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In 1994, one man was given the task by the United Nations to ensure
that peace was maintained in Rwanda: Canadian General Romeo Dallaire.
In 100 nightmarish days, more than 800,000 men, women, and children
were brutally murdered. Dallaire was thrown into a country he barely
understood, leading ill equipped, untrained troops who did not want
to be there.
Unsupported by U.N. headquarters, they were incapable of stopping
the killing. This experience led to Dallaire's own life tragedy
as he dealt with the psychological fallout of witnessing a genocide
he was powerless to stop. Dallaire condemns top U.N. officials,
disloyal Belgian troop commanders, and senior members of the Clinton
administration who chose to do nothing as he pleaded for reinforcements
and revised rules of engagement, convinced that with a few thousand
more troops and a mandate to act, he could have stopped the killings.
In April 2004, on the 10th anniversary of the genocide, Peter
Raymont followed Dallaire on his first return trip to Rwanda,
revisiting the killing fields that still haunt him.
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White Rainbow is the story of four women and their struggle
to overcome the stigma and brutal reality of widowhood in modern
Indian society.
In the story, the protagonist, Priya, is an educated, affluent
young woman who is tragically widowed. Despondent, alone and desperate,
she seeks unlikely solace in Vrindavan, the “city of widows.”
Priya meets the streetwise Roop who has spent thirty years making
her own way in this temple town with its dirty secrets. She encounters
gentle Mala, tragically disfigured by her mother-in-law, and young
Deepti, forced into servitude and an underground sex trade run
by the Panda priest.
Together, this disparate group forms a deep bond and begins to
see the power of their own conviction to take charge of their
own fate. But their journey is not without adversity and tragedy
from a system dominated by men who prosper from the exploitation
of India's most disenfranchised citizens. In the end, Priya comes
to realize that, “Her destiny was to change their fate!”
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