Editor,

I just learnt, through the online New Times dispatch this morning, that Rwanda has come up with yet another awesome feat at the London World Travel Market (WTM) Exhibition.

When Rwandans hear that "Rwanda was the only African country to be awarded with one of the five awards at the ongoing World Travel Market (WTM) Exhibition in London’, they certainly feel a legitimate sense of national pride”, as Ambassador Claver Gatete said. There is even more to it I dare say.

When you read positive news, such as this, one’s heart swells with an increased sense of patriotism.

Any of the 10 million or so Rwandans, hearing that ‘Rwanda scooped the Best Stand Personnel award beating 600 selected exhibitors’, whether you like the present government or not, whether you are a fan of president Paul Kagame or not, you will most certainly feel something stir in your heart; national pride, national honor and individual moral contentment.

You’ll feel like calling your friends and neighbors for celebration. It is obviously worth it. Those having grudges against the current political dispensation in Rwanda will even have good reason to have second thoughts, I should think.

That being said, however, I would like to draw the attention of Rwandans at home and abroad, to this truth. It is not enough to just harbor national feelings whenever Rwanda has done great things on the international scene.

Post-Genocide Rwanda has indeed been accumulating laurels over the last fifteen years. Rwanda has often been noted for her great feats-  feats that weren’t expectable from a country just rising from the ashes.

The horrors of war and Genocide had turned many off and those around the world had written Rwanda off. Rwanda was dead and gone as far as they were concerned. They were wrong. And these laurels are proof of that.

Let us capitalize on those laurels and attract wealth into Rwanda and into the sub region.

Deo Ntarugera
ntarugera@yahoo.fr