The country has too few schools at all levels, and many lack such basics as libraries and are staffed by undereducated teachers.

Microsoft's chairman, William H. Gates, quarreled with some of the priorities of technology enthusiasts at a recent industry conference, saying that the Internet was useless to people who lacked basics of life.

One friend recently used an online agency to rent a villa in France, only to arrive and find that the house lacked such basics as a telephone line.

In chaotic Bulgaria, the average wage fell to $30 this month, and many hospitals lack even such basics as X-ray film.

Administration officials said Ayatollah Sistani's call for direct popular elections was, among other problems, impractical, because Iraq lacks such basics as voter rolls.

TCI representatives say fly-by-night consultants sometimes present towns with feasibility studies lacking such basics as maintenance budgets.

And in recent interviews, three current employees spoke of staff levels so low at the Bear campus, that residents were endangered, of children who had lacked such basics as shoes, toys and underwear, and of disturbed youngsters who suffered broken noses, black eyes and missing teeth in suspicious circumstances that went uninvestigated.

The independent work is necessary at a school where the three science laboratories lack such basics as electrical outlets and adequate exhaust systems.

That "Bees" and "June" are engaged for open-ended runs at two of Manhattan's most desirable small commercial playhouses is an amazing feat for a fledgling Off Broadway company that lacks such basics as a theater of its own.

He recalled lacking basics, like soap, and fruits and vegetables.