One way to think about the "North" is to think of it as an exclusive membership club: older members (America and Europe) have seen the values of their memberships appreciate, as newer members (Japan and the Gulf states) and applicants to the club (China) pay big-time to acquire and maintain memberships. -- Yoshie <http://montages.blogspot.com/> <http://mrzine.org> <http://monthlyreview.org/>