Malcolm Ward's letter headed "Does Bath need more twinning"? (Bath Chronicle May 3) makes both interesting and surprising reading.
Interesting, because at least as a tax paying Bathonian his reaction to twinning shows that he keeps abreast of the work of Bath's council. Surprising, because as an erudite Bathonian, while he knows that Ethiopia is "poor", he's got the location wrong – Ethiopia is in east and not north Africa.
And need I remind him that Ethiopia is no stranger to Bathonians?
Was it not the last King of "poor Ethiopia", Haile Selassie, who donated Fairfield House on the outskirts of Bath to elderly Bathonians as a token of his appreciation for the hospitality accorded to him and his family during fascist Italy's occupation of Ethiopia in the Second World War?
Is his reaction to be taken as Bathonians' way of saying thank you to Haile Selassie, and by extension, to Ethiopia?
Malcolm Ward has also fallen prey to an anachronistic view of Ethiopia which is synonymous with poverty, famine and conflict, whereas, in actual fact, we are a nation which has built a democratic and economically fast-growing country on the embers of a brutal military dictatorship and a famine of "Biblical proportion".
Besides, twining is not a one-way street, but a symbiotic relationship offering a win-win situation to both parties. It is my hope that the anticipated twining between Hawassa and Bath will usher new opportunities for Bath's business community to invest in Ethiopia's market.
It's high time that Bathonian's revamped the historic link with Ethiopia.
DILWENBERU NEGA Chippenham Road London
