Re: Market Made-in-Rwanda, please (The New Times, Feb. 14)

Mr. Joseph Rwagatare, the main issue is neither marketing nor the availability of skills in this field. We all know, in a very short span of time, this skill gap can be methodically and quickly filled up.

I wish he had developed further (hopefully he will, in another and many others of his future chronicles) on what is being done, and should it be done, to correct the generally ingrained affection of "many years of conditioning of inferiority”.

Presently, anything of ours is despised, neglected, looked down up on as inferior and unworthy. No appreciation of ourselves, nothing we own and produce is of value to our individual and collective eyes.

We don’t like ourselves, we are not good at anything, we are poor, yesterday we were undeveloped, today we are developing but still incapable of anything.

Therefore, we need to be aided in this course to appreciate who we are, other than pretending to be others.

I think, in medical terms, this syndrome is called schizophrenia.

What is needed right now is not marketing skills. Rather we, both individuals and as a community, need a quick cure for this chronic and debilitating malady.

What can I, you, and every one of us do against it, now?

Francois Xavier Nziyonsenga

*****************************

The first Japanese cars exported to foreign markets in the late 1950s and early 1960s were mostly small, crude and generally the object of mockery - sometimes even hostility.

But with characteristic Japanese single-minded investment and focus on productivity, quality, and process flexibility over the next decade, the industry became the global standard-setter in every aspect.

The Japanese concept of Yamato damashi (roughly translated as an indomitable spirit that refuses to accept defeat), meant that no matter the initial perception of insurmountable obstacles, the Japanese executives, engineers and workers were determined to break into the topmost league of global car-manufacturing.

And they did, setting ever new standards in productivity (just-in-time manufacturing), reliability, fuel economy, environmental friendliness, esthetics, and overall value for money.

Rwandans do not have a less indomitable spirit when we set our minds on a goal.

MK