Nation

BEIJING -- A photo appeared in the U.S. press a couple of years ago showing a successful Chinese businessman standing next to a red Ferrari in front of Mao Tse-tung's portrait overlooking Tiananmen Square. The implication was clear and simple: Capitalism had triumphed over communism and life was much better for it.In her first book, a national best-seller called "The Pitfalls of Modernization," Chinese economist He Qinglian tries to tear that picture apart. She argues that the grand economic experiment which began here two decades ago has not led to a better society, but a more polarized, corrupt and cynical one.The nation's spectacular growth is due less to the production of wealth, than its theft by government officials, who are seizing state assets and taking them into the market place, claims He (pronounced Huh)

BY SCRAMBLING to secure the nation's harbors and critical waterways, the U.S. Coast Guard has eliminated two-thirds of its drug interception operations since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Instead, the Coast Guard is calling up reserves and beefing up security, particularly at 50 "high-risk" ports that handle the bulk of the nation's foreign trade. It is on the highest alert since World War II. Foreign ships calling at U.S. ports now have to give a 96-hour advance notice of arrival, along with crew, passenger and cargo information.

O n Jan. 12, 206 years after rattling the world by becoming the first (and only) black republic to win its independence by overthrowing a slave system, Haiti made history again. This time, the forces of nature dealt Haiti a cataclysmic blow, an earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale, affecting at least 3 million people - a third of its population. As I turned on CNN and saw the devastation and the loss of human lives, the shock in the eyes of men, women and children, I thought about Haiti's history: the fall of slavery on its shores, the rise of a free nation and the innumerable barriers and challenges that seemed to accompany its unique, glorious legacy.

BERLIN - In a country where the constitution is a paean to political correctness but where prejudice remains evident, Axel Honneth packed his pipe with plum-scented tobacco and ventured into the tricky realm of Germany's struggle with racial tolerance. "Germans have a certain joy about cultural plurality, but then there's this other intriguing thing," said Honneth, a philosophy professor at Goethe University in Frankfurt. "A colleague of mine lives in a village. He feels irritated by the Turks in the neighborhood.

SOUTH PASADENA, Calif. - People are content here, in this town with its one high school, its one library and its one-chair barber shop. And why shouldn't they be? Stepping onto the main drag of Mission Street is like traveling back in time to a lost vision of small-town America. You can sip coffee at a friendly hangout called Buster's, or tuck into a sundae at the marble countertop of Fair Oaks Pharmacy and Soda Fountain. The public schools work. Crime doesn't pay. Houses are pretty, and sidewalks are shaded.

In 1984, a 30-year-old local news personality left Baltimore's WJZ-TV to try her hand at hosting a morning talk show in a bigger market, Chicago. Within a year, A.M. Chicago was renamed for its new host, and by 1986 it had begun national syndication. Today, The Oprah Winfrey Show marks its 20th anniversary, and its star is one of the most powerful women in the world, a 51-year-old media mogul and billionaire whose influence reaches into nearly every nook and cranny of contemporary life.

A black nanny holding a porcelain-skinned infant patiently awaits her mistress' return outside a store in Charleston, S.C. Her stoic expression suggests the stranger snapping pictures, like the child in her arms, is one more burden to be endured. Robert Frank captured this poignant image in the late 1950s while traveling around the country. The Swiss-born photographer later included it in his book The Americans, which appeared exactly 50 years ago and is now the subject of a major exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington.

WASHINGTON - The somber traditions of a nation in mourning suffused Ronald Reagan's last journey yesterday as his flag-draped casket traveled from California to the nation's capital for a cortege through the city and an elaborate funeral at the Capitol, where the 40th president now lies in state. Thousands lined Constitution Avenue to pay their respects, as a horse-drawn caisson bearing Reagan's casket and a riderless horse symbolizing his loss slowly made their way toward the Capitol for an hourlong state funeral attended by U.S. lawmakers and representatives of more than 140 countries - the first ceremony of its kind in 31 years.

From the most powerful leaders in Washington to the humblest of cabbies in New York, the nation paused in prayer yesterday, gathering in grand cathedrals and tiny churches to mourn those lost in Tuesday's terrorist attacks and to gather resolve for the trying times ahead. Factories closed so workers could attend services, mosques and synagogues welcomed the faithful and offered hopes of peace. Town squares from the West Coast to the East were filled with words of promise, songs of prayer and, in some cases, cheers for the country.