Arry's Rant No. 1 - A peacetime commentary of Old-Terra. (AKA: "The Offending Fruit!")

Well, It's been ages since our last fight.

Given the strange temporal distortions between out two worlds/universes/times I've been experienceing some weird side-effects ... sometimes feeling as though there are two or more different versions of myself; each acting independantly and all I do is watch and interpret what they do. I need to pull myself together ...

... To do this, I barricaded myself in my room and have tried to learn as much as I can about your world. It's odd, so it is. The things you guys concerned yourselves with. Your music was crap, for the most part; and your taste in fashion left a lot to be desired ... except during the 1980's. You guys had down pat by then. I don't understand where it started to go wrong.

Maybe it was this internet thing. Seems like it broke everything. I mean, the fact that i'm able to talk to you through it means that it probably doesn't work like it should. You should really get a mech-adept on it. His prayers could probably fix this up a treat and get everyone back to the 80's where they belong. Big Hair and Leather. That's where it's at.

I have been watching, with interest, the developments during your time in a place called "Ukraine". Some of the image-capture of the celebrating troopers must be disheartening for the Defense Forces positioned there. You have to wonder if the Ukranian Gang has the heart to retake it's holdings. The Pro-Russian Gang's position is strong and I understand that they might have heavy back-up on the way.

To my mind, the Ukranian Pro-Russian Rebels are opportunists. At least, their leaders must be. The opportunity to 'cede from a gang that allows big hair and leather to a gang that is much less fond of it is usually only taken up by those who are afforded some level of wealth or opportunity to further themselves, usually at the expense of their own people. The freedom to don leather and have big hair is a valid one and should be defended at all costs. My gang supports the Ukranian people and if we were on Old Terra at the time, we'd be hoping that they sort out their political issues asap and not give the Russ gang the excuse it's using to support the rebellion and attempt to gain territory, as this would be a loss to big hair and leather planet-wide. More should be done to prevent a territory grab that impacts the status quo in that region, by means of support to the weaker gang during his time of difficulty, otherwise you could end up with an already powerful gang having a greater strategic advantage for some future incursion.

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One thing that cracked me up when I found out about it was this football game that you lot play. We have a ton of ball-games on Necromunda. Death-Ball, Slaughter-Ball, Splatter-Ball and Mash-Ball, to nam but a few. I can't believe that you guys are able to sit down and support one team full of black guys, while at the exact same time hating all the black guys on the other team. You'll get all happy when a black guy scores what you call a "goal" as long as he's wearing ... the "right" colour of shirt!!! Blows my mind man ... blows my mind.

On Necromunda, there's a million and one reasons why you might want to kill a guy, shout him down, insult him or clear his gums but I've never met anyone dumb enough to think that the colour of a mans skin is a worthy excuse. Now, we don't have monkeys on Necromunda ... so it took me a while to find out why a black guy might have an issue with being called one but after doing some research on this internet thing (not all bad, I guess) I understood the insult.

You see, Man and Monkey share a common genetic heritage. This means at some point we were the same animal. A different one from that which either of us now are. At some later stage, we diverged and occupied two different genetic niches that enabled us to survive in our own different ways and in different environments ... One would grow to be Monkey, the other to be Man. However, Monkey is seen as less advanced than Man, so attempting to reduce any one group of Men as inferior or less advanced than the other, on a genetic basis is very insulting indeed. We should remember that when a man tries to break another man based on his skin color, the only one showing his true colour is the one doing the breaking. That colour is yellow and it runs in an oft, hidden streak down his spine.

When you throw a "banana" onto a pitch in front of a black man, you call him inferior but mark yourself out as insecure ... hidden in a crowd trying to intimidate a man, using all the force of your race and hatred, while he bravely steps out in front of you and all your ilk to perform the one act that he has spent his life trying to perfect. You are scum in this moment and you should know it. You are the less advanced one, You are the Monkey. You have let down your people.

So it made me laugh. It cracked me up and it bent me double when I read about the guy who ate the banana! Turning a symbol that had been used for years to discriminate against black people into a symbol of tolerance, patience and humor. This can be overcome. This can be stopped. This will not stand. This can be funny at the expense of the perpetrator.

Thank you to Dani Alves of FC Barcelona. He will never score a more important goal, nor one with further reaching implications.

WE Are ALL Monkeys

This is a link to a match report containing pictures of the event. Also through this, I believe you can link to Neymar's We Are All Monkeys, support site. Which I recommend that you do.