On an August morning in 2012, about 150 men, women and children gathered at a sacred spot in the village of Biacou, in northern Timor-Leste. With sacrifices of a goat and a pig and the blessing of the land and sea spirits, the community inaugurated the village’s tara bandu, a customary law of the indigenous Maubere that governs how people interact with the environment.
Tara bandu was outlawed under the Indonesian occupation that lasted from 1975 until 1999. Since then, Maubere communities across the country have been bringing tara bandu back to life as a way to guide more sustainable use of their local natural resources.
In Biacou, at least, the tradition appears to be resonating with residents as there has been just one violation of the tara bandu in the six years since its inauguration.
This is the third story in Mongabay’s three-part profile of the Maubere’s revival of tara bandu.
Read the other stories in Mongabay’s three-part profile of the Maubere’s revival of tara bandu:
The 2019 ACA (Affordable Care Act) enrollment period has been shortened from 90 days to 45 days (November 1-December 15, 2018) and the advertising budget to promote open enrollment has been slashed in an effort to sabotage the program. You’re probably not seeing a lot of advertising (read: zero) about the enrollment window online or on TV.
I’m not sure if all versions released in China cut out Finn scenes, but I lived in a VERY mono-ethnic city (over 99% Han Chinese), and they were very proudly anti-black, so I’m not surprised that that province cut out a lot of his scenes/lines.
The scenes they cut were ones where he mainly appeared alone, as well as scenes where they would cut out some of his lines to make him appear less important. I also don’t remember seeing him hug Rey when he helps rescue her towards the end. I mostly remember that it left me feeling confused. Like, I could tell that the movie was missing something, that something had been edited. It wasn’t until I downloaded a Korean (? I think?) bootleg version of the movie that I was able to confirm that a lot of Finn’s scenes had been cut.
Again, I wish I could say that I was surprised, but I saw a lot of racist, anti-black shit going on in China that really saddened/disturbed me, as well as a creepy fetish and preoccupation with white people. There were restaurants with black face pictures on the walls. A black friend of mine was deported because his presence was “too frightening” (he was 6′5″ and 300 lbs which apparently made him a threat to public safety). Black people and even non-black Africans were banned from certain jobs (such as teaching English). My roommate (who was African American) was constantly belittled and called “dirty” by Chinese people. One time a woman grabbed my roommate’s arm and pointed out her skin to her child saying, “see? they don’t wash. that’s why their skin is black.” Honestly, I could go on and on with stories like that, stories of my black friends’ experiences in China, but there are too many to list here.
I’m white, so my experience in China was vastly different from that of my roommate’s or my other black friends. On the whole, I had a lot of fun in China and I met a lot of wonderful people, and I don’t want anyone reading this to think that I hate Chinese people or think they’re all racist. But there IS a prevalent culture of anti-blackness in China, at least in some of the smaller cities, that goes unchecked because there is no impetus for them to change their ways. In the West, even though we have our own myriad issues with racism, we have a system that (at least in theory) holds us accountable for our racist words and actions. That system doesn’t exist in China.
Ugh I can see it all too well. It’s in line with what I see in Korea as well, although we’ve learned to be a little sneakier about it and at least we didn’t cut Finn’s scenes (today in the realm of low bars…) Antiblackness in Asia is really serious–like in India there were actual mobs against African residents and a hit movie had villains in blackface–and it needs to be discussed more.
I’ve seen it suggested that without Bendemption and Reylo, IX will be nothing but a moral-conflict-free romp for our heroes. And seriously, wtf?
Finn is a walking moral dilemma all on his own. Because for him and everyone who loves him he raises a terrible question about every enemy Stormtrooper they kill – could they have been another Finn in the making?
The First Order is an organisation run by powerful people who made terrible choices. But its wars are fought by child soldiers who were never given any choice at all.
That’s what makes the battle we’re set to see happen in IX so fascinating. It’s not that the causes themselves are morally grey. The Resistance are clearly fighting for good and the First Order is unquestionably evil. And yet good can’t fight its cause without slaughtering innocents, and I think that’s the most interesting possible dilemma we could be asked to see play out.
And hell yeah I want to see Finn try to resolve it by leading a Stormtrooper revolt. And I want conflict among our heroes too. I want Rey, with her absolutist morality, to oppose Finn. I want Rey to show her love for Finn *through* her opposition – it’s because she believes Finn is so very special, so brave and so good-hearted that she doesn’t think any other Stormtroopers can live up to his example.
And I want Finn to want to believe that what she thinks about him is true – while doing everything he can to prove her wrong. And in succeeding, in leading his fellow Stormtroopers to freedom, he’ll show what *is* special about him as well as what’s special in everyone, if you can find a way of calling it out.
I want IX to explore every crack and fault line in Finn and Rey’s relationship so they can discover together how strong its foundations are.
This makes perfect sense because you know what else would have hardened Rey against the idea of redemption for fascist killers?
The incident with “Ben” would have only confirmed in Rey’s mind that Finn is one of a kind, and that expecting others to follow Finn’s example would only end in heartbreak and destruction. She was burned badly when she trusted in Kylo Ren’s goodness and wouldn’t want Finn to risk his emotions and life in the same way, on a far greater scale with potentially deadly consequences at that. She barely made it out herself and can’t bear the thought of losing him.
If the story went this way it would be yet another parallel to Anidala, except much more robust. As seen in a clip from AotC (link), Padmé believed steadfastly in democracy–for some people anyway, Clones, Tuskens and other undesirables need not apply–while Anakin did not shy away from advocating a dictatorship in the face of democratic dysfunction. Similarly, we would get to see Finn believe in ordinary people’s ability to make choices for the good, with his vision being actually democratic and not just thinly-disguised aristocratic rule like the Senate that Padmé believed in. Rey’s healthy skepticism in the idea that non-Finn people brought up to evil could turn away from it would be sympathetic and rational under the circumstances.
Under this scenario it’s interesting that Finn and Rey are confirmed to be together for all or most of IX. Depending on how early this conflict starts we could watch them in truly interesting arguments yet still bound together by the mission and mutual affection. And man would I love it.
*time for tinfoil hat*
Reading that leak on reddit (spoilers in link, duh). If that scene and the whole Wadi Rum sequence happens early and if it is as I suspect a battle with the First Order Finn, Rey and Chewie finds themselves in, it could be the starting shot for that.
Finn ran into Nines on the battlefield on Takodana, this battle may again confront him with an old “friend” from his Stormtropper days. But what if that person or squad does not immediately try to kill him? The FO isn’t going to be able to keep knowledge about Finn’s defection and escape secret from its foot soldiers forever and while a good deal will go with the Nines mentality (traitor!) others would be considering trying to get out too.
Of course getting out and then staying alive is hard when you have no one on the outside on your side. But if they’re confronted with Finn they might see him a possibility to get them away from the First Order’s clutches.
Depending on how exactly such a scene played out it could open up a lot of interesting ways the story of IX could go.
~Mod Mara
Remember how we were geeking out pre-TLJ about the possibility of seeing Zeroes? If we see him on screen I would die. Like absolutely croak. It would make sense, too, for Finn’s old squadmates to represent the gamut of Stormtrooper responses to their situation.
Slip: The victim. Was part of Finn’s brutal awakening to the reality of the First Order and left his mark on Finn, literally.
Nines: The believer. Reacted to Finn’s “betrayal” with self-righteous anger. Also canon fodder but got in some blows at his old squad leader, verbal and physical.
Zeroes: The survivor, going by his Before the Awakening characterization. As I discussed in a pre-TLJ meta that was largely about him (link), Zeroes in BtA is a sharp, ambitious guy who is very aware of power relations and is good at reading people. He has the makings of a top-notch intelligence officer and, on the flip side, would be just the type to pull the strings of an uprising from the inside.
If Zeroes were to encounter Finn in battle I can see him putting on a good show of trying to get Finn and his friends while failing to land the fatal blow and sending a message that way. Finn puzzles over it, finds out more, and later they have their confrontation with Finn going “YOU” and Zeroes being all calm and smug like the smooth operator he is.
hey writers if you want to make a metaphor for racism, please maybe remember that racism is literally based on nothing. Africans weren’t enslaved en masse because the Robo-Musa threatened to destroy the world, they were enslaved because it was economically rewarding and politically convenient. If at any point your allegory for racism includes “so <oppressed group> did this major catastrophe and” then you have not only missed the point but you are literally reinforcing the ideas that racism have let racism self-perpetuate (that e.g. black people are naturally dangerous and violent and must be contained or begrudgingly accepted by the Nice White People)
Adora/Catra is a Finn/Slip lesbian AU and you can’t convince me otherwise
I’ve seen it suggested that without Bendemption and Reylo, IX will be nothing but a moral-conflict-free romp for our heroes. And seriously, wtf?
Finn is a walking moral dilemma all on his own. Because for him and everyone who loves him he raises a terrible question about every enemy Stormtrooper they kill – could they have been another Finn in the making?
The First Order is an organisation run by powerful people who made terrible choices. But its wars are fought by child soldiers who were never given any choice at all.
That’s what makes the battle we’re set to see happen in IX so fascinating. It’s not that the causes themselves are morally grey. The Resistance are clearly fighting for good and the First Order is unquestionably evil. And yet good can’t fight its cause without slaughtering innocents, and I think that’s the most interesting possible dilemma we could be asked to see play out.
And hell yeah I want to see Finn try to resolve it by leading a Stormtrooper revolt. And I want conflict among our heroes too. I want Rey, with her absolutist morality, to oppose Finn. I want Rey to show her love for Finn *through* her opposition – it’s because she believes Finn is so very special, so brave and so good-hearted that she doesn’t think any other Stormtroopers can live up to his example.
And I want Finn to want to believe that what she thinks about him is true – while doing everything he can to prove her wrong. And in succeeding, in leading his fellow Stormtroopers to freedom, he’ll show what *is* special about him as well as what’s special in everyone, if you can find a way of calling it out.
I want IX to explore every crack and fault line in Finn and Rey’s relationship so they can discover together how strong its foundations are.
This makes perfect sense because you know what else would have hardened Rey against the idea of redemption for fascist killers?
The incident with “Ben” would have only confirmed in Rey’s mind that Finn is one of a kind, and that expecting others to follow Finn’s example would only end in heartbreak and destruction. She was burned badly when she trusted in Kylo Ren’s goodness and wouldn’t want Finn to risk his emotions and life in the same way, on a far greater scale with potentially deadly consequences at that. She barely made it out herself and can’t bear the thought of losing him.
If the story went this way it would be yet another parallel to Anidala, except much more robust. As seen in a clip from AotC (link), Padmé believed steadfastly in democracy–for some people anyway, Clones, Tuskens and other undesirables need not apply–while Anakin did not shy away from advocating a dictatorship in the face of democratic dysfunction. Similarly, we would get to see Finn believe in ordinary people’s ability to make choices for the good, with his vision being actually democratic and not just thinly-disguised aristocratic rule like the Senate that Padmé believed in. Rey’s healthy skepticism in the idea that non-Finn people brought up to evil could turn away from it would be sympathetic and rational under the circumstances.
Under this scenario it’s interesting that Finn and Rey are confirmed to be together for all or most of IX. Depending on how early this conflict starts we could watch them in truly interesting arguments yet still bound together by the mission and mutual affection. And man would I love it.
I love this. And also I love that in this scenario their dynamic is reversed from what it was in TFA – with Finn bravely ready to step back into the maw of the First Order and Rey terrified for his life and begging him not to go.
someone: rey should be with someone who understands her! maybe if it was a guy who was brainwashed from a young age and forced to be on the evil side and was all alone with no friends, but despite all of that he overcame it! someone that is caring and compassionate and doesn’t want to hurt other people!
me, nodding along: exactly! that’s why she and fi-
someone: which is all exactly why i ship her with kylo!
It’s quite common in Latin American Spanish-speaking countries for children to get both their parents’ surnames, it used to be pretty common in Argentina too then for some reason got changed during the XX century and now is coming back again (thankfully). As far as I know, the convention goes father´s surname first, mother’s after, so yeah, his full name should be Poe Dameron Bey (and if we are going with conventions, because why not, either he has a longer first name and Poe is actually his second name, or he has a second name as well, in either case the one not used would probably pay homage to a family member).
Maybe the other name is that of the maternal grandfather who raised him while Shara and Kes were fighting with the Rebellion, or maybe L’ulo. I love the thought of tiny Poe being called L’ulito as a nickname.
Yeah, my first thought was that of his maternal grandfather precisely because of that. Hey, if you’re raising the little one while their parents are fighting to make the galaxy safe for him and everyone, you’d better get some sort of recognition (not that I don’t think Shara herself would have not come up with the idea and insisted on it, come on).
But now I can’t totally rule out L’ulo because L’ulito is the cutest thing ever and I think my heart just melted from the cuteness of it all.
Of course that when Shara scolds him he always uses Poe’s full name, both surnames included.
L.J.'s Obsessions 