Comments by "Harry Mills" (@harrymills2770) on "How PAUL KAGAME is tranforming RWANDA into an African powerhouse" video.

  1. Yes. The colonists wanted a divided native population. In USA history, it was very common (See Andrew Jackson) to set one tribe against another, and when the one tribe was defeated, concentrate on destroying the tribe that helped you destroy the first tribe. Romans did the same thing. Divide and conquer. Ending division is HUGE for African countries. and in the LONG run, an afro-centric policy will end up being pretty pro-trade and beneficial to all nations. Playing it fair and square is really the only sustainable model for real prosperity’s and healthy societies (and planet!).
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  2.  Stuart Penman  : Yes. Still pretty authoritarian in many ways. And the peaceful transfer of power to an enlightened leader AFTER Kigame remains in doubt. Ideally, they'll come up with something close to the original U.S. Constitution, with checks and balances by LAW and not just by culture, although their culture seems to have come a long way. If only the USA were closer to the original U.S. Constitution (without the racist bits). That said, the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution have been one of the main reasons we did AWAY with the most regressive features of our culture and society at the time they were created. A lot of forward-thinking people in a pretty backward time.
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  3. Food for thought. Definitely more authoritarian than I would want to see practiced across the whole USA, but not a bad model in many ways for ground-up governance of individual states within the United States, with what amount to town hall meetings, plans issued, and plans re-visited the next year to be kept or modified or eliminated according to how well they're working or not working for that community. I think the government-run education is a net plus over the SHORT term, but even as the video talks about how a "ministry of everything" results in the greedy and corrupt eventually - if not immediately - dominating those ministries, dispensing favors to themselves and their cronies at the expense of the people, so can education be taken over by ideologically-driven political hacks who seek to control the people by controlling what the children learn in school. In the USA, we see how far astray public education can go, and Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union stand as extreme examples of those same dangers of education-cum-indoctrination. But as long as it's only Rwanda-scale (Say, state-of-Illinois-scale in the USA), there are MANY beneficial aspects to the now-state-run education that emphasizes the traditional subjects of science, math, history and language (English, in this case). Just the realization that the people actually involved probably know more about what's fair and what works is a HUGE improvement over the idea that some bureaucrat in the city knows best for everyone. To the extent possible, you want people with the authority AND responsibility to manage their own affairs, without outside interference and without being able to hurt or take from anyone else along the way. Quelling the fires of tribal hatred was HUGE. I don't like the president-for-life thing that's taking place, and the dangerous part will be how well the current brilliant and charismatic president arranges for a peaceful transition of power after he's gone. But for the time being? He sounds like the best guy for the job in Rwanda. And that $2100 figure might be a little off if there are many individuals BARTERING in those open-air produce markets, with many growing their OWN food and selling or trading off the surplus. Makes ME want to invest in a Rwandan entrepreneur, because it SOUNDS like the government wants to FOSTER free enterprise and not just steal the proceeds to give to their friends, as we see in virtually all the corrupt socialist countries around the world. I expect I'd have an honest, highly motivated, and hard-working person at the other end, who'd make BOTH of us rich, with some investment money sent their way.
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  4. It ain't perfect. Nothing is. But a real breath of fresh air for a floundering continent. And an object lesson for the USA which resorted to some real bullshit to oppose the Soviet bullshit. In many ways, our own hypocrisy drove African countries into the arms of the Soviets and into adopting Marxist-Leninist ideology, concentrating the power into the hands of government elites that served THEIR interests over the interests of the people, which is what ALWAYS happens when you look to government like it's your parent and NOT the wayward child that it truly is.
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