Ruin Your Day: American man discovers genocide in Africa

by Aleister
Published: Monday, April 30th, 2007

The Daily Torment, in the interest of spreading ill will, hatred, discomfort, and disgust, in the interest of popping your nitrous oxide-filled bubble of ignorance and making your world a terrible place in which to live, is proud to present the first in our “Ruin Your Day” series.

Today’s victim was 30-year-old Tom Wilkins Monroe, of Decatur, GA.

DT: What’s genocide, Tom?

TWM: That’s when you kill a whole race of people. It’s one of the worst things that ever happened.

DT: So far, so good, Tom. When did that happen?

TWM: World War II, the Holocaust. ‘Never again,’ right? I remember.

At this point, we pulled out a world map and asked him where the Congo was. He pointed at the center of Africa. “And Nigeria?” we asked. He pointed at the center of Africa. “And Germany?” He pointed at the center of Europe, which prompted a sigh of relief from us.

It was at this point that we made it known to him that a potentially ethnically-motivated conflict was taking place, as we spoke, in Darfur, in the western Sudan, and that over 400,000 non-Arab people had been killed, and over 2 million had fled or been forced out, since 2003.

His eyes bugged out. “W-When?” As we forced him to peruse the reading material on the subject, we monitored his reactions, which included shock, anger, hysteria, and a brief episode of projectile-vomiting blood.

We spoke to him again on his lunch break the following day. “How can this happen in today’s world?” he remarked, red-eyed and shaking. “I thought everything was cool now, except for us screwing up Iraq. I haven’t slept at all.”

We took this opportunity to inform him that in 1994, between 500,000 and 1,000,000 Tutsi were slaughtered in Rwanda, quite possibly as the result of an artificial ethnic separation implemented by European colonists in the nineteenth century.

Upon hearing this, Mr. Monroe vomited up an entire bottle of antacids. “Where was I?” he cried. “Why does nobody know about this? Who is covering it up?”

We mentioned that there was extensive news coverage, but that the U.N. failed to act in either case.

“We’re blind!” he screamed, frantically clicking open a ballpoint pen and bursting his left eyeball with it, then moving to the right, stabbing repeatedly until the pen reached his tender frontal lobes, then collapsing on the ground in a pool of blood and vitreous humor. We personally felt that his symbolism was a little obvious and amateurish. Fortunately for Mr. Monroe, in the Forest of the Suicides, there’s little chance he’ll meet the people who perpetrated these atrocities, and a very good chance he'll run into Cho Seung Hui, who thoroughly appreciates amateurish symbolism.

We’d like to ruin your day, too. Please visit the following websites:

Translating Genocide - Documentary film released through MTV.

Student Anti-Genocide Coalition - Organization to show you how to get involved.

Darfur Scores - Shows how your congressional representatives have voted on Darfur-related legislation, and provides contact information so you can have your voice heard.

Sudan Divestment Task Force - Stop investing in the Sudanese government.

Wikipedia article - Background from the populist encyclopedia.

2050 – “Darfur” - Music video from metal band 2050. CAUTION: CONTAINS DISTURBING DOCUMENTARY IMAGES.