Smart apps, not witchcraft for 21st century

We really never get to know how good it is to live in Rwanda. Well, until someone tells us or we read about it somewhere. For instance, the Gallup Poll has just told us that we are the happiest people in Africa and well-placed globally. Now, many Rwandans are given to grumbling about lots of things. We are also reputed to be not very expressive. So perhaps we keep our contentment inside, content to know what we feel. In any case that is what matters, not whether others know it or not. In any case happiness and excitement are not necessarily the same. We also rarely appreciate what we have in this country until we see what happens elsewhere. Some of what we see or hear about is not pleasant in the least. And maybe we shouldn’t even know about it because, quite frankly, most of it appears like it comes from another age on a different planet. Take the example of witchcraft. It is scary stuff but it is headline news in some of the countries in our neighbourhood. Not in the racy tabloids, but in serious national papers. It is a worthy subject of debate in the media and in parliament, a topic for animated conversation in social places. It even finds a lot of time on the pulpit – perhaps understandably. So we read of little innocent children snatched from the comfort of their homes, or the delights of the playing field and taken to be sacrificed in some macabre ritual. Those behind child abductions are not the poor and ignorant members of society. No. They are wealthy, educated, well-placed, usually respectable people. The blood of the innocent and choice parts of their anatomy are used to bless the property of the wealth so that their businesses and careers can prosper, and their houses outshine all others in the neighbourhood. In other places we read of an unnatural attraction for body parts of people with an unusual complexion – actually, no complexion at all. So, Albinos, already disadvantaged by their appearance, are running scared for their lives. They get killed on sight. Ironically what makes them such an endangered lot is reportedly the source of good fortune for others. Or so it is believed. What makes people descend to such depravity? It is probably many things. There is a clear inversion of values where human life ranks way below the selfish gratification of some. It is the desire to gain by using all means, including the foul. Whatever the reason, the fact that these things happen is a grave indictment on societies that permit it. Rwandans have, of course, heard harrowing tales of people who do terrible things to others. But they remain that – tales. For those of a certain age, all this sounds like science fiction from the underworld or horror stories from a bygone era in another place. We should be worried that when the rest of the world is marching on, making inventions that barely last a few months before they are made obsolete by new ones, some are busy hunting down humans supposedly to bring them good fortune. Yet parts that go into making these inventions are made from elements dug from our soils. In the age of information technology, when the race is about who will make the next application that will perform multiple tasks and make our lives easier and more comfortable, it is a shame that for some the competition is about hunting fellow human beings. Is it a wonder that those societies that have already marched ahead will speed on and get out of sight, leaving many in this region to compete for who will devour more and faster? And when we cannot catch up with them, we shall cry foul, that they have got where they are by unfair means. This is perhaps unfair on many East Africans who are firmly in the twenty-first century, who are creating things and competing with the best in the world. There are many who earn their wealth by sweat and through fair means. These must be celebrated and their achievements form the narrative of our countries. They should be the heroes our young look up to for inspiration. Villains and practitioners of the dark arts should have no room in the development of young minds, and certainly no place in our history. There is no excuse to remain in the hazy world of superstition when science and technology have lit the way. Today’s debate should be about who is making the better invention that will return us to the original paradise. It is the smart apps that matter. jorwagatare@yahoo.co.uk

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Smart apps, not witchcraft for 21st century