TheSocialEdge.com

Michael Swan is a staff writer at The Catholic Register. His photo essay Cityscape of Desire: Toronto at Prayer opened at the Newman Center in Toronto on May 2. It’s scheduled to run until June 3. I spoke with him about his work, and some of the specific photographs in the exhibition.

Gerry McCarthy: I was struck by two photographs from your photo essay The first was Elizabeth McCurnin walking and praying in a park. The other is Eneyath Hosein. There is a serenity about both of them. Is that something you found too?

Michael Swan: I saw various attitudes from people.

Throughout her five year battle with leukemia, Elizabeth McKernan has prayed the rosary, which she remembers praying as a child on long drives north to the cottage. She’s been cancer free for the last year, but still prays the rosary on walks in the park by Ashbridge’s Bay with her dog Bally.

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Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso is an award-winning author of books for children of all faiths and backgrounds. She has been rabbi of Congregation Beth- El Zedeck in Indianapolis since 1977.

     Sasso was the second women to be ordained a rabbi (in 1974) and the first women rabbi to become a mother. She and her husband, Dennis, were the first rabbinical couple to jointly lead a congregation.

     Rabbi Sasso has published ten books, including: But God Remembered and A Prayer for the Earth. She writes a weekly column for the Indianapolis Star on religious and spirituality issues. Her new book Cain and Abel: Finding the Fruits of Peace was published last fall. I spoke with Sasso while she was visiting Toronto recently for an event celebrating "Thirty Years of Women as Rabbis."

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Risa Shuman is the Senior Producer of Saturday Night at the Movies on TVOntario. She graduated in 1973 from York University with an Honours Bachelor of Fine Arts degree majoring in film. Shuman has worked at Saturday Night at the Movies for almost 28 years.
     Last month we spoke about the Oscars and revisiting old movies. The conversation was so informative, we decided to make it a regular feature in our Arts & Culture section. Here is our latest chat.

Gerry McCarthy: The film director and screenwriter Billy Wilder died recently. I consider him one of the great film directors

RS: I agree

GM: Can you select two of his films that you liked personally?

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by Gerry McCarthy

John de Gruchy is Robert Selby Taylor Professor of Christian Studies at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and Director of its Graduate School in Humanities. He’s the author of Christianity and Democracy and Christianity, Art and Transformation....

by Gerry McCarthy

Jeff Faux is the founder and former president of the Economic Policy Institute. He is a contributing editor of American Prospect, and a member of the editorial board of Dissent. His articles and commentary have appeared in numerous publications including: The New York Times, The Nation, The Washington Post, USA Today, and Harper’s.

Among other things, Faux has been a consultant to governments at various levels, businesses, labor unions, and community and citizen organizations. His new book The Global Class War was published by John Wiley & Sons earlier this year. I reached him in Washington, D.C.

Gerry McCarthy: In The Global Class War you write that: "The lack of a language that accurately reflects the evolving class politics of the global market hardly seems accidental. Just as the discussion of economic class is resolutely ridiculed by the national media as some loony ‘conspiracy theory,’ the idea of a global governing class with its own interests is similarly dismissed in the echo chambers of the international punditry." When you raise the issue of a corporate investor class do you find people dismiss this as a conspiracy theory?

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by Gerry McCarthy

I first heard United Church Minister and politician Susan Eagle speak at a “Faith and Public Life” Conference held at Queen’s University in Kingston almost two years ago.

Eagle was facilitating a session entitled “Poverty and Welfare.” My notes tell me the session addressed three questions: How do people of faith respond in order to take political action in the face of poverty amid plenty? How can these concerns be heard? And in dealing with social justice are they leaders or followers?
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by Gerry McCarthy

Richard Layard is a leading economist who believes that the happiness of society does not necessarily equate to its income. Currently he is Professor Emeritus at the London School of Economics.

     Layard is also founder of the Centre for Economic Performance at The London School of Economics. Since 2000 he has been a member of the House of Lords.

     In 2005, Layard’s book Happiness: Lessons From a New Science was published in hardcover by Penguin. Last year it was released in softcover by the same publisher. The book continues to remain relevant, and is cited by more economists and policymakers.

     The following interview with Layard appeared in the December 2005 Issue of The Social Edge. I reached him by telephone in London, England.

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by Gerry McCarthy

John Polkinghorne is an Anglican priest and mathematical physicist . He was recently awarded the Templeton Prize, which is the world’s largest annual monetary prize given to an individual. The founder of the prize is John M. Templeton who set the amount of the award so that it always exceeds the Nobel, believing that advances in the spiritual realm are more important that those in the sciences. The award is given for "progress toward research or discoveries about spiritual realities including research in love, creativity, purpose, infinity, intelligence, thanksgiving and prayer.
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by Gerry McCarthy

George McGovern is a former U.S. Senator from South Dakota and the 1972 Democratic Presidential Candidate. In 1997, he was appointed by President Clinton as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food And Agriculture. In 2001 he was appointed United Nations Global Ambassador on World Hunger. He’s also a recipient of the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom....

by Gerry McCarthy

Martha Nussbaum is a philosopher and Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago. She has taught at numerous universities including: Harvard, Princeton, Oxford, Brown, and Stanford.

     Nussbaum has been the recipient of many awards and honorary degrees. This past spring she received a Doctor of Laws from the University of British Columbia. She has also written over 12 books, including: Upheavals of Thought, Hiding From Humanity, Women and Human Development, Cultivating Humanity, and Sex and Social Justice.

     Nussbaum’s new book Frontiers of Justice: Disability, Nationality, and Species Membership was recently published by Harvard University Press. I reached her in Chicago to speak about the book.

Gerry McCarthy: In Frontiers of Justice you write that: "Ideas shape the way policymakers do their work. That is why, from its very inception, the capabilities approach has contested the idea of development as economic growth, insisting on the idea of ‘human development.’ Re-conceiving development as ‘human development’ does influence the goals that policymakers pursue and the strategic ones they choose." Are you hopeful more North American politicians will re-conceive development as human development? Could this lead to a reduction in poverty, an improvement in education, and a better health care system in the U.S.?

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by Gerry McCarthy

Fr. Richard McBrien is a best-selling author, scholar, and theologian. He has written some 20 books, including Catholicism, updated and revised in 1994. As well, McBrien was general editor of the one-volume Harper Collins Encyclopedia of Catholicism.
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by Gerry McCarthy

Huston Smith is recognized internationally as a leading public scholar of world religions. He has taught at Washington University, MIT, Syracuse University, and was recently visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

Dr. Smith is the author of two best-selling books entitled The Religions of Man (re-published as The World’s Religions in 1991) and Why Religion Matters (2001). His forthcoming book The Soul of Christianity: Retrieving The Great Tradition will be published this summer by HarperSanFrancisco. I reached Dr. Smith in California.

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by Gerry McCarthy

Angela Bonavoglia is a nationally recognized writer on Church reform. Her work has appeared in The Miami Herald, The Chicago Tribune, The Nation, Ms., Cosmopolitan, Redbook, and Newsday.

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by Gerry McCarthy

Christine Gervais is a mother, spouse, professor, human rights activist and humanitarian. In 2002, she completed a doctorate in Sociology at Carleton University in Ottawa. Since 1995 she has worked as an Assistant Professor of Criminology at Ottawa University and a Lecturer in Sociology at Carleton University.

Gervais has been involved in research and teaching in numerous areas, including: human rights violations, development and justice, gender and racial inequalities, crime prevention, and reconciliation.

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by Gerry McCarthy

Kathy Kelly in Iraq 2003 Photo by Lorna Tychostup

Kathy Kelly is a long-time activist and teacher. She was instrumental in launching Voice in the Wilderness, a campaign to end the United Nations / United States sanctions against Iraq. She also helped initiate the Iraq Peace team. In October 2002, Kelly joined the team in Baghdad. She was present when the U.S. launched their invasion in March 2003.
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by Gerry McCarthy

Madeleine Bunting is a columnist for the Guardian newspaper in London, England. She joined the paper in 1989 as a reporter. She has covered religious affairs, Europe, and development issues. She studied at Cambridge before winning a postgraduate scholarship at Harvard. She lives in London with her three children.

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