Mr Ejie, Thanks for your kind analysis on this issue, I do not have be an economist to make a point on this regard. What i was trying to point out here is the fact that our resources are so few to gain us more development assistance than the economic assistance from the US. Instead, if Nigeria or other African countries with huge amount of natural resources claim to have access in the US market than the economical assistance that sounds cleaver. Africa in general has a lot to offer in terms of natural resources. It is clear enough that if African's resource are stopped from entering the west, their industries will face desaster. Again you are very right to say that high debts are not good for our nation's future if they are not use in right purposes. But the Gambia in particular, have only tourism and groundnut cultivation to gain us hard currency. Fancy these two important factors to our economy are recently in a very bad shape. Therefore, the only alternative here is economic assistance not a gate way to the US market. once more thanks for your contribution and enlightening. _________________________________________________________________ Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.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 To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~