Here's an important lesson to keep in mind: If the corrupt
president of an impoverished African nation comes along and
tells you he's going to pay you $27 million to buy a piece of
land you own in Midtown, do not take him at his word. Stay
skeptical, at least until you have the money in hand. Dictators,
you see, tend to operate by their own set of rules; just they
signed a silly piece of paper called a "contract" doesn't mean
they can't change their minds later on. They can do what they
want. That's one of the perks to being an autocrat!  This is a
lesson that the owners of plot of land on East 44th Street
learned recently. They spent a couple of months negotiating a
deal to sell the parcel to the Republic of Senegal for $27
million, and received repeated assurances from the nation's
president, Abdoulaye Wade, that the money was on the way. But no
money ever arrived and now the owners of the plot have filed a
lawsuit against the African nation.  147217Of course if they'd
been paying closer attention to the lo