Hugh Williams looks at what crafts and craftspeople can bring to an increasingly wired-up society.

Bill Midgley retired after 20 years with the Newcastle Building Society in 1998, having been CEO and Executive Vice Chairman. Among his present roles, he is Chairman of Durham County Cricket Club. He writes a regular column for 'The Journal', Newcastle upon Tyne.

What makes a society strong? The vitality of its community life, maintains Mike Lowe.

Karen Elliott Greisdorf examines the role of mentoring in youth and job-training in the USA

Bjørn Ole Austad meets Monsignor Victor Grech, the Director of Caritas Malta, a priest who feels the pain of those in difficulties—and puts others to work to help them.

At a time when some are predicting increasing conflict between Western and Muslim nations, Abdul-Nabi Isstaif writes from Damascus with a call for partnership.

Mike Lowe revisits Poland, ten years after its return to democracy.

Philip Boobbyer, a lecturer in modern European history at the University of Kent, puts cleaning one's slate in a wider philosophical context.

As the countdown clocks tick their way towards the year 2000, Mary Lean looks at plans to mark a global rite of passage.

Our growing understanding of the forces of nature, and how to harness them, seems to have placed within our grasp almost anything that the human mind can conceive.