KABANDA'S MUSINGS:Why british conservatives make me even more angry

For the last 14 days, Honourable Members of the British Parliament, members of the Conservative Party and other British volunteers have spent their time, energy and resources on their “social action” on Rwandans. This is for the third year doing what they call “Project Umubano”. On Saturday July 18, 2009 a group of 100 volunteers arrived in Kigali “not to advise but to serve” led by Hon. Andrew Mitchell MP, Sutton Coldfield, the British Shadow Secretary for International Development. In 2008, 103 volunteers came and worked in Rwanda from 26th July to 9th August in the Health, Education, Private sector, Justice and construction sectors. In 2007 the Conservative delegation included their Leader himself Hon. David Cameroon MP, whose visit coincided with flooding in his constituency. The ensuing hullabaloo about his continued voluntary work in Rwanda would make someone think that either the Honourable had made the mistake of travelling with the keys to the emergence services in his trouser pocket or he had travelled with Moses’ rod which would have been laid on the flood waters and they recede as the Biblical Red sea water parted for the Israelites to cross. The trip is a visible support and good will to the people of Rwanda; volunteers use their own savings to pay for their travel and upkeep while in Rwanda and spend part of their annual leave on voluntary work. They choose not to spend their holidays basking on the sandy beaches of Florida, the Bahamas or Ibiza, visiting the Taj Mahal or skiing in the Swiss Alps but in our villages and as Ambassador Claver Gatete put it in 2008, “sharing their skills in many vital areas”. As they say, ‘actions speak louder than words’ and the sight of an Honourable Member of Parliament of a “first world” country working with a pickaxe to build a community centre in the suburbs of Kigali speaks volumes. When President Kagame came to do his community work (Umuganda) near my village, I went there to witness and thereafter felt I had not enough; what could be enough when the Head of State himself gets a hoe or spade to make my community better? The Brits come to “roll up their sleeves and work alongside Rwandans to help tackle poverty and promote development”.As Hon. David Cameroon said on 24th July, 2008 “at the time of Climate change, global trade and migration, the rich cannot escape the consequences of poverty and instability”. Some people said it is an attempt at self preservation of Europeans by keeping Africans in Africa but who wants to travel 4,000 miles to Europe, do odd jobs, get called names and live away from his/her people if what he/she goes looking for can be found under the African sun? Hon. Cameroon mentioned something really important, “and we have got to realize that unless we engage with African countries, unless we solve some of these problems at the source, then we are never going to tackle those problems”. I may not know what imagery the sight of these Conservative delegates, some really honourable with shovels sweating under the African sun, convey to the people back home in their communities but I know what it means to me: they are angry that we are poor. They may not be angry with the poor; in fact they want to identify with them, they are angry with poverty and its effect on sons of men, and the blisters on their hands show it. Why would 100 plus sons and daughters of Britons leave the comfort of their communities to come and do what me son of an African should have done in the first place? Some of our neighbours have a saying that may be paraphrased thus, “when one is crying and a sympathizer joins him, he should stop crying and- wail”. I have been angry with poverty for long and now that I have sympathizers, I should be even angrier. I may be angry with poverty but I am angrier with the people who exacerbate poverty. The world we live in has enough resources to sustain all of humankind but the misallocation and abuse creates the poverty we suffer from. Hon. Mitchell was quoted on 23rd July, 2008, saying Hon. Cameroon “is coming here as the next British Prime Minister. He’s going to talk in a country that is both the best and the worst of Africa”. It was reported that “Mr. Cameroon calls on the EU to unilaterally sweep away a lot of the trade barriers and open up its markets to developing countries like this…and new ways of making the delivery of aid more transparent and effective to make sure that the money really does get to those who need it”. Such words coming from the Tories, is simply music to the ears of campaigners of fair trade when compared to the days of Hon. Margaret Thatcher. Who knows the “next British Prime Minister” may call on Europe and the Americas to “sweep away” a lot of the subsidies, particularly agro subsidies, which create unfair trade that denies Africans some of the means to fight poverty that angers me and the Conservatives. The Conservative volunteers who have been in Rwanda surely know that Rwandans and Africans in general are not lazy and work really hard, their productivity and tools of trade notwithstanding. I really appreciate their efforts, commitment and desire to identify with the poor. However, there is more they could do without sweating or getting blisters on their hands: join Africans to advocate for the removal of trade barriers and agro-subsidies in Europe and the Americas and invest in Africa. Then together we can create and share wealth and truly “tackle global poverty, migration and instability”. God bless the volunteers. Email:Ekaba2002@yahoo.com