Editor,

RE: "Rwandans to critics: Thanks for the concern, but it’s our future, not yours” (The New Times, January 5).

I think that we pay too much unwarranted attention to foreigners' opinions of us. In so doing, we give them too much power over our affairs. Rwandans — the only ones whose opinion really matters in this case — have spoken, clearly and overwhelmingly.

Let us stop with this undue fixation on what this or that meddlesome foreigner says of what Rwandans think and how our leader should respond to what Rwandans want, and move on to more important things for those whose opinion on how Rwanda moves forward is, in the end, the only legitimate view.

Mwene Kalinda