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What will happen to anti-globalisation protests?
For now, anti-globalisation activism is silenced. The mass demonstrations in Washington next weekend to coincide with the annual meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund were cancelled even before the meetings were called off. After the destruction of the icons of Wall Street, being anti-capitalist looks dangerously like being anti-American.
But critics of corporations and corporate-led globalisation will not go away. Their networks have many members and financial backing. The internet, which helped activists organise and inform millions, is at their disposal. And they believe that issues of global capitalism, inequality and participatory democracy are more important than a fortnight ago. James Harding
Does the west need to think again about global inequality?
It is not so much a matter of "thinking again" as keeping promises to narrow the gap between the haves and the have-nots and to give the have-nots some of the tools they need to catch up with the rest of the world: good health, decent shelter, literacy and numeracy.
Self-interest as much as compassion should be the motivation. Although there may be no direct link between deprivation and terrorism, poverty is a breeding ground for extremism, civil wars and ethnic tension.
Twelve years ago the world's governments pledged primary education for all by 2000. They failed to deliver. Today 125m children - one-third in Africa - are not at school. Every year more than 4m of Africa's children die of preventable diseases before they reach five.
A recent report for the UN secretary-general estimated that to meet the Millennium Development goals of halving world poverty, eliminating illiteracy and providing universal primary education by 2015 would cost an extra Dollars 50bn a year. Mr Bush's war chest for the battle to eliminate terrorism is Dollars 40bn. Michael Holman
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