Issue 29
April 1998
Contents
The overseas Chinese
20th April 1998 — Issue 29
The Chinese diaspora is a tiny minority in southeast Asia, but it controls much of the region's wealth and is investing heavily on the mainland. Hard times lie ahead for the ethnic Chinese whose business methods are blamed for the current Asian crisis
Paul Krugman
20th April 1998 — Issue 29
Has modern economics lost its way? Paul Krugman, one of the first to predict the fall of Asia's tiger economies, defends economics against the policy entrepreneurs who fret about globalisation but have given up algebra. Mike Steinberger talks to him about political cynicism and trade theory
Life after birth
20th April 1998 — Issue 29
They say that nothing prepares you for motherhood-for once they are right
Looking for Palestine
20th April 1998 — Issue 29
As Israel celebrates its 50th anniversary, the middle east peace process seems to be stalled. Four years after the signing of the Oslo accords, Sarah Helm returns to the West Bank and Gaza Strip to see how facts on the ground have affected behaviour and expectations among the Palestinians themselves
Socialising Darwin
20th April 1998 — Issue 29
From linguistics and psychology to anthropology, social scientists are applying neo-Darwinian insights to explain human behaviour. So why are sociologists resisting the trend? WG Runciman shows how the concepts of variation, replication and selection can help to explain social life
Hijacking Mr Hume
20th April 1998 — Issue 29
What has happened to Northern Ireland's constitutional nationalists? Has a politically resurgent Sinn Fein taken John Hume's voters and prevented him from doing a deal with the unionists? Or has armed republicanism finally been tamed? Sean O'Callaghan, a repentant IRA terrorist, fears the worst
Art for Africa's sake
20th April 1998 — Issue 29
What is African art? Is it different from European art? Nancy Hynes describes how Johannesburg's second Biennale became a battleground for South African identity politics. The organisers' internationalism met with resistance from those keen to emphasise African-ness
Writing for Rupert
20th April 1998 — Issue 29
The HarperCollins affair which briefly convulsed the British media raises a host of big questions about free speech, the way we deal with dictators and the power of media proprietors. Timothy Garton Ash, one of the writers who left HarperCollins in protest, draws some unexpected conclusions
Identity parades
20th April 1998 — Issue 29
The dilemma for modern liberal states is how to combine tolerance for diversity with a commitment to universal civic values. Michael Ignatieff considers how Britain, and British identity, is dealing with this dilemma in the face of ethnic and religious difference, Celtic devolution and European integration
Defending the IMF
20th April 1998 — Issue 29
Jeffrey Sachs and other economists have severely criticised the IMF for its handling of the Asia crisis. Larry Summers, who is master-minding the US response to the crisis, defends the institution but concedes it needs reform
Murdoch and Mandela
20th April 1998 — Issue 29
Rupert Murdoch is not the only one to bend the knee before the Chinese authorities. The Times's former Asia correspondent. Nelson Mandela has been doing it too
A brief history of the sex war
20th April 1998 — Issue 29
First men controlled women, then women broke free. Men were horrible to women, then women were horrible to men in their turn. Now we have a kind of matriarchy. Are men redundant? Are women happy?
Walter on Walter
20th April 1998 — Issue 29
Natasha Walter's book on the new feminism has been reviewed mainly by young women-not always kindly. Nicolas Walter is a man from an older generation and the author's father
The reactionary progressive
20th April 1998 — Issue 29
To the right, he is an apostate; to the left, a sinner who repented. Anthony Dworkin argues that John Gray's intellectual journey is more complex: he is a progressive who does not believe in progress
The Reader, once more
20th April 1998 — Issue 29
In the last issue of Prospect, Frederic Raphael declared that anybody recommending The Reader must have a tin ear for fiction and a blind eye for evil. AS Byatt was incensed-The Reader, she argues, is a beautifully constructed fable about guilt
Modern manners
20th April 1998 — Issue 29
Jeremy Clarke and his sister Viv discover a working heritage dome and a long lost world
Letter from Poland
20th April 1998 — Issue 29
AndrzeJ Lodynski explains why his interview with Don Cupit did not appear in the Polish press
Digest
20th April 1998 — Issue 29
Gerhard Schröder will lead the Social Democrat challenge to Helmut Kohl in September's German election. Nina Grunenberg considers why he is more popular outside his party than inside. This is an edited extract from a profile written last year