Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001,, the editors of Ethics Newsline initiated a series of conversations with thought-leaders in the United States and abroad about the way the world is changing.

We have embarked on a series of interviews with individuals from various walks of life whose experiences and ethical outlooks shed light on our collective future. We've asked them to consider three questions:

• As a result of these attacks, what do you hope will change for the better in our country and the world over the next decade?
• What do you fear might change for the worse in our country and the world over the next decade?
• What two or three indicators will you be watching to see whether your hopes or your fears are more likely to come to pass?

Interviews:

November 9, 2001: Ray Suarez

Ray Suarez, senior correspondent of The NewsHour, joined that staff in October 1999. He had been the host of National Public Radio's call-in news program "Talk of the Nation" since 1993. Suarez has twenty-five years of varied experience in the news business. He talked by telephone with Paula Mirk on November 11 from his office in Washington, DC.

November 9, 2001: Tom Chappell

Tom Chappell is president and cofounder, with his wife Kate, of Tom's of Maine. His books, The Soul of a Business: Managing for Profit and the Common Good and Managing Upside Down: Seven Intentions for Values-Centered Leadership, were written to set an example of ethical business standards for others. He spoke with Rushworth M. Kidder on the telephone from his office in Kennebunk, Maine on November 1, 2001.

November 7, 2001: Dr. Oscar Arias

was president of Costa Rica from 1986 to 1990, and 1987 Nobel Peace laureate. With the money from the prize, he established the Arias Foundation for Peace and Human Progress. Dr. Arias responded in writing from his home in Costa Rica.

November 2, 2001: John Naisbitt

John Naisbitt, whose numerous books have sold more than 14 million copies worldwide, is the author of Megatrends: Ten New Directions Transforming Our Lives. The recipient of twelve honorary degrees, Naisbitt is a former executive with IBM and Eastman Kodak and served presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. Rushworth Kidder spoke with him by telephone November 1 from his home in Vienna, Austria.

October 26, 2001: Sheepa Hafiza

Sheepa Hafiza is coordinator of the human resources and gender programs for CARE Bangladesh. Before that, she was with BRAC, a large development organization working to alleviate poverty. A Muslim Bangladeshi, she has studied in Britain and the United States. Jane Babbitt interviewed her at the Institute's offices in Camden, Maine on October 25.

October 24, 2001: Yve Newbold

Yve Newbold, a corporate lawyer specializing in international issues, heads the Ethical Trading Initiative, an alliance dedicated to ethical labor practices. She has just been appointed to the British Telecommunications Charities Committee. Rushworth Kidder interviewed her on October 15 at the Institute's London office.

October 19, 2001: Roseann Runte

Roseann Runte, president of Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, was president of Victoria University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, from 1994 to 2001. A French scholar and poet, Dr. Runte has edited nine books and written three creative volumes. Her creative writing, which has been translated into English, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Rumanian, won the poetry prize from the Academie Francaise in Paris. Rushworth Kidder spoke with her at her office in Virginia by telephone on October 15.

October 18, 2001: Lord Amir Bhatia OBE

Lord Amir Bhatia OBE, who heads the Forbes Trust, is an active member of the House of Lords. A Muslim from Tanzania, he is a founder of the Ethnic Minority Foundation, which seeks to develop financial resources for Britain's 3.5 million minority individuals. Rushworth Kidder interviewed him in his office in London on October 11.

October 17, 2001: Ann Medlock

Ann Medlock created the in 1982. Her background includes editing Viet Nam Presse in Saigon, teaching in Japan and the Congo, and writing speeches for U.S. political figures and for the Aga Khan. She studied with Joseph Campbell in the 1970s. Ms. Medlock was interviewed by telephone at her office on October 10th by Patricia Born.

October 16, 2001: Andrew Phillips, Lord Phillips of Sudbury OBE

Lord Phillips founded the law firm Bates, Wells & Braithwaite, London, in 1970, and is a specialist in charity law, business law, and defamation. Co-founder and first chair of the LAG, a legal aid charity; founder and president of Citizenship Foundation, an education charity; co-founder and president of the Solicitors' Pro Bono Group; and on many charitable and business boards, Lord Phillips is also a working Life Peer. Rush Kidder spoke to Lord Phillips at his office in London on October 11, 2001.

October 15, 2001: Dr. Mahmoud El-Begearmi

Born and raised in Egypt, Dr. Mahmoud El-Begearmi came to the United States over thirty years ago and is a U.S. citizen. He is a nationally recognized food safety and nutrition specialist at the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, and also serves as faculty advisor for the university's Muslim Student Group-international students who share and practice Islam as a religion, and organize gatherings to celebrate Islamic holidays and provide a network for positive fellowship within Islamic teachings. Dr. El-Begearmi has helped lead several multi-faith services in Maine since September 11. He spoke to Paula Mirk on the telephone from his office on October 12, 2001.

October 12, 2001: Dr. Gloria Johnson-Powell

Dr. Gloria Johnson-Powell heads the Center for the Study of Cultural Diversity in Health Care at the Univ. of Wisconsin Madison, and is former professor of child psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. She is the author of Black Monday's Children: A Study Of The Effects Of School Desegregation On The Self-Concepts Of Southern Children and has continued this research with children in the North. Dr. Johnson-Powell has taught in universities in Brazil, Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda. With her daughter, she is co-author of The House On Elbert Street: The Biography Of A Welfare Mother, which is about her own mother. She spoke to Paula Mirk via telephone October 10, 2001.

October 11, 2001: Rev. Vartan Hartunian

The Rev. Vartan Hartunian retired in 1998 after almost 40 years as pastor of the First Armenian Church in Belmont, MA. He came to the United States in 1922 with his family, and graduated with highest honors from Swarthmore College in 1938. A prolific writer and published author, he also translated his father's memoirs on the Armenian genocide, Neither to Laugh Nor to Weep. He spoke to Paula Mirk from Belmont, MA on October 10, 2001.

October 10, 2001: Katharine Whitehorn

Katharine Whitehorn is a former long-time columnist for The Observer, London,
England, and author of several books on children and medicine. She spoke to Graham Phaup from her home in London on October 9.

October 9, 2001: George Moffett

George Moffett, former diplomatic correspondent and Middle East correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor, is the author of Critical Masses: The Global Population Challenge. He served in the Carter White House, where he worked on the Panama Canal treaties. Now president of Principia College, Dr. Moffett was interviewed by telephone
on October 3 in his office in Elsah, Illinois, by Rushworth Kidder.

October 5, 2001: Carolyn Jefferson-Jenkins

Carolyn Jefferson-Jenkins, president of the League of Women Voters of the United States, is the first woman of color to serve as that organization's head. Dr. Jefferson-Jenkins is a recognized authority on voting rights of African Americans and is the author of The Road to Black Suffrage and One Man One Vote: The History of the African-American Vote in the United States. She spoke to Brad Rourke from her home in Colorado Springs on October 4.

October 4, 2001: Howard Gardner

Howard Gardner, a professor of education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, is the author of nineteen books, including Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, and Good Work: When Excellence and Ethics Meet. Gardner is now investigating the relationship between cutting-edge work in different domains and a sense of social responsibility for the use and implications of that work. Paula Mirk interviewed him by telephone on October 2.

October 3, 2001: Allister Sparks

Allister Sparks, one of South Africa's most distinguished journalists, is the author of The Mind of South Africa and Tomorrow is Another Country: The Inside Story of South Africa's Road to Change. The former South Africa correspondent for The Washington Post, he is the founder of the Institute for the Advancement of Journalism in Johannesburg. Rushworth Kidder spoke with him by telephone on October 2 at his home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where he in residence for a year at Duke University's Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy.

October 2, 2001: Sissela Bok

Sissela Bok is Distinguished Fellow at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, where she frequently comments on ethical issues in government, media, and public life. Her books include Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life; Secrets: On the Ethics of Concealment and Revelation, and Mayhem: Violence as Public Entertainment. A member of the advisory council of the Institute for Global Ethics, she was interviewed by Rushworth Kidder by telephone on October 1 from her home in Cambridge, MA.

October 1, 2001: James A. Joseph

James A. Joseph served as United States ambassador to South Africa during the Clinton administration. Active in the civil rights movement of the 1960s, Ambassador Joseph has been a university chaplain, a foundation executive, and president of the Washington-based Council on Foundations. He now teaches at the University of Cape Town in South Africa and at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, where Rushworth Kidder spoke with him by phone on September 27.

September 28, 2001: David Anable

David J. Anable is president of the International Center for Journalists, a Washington-based nonprofit organization working with professional journalists worldwide. He is former managing editor of The Christian Science Monitor and a former professor of journalism at Boston University. He spoke with Rushworth Kidder from his office in Washington, DC, on September 25.

September 27, 2001: Richard Davidson

Richard Davidson, former headmaster of Hebron Academy in Hebron, Maine, has spent a lifetime in education, mostly in independent schools. He currently teaches English literature and European history at Kents Hill School in Readfield, Maine, where he is also developing a center for ethics and character education.

September 26, 2001: Wendell Bell

Wendell Bell, an emeritus professor of sociology at Yale, is author of the authoritative two-volume work titled Foundations of Future Studies: Human Science for a New Era (1997). An eminent futurist, he recently served as a consultant to the Commission on National Security for the Twenty-first Century, chaired by Gary Hart and Warren Rudman. Rushworth M. Kidder, editor of Ethics Newsline, talked with him by telephone on September 24 at his home in Bethany, Connecticut.

September 25, 2001: Harlan Cleveland

Harlan Cleveland, a political scientist and public executive, is president of the World Academy of Art and Science. A former assistant secretary of state, U.S. ambassador to NATO, and university president, he has written a dozen books on executive leadership and international affairs. He spoke with Ethics Newsline on September 22 from his home in Sterling, Virginia.

September 24, 2001: Theodore J. Gordon

We began the series with a conversation with Theodore J. Gordon. One of the world's leading futurists, Ted is founder and chairman of The Futures Group, a large management consulting firm, and former chief engineer for the Saturn program at McDonnell-Douglas. He is currently senior research fellow for the Millennium Project for the American Council of the United Nations University, a multi-nation future scanning activity, and he serves on the board of the Institute for Global Ethics.

Related Ethics Newsline Commentary

Terrorism and Hypnotism by Rushworth M. Kidder 9/17/2001

The Candle and the Closet: A Modern Parable by Rushworth M. Kidder 9/24/2001

Fighting Terrorism: What's The Objective? by Rushworth M. Kidder 10/9/2001

A Different Peace Movement by Rushworth M. Kidder 10/15/2001