No stabbing Wednesdays, new tradition

So. Hama did have a hobby, right? Otherwise why would she have those puppets in her closet? Unless she was somehow soaking them in water and using them to practice bloodbending??

My god. What a hard-hitting portrayal of the atrocities of the FN. The prison. The abduction, the destruction of your home and the dehumanisation and the way the number of waterbenders fighting alongside Hama kept dwindling and dwindling and dwindling...

Subtle contrast with NWT because we see women actively taking part in combat and defense!

Hama teaching Katara (and Katara later implementing) the method of wringing water from plants and the air itself was cool af

I. I don't know how to feel about Hama being marched away with the threat of being locked up forever again. That can't be how her story ends, right? I have a feeling she's gonna return in some way. There's a ton to explore and she would be an interesting eventual-addition to the team, especially with regard to Katara.

How did Hama even find that underground prison??

I don't know just... how to explain it. but this episode just really affected me in a different way. Something about the feeling of irretrievably losing connection to pieces of your culture due to a systematic erasure of it, not knowing if you'll ever find a way to learn. and then you get that chance from an elder (possibly your last chance) and you empathise with them, but you know they've been through unimaginable horrors and are forever changed and their lessons warped and broken because of it. and there's so much grief there, and so much anger and bitterness and tar trickling through the generations because of what was done, the whole snarl of muddled emotions sitting in your gut as you try to stave off the lesson but can't help but perform anyway... idk man. i just. *sigh*

Grace: Hey, uh, Rocky…

Rocky: You have a question, Grace my best friend Grace?

Grace: yeah. um. Why does everyone else wear clothes and you. Don’t.

Rocky: oh. That’s because they’re mostly from 🎵🎵🎵 and people are weird about clothes there.

Grace: what

Rocky: in 🎵🎵🎵 they think it’s wrong to have your carapace uncovered in public. Which is stupid. It’s a CARAPACE who cares if your carapace is out. We all have one. My country understands this. I can’t help it if the space program was primarily organized by the 🎵🎵🎵 government because they’re the ones with power and resources so everyone who works at the space elevator thinks they need to wear clothes even when they don’t actually have to.

Grace: Rocky are you a nudist

Rocky: don’t know word. I’m 🎶🎵🎶 and also the Savior of Erid so the 🎵🎵🎵 guys can’t tell me I have to wear a shirt anymore. SUCK IT

Image 1:

Match 1: With officiating these days who the fuck knows Match 1: Every games is diff every league it’s a joke Katie OP: good answer thank you for participating in this research project

Image 2:

Match 2: Whatever the fuck the ref is the only right answer Match 2: Kinda like the answer to what does the nhl consider a suspendible play. They just kinda spin a wheel of justice and go with whatever it lands on

Image 3:

Match 2: I mean I am a hockey ref like I know the definition of what it is but I’ve seen some real bullshit called interference so idk anymore OP: Oh that’s so cool! I hope you don’t plan on becoming an NHL ref because then I think I’m obligated to hate you Match 2: Nope nope nope I would never. Match 2: My vision and judgement aren’t bad enough

The local Malagasy people are dealing with extreme poverty and food insecurity, with nearly half of children under five years old suffering from chronic malnutrition. The local people have always subsisted on hunting wildlife for food, and as Madagascar’s wildlife population declines, the people who rely on so-called bushmeat to survive are struggling more and more. People are literally starving.

Our conservation team thought about this a lot. They had initially intended to focus efforts on education but came to understand that this is not an issue arising from a lack of knowledge. For these people it is a question of survival. It doesn’t matter how many times a foreigner tells you not to eat an animal you’ve hunted your entire life, if your child is starving you are going to do everything in your power to keep your family alive.

So the vets changed course. Rather than focus efforts on simply teaching people about lemurs, they decided to try and use veterinary medicine to reduce the underlying issue of food insecurity. They supposed that if a reliable protein source could be introduced for the people who needed it, the dependence on meat from wildlife would greatly decrease. So they got to work establishing new flocks of chickens in the most at-risk communities, and also initiated an aggressive vaccination program for Newcastle disease (an infectious illness of poultry that is of particular concern in this area). They worked with over 600 households to ensure appropriate husbandry and vaccination for every flock, and soon found these communities were being transformed by the introduction of a steady protein source. Families with a healthy flock of chickens were far less likely to hunt wild animals like lemurs, and fewer kids went hungry. Thats what we call a win-win situation.

This chicken vaccine program became just one small part of an amazing conservation outreach initiative in Madagascar that puts local people at the center of everything they do. Helping these vulnerable communities of people helps similarly vulnerable wildlife, always. If we go into a country guns-blazing with that fire for conservation in our hearts and a plan to save native animals, we simply cannot ignore the humans who live around them. Doing so is counterintuitive to creating an effective plan because whether we recognize it or not, humans and animals are inextricably linked in many ways. A true conservation success story is one that doesn’t leave needy humans in its wake, and that is why I think this particular story has stuck with me for so long.

(Source 1)

(Source 2- cool video exploring this initiative from some folks involved)

But on top of that, you know who the most ardent conservationists are once security has been achieved? The people who had once been forced to poach or slash-and-burn to survive. You know who’s great at tracking down gorilla poachers? Ex-poachers. Who’s good at understanding and advocating for people forced to do these things to survive? Ex-poachers. Who can convince others to take a chance on finding a better way to survive? Same answer.

The former illegal fishers are now sought-after experts, because they know how to spot the arapaima and tell juveniles apart from adults. They get to keep practicing the fishing skills that were passed down to them. The actual process of fishing is easier because they can work together and don't have to sneak around. The profits are higher because they can sell the fish openly to restaurants and to the public. The fishing organization members make sure that other people in their communities don't fish illegally. And the numbers of arapaima keep going up and up, so there's plenty to go around even as more people join the fishing organizations.

If you click all the way through to the report from the conservation org that started the fishing organizations project, there are quotes from fishing organization members:

"We built a second house and I'm putting my oldest two kids through college on the money we get from fishing."

"Nowadays you have young people walking around with pockets full of cash saying "I got 6,000 from fishing this year!" It used to be you wouldn't even get 50 reais of pocket money."

oh to be marisha ray getting the best seat in the house to whatever the fuck these women have going on

starting this by saying im not opening a discussion on this topic. this isn't a fandom discourse blog. there are multiple people online talking about this topic who have well thought out, nuanced takes. there are also a lot of people who are using it to spew hatred and vitriol against a poc. the latter is not welcome anywhere near my blog. im very unlikely to reply to any other anons about this or make any other posts. if I get sent hate I will delete it