大象传媒

How fear of catastrophe has shaped the Japanese psyche. Menace and bloodshed in Ivory Coast, as the nation's troubles deepen. The impact of the foreign media on the course of the Arab revolutions. And exploring the imaginative world of a robot-loving, Chinese inventor.

Nowhere in the world is better prepared for earthquakes than Japan. But no amount of careful planning could have really readied the nation for what it has just endured. This was a disaster on a truly vast scale. It will be days yet before we fully understand the extent of its impact in Japan and beyond. Fear of exactly this kind of event continually haunts the Japanese in their chronically quake-prone land - and Hugh Levinson explains how very deeply this dread of impending catastrophe has embedded itself in the national culture.

These are extremely dangerous days for the West African state of Ivory Coast. There's a fear that the nation will descend into all-out civil war. The political system has completely seized up. The outside world believes that November's presidential elections were won by Alassane Ouatara. But the sitting leader, Laurent Gbagbo is refusing to hand over power. And Andrew Harding has been finding out what that means on the streets of Abidjan.

All revolutions are different. Each has its own character. But a large part of their success or failure often hinges on whether the army stays loyal to the regime. And in Libya much of the military has indeed stood by Colonel Gaddafi. There's a growing sense that he's there to stay. Right up on the front lines, John Simpson has been watching this drama play out - and he reflects now on some of the defining rhythms of revolutions.

In the far north-east of India lies the state of Manipur. It's land of rolling hills, lush and well-watered. But it's also been a troubled place. Along with much of the north-east there have been inter-ethnic tensions, and Manipur has endured a very long-running insurgency. My colleague Rupa Jha has been spending time with some of its victims.

It's hard to define what makes for a creative, inventive spirit - that ability suddenly to see a solution, a different way of doing things. The inventor of the light bulb, Thomas Edison, certainly had it. He famously said that genius was one per cent inspiration, and ninety-nine per cent perspiration. But it's also easy to believe that creativity requires a certain amount of freedom - room to experiment, question and think differently. And Martin Patience has been wondering whether authoritarian China creates the right climate for its inventive dreamers.