Selam Selam,

Belive you me, I am writing to you from my heart.

What I would like to ask question is that are you better of after after"independence"?,

I am an Eritrean and my response to your question is without a doubt YES! I am not saying this to make you, Ethiopian, feel bad. For me, there are three levels: (1). To have all the symbols of freedom like represenation in the UN, having your own flag, participating as a nation in olympics etc. (2). Due to our recent war with your country we may be having problems but we are still head and shoulders above you econmically, and the country is small and easy to manage and it will take off once we secure peace with you. (3) But most of all it is not to be part of your prolems. You see you, Ethiopia, have a huge problem in poverty, regional, linguistic, tribal, backwardness etc. that we were part of. But, on independence day at a stroke we avoided being party to all that. I am not saying we don't have such problems as I mentioned above. It is that we have less of those evils.

It may be hard to shake you of your beliefs but, on average, I tell you we are much better of than you lot. Even the political hoopla iof today is sharpening Eritreans for tomorrow, I visited Eritrea recently and you can not really see the old Eritrea at all. So who wants to be with a big, populous country who has massive problems like yours?

I live you with peace!

Selamat