At the end of his address detailing his heroic role during the 100-day Rwandan genocide of 1994, Paul Rusesabagina, subject of the film "Hotel Rwanda" and keynote speaker for Mission Week, took three questions from designated members of the audience. The first from a student in the College of Communication, was about the role of the media in the genocide; the second from a professor in the Department of Political Science was about what we could do at Marquette to help prevent such atrocities in the future; and the third, from the president elect of the Alumni Association, was, well a rephrasing of the last question from an alumni perspective. In attempting to answer this last question Mr. Rusesabagina confessed that he was repeating himself. Besides he was short of time. The address started behind schedule and was running behind schedule. It is for these reasons that Mr. Rusesabagina did not attend adequately to these questions.

There is no question that the Rwandan media played a crucial and decisive role in the genocide. It was a tool in the hands of the perpetrators. But that was the Rwandan media. How about the American media? It too is implicated in the genocide largely through a complicity of silence. The genocide was under-reported. And maybe that is understandable. People can only take in so much bad news at a time. If most African news in the American media is bad news chances are that nobody will be listening when real bad news occurs. It will only be one more tragedy out of Africa. Marquette students and alumni in the news industry will be doing very good service to Africa if they will better inform the American people about Africa by presenting the good as well as the bad news. The rest of the Marquette community will help by developing a healthy interest in Africa.

My interaction with many people at Marquette convinces me that the average American has very little of this healthy interest and curiosity towards Africa. Many are still stuck with the Africa of colonial and missionary accounts. Besides the tragic Africa of the American media, that is. The new emphasis on diversity at Marquette can help change this. Marquette administrators should work to increase the number of Africans in the university's faculty and student body. And knowing full well that most qualified African students cannot afford a Marquette education, the alumni can help by donating generously to the endowment fund that funds scholarships or endow chairs to attract African scholars.

Finally, economy is at the root of most of Africa's problems. A hungry man, they say, is an angry man. It is not entirely the fault of Africa that majority of its population has remained poor and hungry. America and Europe have a hand in it. Economic interests inform many an American and European policy towards Africa. Milwaukee Public Radio reported recently that in 2005 alone, Wisconsinites raised about $30 million and put in 250,000 hours to push Madison for various legislations of interest to them. If only we could commit a tiny fraction of such resources and energy to push Washington for more Africa-friendly legislation, I am confident that the news from Africa will improve.