Previous promises to Africa have not always been honoured and the continent Blair once described as a "scar on the conscience of the world" waits to see if the outpouring of goodwill at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland will be any different. "There has certainly been an increase in rhetoric, and not for the first time," said Kenyan Arthur Muliro, analyst at Rome-based think-tank the Society for International Development. "Africa has been on the radar screen in this way many times before. There has been no shortage of promises, but in real terms nothing has changed."