For those who genuinely want to have a glance at was has really been happening within Rwanda for the last 15 years. Here are the videos produced by reporters from France24. See by yourself rather than believing all this political propaganda. http://www.france24.com/en/20090703-reporter-rwanda-genocide-tutsis-hutus-fifteen-years-later-kigali-kagame-commemoration
Kagame's economic boom is just a great illusion and it is just as impressing as the one the USSR pretended to had while people were being killed and exploited. You should stop those lies, Clinton and Blair are Kagamé's fan just as much as the Kermit Roosevelt and his western friends were fans of the Chah of Iran because he gives them all the resources (the few of Rwanda and those of Congo) and he doesn't mind slaughtering 6 millions people for that or starving his countrymen.
Reading comments made by my country men/women reaffirms my view that Rwanda and especially Rwandans have a long way to go.
Whenever someone has a different view or makes a constructive criticism, why do we always feel attacked or hurt especially when they are criticising someone with the same ethnic background as us?
Why defend blindly, on ethnic lines, our "brothers" and "sisters" mistakes or crimes?
It is not clear that Rwanda would stay on this path even after Kagame. Rwanda remains a small, landlocked nation with few natural riches. But there is every reason to be hopeful. Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore pulled off a similar miracle on the other side of the world, which serves as a model for Rwanda and its leaders. It is not natural resources that transform nations; it is enlightened leadership that ignites the spirit of the people to better themselves. Lessons for Kenya? Do you really need me to spell them out? The lessons are in every word of what I have just written. Follow Paul Kagame's self-reliance doctrine, and work them out for yourself.
Kagame is one of the few African presidents to speak out against dependence on foreign aid, saying: "We appreciate support from the outside, but it should be support for what we intend to achieve ourselves. No one should pretend that they care about our nations more than we do; or assume that they know what is good for us better than we do ourselves." This is not a puff piece about Kagame and Rwanda. It is trying to draw your attention to the fact that great strides are being made not too far from these borders. Rwanda is not yet transformed; far from it. It is not obvious that the decades-old animosity between Hutu and Tutsi is eradicated.
Deflated loyalists Now I have to pause there, since I come from a country where public appointments are made on the basis of ethnicity, political loyalty and personal interest. Ambassadorships, in particular, are reserved as a reward for tired and deflated loyalists, an agreeable tour of duty before they plummet into retirement and oblivion. The personality of President Kagame cannot be divorced from what Rwanda is today. He travels around his country in a motorcade of three — one chase car ahead, one behind his official vehicle. His thinking is that his movements should be as unobtrusive and non-disruptive as possible — not causing a suspension of business for his people. He holds annual strategy retreats where key strategic goals are set and priorities defined. He pays for the best available advice: his personal advisors range from the world's premier strategy guru, Michael Porter, to consummate networkers Bill Clinton and Tony Blair.
Its leader, President Paul Kagame, was present in Kenya last week and left a lasting impression on many a Kenyan — not least for his unassuming, no-frills leadership style. You might forgive a bit of swagger in a leader with all those achievements to his name. Not a bit of it: he is quiet, focused and utterly serious - a man on a mission, if ever I saw one. Key appointments, in Rwanda,are made on the basis of what you can do, not what you are. If there is one thing for which president Kagame has no patience, it is "dull minds". The country's need is too big and too urgent
A universal health plan covers 90 per cent of the population. Education is a priority, and many foreign lecturers have helped to raise standards. The internet is everywhere, as are cellphone networks. Cabinet members work on laptops when they meet. This country's leadership deems its future to lie in technological uplift, in the acquisition of knowledge, in being an open and transparent society. This country is enjoying 11 per cent annual growth in its economy, and its GDP per capita has tripled over the past fifteen years. What is most remarkable is that this is an African country we are referring to, one that is just a short distance away from Kenya. This country is, of course, Rwanda.
108 comments
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYEtSdSMgNg
http://www.france24.com/en/20090703-reporter-rwanda-genocide-tutsis-hutus-fifteen-years-later-kigali-kagame-commemoration
http://www.france24.com/en/20090703-reporter-rwanda-genocide-tutsis-hutus-fifteen-years-later-kigali-kagame-commemoration
Whenever someone has a different view or makes a constructive criticism, why do we always feel attacked or hurt especially when they are criticising someone with the same ethnic background as us?
Why defend blindly, on ethnic lines, our "brothers" and "sisters" mistakes or crimes?
It is not natural resources that transform nations; it is enlightened leadership that ignites the spirit of the people to better themselves. Lessons for Kenya? Do you really need me to spell them out? The lessons are in every word of what I have just written. Follow Paul Kagame's self-reliance doctrine, and work them out for yourself.
This is not a puff piece about Kagame and Rwanda. It is trying to draw your attention to the fact that great strides are being made not too far from these borders. Rwanda is not yet transformed; far from it. It is not obvious that the decades-old animosity between Hutu and Tutsi is eradicated.
Now I have to pause there, since I come from a country where public appointments are made on the basis of ethnicity, political loyalty and personal interest. Ambassadorships, in particular, are reserved as a reward for tired and deflated loyalists, an agreeable tour of duty before they plummet into retirement and oblivion.
The personality of President Kagame cannot be divorced from what Rwanda is today. He travels around his country in a motorcade of three — one chase car ahead, one behind his official vehicle. His thinking is that his movements should be as unobtrusive and non-disruptive as possible — not causing a suspension of business for his people.
He holds annual strategy retreats where key strategic goals are set and priorities defined. He pays for the best available advice: his personal advisors range from the world's premier strategy guru, Michael Porter, to consummate networkers Bill Clinton and Tony Blair.
Key appointments, in Rwanda,are made on the basis of what you can do, not what you are. If there is one thing for which president Kagame has no patience, it is "dull minds". The country's need is too big and too urgent
The internet is everywhere, as are cellphone networks. Cabinet members work on laptops when they meet. This country's leadership deems its future to lie in technological uplift, in the acquisition of knowledge, in being an open and transparent society.
This country is enjoying 11 per cent annual growth in its economy, and its GDP per capita has tripled over the past fifteen years. What is most remarkable is that this is an African country we are referring to, one that is just a short distance away from Kenya. This country is, of course, Rwanda.