I think it should be obvious by now that international relations are governed by the interests of the governments concerned. While the OAU has been appropriately described as a paper tiger, it has already sent $100,000; a paltry sum compared to the current situation in Mozambique. The fundamental problem is that most OAU member states are seriously delinquent in their contributions. Then to make matters worse the OAU spends a lot of their budget on incessant and often useless conferences in order to pocket per diem. I understand from PANA that Ghana has sent relief items worth of $100,000 and Mauritius has topped this with another $100,000. Those heads-of-state whose countries are not grappled by civil wars can dip into their Swiss Bank accounts and set an example. As regards Africa's relationship with the West, I would rather go by the principle, "respect yourself first before somebody respects you". The West cannot do our own homework for us whenever such situations arise. We have at least to lay the first block. In Africa, a few government functionaries would often misappropriate funds and loans from international donor agencies and divert them to Western financial institutions. If this 1-2-1 mirror effect is not broken, the donor community will never take us seriously. Hamadi. ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------