06 September 2004
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From the Editor…
Welcome to the New Statesman website. Whether you are a new reader or an existing one - online or via the magazine - I hope you'll enjoy the great writing, fresh ideas and provocative debate that make the New Statesman Britain's award-winning current affairs weekly
Cover story
The happiness industry
There are big profits in claiming to make people happy. But are those who seek well-being from therapy, drugs and self-help books being ripped off?
Features
Not shining, but drowning
In the 1990s, as India opened itself to global capital, its rulers said poverty would be eradicated. Now it is becoming clear that millions were casually betrayed by the privileged few who cashed in. Special report from John Pilger in Mumbai
The slaughter of Iraq's intellectuals
Since the occupation began, some 200 leading Iraqi academics, most of them in the humanities and social sciences, have been killed. Is the CIA responsible?
How to waste a $15bn opportunity
George Bush and Tony Blair have a lot of money to spend on Aids in the developing world - but don't expect them to take advice from the experts
But in Norway, the state is still grandpa
Neil Clark finds the last true socialists in Norway
Auntie's hopeless online dream
The Beeb should stick to making great programmes and leave the geeky stuff to others
Chechnya's deadly ''black widows''
Young Chechen women are striking fear in the hearts of Russians by staging suicide missions. But are they willing martyrs - or pawns in a male war? Only one has ever survived to tell her story
Europe's very own Puerto Rico
Romania, now set for EU membership, has no proper democracy or market economy. It will be the exploited dependency of a neighbouring Goliath, argues Tom Gallagher
Essay
NS Essay - There is a law of the Labour back benches: if they do it in Sweden, it must be all right.
So what is the truth about the Scandinavians, so often held up as model social democrats? Anthony Giddens hails the Swedes, Danes and Finns as true followers of the Third Way.
Regulars
The Politics Column
Politics - John Kampfner
Lib Dem traditionalists fear that a Blair-style coup could make the party pull back from its commitment to a 50 per cent rate of tax, and take a hawkish tone on asylum-seekers
Darcus Howe warns a black paper to stop its bullying
This black newspaper should take far more care over what it prints
Amanda Platell finds an Edinburgh "pecker order"
Monica Lewinsky rightly sees herself as above Rebecca Loos in the "sex celebs" pecker order
Competition
Win vouchers to spend at any Tesco store
Culture
Mouths wide open
The smile was once full of meaning - exchanged between lovers, deployed strategically in conversation, even used to provoke and enrage. By contrast, the default-position broad grin that flourishes in our time seems little more than a forced expression of politeness
The joy of art
Visual Art - Our critic Richard Cork explains how he became turned on by paintings
Funny man
Stand-up - Trooping around the comedy circuit was not Miranda Sawyer's idea of fun - until she fell for a professional joker
We want love, actually
The happy ending - Kate Gardner wonders why feature films are ditching the feel-good moment as the credits roll
Theatre
Michael Portillo - Party tricks
Theatre - A display that tests the limits of performers and audience alike. By Michael Portillo Circus Oz Royal Festival Hall, London SE1
Film
Mark Kermode - Flight of fancy
Film - Spielberg's latest proves he is on the runway to recovery, writes Mark Kermode The Terminal (12A)
Television
Andrew Billen - Back to reality
Television - Bitching about quality is in fashion again at Edinburgh
The Fan
The fan - Hunter Davies proposes flogging sockless footballers
I propose flogging for footballers who take off their socks
Books
The truth about Henry. George Walden wonders if, rather than attempting the awesome feat of fictionalising Henry James's life, David Lodge should have stuck to conventional biography
Author, Author David Lodge Secker & Warburg, 389pp, £16.99 ISBN 0436205270
Colonial psychosis. V S Naipaul's prejudices - once kept in check by his gift for social observation - have now expanded to devour everything appealing about his fiction, writes Siddhartha Deb
Magic Seeds V S Naipaul Picador, 294pp, £16.99 ISBN 0330485202
Another country. Anita Desai's new novel contains many fine descriptions of nature, but the characters are of a ghostly thinness, writes Claire Messud
The Zigzag Way Anita Desai Chatto & Windus, 182pp, 12.99 ISBN 0701177438
Applied ethics. Alexander McCall Smith's new female detective - an Edinburgh bluestocking - is no less delightful than her African predecessor, writes Ruaridh Nicoll
The Sunday Philosophy Club Alexander McCall Smith Little, Brown, 281pp, £14.99 ISBN 0316728179
The Swedish Morse
Before the Frost Henning Mankell Harvill, 375pp, £14.99 ISBN 1843431130
Journey to a lost world
The Blackpool Highflyer Andrew Martin Faber & Faber, 336pp, £10.99 ISBN 0571219012
