rant time

I think it's time to start ranting again. I got two topics on my mind, piracy and the army. Don't worry, they're not related whatsoever.

Firstly, in today's West Australian, there's an article on Commonwealth citizens working in the British armed forces being ordered to adopt British nationality or face discharge. The article name is Troops angered by UK loyalty insult by the way. Now, I find this disgusting! Commonwealth, as in part of the British "Empire", has served Britain, and is literally a state under British rule. Well, not really, but Australia's Governor General is some head of something (state?) and is the representative for the queen here. So there you go, a bit of British rule in our federated country. Now, I know this article refers to all the other commonwealth nations, but this is sickening. Australians, New Zealanders, Canadians and so on have fought alongside and with the British in wars that do not concern them for a long time. To hell with them! Non Brit soldiers were nothing but cannon fodder for the British commanders.

Let's start from the beginning.
Boer War- The British were fighting oldschool with red coats and marching to the drums whilst the Boers were fighting guerilla tactics. Guess who owns who? Now, the commonwealth forces like the AIF fought fire with fire but soldiers like Breaker Morant end up being court martialed.

WWI- Gallipoli was a big failure. This is just one example, but it's been drilled into us as part of edjamacation :P. Why did Britain need to invade Turkey? They had to supply resources to Russia who was helping them fight Germany. OK, fair enough, but the Turks were in a way neutral, but a bit on the axis side. They only fought back because it seemed like the British were invading their soil, tresspassing- not a nice thing. Ever heard of diplomacy? "Mr Turkish Leader sir, I would like to help some Russian comrades by transporting some supplies through your country's roads, will that be a problem?" "No Pommish bastard, go right ahead, how nice of you to ask." Done, thousands of lives saved.
Instead, the British bombed the crap out of the Turkish shoreline, which gave them enough time to set up defensive perimeters, then sent in the ANZACs. Then did stupid things like "over the top" sending hundreds? thousands? of young men to their death, whilst the British commanders were in their cabins on board battleships drinking tea ignorant of their stupid decisions.

WWII- Uh... Tobruk? Most historical info available through the media is filled with American junk. Anyway, the Aussies and a handful of other nationalities fended off a big fat German tank battalion. I'm probably wrong on that- I think there was a British commander behind the credit for that.

All those examples are probably totally inaccurate so please don't go berserk. Anyway, my point is, The Commonwealth nations have been serving for Britain as they are part of one big "clan". Fighting for a country they don't call home is bloody loyalty(fighting for a country you don't call home but is an enemy of home is definitely the opposite though). Fuck you Britain, these soldiers are doing your country proud. Let them do their home country proud as well.


Now, piracy. I have recently gained a set of morals on this issue. My main focus is on videogames, but music is just as relevant. Videogames first. The team behind the creation of a game, a good quality game that is, spends several years in RnD creating a work of art. Whilst they are doing this, the developer/producer firm does not earn revenue but a whole lot of expenses helping these people feed their family. When they finally release a game, they want to see their game rise in the top 10 charts, with sales going crazy. Now this is where you step in. Buy the bloody game, support the company who fed the people who made this game that you are enjoying. If not, they starve and fail to deliver what you enjoy. Those who choose the cheap way out and copy games do not register as a sale on behalf of the respective game. This skews the market share figures. In a battle of which console is king, this is a big deal. Just look at the Gamecube- lack of promotion leads to lack of sales which means it becomes next to nothing and is ignored. You don't want that to happen to your modded up Xbox or PS2 which you spent hard earned money on voiding your warranty. Oh, and this often means that prices need to be jacked up so that the revenue is the same despite less units sold. Which results in a cyclical effect as people can't afford it and start obtaining pirate copies. Please stop your habits. You do realise game developers have merged and closed down as a result of this. You are killing the people who give you enjoyment! Have fun destroying virtual things, but not real people please.

And downloading MP3s through filesharing. Um... you've seen all those adverts.