prejudices such as caste
d) In crucial tasks (such as in buying secret information, raising kids) never bargain to save few bucks but invest generously; paying more now pays off later.