Patience, passivity and poverty

It is impossible not to admire the patience of Rwandans. Scots are very prone to complaining, but the way in which people here deal with everything from inconvenience to incredible suffering is amazing. Waiting is never a problem and the worst crises are met with equanimity, at least on the outside.
The weakness of this strength is that it can veer into passivity. In all kinds of situations, people wait patiently for those in authority to act, or even just to show up. I was once at a celebration where the food was underestimated and about 20 guests did not get “lunch” until afterwards (about 5pm). Not a murmur was heard. While this makes social life more congenial, it also has effects on the commercial activity of the country. It would be unimaginable in the west that some of the public services and even the commercial enterprises would get away with the appalling levels of service found here. It’s debatable that this poor service continues partly because of the patience or passivity of customers.
So I wonder whether some of the poverty in Rwanda has the same root cause. It’s an enormously complex and intractable problem, so I’m certainly not putting this forward as a whole explanation, merely a contributory factor. Perhaps if there was less acceptance of inactivity, poor service and low standards then economic activity would be more productive?