Romeo Dallaire Quotes & Sayings

Though many desperately and relentlessly cling to old, divisive ideas in the face of a future that looks complex and uncertain, no one can legitimately portray themselves as members or practitioners of the one true faith, the superior race, the best culture. No one can say, with the image of the blue and green Earth floating in their heads, that others don't count as much as "we" do, that others don't hold the same status as we do, are not as significant as us, are ultimately just not as human as us. — Romeo Dallaire

Those who are mastering more and more the communications revolution, those who realize that there are no borders in the world, are the ones who are going to leap ahead. — Romeo Dallaire

The first breath of air of Africa - it felt like you were in another continent - you were, you were - and it was different. — Romeo Dallaire

PTSD has a terminal side to it that calls for more urgency. — Romeo Dallaire

If I decide to make a career in the army, he said, I would never be rich, but I would live one of the most satisfying lives there was to be had. Then
he warned me that satisfaction would come at a great cost to me and any family I might have. I should never expected to be thanked; a soldier, if he was going to be content, had to understand that no civilian, no government,
sometimes not even the army itself, would recognize the true nature of the scarifies he made. — Romeo Dallaire

For most countries, serving the UN's objectives has never seemed worth even the smallest of risks. Member nations do not want a large, reputable, strong and independent United Nations, no matter their hypocritical pronouncements otherwise. What they want is a weak, beholden, indebted scapegoat of an organization, which they can blame for their failures or steal victories from. — Romeo Dallaire

I think that one of the benefits of optimism and idealism is that they lead you into things you would never have tried if you'd let yourself imagine how hard it was going to turn out to be. — Romeo Dallaire

I am still suffering from my experience in Rwanda, I never know when I'm going to drive my car off a bridge, or just decide to take my life. — Romeo Dallaire

I know there is a God because in Rwanda I shook hands with the devil. I have seen him, I have smelled him and I have touched him. I know the devil exists and therefore I know there is a God. — Romeo Dallaire

There was no way to laugh anymore, to love, to care, and there was a sense of guilt in having survived when others had been killed. I turned into a worse workaholic than I had already been by trying to work myself into the ground. — Romeo Dallaire

Many signs point to the fact that the youth of the Third World will no longer tolerate living in circumstances that give them no hope for the future. From the young boys I met in the demobilization camps in Sierra Leone to the suicide bombers of Palestine and Chechnya, to the young terrorists who fly planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, we can no longer afford to ignore them. We have to take concrete steps to remove the causes of their rage, or we have to be prepared to suffer the consequences. — Romeo Dallaire

Seismic change can happen over a lifetime, or in an instant. — Romeo Dallaire

If we don't harness their potential for good, their societies will continue to reap their capacity for evil. — Romeo Dallaire

I promised never to let the Rwandan Genocide die because I knew the Rwandans didn't have much power internationally and certainly didn't have the resources. I felt it was my duty having witnessed it, and having stayed to witness it, that I had to talk about it and keep it going. — Romeo Dallaire

Are all humans human? Or are some more human than others? — Romeo Dallaire

How do we pick and choose where to get involved? Canada and other peacekeeping nations have become accustomed to acting if, and only if, international public opinion will support them - a dangerous path that leads to a moral relativism in which a country risks losing sight of the difference between good and evil, a concept that some players on the international stage view as outmoded. Some governments regard the use of force itself as the greatest evil. Others define "good" as the pursuit of human rights and will opt to employ force when human rights are violated. As the nineties drew to a close and the new millennium dawned with no sign of an end to these ugly little wars, it was as if each troubling conflict we were faced with had to pass the test of whether we could "care" about it or "identify" with the victims before we'd get involved. — Romeo Dallaire

Where you are born should not dictate your potential as a human being. — Romeo Dallaire

Is the human condition not defined by an endless struggle to control the ego's subterfuges? — Romeo Dallaire

Death became a desired option. I hoped I would hit a mine or run into an ambush and just end it all. I think some part of me wanted to join the legions of the dead, whom I had failed. — Romeo Dallaire

I felt it absolutely essential that we plant the U.N. flag in Rwanda and plant it in a place of significance to show all the political entities, all the signees of the agreement and the Rwandans ... that the international community were here and we're here to stay and we're going to be doing our job. — Romeo Dallaire

The night I flew out from Rwanda, I landed in Nairobi, and I was on my way back home, and my left side started to paralyze and remained paralyzed with pain, and the stress and so on began to appear physically. — Romeo Dallaire

The reason why we believe that change is possible is not because we are idealists but because we believe we have made it, so other people can make it as well. — Romeo Dallaire

The global village is deteriorating at a rapid pace, and in the children of the world the result is rage. It is the rage I saw in the eyes of the teenage Interahamwe militiamen in Rwanda, it is the rage I sensed in the hearts of the children of Sierra Leone, it is the rage I felt in crowds of ordinary civilians in Rwanda, and it is the rage that resulted in September 11. Human beings who have no rights, no security, no future, no hope and no means to survive are a desperate group who will do desperate things to take what they believe they need and deserve. — Romeo Dallaire

Now is the time to take up the cause of the advancement of human rights for all and the moment is yours to grasp. — Romeo Dallaire

I think the only value of 'Hotel Rwanda' is the fact that it keeps the Rwandan genocide alive, but as far as content, it's Hollywood. — Romeo Dallaire

It may seem unimaginable to you that child soldiers exist and yet the reality for many rebel and gang leaders, and even state governments, is that there is no more complete end-to-end weapon system in the inventory of war machines than the child soldierMan has created the ultimate cheap, expendable, yet sophisticated human weapon at the expense of humanity's own future: its children. — Romeo Dallaire

Now, in this U.N. stuff, the commander, although he has troops, they don't really belong to him. They're loaned by the country to the U.N. to be used, but each of these countries provide a contingent commander, a senior guy who communicates directly back to his capital. — Romeo Dallaire

More and more, we have been able to present the argument that recruitment of child soldiers is a social breakdown that leads to atrocities, because that's why they get them. — Romeo Dallaire

Kofi Annan was the U.N. Under-Secretary General for peacekeeping operations. He had the responsibilities in regards to the mounting and operation of peacekeeping missions around the world. — Romeo Dallaire

Money follows interest, and interest is largely driven by media attention, which is more easily captured by the drama of conflict than by peace. — Romeo Dallaire

I was on the ground, I was in command, I had been given the mission, and I took the decision. — Romeo Dallaire