What happens when people with a common cause disagree about the way forward? Trade unions, political parties, churches, lobby groups and charities all face this dilemma from time to time. Some groups delay a decision and become absorbed in internal wrangling; others split. Mary Lean explores the experience of MRA in Britain, which has recently sold the Westminster Theatre.

New Zealand's Race Relations Conciliator, Rajen Prasad, has thrived amid cultural diversity from an early age. Joanna Grigg discovers that he is

Jean-Jacques Odier is a Swiss journalist, playwright and pro-family activist.

While many struggle with how to survive on too little money, a growing number face the opposite problem: what to do with unprecedented spending power. Richard Griffiths asks himself some hard questions about how he should use his cash.

'Over the coming decades, our country's ethnic and racial diversity will continue to expand dramatically. Will those differences divide us, or will they be our greatest strength? The answer depends on what we are willing to do together.'

President Clinton has put race relations high on his political agenda. The following article by Carolyn Barta, reprinted with permission of 'The Dallas Morning News' (16 February), looks at an initiative which already has an impressive track record.

Thousands of years ago, some of the earth's peoples developed societies which poured forth, displacing other peoples. Bryan Hamlin discovers that their success had more to do with beans than with brains.