Africa’s New Path

Well done Zakaria for such an insightful and indepth coverage of Rwanda under President Kagame's leadership. president Kagame has truelly demonstrated how dedicated leadership can bailout Africa. If such leadership can save Rwanda after genocide and civil war destruction, contributed in part by rwandans and on the other by western powers, then surely Africa can develop. There remains lots of challenges which rwanda has to address but the correct policies, institutions and such dedicated leadership surely will make Rwanda a shining star not only in Africa but the world over. However, the detractors need to be contained and the positive progress and initiatives supported by the western media, governments and multinational institutions. If all would either give constructive support or else shut up and let these countries work in the interests of their people no doubt Africa will develope. But will they?

What could Zenawi, the Ethiopian dictator and the raciest have learned from Kagame? Surly it should have been national reconciliation, and meaningful economic progress. His system in Ethiopia however introduces the interhamewe raciest agenda, gangster capitalism (http://addisvoice.com/article/gangster-capitalism.htm) and dictatorial policy (http://addisvoice.com/article/donald_m.htm). By doing this he is leading the country to another blood shedding armed struggle.

Women have led the world-renowned ???gacaca,??? community-based trials for alleged perpetrators of the genocide. Read more about their actions to help Rwanda recover in a series of publications from The Institute for Inclusive Security:
http://www.huntalternatives.org/pages/7858_rwanda_research.cfm .

I am glad to see you highlighted Health care and education as the two beacons of this nations advancement , once there is hope all will be well ,but with out health care for the young and helpless and the old and infirm with out education for the youth there is no hope and all is lost as is so often the case in Africa.
What Africa needs from the west is educational aid , if the west have any shame all effort would be directed towards providing this.
Consider the huge burden imposed on Africa by the west constantly stealing our people by creating an environment where the BRIGHTEST and best are attracted to the west to work in hospitals and schools running public and private enterprises as economic refugees
its no wonder Africa is still thought of as the DARK continent

President Obama's address in Ghana to Africa was for sure as the first African-American President of the most powerful country, the United States of America. The address was attentively listened to as one of the most authentic, emphatic and believed by many Africans. Africans for the most part do not trust their leaders as result of some of their brutal and corruptive and dictatorial lifestyle, but President Obama, as African-American first President appear to most Africans probably as their first and last hope to listen and possibly "obey." Most African countries admire the United States but Obama???s presidency appears to unite them all as their new African President from powerful United States of America.

The initial origin of conflict in Rwanda is ethnic conflict. Unfortunately, Kagame's regime has propagated ethnic polarization which encourages political exclusion and can potentially lead to insurrection, and oppression. In addition there has been persistent massive flow of political refugies, who continue to constitute vectors for potential further instability. Moreover, there is obvious lack of democracy and a significant record of human rights abuse, which highlights the fragility of the seemingly stable regime. On comparison to neighboring country of Burundi with similar history of ethnic conflict, ethnic diversity has been embraced facilitating true reconciliation and genuine democracy.

Kagame is smart. He exported all the trouble into Congo. Let them deal w/ it, I suppose. You can't commend Rwanda while glossing over their role in the nightmare that is Congo. It's totally disingenuous. Or a lack of in depth journalistic digging, which is contemptuous.

you start by praising caesar and then end by burying him

I cannot agree more with Zakaria's assertion that Paul Kagame's leadership is responsible for the progress Rwanda has made and that it has, indeed, made a great deal of it. In terms of it's political and economic independence, and its internal socio-political stability it unique. That said, it is important to bear in mind, as The New Yorker's Philip Gourevitch illustrated recently in the May 2009 "Reporter At Large", that psychosocially speaking, progress is the wrong word to describe Rwanda's status. His story infers that genocidal violence could errupt at any moment. The Hutu militias are not completely disbanded and still operate in neighboring countries, occassionally making forays into Rwanda (hence Kagame's support of the conflict in Congo). Furthermore, the Genocidaires now living side by side with their victims in Rwanda are not rehabilitated and remorseful. In fact, many would relish the opportunity to kill again. What stops them, and this is where Kagame's leadership is really remarkable, is the threat of imprisonment TOGETHER with the alternative of being allowed to return to their previous way of life (their homes, their land, farming opportunities). Kagame opted for an imperfect model of reintegration in order to reconcile his country. And on a functional level it works, in a way. But currently victims of the genocide must observe their rapists and killers getting on with their lives every single day, while they themselves often struggle to get out of bed. Every day, while the Genocidaires enjoy their children and farm their land, and come home to their wives, many more victims still greive the loss of their dead children and spouses and family members. You and I can't imagine the fear and sadness and hostility just there at the surface of all that Rwandan society in full view of all its, "Progress".