Apologies...

...to all (?) those who signed up for receiving new posts directly to their email inbox:

those two very long posts on Amizero and Skids (special needs school and street children project) which you received some days ago were sent by mistake as we were tidying up the blog a bit and converted out-of-date pages into old posts, without realising that even though back-dated to March the posts would be sent by email anyway.

We hope you got that soon, before wasting time in reading old stuff...

If you forgive us and are still interested, we remind you of our latest way of staying in touch, that is 

www.soundcloud.com 

where you can listen to us by doing a "search" for "MEMS Leoni"

The Lions' Roar

If you haven't noticed on the newsletter, or you don't receive it at all (send us an email and we can amend that), or you haven't visited the blog recently (quite understandably...), you might not know that now you can not only read about us but even listen to us (aren't you lucky?) on

www.soundcloud.com

(search for MEMS Leoni)

On Rwanda (high time we wrote something, isn't it?)

We all think about the genocide, but that was 21 years ago and now instead Rwanda is praised worldwide for its amazing recovery, especially its successful reconciliation process and its fast growth. But how does all this look, from the inside, after nearly 10 months here?

The reconciliation process seems a success story, and indeed some forgiveness accounts are among the most powerful and positive tales we’ll ever hear, but without truth about history no real reconciliation can be ever achieved (check the BBC documentary "Rwanda, the untold story" issued in October last year for more on "truth"); political stability and daily security may be attractive for investors, but they are not the result of healing and no healthy society can grow out of false democracy, nationalism and prevention of any form of dissent achieved by inducing a state of fear through the discreet but unmistakable presence of armed personnel on every second street corner; the much praised unity and the absence of any ethnic discourse look just like a cover for a post-genocide development which was instead designed on clear ethnic lines, as can easily be grasped when considering that only one part of the population were the “victims” and therefore entitled to receiving aid, distributed by the same part, as they were also the victors, therefore in charge; the economic growth looks impressive and encouraging, and indeed there’s no hill without a school or a health centre, but inequality is as high as the new city towers, growing next to the suburbs’ slums and surrounded by the wealthy's latest SUVs which contrast badly with the wheelbarrows full of water cans pushed up the hills by those who cannot afford to pay their children’s school fees and are therefore considered by many, even religious authorities, as bad parents whom should be instructed to take better care of their children, maybe when they are not imprisoned for trying to scrape a living by selling fruit or vegetables from baskets carried on their heads…

Birthday...

...brother! 

Also known as 

"the best prof on the East Coast"

Mr.PhD

The Clever One

TheOneWhoCanReallyPlayChess

UncleJames,

he's just turned 31, so 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GIACOMO!

One of his best recent picture can be seen on the post below, so instead we can direct you to this link to admire another birthday boy in the family, who didn't get any post due to his parents' lack of time for posting on this blog but still celebrated his 8th a month ago (and who thanks all those who sent birthday cards!)