10 January 2005
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From the Editor…
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Cover story
The other tsunami
While the sea may have killed tens of thousands, western policies kill millions every year. Yet even amid disaster, a new politics of community and morality is emerging
Features
Land of the free, home of the stingy
Tsunami 2: Americans, who think they are uniquely generous, give just five cents a day each to charities abroad
A new medium comes of age
Tsunami 3: Internet bloggers have already made their mark in Iraq. Now, as disaster hits Asia, they play a big role in relief efforts, as well as being first with news. By Paul O'Grady
Blair dithered because his confidence has gone
Tsunami 4: John Kampfner suggests the PM's best plan was to have come home and directed relief tasks quietly, without announcing it to the media
When parents are a child's best teachers
Home education is booming. And it already saves the state millions of pounds. So why doesn't the government do more to support it? Jenni Russell reports
A very British sickness
Shiv Malik visits Easington, County Durham, Britain's incapacity benefit capital, and asks if a crackdown is really the best way to get claimants back to work
The Yanks are leaving, and a nation can rebuild itself
American GIs have been a visible - and much-hated - presence in South Korea for years now. As they are redeployed to Iraq, Ewan Jones reports on how their departure will affect the Koreans
Essay
NS Essay - Scaring people may be the only way to avoid the risks of new-style terrorism
Claims that our leaders are playing the "politics of fear" are misconceived. Society could easily weather attacks from the likes of the IRA; just one from al-Qaeda could be devastating
Regulars
Darcus Howe defends that controvercial Sikh play
The issue at Birmingham Rep wasn't freedom of speech, but Asian women's right to life. By Darcus Howe
Competition
Win vouchers to spend at any Tesco store
Culture
Death of glory
Epic films of great men doing great deeds triumphed in 1950s America and made a comeback in the past decade. But their appeal never lasts. Ian Garrick Mason on the rise and fall of heroic cinema
Vision for change
Africa 05 - Margaret Busby gives us reason to celebrate the culture of a neglected continent
Land of freedom
Identity cards - Jonathan Glancey on why government policy is an insult to our national heritage
This charming man
Encounters - Director Peter Hall discusses gorgeous women and theatre with Michael Coveney
Theatre
Michael Portillo - High flyer
Theatre - The people's nanny soars, but not everyone takes off. By Michael Portillo Mary Poppins Prince Edward Theatre, London W1
Film
Mark Kermode - Family drama
Film - A sympathetic story of abortion will appeal even to pro-lifers, writes Mark Kermode Vera Drake (12A)
Television
Andrew Billen - Signs of life
Television - It's not so grim up north in a headline-grabbing sitcom, writes Andrew Billen Dead Man Weds (ITV)
Books
The killing fields. Once shrouded in secrecy, the history of the Soviet concentration camps is now well known. But why did these open-air prisons really exist? Richard Overy on the chilling vision behind Stalinist injustice
The History of the Gulag: from collectivisation to the Great Terror Oleg V Khlevniuk Yale University Press, 418pp, £25 ISBN 0300092849
Culture shock
Wrong About Japan Peter Carey Faber & Faber, 124pp, £12.99 ISBN 0571224075
Teenage kicks
Dis/connected: why our kids are turning their backs on everything we thought we knew Nick Barham Ebury Press, 311pp, £12.99 ISBN 0091896932
Low grade
Excellence in Education: the making of great schools Cyril Taylor and Conor Ryan David Fulton Publishers, 311pp, £25 ISBN 1843122138
The good doctor
Confronting an Ill Society: David Widgery, general practice, idealism and the chase for change Patrick Hutt with Iona Heath and Roger Neighbour Radcliffe Publishing, 120pp, £19.95 ISBN 1857759109
Believe it or not
Selling Spirituality: the silent takeover of religion Jeremy Carrette and Richard King Routledge, 194pp, £12.99 ISBN 0415302099
Fiction - Out of range
Bad Dirt: Wyoming Stories II Annie Proulx Fourth Estate, 219pp, £12.99 ISBN 0007196911
