EDITORIAL: Israel/Rwanda denominator: The audacity to try and not fear to fail
Monday, March 02, 2020
Israeli Ambassador to Rwanda, Ron Adam.

Sometimes the answers are right there in front of you but people often times burden themselves with seeking complications.

That is one of the many lessons garnered from an interview the Israeli Ambassador had with this newspaper. He introduces readers to a whole new set of values that have made his country strive, and of course they also get to learn a new word which, incidentally, Rwandans practice without knowing its Yiddish translation: Hutzpah.

The Ambassador calls it "thinking outside the box”, the dictionaries give it wider translations and "cheeky audacity” takes the prize in our case. That is where the similarities between the two countries march perfectly; no problem is too big to discourage them. They are always willing to take the plunge.

The conversation with Amb. Ron Adam has many interesting takeaways that could do good to the country, especially the young generation.

The first is that they should not fear to fail, but they should rather pick themselves up and try again and again. It is from the multiple failures that one learns the most important lessons.

And this is where things get interesting: When an Israeli completes high school, there is no automatic jump into college life, they first have to learn to "become independent grown-ups” – as Amb. Adam puts it – and the best way to do that is to join the army for at least three years.

Maybe this could be the time to mull the possibility of redesigning the whole Ingando- Itorero concept because nothing molds the man out of the child more than good old fashioned military discipline.