Readers' corner
Home for lunch
Sir-- Anti-Eritrea imperialist verbiage of the US State Department is just being repeated ('Eritreans on the run' 3-9 July). Shedding crocodile tears, the department has alleged in its recent statement, "Given the increasingly repressive nature of the Eritrean government, Eritrean citizens are in grave danger of persecution, including torture, upon their return." Nothing could be further from the truth. I am writing this letter from Asmara, the capital of Eritrea, and I can firmly attest to the fact that the first batch of the returning Eritreans from Egypt (750 in all) have been warmly received by their families and the government of Eritrea. I know this for a fact, as one of the returnees is my cousin, and I just had dinner with the whole family at my uncle's home.
Harnet Abraham
Asmara
Eritrea
Sweat or blood?
Sir-- 'Eritreans on the run' is an insult to readers, especially young Eritreans like myself.
Some young and innocent Eritreans may have been fooled by certain vultures and parasites called "human traffickers" into thinking the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. But unlike some in African countries, no Eritrean fights over prices or loafs of bread for sure. In fact, some of these "young and innocent Eritreans" stow away their precious belongings (shops, cars, bikes) just to migrate. So please do not make it like Eritreans are escaping persecution or fleeing on grounds of human rights abuses.
Please check Eritrea TV and tell me if you see streets soaking with blood from tortured returnees or streets soaking with sweat from returnees dancing all night from the joy of being home sweet home at last.
By the way, Eritrea is not "at war with Ethiopia and Djibouti".
Feven Hadish
Asmara
Eritrea
Iran permitted
Sir-- I do not understand how a country like Israel, which already owns nuclear bombs, is demanding that Iran not have the same? ('Triple whammy' 3-9 July). Iran is entitled to whatever it wants, including closing the Strait of Hormuz, if Israel or America attack, to protect itself.
Cherif Loutfi
Cairo
Egypt
As one
Sir-- Durable peace requires the welcome of the Arab masses ('What kind of Palestine' 26 June-2 July). Muslims and Jews have lived and can live together in peace. In 1492, the Muslim Ottoman Sultan Bayezid-II (1481-1512) encouraged great numbers of Jews to settle in the Ottoman Empire following their expulsion from Spain and Portugal.
In provoking the enmity of their age-old Muslim friends, Zionism has radicalised many Arab Muslims. In doing so, it disserved the long-term interests of the Jewish people. The 600,000 Jews who had lived in Arab countries for centuries and migrated to Israel in 1948 can bring Arab and Jew together again. They share customs, habits, values, food, music, dance, and, for the older generation, the Arabic language. Jewish settlements can be instruments of integration, not segregation, a mixture as difficult to unscramble as removing the Palestinian Israelis from Israel.
Elie Elhadj
London
UK
Anything for a vote
S ir-- 'Obama's Palestinian problem' (26 June-2 July) is well written, reminding us of Edward Said who also taught at Columbia University in New York. The surprise in this article is dramatic and in part reasonable if one remembers previous candidates who began as "outsiders" like Jimmy Carter and became "insiders" as soon as they were nominated. We see a candidate start from an opponent to existing politics in place and proceed to the middle-right as the campaign edges close to election time. Obama is doing it every day -- Cuba, Palestine, more war money, faith-based funding, opposition to anti-war views of the 1960s, pro troops. By the time he is close to winning the election, he will be the same "colour" as McCain. Sorry to use that metaphor but one US reporter in Iraq said if one looks closely at the details of Obama's Iraq policy and McCain's, they are very similar.
"Hope"? Bob Hope died many years ago.
Ron Davis
California
USA
Recommend
Comment
Printer-friendly
