Only the perverted or criminal can debase their country

You have to pity those who try to find fault with today’s Rwanda, especially if they are Rwandan and have the desire to govern the country someday. They have to find something terrible to say about the country that can justify their ambition. Unfortunately, they cannot find much. It must be very frustrating. Which is why all they can do is create a fantasy tale about an imaginary country (can only be such because it bears no resemblance to the real one) and then present it as reality. Do they, can they, believe in their made-up tale? Do they sincerely believe the rest of us will take delight in their imaginary creation? Actually, it is not correct to call their work creation because they are incapable of that. Creating is building something, putting things together, and bringing them to life. What they do is to de-create, pull things apart, kill and destroy them. Or they only repeat what has been said in the past and been debunked, but keep at it anyway, like a broken record with the needle stuck in the same groove (for us pre-digital revolution folks, there must be a very modern equivalent). It is difficult to believe that anyone can keep doing what they do and the energy they use. Imagine what good things they could do if they applied that energy and persistence to the right causes! But, of course, we are thinking of normal, reasonable, sane people. Not perverts. There is one of these people, unfortunately a Rwandan, with a destructive itch and an obsessive dislike for her own, who will not keep still or keep her mouth shut when good manners or time and place demand it. I will not name her. I am writing this early in the morning and mentioning her name might bring me misfortune. Also, I do not want to give her the satisfaction of getting the attention and recognition she so much craves. You would have thought that time would have tempered her tongue and healed her itch, and brought her some wisdom, or that even time spent in the cooler would have made her a little more reflective. And that living in her country among her kith and kin, even those she denies, and seeing the progress they have made together, would have made her love her country and compatriots a little more. Not her. That is for normal people, with a heart and conscience and brain, all connected and coordinated. Perhaps there is a stone where a heart should have been, hatred where love should have resided, intemperance where deliberation should have been the better choice, and a dearth of wisdom only surpassed by the biblical swine. A few days ago she was at her usual bad, anti-Rwanda self. In an op-ed in a publication in her likeness, she dragged her country in the mud. The result was a country unrecognisable from the one with which we are all familiar. Who can get pleasure from debasing their own country? Only a pervert or criminal She opened with a line that suggests her country has little or no worth. It is a landlocked country (true) with no natural resources (really?) She could at least have qualified that with “no known natural resources” or “no significant natural resources” or something. Somehow, she forgot to say “dirt” poor, another of those descriptions from certain quarters. Obviously she has not been following events here. She would have learnt of the riches under our fabled hills and in the valleys and plains, and in our waters. She would have learnt that where others boast of quantity, here the story is about purity. But that is really not the point. She could genuinely be ignorant. We could forgive her for that and be happy to educate her. Perhaps she is only repeating without much thought what she has been taught by those who have interest in keeping us impoverished, even in the mind. Maybe she is one of those who get pleasure from self-debasement. But we cannot excuse her for deliberate denigration of our homeland. That is akin to treason. She then heaps lie upon lie until there is a mountain of lies. Don’t blame her, though. She can’t help it. It is the itch in her mouth that apparently can only be soothed by the sound of vitriol coming from her. For instance, she says Rwanda’s youth are not properly empowered. You can’t believe you heard right. Really, madam, our youth not empowered? You must be living in a different country on another planet and referring to their young people. She made the wrong choice for criticism. Rwanda’s youth today are some of the most empowered, most confident, and have opportunities to realise their potential more than at any time in this country’s history. She might perhaps have had a slightly better case if she had said other sections of the population complain that the youth are favoured. That is really because she has no case or she is reluctant to look at the evidence, or does not like what she sees and would rather it were not real. She did not have to look far for proof of the increasing role Rwanda’s youth play in practically all aspects of national life. Look at the composition of cabinet, or top executive positions in the corporate world. Of course, in typical denial fashion, she might say: that is only sprinkling at the top to deceive. Invite her to look at almost the entire civil service, business, agriculture, entertainment or civil society. It is a youthful country, this Rwanda. Our loud and bad-mouthed compatriot (we can’t disown her, can we?) is, however, not completely devoid of good sense and is capable of correction, and may yet be redeemed. She does actually recognise the government's efforts to empower the youth, which she then goes on to list: National Employment Programme, Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), the Business Development Fund (BDF), and National Youth Council, among others. She admits the government has spent huge sums on the creation of commercial activities for the youth, for example in MICE. She cannot, poor woman, make unseen what is clearly visible. Oh, the folly of it.

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Only the perverted or criminal can debase their country