A Figgin' Tree

A hero without a cape

Her name is Theresa Kachindamoto, and she is a senior chief - political leader of a region with a population of about 900,000 people.

She didn’t run for election; she was appointed, without her knowledge, while she was living and working in a completely different part of the country. She just received a call one day telling her to come back to her childhood home, because she was in charge now.

So she did; and when she arrived, she discovered widespread sexual abuse of children. She browbeat 50 uncooperative local leaders into accepting her decision to annul all the marriages. She then fired four of them when they continued to allow children to be married off in their areas. She still faces widespread opposition from parents who consider it their right to sexually abuse their daughters if they want to; but Kachindamoto very evidently does not give a fuck, and is continuing to use political and legal means to protect children in the region.

She’s not just an anonymous do-gooder; she’s an effective political leader despite incredibly difficult circumstances. Theresa Kachindamoto.

[Image Description: a twitter post from user Al Jazeera English @ AJEnglish that reads “This woman has broken up 850 child marriages and banned sexual initiation camps in Malawi”

Below the text is a picture of Theresa Kachindamoto. She is a dark skinned woman with short hair. She is outside and smiling. End ID]

got worried checking the dates on this post and seeing 2016, knowing how risky this kind of political activism is

good news: Kachindamoto is still in office, and last year (2024) she received honorary doctorates from 2 universities and was given the African Genius Award 🙏

believing in science 🤝 hating when science is right about me personally

cant believe my psychiatrist prescribed me “don’t look at your phone for an hour before bed” to help my insomnia and now I sleep normally. fucking heartbreaking

i thought of this post three days before making it btw bc i couldnt use my fckin phone to post it while cooking up jokes in bed. what if i had forgotten it forever. what if i couldn’t feed my followers. has my psychiatrist considered that. dr. choudhary is awfully silent rn

we joke about Tumblr making your brain unable to interact with regular humans, but today I used the phrase “very slow tigers are chasing me” and no one, NO ONE, understood what I meant.

Tumblr is a giant step towards achieving a Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra level of communication.

You don’t get to hide this gem in the tags sorry

Yeah I mentioned the leopards eating peoples faces party to a friend once and the whole conversation immediately derailed. I hadnt even realised I said something weird at first

What. I thought that was a common political metaphor in the US

I once described damage to a lock due to someone repeatedly not putting the key in it correctly as “Sherlock thinks you’re an alcoholic” and the person I said it too understood completely and we were both very embarrassed.

Only one person in my dnd group is not on tumblr so it’s not uncommon that we have to explain things to him

Most recently was how the Pacific is the most fuckable ocean

[Shaka. At dashcon]

Woman murders man in broad daylight

happy biblically accurate friday again garfie baby to those who celebrate

use, and i cannot stress this enough, thriftbooks

if thriftbooks doesn’t have what you’re looking for, especially if you’re looking for it used/cheap, alternatives include betterworldbooks and discoverbooks.

Other tips for cheaper books is checking amazon and scrolling down to the “buy used” or “other sellers” section and then checking to see if those sellers have storerfonts off of amazon.

There is also a good chance that you might have a local, indie book store that likely also has a used book section! Indiebound might help you find those book stores!

Also, check out your local library, sometimes, they have a for sale section or might have certain times of the year where they do massive used book (dvd, cd, etc) sales to fundraise!

(It’s also worth checking directly from an author’s or publisher’s page and seeing if they have other places they sell their books. I know this is about cheaper/used books, since some of y’all aren’t built for piracy or the library, but also if you want to dodge supporting amazon AND want to more directly support artists you support, there’s a good chance they might have alternate ways to buy the books!)

I use thriftbooks a lot, it's so good!

as someone who works in an independent bookstore, alibris is the best for supporting yr local bookstore! abebooks is now owned by amazon. thriftbooks is great also just doesn’t usually support independent stores.

I love Twitter bc everyone is dumb

Just pronouns in general

Are- are you trying to tell me "no one" is a pronoun? Is that what this is saying??

Yes

So if I choose to go by nobody/no one are those nemo-pronouns

i see through your tricks, odysseus

HAPPY DOCTOR WHO EVE TO ALL WHO CELEBRATE

Honestly I should talk about the ace experience more. I don’t see enough. Like–obviously it’s dehumanizing to be repeatedly compared to robots or aliens but uh…sometimes it feels like that?? 

My husband will get all horny while I’m, I don’t know, changing out of sweaty gardening clothes. And I’ll be like, “But we have to make lunch?? I stink? Now is not a good time?? Logic?” And clearly it’s not about logic to him. He is experiencing the entire scenario very differently. And I’m here like, 

Or the times where you realize that like, having an actual physiological reaction to attractive people is not some enculturated metaphor, and people are actually doing that all around you all the time, and you’re like, Ah, clearly my studies of human culture have been incomplete. I have missed a critical psychosocial component. Many things now appear in a different light. *takes notes on holopad*

The notes on this post are just a shitload of aces going…I don’t get it. Or sometimes for a bit under very special circumstances I get it, or almost get it, and then I’m like “Wow this is a huge energy drain; you guys live like this?” Or just, “Totally baffling truly an alien species why would you lick someone?” And I am feeling the kinship in this here post.

a friend of mine once said “Wow! You must get so much done!”

to which i replied “No, no, I still have depression.”

I made this post two years ago and this is maybe the funniest addition in all that time.

I have a folder called Time is a Flat Circle in which I collect evidence of humanity. Here is most of them.

Okayokayokayokaybut "My hand will wear out but the inscription will remain" is kind of a power line BEFORE you factor in that it is, in fact, over a thousand years old.

It’s always good to spend a few moments, on a quiet day, looking through the Family album.

everybody say thank you lain

positivity post 😁😁!!!!

A new study finds that Apple has some of the highest employee turnover rates of any tech company. Google "apple turnover" for more information.

Southern Cassowary (Casuarius casuarius), EAT A TASTY FRUIT!!!, family Casuariidae, order Casuariiformes, northern QLD, Australia

Cassowary Plum (Cerbera floribunda), family Apocynaceae.

Photograph by Kelvin Davies & Ethan Mann Save the Daintree Rainforest

The irony of “Dead Dove: Don’t Eat” becoming a widely known tag is that people have started using it without also tagging what specifically to expect. It’s become shorthand for “dark shit” but the vagueness is the opposite of what the tag is meant for. You have put an unmarked brown bag in front of me with a wink and a nudge, and you’re about to get real defensive when I open it and start complaining about contents that were not written out in plain text

There’s this fascinating progression of Dead Dove from concise to up-for-interpretation. It reminds of the losing battle to define what a drabble means.

The original definition of Dead Dove (tags by @idkacatmonstermaybe)

vs. The newer definition taking over (tags by @nightshadehasblorbos)

I finally have something of my own to say about Dead Dove becoming used the same way as “author chose not to use archive warnings”

Choosing not to use archive warnings can be in regard to anything. It’s a wild card. But Dead Dove is specifically being used for “dark shit”, and you need to understand, what’s dark for me is not necessarily what’s dark for you.

If I’m going into a vaguely tagged Dead Dove fic I expect Major Character Death, Rape, Incest, Bestiality. If instead it’s an age gap, then I’m going to complain. You implicitly promised me depravity and it’s just this squick of yours.

THIS IS THE PROBLEM

Dead Dove is supposed to set your expectations. That is its entire purpose. And when “dark shit” is up for interpretation, then expectations are not properly set.

You have put an unmarked brown bag in front of me with a wink and a nudge, and you’re about to get real defensive when I open it and start complaining about contents that were not written out in plain text