After years of courting their wealthier and more-experienced Western counterparts, Russian oil companies, made richer by high oil prices, mostly want to go it alone.

On the surface, this seems like a perverse artifact of the Tax Reform Act of 1986, enacted simply to punish upper-middle-income taxpayers and reward their wealthier counterparts.

A new generation of businessmen were desirous of surrounding themselves with all the appearances and habits of their more wealthy counterparts.

While it caused a bit of buzz in the local press, Mr. Schumacher's arrangement - or, for that matter, those of wealthy counterparts - did not draw public opposition.

In turn, I need more money to attract better teachers, reduce class size, improve facilities and give poor city kids as much of a chance as their wealthier suburban counterparts.

One such effort, the Reebok Urban Youth Tennis Academy, has spent the last decade giving children from poor families a chance to compete equally against their wealthier counterparts.

Many students start preschool or kindergarten without basic skills that their wealthier counterparts do and thus are already behind.

The developing countries upset the conference by refusing to commit themselves to emission reduction targets that their wealthier counterparts have pledged to meet under the agreement.

He also hopes for support from outlying regions seeking foreign investment, and from Russian oil companies eager to join forces with their wealthier Western counterparts.

But unlike its wealthier counterparts, the work of the Stennis Institute has been hampered by its modest budget, about $100,000 annually.