The doctrine of noninterference turned into a charter for all around interference for one reason: the occupying power gave itself the prerogative to define the boundaries of that in which it will not interfere, and then to define the content of the authentic religion with which there was to be no interference, and finally, to acknowledge the authentic authority that would define and safeguard religion in its pure form—without external interference. The prerogative to define the boundary, the substance and the authority of the “customary,” gave vast scope to the powers of the occupying authority. But the exercise of this power, the list of those to be “protected,” was politically determined—and it grew as time passed.

Mamdani, Define and Rule

For those in Europe, the film will be playing Etnofilm in Rovinj, Croatia later this month and Ethnocineca in Vienna in mid-May.

Please Don’t Beat Me, Sir! has also screened at numerous festivals since our last update. For the full schedule of screenings please see our website

In addition to festival screenings we’ve done a number of university screenings followed by Q&A sessions we’ve conducted via Skype. These have worked out surprisingly well and we are always happy to work with schools to organize such screenings. Just drop us an email if you are interested.

We hate paying for things which we don’t get to keep, so we are especially pleased that Vimeo offers filmmakers the option of including file downloads as well as online streaming. If you watch our film online on Vimeo you can also download a copy of the film to your own hard drive and watch it whenever and wherever you want.

Since we first released the DVD people have been asking us about online access, and after looking at all the available options we feel that Vimeo On Demand offers users the best possible viewing experience. If you haven’t seen the film yet, we hope that the ease of using Vimeo On Demand will convince you to watch it today! If you do watch it on Vimeo, please be sure to let others know how much you like it by leaving a review.

Although Vimeo On Demand splits revenue 90/10 with the filmmaker, there is a hefty annual fee. For this reason we aren’t sure how long we will be able to keep the film online, so consider this a limited-time experiment. We don’t expect to turn a profit, but we do need to break-even…

Online streaming via Vimeo as well as the downloadable movie file are intended only for individual viewers. We ask that those interested in holding public screenings of the film, such as classroom use, continue to purchase the DVD via our via our website. We offer discounts on DVD purchases by individuals, non-profits, and community colleges.

A couple of times a week I go hiking in the mountain behind my house. A well maintained state park, the trails are nearly empty most of the week and you can clearly hear the sounds of the forest. Sometimes you hear monkeys, or insects, but most of the time you hear birds. Birdwatching in Taiwan is impossible if you aren’t trained to identify bird songs — the thick vegetation makes it impossible to see the birds, you can only hear them. A friend once bought me a CD of Taiwanese bird calls, but I never had the time to study them.

How is it that the sounds of a tropical forest in Taiwan could remind me of New York City? The answer lies in my annual childhood trips to the “Lila Acheson Wallace World of Birds” at the Bronx Zoo. Designed by Morris Ketchum and Associates in 1972 the building’s brutal exterior hides the rich open aviary inside. The second you walk in you hear the birds. I don’t remember the various bird species they had or even where they were from, but do I remember visiting the zoo as a kid and loving to spend time inside that magical world behind the concrete walls. Now, when I walk up the mountain behind my house, I sometimes feel like I’m still a kid at the zoo. As if my whole life is a dream and I’m still there, asleep on a bench in the World of Birds…

UPDATE: Brazilian Birds is a free internet radio station devoted to… the sounds of Brazilian Birds.

Whenever Darwin encountered a “published fact” or “new observation” that contradicted one of his beliefs, he forced himself to “make a memorandum of it without fail and at once.” Why did Darwin do this? Because he had “found by experience that such facts and thoughts” – those inconvenient ideas – “were far more apt to escape from the memory than favorable ones.

Whatever you think of Jonah Lehrer’s apology, this is a wonderful little tidbit. I wonder, though, if Darwin really did this “without fail”?

While most of us probably feel that we have too much to read, we still find ourselves foolishly looking for something new. Well, look no further than “Sunday Reading”! Each week Aaron culls links from a dozen regular contributors and you are bound to find more than a few great articles or websites there each week.

I also archive links on my Pinboard account in case you are looking for something you know I posted but can’t remember when or where.

Consider the word ‘balti’ for instance; derived from the Portuguese ‘balde’, it probably referred originally to ship’s buckets: today, no Indian household is complete without a set of tin or plastic baltis, just as no English town is without its supply of  ‘balti chicken‘, which was probably also a Laskari invention.

via Amitav Ghosh.

To scan the lines of his face, or feel the bumps on the head of this Leviathan; this is a thing which no Physiognomist or Phrenologist has as yet undertaken…

Physiognomically regarded, the Sperm Whale is an anomalous creature. He has no proper nose. And since the nose is the central and most conspicuous of the features; and since it perhaps most modifies and finally controls their combined expression; hence it would seem that its entire absence, as an external appendage, must very largely affect the countenance of the whale…A nose to the whale would have been impertinent…

In some particulars, perhaps the most imposing physiognomical view to be had of the Sperm Whale, is that of the full front of his head. This aspect is sublime.

In thought, a fine human brow is like the East when troubled with the morning. In the repose of the pasture, the curled brow of the bull has a touch of the grand in it. Pushing heavy cannon up mountain defiles, the elephant’s brow is majestic. …But in the great Sperm Whale, this high and mighty god-like dignity inherent in the brow is so immensely amplified, that gazing on it, in that full front view, you feel the Deity and the dread powers more forcibly than in beholding any other object in living nature. For you see no one point precisely; not one distinct feature is revealed; no nose, eyes, cars, or mouth; no face; he has none, proper; nothing but that one broad firmament of a forehead, pleated with riddles; dumbly lowering with the doom of boats, and ships, and men. Nor, in profile, does this wondrous brow diminish; though that way viewed its grandeur does not domineer upon you so. In profile, you plainly perceive that horizontal, semi-crescentic depression in the forehead’s middle, which, in a man, is Lavater’s mark of genius.

…Champollion deciphered the wrinkled granite hieroglyphics. But there is no Champollion to decipher the Egypt of every man’s and every being’s face. Physiognomy, like every other human science, is but a passing fable. If then, Sir William Jones, who read in thirty languages, could not read the simplest peasant’s face in its profounder and more subtle meanings, how may unlettered Ishmael hope to read the awful Chaldee of the Sperm Whale’s brow? I but put that brow before you. Read it if you can.

Moby-Dick, Chapter 79, “The Prairie”

It is, however, a standard tactic of the people at the top in China to attribute the ordeals of the populace to misbehavior by lower officials and to put out the message that “here at the top we hear you, and sympathize; don’t worry that there is anything wrong with our system as a whole.”

Does This Writer Deserve the Prize? by Perry Link | The New York Review of Books

Towards the end of Please Don’t Beat Me, Sir! there is an interview with two boys who had written a play about the Budhan Theatre library: Harry and Siddharth. They admit how scared they were that someone might forget their lines. We always get a laugh when they reveal that they wrote the mother role in their play just for the girl Nandini because they knew she would be good in the fight scene. Well, shortly after we finished primary shooting, Harry’s father passed away. You might remember Harry’s father from the film. He was the one who was beaten by the police after he tried to “go straight” by opening a store. Once a promising student and playwright, his father’s death forced Harry to leave Budhan Theatre to work at his father’s shop on the main road. Now history is repeating itself as Harry is frequently in trouble with the police. Siddharth, on the other hand, was able to continue with the theater. He is still in school, now in 11th grade and studying arts.

Over six years filming in Chharanagar we heard many such stories. For several years now we have been funding the Budhan Theatre Library and informal school program through our non-profit organization Vimukta. Now, we are happy to announce a new program to directly support the children’s wing of Budhan Theatre. We believe that this program offers children the environment and resources they need to escape the vicious cycle of police violence and crime. Just $1,600 will keep the children’s theater program running for a full year, ensuring that three members of the adult theater program are able to provide regular training and supervision as well as paying for basic supplies. Our goal is to raise $8,000 by the end of the year – enough to keep the program running through 2018 without having to fundraise every year, hopefully allowing us to begin looking at other ways we might help. We have already raised over $900, please give now to help us achieve our goal.

You can also help by sharing this blog post with a friend, or by posting it to Twitter or Facebook.

Vimukta is not your ordinary charity. One hundred percent of the donations we receive (after the credit card companies have taken their fee) go directly to Budhan Theatre, a grass-roots community-based organization with a proven track record. As political and cultural activists Budhan Theatre have to be extra careful in their finances. They have an external committee which double checks their books every year. Moreover, Vimukta doesn’t release a dime to Budhan Theatre until we’ve received a thorough accounting of how they’ve spent the funds from the previous year and those accounts are available to our donors. If you’d like to help out, you can do so on the Vimukta website.