Oil's Curse

Re the cover story "Africa's Oil" [June 11]: Africa is still the least developed of continents. It has to be given a chance to rise without dictators who are groomed, financed and put in power by the West. From Gabon to Nigeria to Guinea, it is the same story: a hundred cronies surround a dictator who connives with oil companies to amass wealth while millions live in dire poverty. Western governments and their oil companies must step in and stop the looting! Just as Western banks do not accept al-Qaeda's money, so too should they refuse African dictators' stolen money. Those funds should be used to emancipate African children and help them grow up like other children.
Moses Nsubuga, DUBLIN

Up to the Challenge
In "India without the slogans," Simon Robinson complained about being let down by the "Incredible India" marketing campaign, since so many problems remain [June 4]. No one claims India is without troubles, but we're working to fix them. Unfortunately, Robinson does not see the opportunities in each challenge and the enormous impatience of 1 billion people seething to take the country forward. We are doing it on our terms and in our time.
Vandana Chatterjee, HERZLIYA PITUACH, ISRAEL

India is the largest democracy, and it encompasses such a variety of mind-sets almost beyond imagining. The country is undergoing a transformation and will eventually become phenomenally different. I appreciate Robinson's criticism, as it inspires us to prove that he is wrong. We are struggling to create a developed India, and I pray that God gives strength to everyone and inspires them to transform their outlook.
Prashant Mishra, BANGALORE, INDIA

There was a time not too long ago when the wait for telephone service in some areas of Delhi territory was 15 years. Today it's different: I haven't heard any reports of cell-phone-signal dropout in the area Robinson mentioned. Yes, India has problems, but it has come a long way in the past few decades. And far from being a burden, democracy is our biggest insurance against momentum being gained in the wrong direction.
Sunil Bajpai, NEW DELHI

I was amused by how Robinson let little hiccups like power outages and cell-phone failures distort the big picture of India. The very fact that India's remote and hilly northeastern terrain has passable roads, suvs, cell-phone service and hotels speaks of momentum and progress. India offers abundant opportunities to get rich quick. Indeed, the countless foreign businessmen and women who come to India are worried more about cell connectivity in Delhi than malnourished children in Noida. I am a regular visitor to China and a keen follower of Chinese progress. One must realize that that country opened up its economy much earlier than India did. And China still has many more slogans than India has!
Dukkipati Nageswara Rao, HYDERABAD, INDIA

Living in the west, where democracy is taken for granted, I tend to forget how hard some countries must fight to hold on to it. With a population of 1 billion people, Indians have to fight at least 10 times as hard as any Westerner to be heard. And even then, most of their voices are drowned out by the shouts of corrupt investors and politicians. Yet wondrously enough, each citizen wakes up every morning with the perseverance to keep India afloat. Robinson claimed that unfulfilled expectations raised by marketing campaigns such as "Incredible India" only make Westerners realize "the lack of progress." As an Indian citizen living abroad, I see the very reason we continue to fight.
Arundhati Ray, LUND, SWEDEN

Remembering the Fallen
"One day in Iraq" gave a perfectly pitched and very moving account of the loss felt by families of servicemen killed in action [June 4]. Your insistence on referring to the soldiers' last names in virtually all the accounts, however, was disturbing. The warm human qualities of the men killed — love of family, God or music — perhaps called for more subtlety than adherence to your editorial stylebook, which in this case was cold and harsh. Referring to the servicemen by their first names would have been a gentler act of respect.
Jez Abbott, HASTINGS, ENGLAND