Journalism is the great excuse of the curious. I certainly fall into this category - in fact I fear I am almost a chronic case. Journalism allows you to stick your nose into the affairs of others and ask questions about things that are really none of your business. For the most part people are receptive and trusting. I am never quite sure why.

Sometimes they feel that you can be of direct aid to whatever struggle they are engaged in - that what you write will make a difference. Mostly it doesn't, except in the most general sense. But when people tell you their stories - sometimes tragic, often funny, inevitably important - I feel a certain sense of obligation passed to me by the narrator.

So it was with this issue on the human side of the Asian economic miracle. I talked to dozens of people about their lives or issues that are very close to their hearts. I have included as much as possible of this: either as direct quotes and stories or as a sensibility that informs my sorting out of the issues in East Asia. But inevitably it feels inadequate - that I have in some way let them down. Too many stories - like those of the guest workers in Hong Kong or Korea's environmental groups - remain to be told. But there should be plenty here to provoke the chronically curious. Special thanks are due to Minji Che and Colin who helped me to see things I would not otherwise have seen.

Being in an unfamiliar place is revealing not only for the differences but for the quite startling similarities. After a few days in Seoul I was desperate for some English-language news, so I picked up a rather skimpy copy of that morning's Korea Herald. And there it was on page three - 'the article'. You know the type from your own country's press - we have to tighten our belts if we are going to compete, our workers have got to stop making unrealistic demands, there are other countries where people would be glad for the jobs at a fraction of the wage, government spending has to be geared to making us more competitive not wasted on 'unproductive' welfare schemes.

But wait a sec. I thought the Koreans were the people we had to worry about because they were taking our jobs.

Then the morning caffeine finally hit my veins, bringing with it enlightenment. It was the same article! It just circulated around the globe, from paper to paper, to be reproduced as the need arose to use the market whip on 'unrealistic' expectations. To banish our Utopian dreams. Very handy really. Brings to mind that Brecht quote: 'If this is Utopian, I would ask you to consider why this is so.'

Unmasking the miracle
East Asian economic success is the toast of the financial world. But the cracks are starting to appear in the development autocracy. Richard Swift listens to the hard questions of those who bear the costs.

Happy-face fascism
Sue Ann Tellman discovers the grimace behind the grin in today's Singapore.

When nimble fingers make a fist
Women have been the shock troops of the economic miracle - but, as Daisy Francis reports, compliance can turn to contestation.

Pig village and the slaughterhouse
A tale of two slums.

Chasing the little white ball
Golf courses are gobbling up land and sucking up water all over the region. But in this, the 'Year of No Golf', Malee Traisawasdichai says enough is enough.

ASIAN TIGERS - THE FACTS

Strip-mining the future
High-speed-growth-and-damn-the-consequences is not the only way forward in East Asia. Walden Bello lays out the alternative being shaped by social movements from Seoul to Bangkok.

Choking on growth
Marc Cohen tells how Taiwan's environmental movements are making headway in one of the most polluted places on earth.

Simply - alchemy of a miracle

The formula boils over
The media feeds us images of willing Asian workers. Hugh Williamson gives us the news without the hype.

Letters
Letter from Lagos
Update
Reviews: plus B Traven classic
Curiosities
Endpiece: by James Dunkerley
Country profile: British Virgin Islands

FRONT COVER PHOTO: TRADITIONAL KOREAN DEMON MASK, COURTESY OF PITT RIVERS MUSEUM, UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
MAGAZINE DESIGNED BY IAN NIXON
ONLINE MAG MAINTAINED BY SIMON LOFFLER