After reading Thomson’s Whispering Truth to Power, I found particularly interesting the discussion of economic growth and where the benefits are going. Thomson states that in Rwanda, the meaning of “the state” is different for different socio-economic classes, but not different ethnic classes. I was able to relate this to discussions in Cooke that talked about the fact that economic benefits are not reaching the poorest citizens, regardless of ethnicity. In both papers, this shows that the wealthy and powerful are continuing to gain wealth while the gap between rich and poor continues to grow. Professor Thomson, you state that Purdekova says that those who benefit are the minority. This is interesting. Is Kagame working toward reducing poverty rates, seeing as though the poor constitute such a large percentage of the population? I agree with you and Wimmer et al. in that this exclusion of the poor from economic benefits may increase the likelihood that war can ensue.
