New York Times reporter JOHN DARNTON

New York Times reporter JOHN DARNTON. This past Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, DARNTON published a series of articles in the Times about the current state of Africa. He was the Times' Africa correspondent in the 70s. This 3-part series is his return to see how conditions have changed. He reports that living standards have declined far below the rest of the world, with most African countries in economic turmoil, replete with famine, war and drought. He says the World Bank has become the new superpower of Africa with the post-cold war pullout of the U.S. and Russia. And desipte economic collapse, he writes that countries are proclaiming democracy throughout Africa: the era of president-for-life is ending. "But," he writes, "political liberalization may be widening ethnic cleavages.