Page 492 - Volume 2_CHANGES_merged_with links

Changes!

Commentary

All today’s African leaders are mindful of outsiders using their resources to influence a coup. Outsiders

meaning m’zungu governments, corporations, oligarchs…

***
Visit Rwanda with your eyes open and you will see a sustained investment in

infrastructure, robust institutions and much more.

In Rwanda they use much longer-lasting concrete pylons. In neighbouring Uganda, they
use wooden poles.

Along one side of the national roads there is an all-weather lane for pedestrians and
motorcycles. To make it easier for locals to take their goods to market.

In Rwanda you can expect to be stopped while the policeman checks the road-
worthiness of your vehicle (Every light, back and front. Windscreen wipers, Safety belts…)
In Rwanda at the border town of Gisenyi, that is next to the DRC city of Goma, you will see
teams of co-operatives. Each person wearing the overall that identifies their group. Each
group doing their ‘community’ tasks. Some acting as porters for local traders who sell
across the border. Some keeping the drains clean. Some keeping the lakeside park in
good order. And here and there you will people with different physical handicaps actively
participating. More than one person with either no legs, or no power in their legs, sat on a
large tricycle pulling several hundredweight of rice. The disabled man, ‘pedalling’ with his
hands and being assisted by 2 fully able-bodied men pushing from behind’

***
How likely is it that the Africans living in the DRC provinces of South and North Kivu
would welcome the opportunity to have the political stability that can be found inside
Rwanda?

How likely is it that before the next time you ‘rush to judgment’ that you will stop yourself
and ask ‘left behind’ Africans what they want?

*****
Change management often requires imposed change. The UK, along with other donor

nations, needs a greater sense of Change Management in Africa. (And they should make a
bigger effort to explain this to their own people)

During these last 60 years, m’zungu governments have themselves had to force

through changes in their own countries. And they also have been faced with many people
calling for greater 'democracy'.

There are bad African leaders. But there are also good leaders who are embracing the
need for change.