Issue 27
February 1998
Contents
India's next steps
20th February 1998 — Issue 27
Despite flattering images of high-tech Bangalore, India's economy continues to disappoint. On the eve of the general election Vijay Joshi says India can emulate the Asian tigers but not without transforming the state
Can Microsoft stay ahead?
20th February 1998 — Issue 27
Is Microsoft's monopoly of personal computer software transferable to the internet and the network businesses of the future? If so, should we worry? Geraldine Bedell considers the implications of the latest court cases
Chalk and cheese
20th February 1998 — Issue 27
The British and the Germans are said to feel a closer affinity than either has to the French. But how similar are they? Mitsuko Uchida says that Britain and Germany are fundamentally divided by geography and intellectual tradition and are therefore unlikely to agree on a common European project
A Western theme
20th February 1998 — Issue 27
The west is not as dominant as it once was. But neither is it threatened by rival power centres, as the economic turmoil in east Asia underlines. Instead, argue Barry Buzan and Gerald Segal, we are moving into a "Westernistic" era marked by fusions between western and other cultures
Darwin on the mind
20th February 1998 — Issue 27
Until recently the mind was studied by people who believed that it was shaped by outside influences not innate structure-and who knew nothing about evolution. Now the Darwinians are taking over. Matt Ridley considers the rise of evolutionary psychology and Steven Pinker, its new champion
A new third way
20th February 1998 — Issue 27
The regulated market economies of Germany, Japan and east Asia are facing unprecedented challenges from Anglo-American neo-liberal orthodoxy. But, argues John Plender, some of the benefits of co-operative, high-trust capitalism can be retained at company level through employee ownership
Jeanette Winterson
20th February 1998 — Issue 27
After her sparkling early novels, Jeanette Winterson has fallen from literary grace. Is this fair? Or is she the victim of male critics who feel threatened by her lesbianism? Angela Lambert talks to her about God, class, sex and how she writes
Past IMF bail-outs have encouraged risky lending in Asia
20th February 1998 — Issue 27
Past IMF bail-outs have encouraged risky lending in Asia
Accuso
20th February 1998 — Issue 27
The small club of British classical scholarship has lost one of its finest members. Frederic Raphael is angry about how he was mistreated by his literary "patrons"
The meeting is the message
20th February 1998 — Issue 27
Clouds of hubris are gathering over the annual meeting of the world's most important people in Davos. Susan Greenberg says the organisers are so fearful of offending the participants that real debate has been stifled
Family and kinship revisited
20th February 1998 — Issue 27
The financial squeeze on the state means that British welfare is returning to its roots in informal mutual aid. Michael Young and Gerard Lemos say that a virtue can be made of this necessity, especially in the field of social housing
Two tiers for the future
20th February 1998 — Issue 27
The use of genetic technology in conceiving and improving humans, combined with the costs of such treatments, may produce a class of genetic aristocrats. Lee M Silver imagines the United States 300 years from now
A ghost at the talks
20th February 1998 — Issue 27
Loyalist grievances have been threatening the Northern Ireland talks. But, says Nick Martin-Clark, attention will shift to an old nationalist wound-the unfinished business of Bloody Sunday
Blair's missed chance
20th February 1998 — Issue 27
Reviewing the extraordinary career of Lord Blair, Roy Denman finds the roots of his failure in the decision-taken just after the triumph of May 1997-to postpone early entry into Emu
Jew to Israeli (and back)
20th February 1998 — Issue 27
As Israel prepares to celebrate its 50th anniversary, Glenda Abramson considers how its literature has evolved from nation-building social realism to something more post-modern
Too much Plato?
20th February 1998 — Issue 27
Iris Murdoch has been a unique presence in British intellectual and literary life. Lesley Chamberlain says she has tried to teach us good and beautiful things, but fears that her legacy will be slight
Talk radio
20th February 1998 — Issue 27
Dithering and blithering voices, all of them good and decent and progressive and well-read and Deeply Concerned. He loathed them all
The prisoner
20th February 1998 — Issue 27
Peter Wayne tells how Punky buried his mother and smoked a heroin-laden joint