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member from Gambia, even if he isn’t lonely. He deserved a scolding so I administered this. To make up for this,he has promised (I often interpret any startled look as a promise) to write us a piece for the Bulletin, perhaps aboutthe Second Generation. He has a very interesting 2nd generation.Well, let me tell you about Gambia. It is a thin, horizontal country. It is on the left hand side of Africa. It sticks intoSenegal which is a big country. It is an island of anglophonie in a sea of francophonie which fazes no one becauseMandingos and Wolofs straddle the fine frontier created by England and France. Everyone is very friendly. Even Ididn’t need a visa; the UNDP driver who met me spoke a friendly word to the passport official and this completedthe formalities.Now, it so happened that while I was there, the World Soccer Cup began, which as we all know, is the mostimportant event on our planet. While Gambia wasn’t fielding a team of its own, it had close links with thetournament. The father of Tony Sanneh, a member of the surprising US team, came from Gambia. And theFrench coach of the Senegal team, Bruno Metsu, was married to a Senegalese. And we in Gambia were rootingfor Senegal.Well, so there we were, watching the opening game of the World Cup, ready to sympathise with the poorSenegalese and what happened? We had to sympathise with the French tourists in the hotel, lined up to see theChampions triumph, and having to watch the hotel staff whooping with joy and forgetting to serve lunch.Since our entire world is now ruled by television rather than governments, it is not strange that while the world wasriveted on football, events such as the FAO Summit Conference on Food and the G-8 Summit in Alberta wentunnoticed. And who can doubt that soccer has far more influence on world affairs than Summit meetings? Brazilforgot her economic woes, South Korea moved up a few notches in the world community while France and Italyslipped down a notch or two.But we cannot allow our world summits to be overshadowed by trivial pursuits. The remedy is obvious: we mustlearn from the World Cup (I wish I could use the acronym but it might be considered rude): competition andsuspense.So for the G-8 we must begin selecting the eight countries months ahead with qualifying rounds. Every countrywould be entitled to compete; why shouldn’t the Seychelles and Micronesia have a chance? And of courseGambia; why should it be debarred just because it is small and thin? Democracy and Equality are our watchwords.The earlier rounds would of course be on smaller summits; the first round could have summits of 3000 m; thesecond round have summits of 4000 m. and so on until the final summit would reach 8000 m. To make this moreattractive on TV, Tony Blair could take on the Mohican hair style; Chirac could have a pony tail (he might need awig); Koziumi could have a clean shaven head; and Bush could have a bushy triangle of hair in front.You may ask: but how could a team thus chosen make pronouncements on the world situation? Quite simple,really. They would polish up the previous year’s declaration: state their intention to stabilize the world economy, tocreate employment, to give another three cheers for globalisation, to give massive help to the poor countries andmake them rich. The declaration would then be stored away till next year.Members of the Security Council could also be chosen in similar fashion. We could make the selections through aQuiz competition, with difficult questions such as: What is the difference between the UN and NATO? Of whichcountry is Euro the currency? What is the capital of the US? What country has just joined the UN? Is there anydifference between Gambia and Zambia? The five top winners would have the veto. The Secretary-General wouldbe the Quizmaster.Gambia. I was telling you all about Gambia. Well, Gambia is a thin, horizontal country on the left hand side ofAfrica............20 July 2002 . Aamir Ali.33