Members, At the suggestion of Ebrima, the role of Africa in the World economy is been placed on the menu for those who care to join the discussions. In suggesting the topic,he made reference to a "leftist" named Alex Callinicos. I have not read the article by the gentleman but, I presume, it could serve as a back-drop.In addition to this piece which, I hope, Ebrima will introduce, I would also like to draw your attention to the two news releases posted concerning Bouteflika's keynote address to the UNCTAD meeting in Bangkok condemning Western capitalism and the other concerning the South African company and the wind-up radio moving shop.Mr. Camara has just posted yet another news release by IPS written by Ranjit Dev Raj on the UNCTAD conference. These are all relevant to the topic,in my view. "A new map of the world is being drawn and...Africa is being scrubbed out, erased," says Bouteflika in Bangkok, while an African company(or is it?) is busy moving shop from Cape Town to China to mass produce an essential product for development as leisure item for the American outdoorsperson. Where were the ADB,AsDB,UN agencies and the World Bank when these two South Africans were acquiring the patent of the wind-up radio from the British inventor?I will give my response in due course. Sidi Sanneh ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------