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"Geography sometimes dictates" - the concluding words of an article in The Economist, 25 August 2007, p.53. To add to the debate earlier this year on crit-geog on the place and necessity for geography in the curriculum. This Economist article points out that the only way it is comprehensible that Congo (on the west of Africa) should need to export its Lake Albert oil to the east African ports - and via Uganda, a traditional enemy of Congo at that, is by looking at the geography of the area, the political geography of Africa, and the transport geography (or lack of it) of Congo itself, and Uganda's links to Kenya. There must be quite a few case studies of this type justifying the need for more traditional forms of geography, as well as the social place-generic forms, on the school timetable. Hillary Shaw, Newport, Shropshire