Dare to dream

At one point or other, everyone has a dream and an ambition to achieve something in life. This theory is not written anywhere or even cited in any of Moses’ Biblical Ten Commandments, but scientists claim that it’s actually one of the aspects that differentiate man from the beast. Anyhow, one may wonder why some people have dreams and they act and react according to their dreams, while others prefer to live a ‘who-cares’ kind of lifestyle. Is this something to do with one’s traits, or fate? Experts claim that being ambitious is an exciting way of succeeding in life. It enforces spontaneity and creativity in our approach to deal with our daily life. However, there seems to also be a notion that dreaming and interpreting dreams is superstitious. Some people have got ambitions. Right from their childhood they exhibit an inclination towards certain vacation or line of work. And will decide on a quality of the life that best suits their desires. Whether they will be in music, politics, business, or a religious field, they look forward to the day they will kiss goodbye to the countless years of chasing this dream. From an early stage, they determine that they will be ready to pay the price for the attainment of their dream, however high a price it may be. And this usually happens at a time when they are still relatively young and unadulterated. When they know only one limit to their aspiration, the proverbial sky, however, they grow older, they discover, or are told, that there is another, more realistic impediment, to their life’s desires, a limit much closer to earth than the sky. This reality varies from society to society, but, for purposes of context, we shall restrict ourselves to the Rwandan reality. In Rwanda, the reality is that there are not enough jobs to go round. Day in, day out, people in this country take it upon themselves to bombard others with such negative talks like “You’ll never succeed in this, you’re not good in that, don’t waste your time, you can’t get that job, slow down and so on!” With time, this person begins to accept the “realities’ of life, and “how things work in this particular society. Let’s not act according to the proverbial ostrich of burying our heads in the sand, and hide the reality. Some jobs in this country are given out on the basis of “technical know-who”, which is clearly translated in the local language as ‘Ikimenyane’. I do not agree with the justification in telling someone that, “You have to know someone to connect you to a particular job.” Interestingly, all these poor acts are done behind the closed doors, because Rwandan government is very strict against corruption, nepotism, and all practices related to dishonesty. Otherwise, all we do is sour grapes. It defeats my understanding when one sits back to wait for someone to connect her/him to that “good job”. Recently, while having lunch at one of my regular cafeterias, I was shocked when a colleague told me that all the jobs she has held have been connected by a relative, or ‘friend’. I hope no surprises for my shock. Who does not know the popular belief that those who can’t fight their battles in life and better days for their sisters and brothers are either failures, or survivors in life? Such people are found in every institution, after being connected by an influential person inside, but after they may fail to prove their competency, thus let down those who braught them. Ends

Leisure

Dare to dream