Vim behaves very strange lately

[Richard <richard.vd.veen@gmail.com>]

Hi

I use Debian Sid and since the last upgrade from vim to

vi --version
VIM - Vi IMproved 7.0 (2006 May 7, compiled May 16 2006 22:43:50)

it seems vim doesn't want to behave like vim anymore when opened with
the command vi ...
-----
ll /usr/bin/vi
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 20 2006-05-19 16:22 /usr/bin/vi -> /etc/alternatives/vi

ll /etc/alternatives/vi
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 18 2006-05-19 17:03 /etc/alternatives/vi ->
/usr/bin/vim.basic
-----

When i open a file to edit, the normal lines at the bottom to show i
am in edit mode are not shown when i have typt "i" ... this is
different when i use the command vim: then i see

"-- INSERT --" as i am used to see. The arrow keys on my keyboard also
don't work as i am used to in vim when opened with the 'vi command'

can somebody tell me what is wrong?