Sister Jabou, Honestly all the issues you raised about Africa and the international community are tremendous challenges in the future, and serious concerns especially to us Africans. Yet I still believe that it is benign exuberance to expect alot from the "activism" of a secretary general operating within an institution run somehow with machtpolitik. I think we can all agree that the power arrangements within the UN framework ought to be redesigned for that body to generate any credible results of substance. In fact this reminds me of Yusupha's earlier comments. I had to read it in a haste this morning today, hoping to reply later on. Shamefully, my hotmail account is all meshed up and I am currently using my Georgetown University account hoping that this shall perhaps get to the list. Coming back to Yusupha's comments ( from what I understood-my apologies if I make the wrong reference), he qouted the various articles relevant to the establishment of the UN, and particularly the office of the Secretary General. There is a gross dissonance that exist within the rarified language and the explicit ideals of the UN Charter. For example, the Articles 10-14 of the Charter gives the General Assembly power to ONLY make recommendations to the Security Council. The UN Security Council has the ultimate jurisdiction to make any decision, regardless of any debates or recommendations of the General Assembly. Once a political matter is before the agenda of the Security Council, there is nothing the General Assembly can do about again. Therefore one can justifiably argue that the UN is de facto a government of the five permanent members. I will even forgive one's stretch of reality callng it "dictatorship" of the US by other means. Also the inherent contradictions of the UN, especially that between national sovereignty and the executive performance of the UN organization is a perennial albatross that paralyzes the office of the Secretary General. This is why I argue that Mr Koffi Annan is strictly limited to the use of rational persuasion and prudent formulation of agreements that are already mandated by the Security Council, and blessed by the US of course. Greetings. Ebou _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at http://profiles.msn.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 You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask] if you have problems accessing the web interface ----------------------------------------------------------------------------