Transformation

I couldn’t discover the official name of this statue of a mother with child, but it guarded a roundabout next to the convention centre where we’ve been all week. Some blurb I found explained that this statue is also a fountain, symbolising water's eternal cleansing power, in particular relating to the nation's genocidal horrors 28 years ago.

Kigali is definitely a unique place. A city that has transformed since the total devastation of the mid-1990s in terms of economy, stability and infrastructure. It’s spotlessly clean, due to strict laws an enforced public duty for community work that citizens have to partake in monthly. Rwanda feels like the Singapore of Africa, but more draconian. Even though it’s an effective police state, it perhaps needed something like this setup in order to have any sense of stability. Neighbouring Burundi still has much more simmering unrest and periodic issues between Tutsi and Hutu.

Given the status of freedoms in Rwanda, clearly the UK’s plan to send asylum seekers here is unworkable and immoral, not that that gives any sleepless nights to the current lot in the Cabinet. I don’t think this plan will be quietly dropped any time soon, especially if Liz Truss gets the Prime Minister job. She’s channelling a combination of Thatcher’s free market economics (but with less intellect) and Johnson’s allergy to the truth (but with less charisma).