Thailand generates fantasies, both for tourists in search of sex and for aid workers peddling lurid tales of trafficking. The tsunami created more false horror stories. What are the facts of the trade?

Why did Médecins Sans Frontières refuse to accept public donations?

The disaster relief profession, like its development cousin, has grown wiser and humbler

In the past 20 years, the number of very rich people in Britain has risen sharply and tax incentives for giving are now similar to America's. But Britain does not yet have a US-style culture of giving, and mixing public…

In ten years the Heritage Lottery Fund has preserved glories, scuppered the V&A spiral and bowed to social inclusion. What is this "heritage" idea?

The spirit of the left has been extinguished. But there is still a case for radical ideology

Doomsayers persist in the belief that the book world has been overrun by philistinism. They are wrong. Publishers can rejoice in unprecedented levels of both quality and quantity. We are living in a golden age of the book

The precautionary principle represents the cowardice of a pampered society

The Edinburgh Fringe is the only place where new theatre can thrive. Sneer at it if you like, but just try making it on the London fringe instead

The single-shot movie

Oxfam has brilliantly exposed the EU as the worst of trade hypocrites; but it's a pity it still misreads the WTO

The patents and priorities of the western drugs industry are stacked against the sick of the developing world. But philanthropy, the impact of Aids, and new faces in global institutions have reinvigorated the battle against poor people's diseases.