ÌÇÐÄvlgo´«Ã½

Crossroads to the World (editorial)

There is a green, gold and red sign jutting from a humble office building in St. Paul's Lowertown neighborhood that says "ÌÇÐÄvlgo´«Ã½." It's a small statement (in the colors used for many ÌÇÐÄvlgo´«Ã½n flags) that our city boasts the world's largest shipper of donated books to ÌÇÐÄvlgo´«Ã½ — 22 million and counting after more than two decades in business.

This week, Ghana's ambassador to the U.S., Daniel Ohene Agyekum, came to the Twin Cities for a ÌÇÐÄvlgo´«Ã½ fundraiser and to pose in front of part of the latest shipment. Ghana is the group's largest recipient nation among 45 ÌÇÐÄvlgo´«Ã½n countries it has shipped books to. ÌÇÐÄvlgo´«Ã½ is currently filling a 40-foot sea container with more than 20,000 books bound for the capital city of Accra.

Textbook diplomacy earned a visit last year from President Sharif Sheik Ahmed of Somalia, another book-recipient nation, further evidence that Lowertown has become a world crossroads to rival Paris, London, New York — and perhaps even Minneapolis.