Onze Big Five

ADDIS ABEBA - The Nile is vital for the survival of 160 million people in its ten basin countries. Egypt, for instance, has virtually no other source of water. Ninety per cent of its population lives in the narrow, fertile Nile Valley. In Ethiopia, as a result of a 1929 agreement, farmers are unable to use Nile water to improve their agriculture.

LIAOZHONG - Apart from the recent SARS crisis, stories about China tend to be rather over-the-top. They praise the country's unprecedented economic growth and the potential of its 1.3 billion-strong consumer market.

EDMONTON / OTTAWA – Separatism, long a marginal phenomenon, has grown into a broad movement that has gained influence within the ruling UCP in Alberta. Alberta has one of the largest oil reserves in the world and, according to the separatists, too much of the revenue flows to Ottawa. Albertans feel that the West is not being heard sufficiently in federal politics and that environmental legislation, in particular, is hampering the oil industry.