Archive for January, 2006
Cultural Center
It is hard to understate the dramatic nature of the transformation Budhan Theatre has wrought on Chharangar. In the past, only policemen and customers of the locally brewed illegal liquor would dare venture into this urban ghetto; now, even if their neighbors still dare not venture into the community, the rest of the world comes […]
Shelter
Guest post by tf
Since December 21st, Médecins du Monde (Doctors of the World) has been distributing tents to homeless people in Paris.
Dr Françoise Jeanson, President of Médecins du Monde, writes, in her letter of December 22nd (my translation):
These tents are not a solution, they symbolize the absence of a solution.
By that date, ten homeless people […]
Colonne Morris
Guest post by tf
There are 773 of these columns in Paris:
Soon their number will drop to 550…
Technorati Tags: Berlin, colonne Morris, karambolage, Litfaßsäule, Paris, Vienna
Candidate
Guest post by tf
France’s next presidential elections are due in about fifteen months: the first round in April 2007 and, since it is extremely unlikely that any candidate will gain a majority in that round, the second round in May. Candidates on the right and the left have been jostling for position for some time […]
New Year
Guest post by tf
In the States, it is customary to wish people a happy new year. In France, I’ve been learning, that is insufficient. “Happy New Year” is just the beginning. This should be followed by the statement that you hope the year will bring good health, happiness, prosperity, and success, or some combination thereof. […]
Mujhe Mat Maro Saab
Two days ago we filmed a protest play performed by the Budhan Theatre in front of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Ahmedabad. The play was called Mujhe Mat Maro Saab, or “Don’t beat me sir!” The story behind the protest is not too different from the situation in Maninagar (which I wrote about […]
Maninagar
The other day we visited Maninagar with Dakxin Bajrange. Maninagar is now little more than a street lined with tents. The people there used to have homes, homes that they had lived in since the 60s. Their children used to go to school here. That was before the city decided to develop their land, bulldozing […]
Polygamy
Guest post by tf
Polygamy has become a bogeyman in polemics in both the United States and in France recently, but for different reasons.
In the States, some opponents of gay marriage argue that the next step after legalized gay marriage is legalized polygamy. For instance, Stanley Kurtz writes in The Weekly Standard that
… increasingly, bisexuality is […]
An anthropologist and documentary filmmaker, 
