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Aberrant: The Middle Children of History - What's your idea of a good get-together?


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Or: I feel like partying, does anyone else?

Hello everyone,

I've been residing here for a little while now and it occurs to me that, apart from a few brief encounters, I don't really know very many of my own kind. A sad state of affairs! (Though doubtless there's some people out there that would say "Don't worry, you're not missing much." smile )

It seems that people like to socialise in a variety of different ways, from what I've observed. Some folks like huge parties with lots of music, dancing and drinking, whereas others prefer just getting together over a cup of coffee and talking. Some like dinner parties, others like pizza and PS6 gaming.

So here's the thing: I've observed a lot, and sampled a little. I'd like to know what YOUR idea of a good time is. Can be anything you care to put up here. I'm interested in meeting other novas, so might as well meet you in settings and situations of your choosing, yes?

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I have greatly enjoyed the massive Pow-Wows held by the northern Plains Tribes each year. As cultural festival, religious ceremony, educational forum and general meeting of friends all wrapped into one, it has been something I've made a point to attend year after year... and have never regretted the decision to do so.

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I'm not sure, I've not been to many gatherings outside of some gatherings at home, it might be interesting to try a few. The one's I've been to was the Wake, for Eagle Thunder, which was a sad one, and one I was hosting, and the Benefit premier with Conner. That and occational family gatherings here and there, which have been some of the nicest. But a large gathering of novas, in a special location, say a party for the new Nova Queen, in Serra Leone, for those Nova's who offer her thier support or simple friendship might be interesting?

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Nothing beats just kickin' it in the back yard saucing up some ribs for the grill while tossing some horseshoes and beating people at dominoes. Toss in a soundtrack with an obscenely loud bass line and about 50 of your closest friends... shit, we call that 'Saturday' where I'm from.

No fancy powers or bullshit excuses like "we're partying for charity". Just people having a good damn time for no better reason than 'they can'.

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Originally Posted By: Bastion
No fancy powers or bullshit excuses like "we're partying for charity". Just people having a good damn time for no better reason than 'they can'.


That's what I'm talking about. grin

One question, though: What are horseshoes and dominoes? I've played volleyball, but that's about the extent of my sporting experience, I'm afraid. blush

Oh, and ribs sounds good. Do you have any particular sauce you put on them?

Originally Posted By: Dauntless
But a large gathering of novas, in a special location, say a party for the new Nova Queen, in Serra Leone, for those Nova's who offer her thier support or simple friendship might be interesting?


I've been following the Sierra Leone situation. Elspeth has my congratulations and best wishes. I'm curious why she wants to rule a country, though. Is it ambition or a sense of duty? Or even a mixture? At any rate, Africa might not be a bad place to party. We can swipe Bastion's sauce recipe and get some wildebeest ribs. laugh

Originally Posted By: Ptesan-Wi
I have greatly enjoyed the massive Pow-Wows held by the northern Plains Tribes each year.


I agree wholeheartedly. Definitely worth attending even if only once. The time I spent living at Inyan Kara on the Lakota reservation was enlightening, as is the spirit they have managed to preserve from their culture and history.

Originally Posted By: Mech
I won't offer ribs, but I can offer something better(in my opinion) in this colder season, Home-cooked Gumbo.


*A quick look at OpWiki later* Hmm, Gumbo sounds interesting. smile
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Originally Posted By: Phaethon
That's what I'm talking about. grin

One question, though: What are horseshoes and dominoes? I've played volleyball, but that's about the extent of my sporting experience, I'm afraid. blush

Oh, and ribs sounds good. Do you have any particular sauce you put on them?


You're shittin' me. You don't know how to play horseshoes? Okay, dominoes I understand, not a lot of people play that, like Madong or whatever the hell it's called.

I'm not sure how a blonde haired, blue eyed white boy showing up in my neighborhood would go over, but if you wanna stop by the next get together feel free.

As far as ribs... hell I dunno. Pops makes some kinda sauce for them and the shit's killer on the sinuses, even nova ones. No lyin' though it falls off the stick and makes you wonder why in the hell we ever stopped eating with our hands, it's that good.

Quote:
I can offer something better in this colder season, Home-cooked Gumbo.

I live in South Central L.A., dog. What's a 'colder season'? Hehe.
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  • 2 weeks later...
Quote:


I've been following the Sierra Leone situation. Elspeth has my congratulations and best wishes. I'm curious why she wants to rule a country, though. Is it ambition or a sense of duty? Or even a mixture? At any rate, Africa might not be a bad place to party. We can swipe Bastion's sauce recipe and get some wildebeest ribs. laugh


Sorry, I've been a bit busy lately and checking the op net for these threads tends to take a backseat to the stuff going on at home.

To answer your question, it's a sense of duty. My parents helped overthrow a Military regime back before I was born and the people elected them to be the first King and Queen of Sierra Leone. Yeah, no kidding they voted to become a Monarchy. smile

When they were assassinated by Jarutu's coup a few years ago I went into hiding, but I swore I'd avenge them and carry on what they started. Well, their killer is dead and here I am trying to pull the country back together after four years of corruption, incompetence and complete mismanagement. I feel responsible for the people here and I'm trying to do what I can to live up to what my parents meant me to be.

But enough of the downer stuff. You guys are always welcome here. Sounds like you are meeting at Bastion's this time around, but this coming year will by my sweet 16 and we'll definitely have a party then and you are all welcome to it. In the mean time I'll see you guys at the cookout and I'll bring a wildebeast. Assuming Bastion wants me there that is.
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  • 1 month later...

Why yes it is. Well, in all honesty, there are parts of the country that are better than others. The diamond mining areas are about as bad as anyplace you'll find on Earth. I've been trying to do something about that but the U.N. has refused to hear my complaints. They won't allow me to throw the corporations out of the country, they've gone so far as to threaten military intervention.

But enough of that. I would love a visit and would be thrilled to show you my home anytime you like.

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Hmm, Elspeth, I'm sorry to hear that they won't let you throw the corperations out, and while, I'm not sure my advice is welcome, have you considered possibly, influencing things to make the ones there go out of business? Or buying controling stock in them, and taking them over? After all, they are businesses, the bottom line is what matters, if you make it difficult, or impossible for them to make money, might you be able to get rid of them?

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What can be done, though? The United Nations will not even hear Elspeth's complaints. I thought the tales of politicians being corrupted by wealthy businessmen were exaggerated. Hyperbole, at most.

Elspeth, have you tried offering incentives (tax or infrastructure) for these businesses to clean up their operations somewhat? It might be the best peaceful solution. If that fails, then boycott the operations altogether. These mines need a workforce: if you, with the support of the people of your country, pass a law forbidding any aid or succor to the mining operations and their employees, that might bring some pressure to bear.

Also, when do their leases of the land come due for renewal? You may wish to remind those in charge that, being a nova and a popular leader with a great deal of personal power, you will probably be alive, well, and still in the driving seat when that happens. The usual African situation of rulership changing every five to ten years (to the benefit of these businesses) may well not apply to you.

That's all I can really come up with from my limited understanding of the situation there. I think I might indeed come and visit, though. I'd like to see the beauty of Africa myself. My father has told me a lot about it. smile

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Bullshit.

The U.N. is a peacekeeping a security task force, preventing hostilities is what they do, and they do not open up negotiations with 'we'll bomb you' over something so petty as diamond mines and the pollution they might be causing to your land. This is in part mostly because the United Nations doesn't maintain it's own military.

If you were planning world domination and broadcast as much, sure. Making WoMD? Sure, prolly then they'd say 'quit or we'll ask a countries military to intervene.'

The UN, after approval by the Security Council, will send peacekeepers to regions where armed conflict has recently ceased or paused to enforce the terms of peace agreements and to discourage combatants from resuming hostilities.

Take a look at 'Transitional Corporations' it will explain any and all major legal, sectorial, regional and environmental issues facing corporations operating internationally and it's updated and issued by the U.N. itself three times per year. If you wanna kick em out for strip mining and pollution and deforestation, or even crooked dealings, you, as the local governing body have the right to do so and the U.N. technically can not hold sanctions against you unless you do it violently. The Corporation itself may retaliate against you, but they must cease and desist all operations until the matter is resolved. Failure to comply in such an event can, and usually does, result the company facing expulsion from the country or the revoking of licenses.

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Ahh. That sounds more like it. My face is almost as red as my hair right now. I didn't even think to look up details about the U.N. Thank you, Bastion.

So the U.N. won't hear Elspeth's complaints, but that doesn't really matter because within her own borders, she can deal with those corporations as she pleases as long as it's non-violently.

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You're right Phaethon.

See, Utopia is a crock. I have to admit that I'm on the Squirt's (Elpeth's) side when it comes to saying that they're about as crooked and greedy as an organization can get. That's why they've lost such credibility over the years. Remember though, Utopia is not the U.N. They can not take military action without declaring all out war, and for that they'll need to back it up with some good proof. Something a little more solid than 'she was mean to the diamond miners'.

Either way, if she reads the book I mentioned an follows it to the letter, they won't have any ammo in their camps. Aside from, y'know, going on the OpNet and rabble rousing other novas with her anti-Utopian message. The media eats those things up.

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Good point. Though a lot of media will probably love the anti-Utopian muckslinging. It seems to be a favorite pasttime around the world, particularly for the young. grin

So... About that BBQ, Bastion. Let me know when and where. I live in L.A, so its not like its a big deal to zip down to wherever.

And I'm still interested in that wildebeest rib-rack. laugh

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Yeah. I actually used that technique to shame them into letting food shipments through. (They were organizing an unofficial embargo.) It worked beautifully, people saw the plight of the starving people in the country here and raised hell about it. Anyone that prevented food shipments looked like evil villains and no one wanted that.

This is different though. The diamond mines are big business and they don't care about image. They have outlets that allow them to shuffle around the diamonds so they don't appear to be coming from Sierra Leone. They learned their lesson from the whole Blood Diamond scandal back in the 90s and now they conceal where the product comes from. So what if their 'Sierra Leone' diamonds don't sell as well as the ones from Canada or Russia if only 5% of what they are mining here gets labeled Sierra Leone and the other 95% looks like it's coming from somewhere else. That's just a guess on the percentage so don't accuse me of making up numbers, I fully admit I don't know the real numbers involved, I just know that I made a media appeal and it generated a lot of negative press, but the companies have ignored it so far, so it must be big money.

So anyway, I appreciate the advice Bastion. The situation is kinda complicated though. I did make an appeal to the UN, but several members on the committee that reviewed the case are apparently being bribed. And you are right they aren't going to bomb my country, but they have threatened sanctions against Sierra Leone if I take direct action against the diamond mines. They have said that they would send Peacekeepers in to protect the mines. Doesn't matter, I don't want to have to take military action anyway. The problem is that Sanctions against the whole country would hurt us far more than forcing the Corporations out would help us. So I'm stuck with a situation where I'm having to allow them to continue to operate and basically treat a small part of my population as slaves in order to protect the rest of the citizens from the consequences of the sanctions.

The part that is really irking me is that I can't negotiate with them. Utopia is preventing me from meeting with the Mine's representatives on the grounds that my quantum powers would make any negotiations unfair. They are insisting that they must find a suitable intermediary to conduct talks and they've been stalling for months now. It's like one of those American lawsuits where one company uses the courts to tie things up for years in hopes that the lawsuit will just go away or the person suing will go bankrupt in the process and won't be able to keep going.

The other problem is that Jarutu was a dumbass and negotiated very poorly. There is no expiration date on the contract and the only obligation on the part of the Mines is that they had to provide him with 10 Elites at all times and about 5 million dollars a year US. The money part is based on some percentage of diamonds exported, but there are no checks in place to determine even how much is being exported. I haven't even been able to get a copy of the contract yet thanks to Utopia's interference.

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So look, I'm not saying there is nothing that can be done, there are lots of things. It's just a difficult situation to handle this in a way that will keep public opinion on my side. Before you say 'f* public opinion', it's what is keeping my people fed right now. Without it Utopia's unofficial embargo would still be choking off food shipments.

Thanks for the advice, like I said.

So, anyone that wants to head over to Sierra Leone, I do have one idea that can get things rolling and I would be happy for the help.

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I wasn't gonna say 'fuck public opinion'. Although the way you won't cuss on the Op-Net but have no problem with slandering anything you don't agree with and flat out accusing the U.N. of taking brides is kinda cute. Be a shame if people thought you had a potty mouth, eh young lady?

I gave you a shove in the right direction to solving your dilemma. When I had to fly around the world to rescue people that would eventually knife me in the back I found it a good idea to learn some international law, in fact, it was required of any MD who was to travel over seas. Might wanna take a few classes there kiddo.

Yer problems ain't mine to deal with, kid. You got yourself into the mess, get yerself out.

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