Editor,

RE: "We are our brothers’ keepers” (The New Times, September 16).

Thank you for setting the record right. The composition of the Rwandan Diaspora (as is the Diaspora from other countries) is as diverse as the population from which it originates.

It is extremely foolhardy to try and put an all-encompassing label on its members or the reasons each of them chose expatriation or the kinds of work they do. It is equally as foolish for anyone to presume what is best for those who have chosen expatriation as it would be were members of the Diaspora to lecture Rwandans in Rwanda on the choices they are making and which are bearing the fruits that are there for all to see.

It is always the height of arrogance to presume to know what is best for others than they themselves.

We, Rwandans, spend a lot of time telling nosy foreigners (mostly from the west) where they can stick their instructions (which they pretend are friendly advice) about our own choices (very politely, of course). It is a wonder that a fellow Rwandan would presume to play this same game of giving similarly unwanted and uninvited instructions to a whole category of other Rwandans who are better judges of what is in their best interest than his opinion can ever be, and to do so in such an insulting manner.

Mwene Kalinda