Happiness Quote by Boutros Boutros-Ghali

He’s praising the mention of a catastrophe because it cracks open a door the world keeps nailed shut. Boutros Boutros-Ghali’s line lands with the uneasy logic of a seasoned diplomat: Rwanda is not a subject he “likes,” it’s a lever. In the mid-1990s, “Rwanda” became the rare African headline that Western publics could locate, pronounce, and moralize about. For the UN’s secretary-general at the time, that attention was currency in a system where African crises routinely vanish unless they can be packaged as a singular horror.

The syntax itself gives the game away. “So this is why” sounds like he’s explaining a practical strategy, not offering grief. “Always say happy” is awkward English, but the meaning is sharp: he’s relieved when Rwanda is raised because it forces listeners to acknowledge the continent behind the postcard-sized story. The phrase “behind Rwanda” suggests two layers: the deeper political realities (colonial borders, regional power, international complicity) and the larger habit of treating Africa as a series of disconnected emergencies rather than an interconnected geopolitical arena.

There’s also a defensive subtext. Boutros-Ghali was criticized for UN failure during the genocide; reframing Rwanda as a gateway to “Africa” can read as an attempt to broaden the conversation from one searing indictment to a systemic neglect that predates and outlasts any single official. It’s a grim admission that, in global attention markets, Africa often becomes visible only through tragedy.