Rwanda - The land of GREAT change

So somehow we have been in Rwanda already for 3 weeks! It hasn’t taken to long to feel at home here, except for some things we weren’t expecting. Now that we have traveled around to a lot of countries and to the everyday places of those countries, we have gotten used to things like garbage, cows, mangy dogs and worse things. In India we got used to walking on the street most of the time because usually the sidewalk was the dirtiest place of all and not even the locals walked there. So coming here I almost felt a little reverse culture shock. It is really, really clean here, maybe too clean! And I know my standards are much lower then they were when we left, but, I still think this place is cleaner than any city of it’s size in Canada. After Singapore and Australia it’s probably the neatest, safest, most organized place we have been. Now some of you may not believe me, and I don’t really blame you.
When we think of Rwanda we think of the Tutsi genocide. Such atrocious things happened here that it is beyond human comprehension. In about 100 days some one million people were killed, often by people who knew them and in an extremely cruel way. Those Hutu’s who would not kill, or even separate themselves from the Tutsi’s with them, were also killed. It was a brutal extermination of a people, who had lived side by side with their would-be attackers for hundreds of years in relative peace. The reasons behind the genocide are many. Many fingers can be pointed to the colonizers and their policies of rule, which were used to control the people. After these seeds were sown, they eventually reaped into one of the most terrible events on memory. “Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.”*


So how can a country, which was extremely poor even before the genocide, turn itself around so quickly?




Yes, Aid money has come in, much of it perhaps from guilt that western leaders have for so blatantly turning it’s back on a country and a people. But no amount of aid money can wash the blood from the hands of those who, deliberately helped the genocidaires, or those who could have helped but turned a blind eye. Being from Canada it’s hard to understand what it would be like to be raised here, and to live in utter poverty with not much hope for the future. Western foreign policy (and aid money) to Africa has done very little to truly develop nations and help the average person long term. In most countries there is extreme poverty, corruption, and war. It’s almost like there has been more problems created as dictators fight over the money and the control it brings. I can’t sum up centuries of problems in a small excerpt, and I don’t want to discount those that have done incredible good here, so I’ll leave it at that.
But as for Rwanda, how can such a small, overpopulated nation turn itself around so quickly? On human terms the biggest chunk of credit has to go to the President Paul Kagame. His vision to make Rwanda into a better place can be seen everywhere. He has basically eliminated corruption, and tried to be a catalyst for change on every level. Some outsiders complain about his authoritarian style, but you don’t here it very much from Rwandans. There is an extreme attitude against corruption, and things like, a yearly audit on government officials ensures it happens. When hearing about certain government officials driving lavish cars, he created a law that had every luxury vehicle checked. If the vehicle was employed for the government he had it confiscated and later auctioned off. He just doesn’t see the need for unnecessary spending when there are huge basic needs out there. I don’t think I have heard of any government official, no less a leader, giving up luxuries that they are “entitled” too. We heard him speak at the national stadium on Heroes Day (we didn’t understand too much at the time because it was mostly in Kinyarwanda, the local language). He talked about small things, like service in restaurants and how it can be improved. He seems to be constantly trying to improve the country often starting at an individual level. If politicians in the West did half of what he has accomplished, they would be exceeding most of our expectations. Well that’s probably enough of a RA-RA Kagame speech for one blog, but what he has done is truly amazing.

I’m sure there are many other factors that are contributing to Rwanda’s success but what it is doing on the level of reconciliation is great. To deal with the genocidal crimes, the government implemented a community level justice system called the Gacaca tribunals. There is no way a western style judicial system could handle the approximately 1 million who were accused of crimes. The method gives room for anyone to speak their account of what happened. It also gives much leniency for those who confess and are looking to reconcile. After all, everyone still has to live together somehow. If justice were done by the “eye for an eye” principal, the killing probably would never stop. Somewhere, there has to be true forgiveness and healing, and people are making it happen here in Rwanda!

Some books to read on Rwanda:
We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families by Philip Gourevitch
A Thousand Hills -Rwanda’s Rebirth and the Man Who Dreamed It, by Stephen Kinzer,
Shake Hands with the Devil by Romeo Dallaire
Left To Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza

Or Movies:
Shake hands with the Devil,
Shooting Dogs, or also called Beyond the Gates in North America,
100 days,
Sometimes in April,
Hotel Rwanda (Hollywood version of the genocide)
The Diary of Immaculee

* Taken from James 1:14,15 NLT