The world doesn’t owe us anything

Editor, Reference is made to the article “Only Rwandans can save the day”, by Liban Mugabo (The New Times, September 4). I too concur with Liban’s analysis of Western groupthink and the opportunity this episode presents for us to remember our traditions of self-reliance. Let me reiterate that the world doesn’t owe us anything. Any support we have hitherto received from foreign partners should be seen solely as a supplement to our own efforts for self-development.If such support were to be no longer forthcoming, should we just throw up our arms and lament? So, let’s all seize this opportunity, and invest in our own country’s future by contributing to our Agaciro Fund. Let’s also eschew any bitterness against those who have cut, reduced, suspended or postponed their assistance to us; they owe us absolutely nothing. Instead, let’s be grateful for the help they have extended to us in the past, which has enabled us to make the incredibly impressive strides we have been able to since the abyss of 1994 when our country was all but destroyed. They may have been misled into taking their decisions, but it still remains rightly theirs to do as they wish with their tax-payers’ money, as it also is our right to refuse their dictates as a precondition for their support. This, for me, is the essence of Agaciro; accepting the fact that dignity and effective self-esteem, which we Banyarwanda treasure above all, also have costs we have to assume without complaint. These are, after all, not even as onerous as the tradition of ubutabazi, for which our ancestors were renowned and which many young Rwandans embraced in more recent times in order to liberate us. In giving value to Agaciro, we honor their supreme sacrifice.Mwene Kalinda

Opinions

The world doesn’t owe us anything