We came here so that we can meet. Keep networks alive and maintain contact with our country.
When Rwandans come together wherever they are, its like they are at home. It’s an opportunity to talk about Rwanda sing and dance and feel home despite how far we are away from physical home.
If some of you didn’t know already, there is Bourbon coffee here in Boston…..you have an opportunity to have a taste of Rwanda coffee in Boston.
Many of you are working hard to improve your lives and those of families back home, as students or employed in various sectors. You have seen how people here work hard.
These are values that have brought such countries to higher quality of life and advancement. Rwanda cant be an exception.
Rwandans back home are also working hard individually and collectively to better their lives, their efforts and yours will undoubtedly take us very far. And that is what it should be.
It’s our responsibility, yours and mine wherever we are to build and develop our country. We cannot delegate it to or expect anyone else to do it for us.
It should be a source of pride that we are able to drive our development. That we belong to a country of dignified people that we have a definite identity as Rwanda.
I am pleased that we are doing a lot to champion Rwanda’s cause via your sizeable remittances and by speaking out for your country and through many other ways.
You must continually tell the story of your country. If you don’t, someone else will want to do it for you and will do it the wrong way.
Its about the history of our country and the peoples resilience and dignity. It should all be bound together by the determination. Our determination to be who we are.
Many things should and must be challenged. We should not allow anybody to define us without us. We have the ability, desire and the right to define ourselves. Yes we have made good progress in this direction and it must go on. Its what we deserve.
Progress comes at a time when we face immense challenges….but thats fine…We did not expect it to be easy in any case why should it be easy?
The progress we have made has been without shortcuts and lies. We don’t tell lies about the fight we make daily to achieve the progress.
Progress invites detractors, still that is fine….I have no problem with detractors. Detractors do your Job, I will do mine. Mine and yours is a duty to continue working towards progress.
If our progress hurts anybody, I will say that was not our intention. Our intention was just to make progress.
We need to be careful and understand. If we spend more time paying attention to detractors wherever they come from….And they are very few but they make a lot of noise…They are like empty drums. The more empty they are the more noise they make.
We can pay attention to some of the criticisms made about us only with the view of improving ourselves if there is something to learn from their criticisms….They are there to divert our attention to make continued progress.
I will say for sure that I have no doubt and Rwandans say it themselves that their lives have improved…..And their self worth individually and as a nation has continued to go up and up…But there are still many problems we must address.
…And here I will say, If anyone is looking for a perfect leader anywhere in this world, they should not look my way, they shouldn’t be considering my way.
Rwanda should not be considered as a perfect nation. I don’t know who is perfect in the first place.
We want and we are ready to do our best for the best of our people and for the best of our country….We are also ready to own up to our imperfections and to keep working at them to improve ourselves.
That’s how we understand our society and responsibility….In fact that’s why many times we have said to people….give us our chance, lets deal with our issues….If you want to help, you are very welcome but you must accept we will take the lead in dealing with our problems.
…And the reason for that is we do not want to be having our imperfections we are working to improve and then you bring your own imperfections to our own.
….There is no society or nation that is perfect. I don’t want to deal with double imperfections. I want to deal with my own.
This is what underlies cooperation….It’s listening, sharing and agreeing that we can work together for the better of everyone.
We have had to build a new nation….Much as the challenges to overcome are enormous, they are not insurmountable….But for that to happen requires all of us to work together using the differences within our society for the common good.
Those differences should be based on opinion , what everyone can bring on the table for us to forge ahead our nation. Not to tear apart our nation..we have seen the meaning of that.
So those who make so much noise about what they say is negative about us may also want to acknowledge that Rwandans have made huge progress.
Did you know that in 2011, in the world economic forum global competitive index, Rwanda ranks the 3rd in Africa?….And the first in the East African Region …and moved up 7places globally.
Did you know that Rwanda was ranked among the top most corrupt-free country in Africa and the whole world.
Did you also Know that our citizens are ranked among the most contented in the world. These are international rankings.
The rankings are not made in Rwanda but international institutions. We are also the most improved country in doing business reforms in the world.
Did you know that between 2006 and 2011 we lifted one million people out of poverty…in just five years? I could go on and on until cows return home.
This is not enough for us….We have got to do more every day and we want to do more. We just need to play our role wherever we are to build on the energy of our young people.
The youths should not shy away from the responsibility of being leaders of our country. You shouldn’t hesitate to improve yourselves, study hard and improve your talent whenever that opportunity comes. That should improve you as individuals but also your mother nation.
When you have read stories about Rwanda in the Media, ….of recent Rwanda has been in the media for wrong reasons. About Rwanda relating to the situation in DRC.
To make the long story short…..I want to tell you how its unfair but also how one would even be right to be angry about it that Rwanda is always held responsible.
…It has been established as a fact that Rwanda should always be held responsible for the neighbours’ problems.
Some of these problems we are dealing with in that region and the causes of those problems happened way back even before I was born…. For sure where before any of you here was born.
For me I attribute it to two parts of the same thing……A result of a failure of those who should manage that country the people of that country, their leaders and the international community that has always pretended that it is addressing that problem. It’s a failure that cuts across the two.
The international community that deploys with all the huge resources of all kinds pretending they are addressing the problem but have failed… but the easier way out of this is…..Rwanda.
Rwanda is the easier target. Every time there is a problem in that country is more about Rwanda rather than where the failure is.
The Innocent but ignorant will rarely understand what is being talked about….But they are reading more about Rwanda than DRC and of course what brought us here is very important because I want us to understand this point.
The response to problems in DRC sometimes are absolutely irrelevant to actually finding a solution….The moment there was this noise about the issue in DRC, most of the people who otherwise have been involved or want to be involved had to suspend support they were giving to Rwanda.
I told them by the way I wish that some of that support you are taking away from Rwanda would be transferred to help Congolese to solve their problems….That way may be able to make some sense.
This way of managing affairs. Where you are part of the problem and on the other you are the kind of Judge who is dealing with issues with punitive measures against these Rwandans.
They don’t understand that infact…Rwanda even on that basis,..we are so much focused on making this progress we are the first people to want peace and security in that region.
We can’t be the same people who want to make investment in our country and the same time invest in destabilizing neighbours….May be it’s an assumption that we are stupid but we are not.
How does Rwanda benefit from having problems with our neighbours? What sense would it make? It thought people would understand that we are the first people who wouldn’t want problems with neighbours. If we partnered together we would contribute to find a solution.
We had invested to make sure there is peace in DRC and region. We have been pushing more than others to have a successful integration process in the region.
Why doesn’t this register in people’s minds before the blame of Rwanda? We can’t be dealing with our own problems and be forced to carry other people’s problems at the same time.
For some of the sources of misrepresentation of this situation, were not caused by Rwanda. The problem never originated from Rwanda.
But some of those underlined cause including…we have Congolese of Rwandan origin across the border we didn’t send them there.
It has nothing to do with us. It’s a colonial problem. It is not Rwanda that created the problem…it was a problem created for Rwanda.
When people cross the border and communicate how do you hold me responsible? You can’t fabricate a story for Rwanda as a scapegoat and turn-up to tell Rwanda to own up to that problem. We say no way to this.
They usually say prove you are innocent….I think there has been an overreaction arising out of frustration but also maybe arising out of fear to be seen to have failed. How do these big powers accept failure? How.?
How do you tell them to accept failure even when it’s obvious? They will find away of making it somebody’s failure and that’s how Rwanda has found itself in this problem.
This shouldn’t divert us from our path to progress. We need to use all our effort to achieve all we must…..
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