Dr. Utumatwishima urges Rwanda to stay prepared for an unpredictable future _ Rwanda Day 2024
Transcript
00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 I'm very happy to be on this stage today.
00:13 It's my first time at Rwanda Day.
00:15 And it's always great to be at the first time,
00:23 and you are the panel at the first time.
00:27 And you are the panel as a minister.
00:29 It's not that--
00:30 [APPLAUSE]
00:34 It's really something not to take for granted.
00:38 It's big.
00:40 It's historical.
00:41 It's Rwanda at 30.
00:43 You can get it.
00:44 [APPLAUSE]
00:48 Another thing that is a little bit complicated with me
00:50 is I've been speaking Kinyarwanda the entire life,
00:56 and now I'm supposed to speak after gender in English.
00:59 And as we are in America, I'm going
01:02 to share with you a short story when I came
01:05 to America for the first time.
01:08 It was in 2016.
01:10 It was my first time to come to the US.
01:13 I was coming for my pre-doc fellowship
01:17 in the NIH, the National Institutes of Health.
01:20 It's actually near here.
01:21 It's in Bethesda.
01:23 I was going to do diabetes epidemiology.
01:26 But before I came, I went to see one of the leaders in Rwanda
01:32 because I wanted some words of wisdom
01:35 before I could fly for the first time.
01:39 And that leader told me, you are going
01:43 to America, a strong nation, well-developed,
01:49 with economic power.
01:52 When you go there to study your medical things,
01:56 please study other things, too.
01:59 He actually told me, when you get out of the airport,
02:02 start learning.
02:03 And I told him, what to learn?
02:04 Because I don't know the country.
02:08 He told me, as a Rwandan, when you
02:12 travel in a country like America,
02:15 you have to learn everything they are doing.
02:18 He even told me, when you go to the campus, in my case,
02:22 when you go to the NIH campus, see how the NIH is built,
02:27 examine the labs, the standards, the protocols.
02:31 So when you come back home, you can
02:34 apply both your medical skills, but also
02:36 the entire ecosystem, the organization's culture,
02:40 and other things.
02:42 But when I arrived in America as a young man,
02:47 as a young doctor, as a young professional,
02:50 I was really excited to visit this country.
02:53 To tell you the truth, I saw it very developed,
02:57 as they told me-- trains, buses, good cities.
03:03 I was really amazed.
03:06 And I asked the critical question to my supervisor,
03:09 how does a country develop this much?
03:13 Like, how do they do it?
03:16 When I came, it was on the 4th of July.
03:19 So there was the celebration of independence of America.
03:22 It was the 4th of July in 2016.
03:25 America was celebrating 240 years of independence, 240
03:32 years of stability, 240 years of peace.
03:39 And when you see all these things,
03:41 they have been built in the last 246 years.
03:47 And we have just 30 years.
03:50 You can see the difference.
03:53 I think when we become 240 from the 30 we are today,
03:58 it's going to be huge.
03:59 [APPLAUSE]
04:04 Then I asked my supervisor, how does a country do this?
04:10 How did America do this?
04:13 She told me, you are not supposed to discuss history
04:16 in the medical lab.
04:20 Again, we have a disclaimer.
04:22 We don't discuss politics in NIH.
04:25 But I'm going to give you good advice.
04:28 In all your weekends, go to Washington, DC,
04:32 and visit all these 15 museums, the Smithsonian's museums
04:37 that are here.
04:38 For those who still have time, they
04:41 have to visit the museums here in the DC.
04:44 And then visit Lincoln Memorial, Thomas Jefferson Memorial,
04:52 Washington Monument, Martin Luther King Memorial.
04:56 And if you have time, go to Maryland
04:58 and even visit the Harriet Tubman.
05:00 So I went to all of those places.
05:03 And she told me, my supervisor, what did you get?
05:07 As a scientist, what do you get in those names I gave you?
05:10 So Lincoln Memorial, Thomas Jefferson Memorial, Washington
05:15 Monument, she told me, to do this,
05:20 America had names, big names--
05:25 Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Martin Luther King,
05:29 Harriet Tubman.
05:30 And she told me, in order to do it in Rwanda, you need a name.
05:37 And she told me, you have a name, actually.
05:40 Paul Kagame.
05:40 She told me, in Rwanda, in the last--
05:48 of course, today, in the last 30 years, you have a name.
05:54 And that name will help you.
05:58 It has helped you to build what you have already built.
06:02 But that name will continue to help you to build,
06:05 even the generations to come.
06:07 So there is always a name in a developed country.
06:10 My supervisor even told me, if you go in other countries,
06:13 go to Singapore, there is a name, Lee Kuan Yew.
06:17 In any country you go--
06:19 and she asked me, did you pass by Paris?
06:21 I said, no.
06:22 But there is also an airport called the CDG.
06:24 CDG is what?
06:26 Is Charles de Gaulle.
06:28 There is always a name behind a very developed country.
06:33 And Rwanda, we have a name, guys.
06:35 [APPLAUSE]
06:39 And that was number one.
06:41 And then I asked her, but how do they
06:46 build these big buildings, these convention centers,
06:49 the universities, and this NIH?
06:52 And she told me, here in America,
06:54 there is a strong private sector, strong people
06:58 doing business, and that kind of model,
07:01 different models of wealth creation.
07:03 We have the Wall Street, the stock markets.
07:07 She told me we even have the Silicon Valley for innovations.
07:10 And she told me, if you want your country to be developed,
07:14 learn some of the models we have here.
07:17 Try to find an innovation hub in your country.
07:20 Try to work harder with the wealth creation models,
07:23 and develop your private sector.
07:26 That's one of the other things she told me.
07:29 But then I asked her, it seems you have been very peaceful.
07:32 No wars, no nothing.
07:34 She told me, visit the Arlington National Cemetery.
07:41 So she sent me to Arlington National Cemetery.
07:46 And then I asked her, a big cemetery
07:50 with the military graves.
07:54 And I asked her, why do you want me to go there?
07:56 And she told me, for a nation to be like this,
08:01 to be peaceful for this long, 240 years,
08:06 you need a strong military.
08:09 You need a strong army.
08:11 That will protect your country inside and outside.
08:16 And I told her that, as far as I know in Rwanda,
08:21 when you ask the population of Rwanda, who are you
08:25 satisfied with, they will tell you 99.9%.
08:28 We are satisfied with the president.
08:31 Next, we are satisfied with our military.
08:34 And I think we are there.
08:36 So to tell you what I learned in America,
08:40 the only thing I kept asking Ambassador,
08:44 it's the wall on the neighboring countries, the wall.
08:49 You always have issues with the neighbors.
08:52 So then I always ask, why, if you are developed, peaceful,
08:58 strong, you want to build the wall?
09:01 And the easy answer is, neighbors are always like that.
09:08 So you need to--
09:09 [LAUGHTER]
09:14 You need to always deal with the neighbors.
09:16 When they are hungry, they will think you have taken their food.
09:23 So even if you are developed as America,
09:27 you need to deal with your neighbors.
09:28 So back home, also, we have some issues of the neighbors.
09:33 And--
09:33 [LAUGHTER]
09:38 I don't know.
09:38 [APPLAUSE]
09:42 I don't know if--
09:44 maybe the ambassador with her diplomas
09:45 will try to correct this statement.
09:49 But I want to tell you that, for the young people, Rwanda at 30,
09:54 Rwanda at 30 means the name.
09:58 I think you've got the name, right?
10:01 We have to love our name, protect our name,
10:05 cherish our name.
10:07 And when we are in 2024, we have to remember our what?
10:13 Our name.
10:14 [APPLAUSE]
10:20 And then, young people keep asking,
10:24 what kind of skills do we need?
10:26 What kind of commitments do we need after 30 years of Rwanda?
10:32 The future is unpredictable.
10:35 And the world is going to keep changing.
10:38 Our friends, we are not sure if they
10:40 are going to continue to be our friends.
10:43 But the American friends will continue to be our friends,
10:46 right?
10:46 [LAUGHTER]
10:47 So at least that we can put that in our bank.
10:55 But the world is changing.
10:57 So we'll need new models of diplomacy.
11:01 So if we have young people in America
11:05 studying international relations and diplomacy,
11:08 we will need new skills in that domain.
11:10 With the artificial intelligence and the new skills
11:13 and the robotics, we need new skills
11:16 also to bring back home.
11:18 But if you are successful here in America,
11:21 we encourage you to continue to be excellent where you are.
11:25 And when you are excellent, doing great, getting some money,
11:29 send us some money back home.
11:31 [LAUGHTER]
11:34 Yes.
11:37 We don't want you to rush and come home quickly.
11:39 No, get first those money and send us some.
11:43 And I think this is also one way we can do it.
11:47 [MUSIC PLAYING]
11:50 [MUSIC PLAYING]
11:54 (upbeat music)