If you are an  avid follower of the ongoing Tusker Project Fame show, then the names, Christian, Nina and Alpha are not foreign to you.

They are the first Rwandans ever to enter into the regional reality show. Well Christian and Nina have already been evicted from the show.

But although they carried our flag up high, after their eviction, little is known of their whereabouts.

Well they are back home. One would think that after such a tremendous effort of showcasing Rwandan music talent, putting us in the East African music map, their return home wouldn’t go unnoticed, unappreciated and ignored. But it has.

The latest Rwandan contestant to leave the show, Christian, arrived in the country a few days ago.

But it seems that no one cares that he is back, especially since he didn’t win. No one seems to recognize his extremely talented performance in the house or his incredible representation of Rwanda.

He, like the national team, the Amavubi Stars, are being ignored because he didn’t win; though they represent us, if they don’t win, they are ignored.

Our society has brainwashed us into believing that if we  don’t win then we are ‘losers’; so much so that we no longer appreciate effort and hard work, making our heroes believe that they are ‘nothing’.

This attitude affects the way we receive failure in business, sports and school. This perspective is not healthy.

I’m not advocating for people to be lazy, I’m just calling on Rwandans to see more than just trophies to recognize that we will win and lose some.

But we must still love and appreciate those who have faithfully engaged themselves.

If there is one thing that Rwanda is known for now, its winning; we are presently living in a revolution of excellence and the country’s progress is being recognized left right and centre.

Yes, we have come from far and the world is finally noticing that we are great in anything we set out to do. Winning has become an everyday expectation for Rwanda, We pride ourselves in excellence and achievement.

We have learnt to expect nothing else than a ‘win’. Our culture has pushed us to nothing less of the best, we no longer recognize individual or collective effort if it falls in second place, because our rules don’t recognize second place.

Winning has become everything to us; we are obsessed by it, we are addicted to it. This culture of pursuing perfection has created a generation that can’t take failure, a society that completely refuses to appreciate effort.

There are athletes amongst us who continue to receive no news coverage because they have never been the first. We judge them and ourselves based on whether we win or not.

We should cast down our faces when faced with failure and we should not ignore that we have lost; however, we should use the failed attempt to learn and reorganise ourselves to a better effort.

We need to applaud those, who are not the best, for their effort in order to encourage them to try again.

We need to continuously encourage our sports men and women and shower them with praise because whether they win or not, they are trying and representing each and every one of us. When we ignore them, we are in essence, ignoring ourselves.

The author is a journalist, The New Times
pghathoni@gmail.com