Oct.21/2012: Saint Kateri Tekakwitha!

VATICAN CITY — Kateri Tekakwitha, a woman credited with life-saving miracles, has become North America’s first aboriginal saint after a canonization mass at the Vatican.

Benvenuti al Nord‏: L'alt(r)a Italia

 

October 5th, 2012

7:00 pm Cocktail
Maison Mercer

9:00 pm Screening
Tiff Bell Lightbox

BENVENUTI AL NORD

 

 

Parenting... and video games

Video games started as a novelty in the early seventies with the first commercially successful products called Pong and Computer Space. In 1979,  Pac-Man was released and Centipede in 1980. Today's manipulative and sophisticated video games are no longer something new or mere amusement. These games continue to play a part in shaping and defining our culture; they have also become big business. And where huge profits are at stake you can be sure that morals and truth are sacrificed. Did you know that video games in Canada and America now sell more than the music industry? In 2011, in Canada video games accounted for $1.7 billion in sales and in the United States it was close to $15 billion. Women tend to play less than men; they use games more for lifestyle "improvement" as in the case of My Weight Loss Coach or Quick Yoga Training. But as they have done with smoking they are quickly catching up to men.


Let's look at some examples from current games, and we will see why they are not just about mere entertainment anymore. Video games expose players, like young children, to a violent world often devoid of right and wrong and a distorted view of the human person. It's too often an anti-Christian world. Many of the games are extremely violent; it's a cyberspace "reality" where killing has its rewards and the degradation of the human person has few moral limits. For example, in Batman: Arkham City the player will hear such phrases as "I'll make you meow, bitch" and in Duke Nukem Forever, a player's ability to survive and beat another gamer is based on how "good" you are at killing others. So, parents should be under no illusion that if their children are playing these games, they are possibly complicit in the formation of their children's negative view of the world and of the human person.

Video games such as Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto are considered "men's games" and contain language and actions which are insulting and hateful of women. In Grand Theft Auto, for example, the characters can buy the services of a prostitute and then kill her. Of course many who play these games, and the companies that produce them for profits, claim that they are just harmless products for fun and recreational play. But the truth is that video game designers and programmers are selling much more than a product. Why else would websites like fatuglyorslutty.com (I will not dignify this site by providing a link) be asking women to post derogatory and insulting comments made about them by male gamers. The need to shame male players because of what they say reveals the hidden sexism and hatred of the human person embedded in these games.
                                                                     

Too often companies rationalize the hurtful effects of their products by saying it's all about fun and that human beings have always been portrayed in negative ways in works of art and film. Players know it's all about exaggeration and games are not to be taken on a personal level. However, the fact is this: in playing a game that is misogynistic and degrades human beings, a player enters and becomes part of that world and its values. You play and react for "real". We may not know what the ultimate effect of this may have, but why expose oneself, especially young players with formative minds, to this violent and negative world of video games. How can we best defend ourselves against this visual exploitation? Don't buy the games, and don't give them as gifts for birthdays and at Christmas. Make sure your children aren't buying and playing these violent games. If they object, explain to them why you have made your decision, and perhaps you may want to declare your home to be a video game free zone.



  Lou Iacobelli

SOCIAL JUSTICE Interfaith Dinner

Interfaith Dinner:  ”Perspectives on Social Justice” organized by
IDI Toronto, ISARC and Church of the Holy Trinity.

September 13th, 2012
Church of the Holy Trinity
10 Trinity Square, Toronto ON M5G 1B1

Moderator:
Deacon Pedro Guevara Mann, Salt + Light TV

Opening Remarks:
Laurel Rothman, National Coordinator, Campaign 2000

Speakers:
Avrum Rosensweig, Founding Director and President, Ve’ahavta - Judaism
Halil Simsek, PhD Candidate, Near & Mid. Eastern Civ., UofT - Islam
Jennifer Henry, Executive Director, KAIROS, Christianity
Sean Hillman, PhD Student, Study of Religion, UofT - Buddhism

Avrum Rosensweig
Avrum Rosensweig, Founding Director and President of Ve’ahavta that is motivated by
the ethics of Judaism and the importance of hands-on volunteerism, and believes that
by working with interfaith partners, both Jews and non-Jews rediscover the beauties of
Judaism, its universal ethical message, and how Jewish inspired acts of charity make
the world a better place. Avrum was a talk show host and performed on television for
ten years. He writes a weekly newspaper column for the Canadian Jewish News and is
also Ve’ahavta’s most popular public speaker.

Halil Simsek
Born and raised in Turkey, Mr. Simsek attended the famous al-Azhar University in
Cairo. He worked at the Ottoman and state archives of the government in Turkey, where
he had ample opportunity to excel in Ottoman Turkish. He came to U.S. to pursue a
second degree in Political Science from Hunter College of CUNY. Currently, he is a
senior PhD. Student at the department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations of University
of Troonto, specializing in Islamic Stuidies. He also works at the same department
as teaching instructor, and teaching &research assistant. He is proficient in Turk
ish, Ottoman-Turkish and Arabic, and well advanced in Persian, French and German

Jennifer Henry
Jennifer Henry has worked for KAIROS and its predecessor coalitions for almost 20
years, and currently serves on the staff of KAIROS as the Manager for the Dignity and
Rights and Fundraising Teams. She holds BA (honours) degree in English Literature
from University of Manitoba. Along with her gifts for leadership and theological reflection,
she brings a depth of programmatic knowledge and a strong commitment to
KAIROS and its relationships with churches, partners and networks. Inspired by a
vision of God’s compassionate justice, KAIROS advocates for social change, amplifying
and strengthening the public witness of its members.

Sean Hillman
Sean Hillman is a Buddhist scholar working on a collaborative doctorate in Religious
Studies (specializing in South Asian Religions) & bioethics, having finished a collaborative
Masters degree in Religious Studies (Buddhist Studies) and Bioethics, and holding a
B.A. in East Asian Studies, all at the University of Toronto. Sean was a Buddhist monk
for 13 years, ordained twice by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in India where he also studied
Buddhist philosophy and Tibetan language at the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives
and the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics. He is a faculty member for the Contem
plative End of Life Care program at the Institute of Traditional Medicine in Toronto.

                                                                                        

A mix of Indian, African, and Italian, Somalian cuisine at Wiff is a revelation.

Growing up in Mogadishu, Somalia, Asha Ahmed frequently battled with her mother over whether a woman’s place was in the kitchen. “I hated cooking,” says Ahmed, dressed in a brightly tie-dyed robe and a headscarf that she twists into different shapes as she speaks. “When my mother screamed at me that I had to learn to cook, I threatened to join the army.”
Thankfully for Toronto diners, she ended up working in the tax department, where boredom eventually drove her into the restaurant business. For a decade prior to 1987, when she moved here, Ahmed ran an Italian-Somali restaurant on Mogadishu’s then bustling beachfront, frequented by intellectuals and international tourists. “It was paradise,” she says, and yes, she got over her aversion to cooking.
But Ahmed’s paradise unravelled along with Somalia as a nation state. Political strife split society along tribal lines, leading to the persecution of her family. Her father was arrested numerous times, until he finally disappeared, and the family fled to Canada. Shortly thereafter, Somalia’s civil war began, plunging the country into a series of disasters and conflicts that continue to plague it today. The strife drove tens of thousands of Somali refugees to Toronto.
Two summers ago, after jobs at Meals on Wheels and an Italian newspaper (she’s fluent in the language), Ahmed decided to rebuild a little slice of her former paradise in the form of Wiff, her Somali-Italian restaurant on Weston Road, south of Lawrence, the traditional heart of the 80,000-strong Somali community in the GTA. Her niece and nephew are partners in the business. Inside, the brightly coloured, welcoming space echoes Ahmed’s personality, which radiates an infectious passion for her food and culture that she longs to share with the rest of the city.

Somali cooking is influenced by the Indians who traded along its coast; the Arabs who brought religion and commerce; and Italians who colonized the country from the 1880s until the 1930s. “In the same dish, you can find so many variations,” says Ahmed, displaying the sundried tomatoes she brines in jars with spices like curry leaves, cloves, and other Indian aromatics. Her menu includes lasagna (spiced with nutmeg and cumin), polenta (topped with roast goat and shidney, a spicy tamarind, date, and cumin paste), and pasta, which she says Somalis eat daily.  You even taste the Italian influence in traditional east African dishes, like a stew of cubed beef, potatoes, onions, carrots, and green peppers, scented with oregano.
There are unexpected surprises with each dish, from a spiced black tea that’s powerfully sweet, to the introduction of banana as a condiment, which Ahmed suggests should be sliced atop saffron-infused basmati rice and polenta, or eaten with lasagna, along with hot sauce and shidney. “If you invite a Somali to eat and don’t include a banana, all the food in the world won’t make a difference.” Somehow it all works, the cool sweetness of the banana folding in with the zing of the sauces, backed up by the fragrant rice.
Ahmed has poured her hopes and dreams into Wiff, and for it to succeed, she believes she’ll have to push Somali food out of the confines of its community and into the wider public consciousness. “We don’t just want this to be Somalis,” she says. “We want to be what’s good in Canada, which is multiculturalism…people solving problems by eating together.” She says there’s a common expression in Somalia: How is it possible to wrong someone you have shared a meal with?
In the past few months, Ahmed has made concerted efforts to gain a wider audience for her cooking. In June, she invited local politicians, reporters, and residents into her restaurant for Feast of Somalia, an event featuring a buffet of foods typical to the restaurant and the country. She also opened a stall at the nearby Weston farmer’s market, where she sells Somali samosas, called sambusi, each Saturday. Wrapped in crisp, bubbly dough, the fried triangular pockets are stuffed with tender ground beef, finely minced onions, garlic, celery, and other vegetables.  They’re less assertively fiery than an Indian samosa, and lighter too, strikingly familiar to South American empanadas. They’re a total flavour bomb, and are alone worth the trip to Wiff.
Still, it’s a matter of getting the word out, which Ahmed has no problem doing, even if it requires hawking from a soapbox at the farmer’s market. Recently, she was there, calling out to passersby to try her sambusi. She cut one in three, and offered samples, but people turned up their noses. Finally she harangued a man nearby. He said he wasn’t interested. She insisted. He put it in his mouth and she said, “Hey, don’t make a face!” Instead, he lit up in a smile, and bought one. Ten minutes later, he returned and purchased another. A few minutes later, Ahmed was working on another potential customer, when the man appeared a third time. “Trust me,” he told the skeptical eater, as he bought his third sambusi of the day. “These are good.”
Wiff, 1804 Weston Rd., #YRK 416-240-9433.

June 3: Villa Colombo

June 3rd: "SPERANZA" Mass at Villa Colombo