I really appreciate the work that you do in bringing all sorts of things that we need to know in and about Africa to our attention. So I'm sorry to contact you with a grouse, but NIGERIA was mentioned in two items in this newsletter, and the stories seemed to have nothing to do with Naija. The first, on request for famine relief, was actually about NIGER - indeed, wouldn't it have been obscene for the Nigerian government to call for famine relief? The second was about a South African HIV/AIDS report - if we don't have the links to the Internet, we might not be able to see any connection.

Despite this, please keep up the good work - It's not always possible to read ever issue down to the ground, but when one does, it is rewarding.

OUR RESPONSE: Thank you for writing. We appreciate your encouraging feedback, and of course also for pointing out the items incorrectly associated with Nigeria. How embarassing! These have now been corrected for the online edition.

CLO can help us to make sure Nigeria is better represented in the newsletter. Please make sure that relevant news and information that CLO produces or comes across is submitted to our editor ([email protected]). You can also help to spread the word about the newsletter by announcing it in CLO publications and e-mailing information about it to your colleagues.

And finally, CLO can take better advantage of its Kabissa membership - you may not know it, but CLO was one of the first members of Kabissa! It was set up as a result of the OMCT Internet project in 1999 that I was also involved in. You have a free Internet account on Kabissa, including an e-mail mailbox and web space, which you are not using. You are also eligible for automated mailing lists on Kabissa in case CLO wants to set up an automated newsletter. Let me know if you are interested in starting to use these free services.