Leather Skin Collection Stores Valuable

Dear Editor,
 

I would like to put what Wondirad Seifu wrote in your opinion column headlined, “Putting the Stink on Leather” [Volume 9 Number 453, January 4, 2009] in perspective.
 

The record has to be set straight: The amount of salt needed to preserve a skin is 30pc of the weight of the skin as opposed to the 50pc claimed by the writer. Neither has putrefaction once reached 81.3pc; it had declined to less than 20pc in 2004, according to the Global Development Solutions report of 2006.

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Ethiopia’s Port Traffic Important to Djibouti

Dear Editor

I would like to bring to your attention a few clarifications on your news story headlined, “Djibouti Opens New Terminal, Boreh, Ethiopia Conspicuously Absent” [Volume 9, Number 459, February 15, 2009].

The date of the inauguration of the container terminal at the Port of Doraleh was on February 7, 2009, and not on February 8 as you reported.

Ethiopia was rightly mentioned in the growth of the port traffic and considered as a potential customer when the Chairman of the Ports and Free Zones Authority delivered his opening speech. And contrary to what you have assumed, 1000.000 containers imports and export traffic is very important generally for a port, and particularly for Djibouti.

Abdourahman Elmi Ismeal Resident Representative, The Port of Djibouti

Be Honest About Ethiopia

Dear Editors,
 

One of your readers, Wondirad Seifu, wrote a note published in the “Letters to the Editor” column of this newspaper headlined, “Economic Growth Seems Overstated”, [Volume 9 Number 458, February 8, 2009] and challenged the accuracy of the inflated figure in Gross Domestic Products (GDP) reported in the January 25, 2009, issue of Fortune. He also tried to straighten the inflated figures and elaborated on the concept of GDP. Unfortunately, he did not succeed on both fronts.

K. G.

Sacramento, California

Dagmawi L.

Actioning Obama’s Change

Dear Editor,

Change has been a hallmark of Barack Obama’s election campaign. Now, it is time to make it a reality on the ground. Obama’s first change was the closing down and the Guantanamo prison within a year or so, which has effectively been carried out, to the thrill of millions of people.

Again, this is indeed a reflection of his commitment to bring about change. Obama must sanction as many more changes in the future.
 

Together with this dedicated new staff and the American people, he will undoubtedly make “change” synonymous with the United States.
 

This is not an imagined ideal, but a fact that we all cherish to see realized after Bush’s eight years of boring administration. With vision, commitment and determination, Obama will achieve in the coming 100 days what his predecessor had failed to achieve in a couple of years.

Saeed Ahmed Siraj  Al-Kharj
Saudi Arabia