Ripley: They cut the power.
Hudson: What do you mean "THEY cut the power"? How could they cut the power, man? They're animals!
Once upon a time, not long ago, right here, a body drifted, still strapped to her seat, her vehicle drifting, floating through the sea of space. The body was not dead, but asleep. It belonged to the only survivor, a woman, who once lived in a wealthy suburb of Johannesburg, in South Africa. Perhaps her body washed up on a beach in Australia. All we know is she was taken somewhere and then the people asked her a lot of questions.
“How many times do you want to hear the same story?” she said, after 3 hours of questioning.
“We can corroborate some elements of your story. For reasons unknown South Africa lost power, and the affects of crime and AIDS and corruption had a cascading effect. But for reasons unknown the country was set for self destruct, and you freely admit to running away from and thereby abandoning a once thriving democracy.”
“Look, I can see where this is going and I’m telling you…”
A woman, an accountant, rifles through some papers. “He was a politician and a crook, with concentrated acid for blood – these are your words…”
“Did IQ’s drop while I was away? We all knew what was happening but we didn’t know where to start doing anything about it. So we just didn’t do anything. And when the shit had hit the fan we kept on hoping things would get back to normal. But of course we were way fucking past normal.”
“Thank you, that will be all."
“God damn it, that's not all! Because the same thing happens overt and over again in Africa, and millions end up dead, or stuck in intractable poverty and suffering. If one of those presidents gets down here then that will be all! Then all this - this bullshit that you think is so important, you can just kiss all that goodbye!
“We don’t need to learn the lesson. We have poor people in Australia. They live in the territories. Have been doing so for years.”
“You have no idea what you’re dealing with. Even if I tell you exactly what you’re dealing with, you’ve still got no idea how much shit is involved.”
Apone: All right, sweethearts, what are you waiting for? Breakfast in bed?
But they called her up a few weeks later, because they needed stuff that was said to be abundant in South Africa, coal, and people and things who went there weren’t coming back any more. They wanted to know what was happening..
“You throw me out to the wolves, and now you want me to go back there? I don’t want to go back. I have nightmares. The rapes, the guns, the mobs. I wouldn’t be any use to you even if I did go.”
We are making our home into a gallows. And it seems no matter how many times we explain to ourselves what is happening in this country, we come away thinking everything will be fine. It’s our greed that drives us, and greed is a coward. It hopes to get something for nothing.
Ripley: You know Burke, I don't know which species is worse. You don't see them fucking each other over for a goddamn percentage!
When you have a man not yet president already crushing the judiciary, shutting down a crime fighting unit and making threats to the media, you can bet the transition under this man, as president, will not be pleasant. He has vowed to make all policies, all actions by private citizens the business of the ANC. This is known as state run civil society. It’s socialism and communism. It is how African tinderbox African dictatorships are born and burn, but we will all burn in the fire…except of course, our Dear New Leader.
Read the following dialogue but imagine this is happening in South Africa, not somewhere out in space. It comes down to the same thing anyway: no one can here you scream:
Bishop: Well, that explains it then. The A2s always were a bit twitchy. That could never happen now with our behavioral inhibitors. It is impossible for me to harm or by omission of action, allow to be harmed, a human being.
Ripley: Well, somebody's gonna have to go out there. Take a portable terminal, go out there and patch in manually.
Hudson: Oh yeah, sure! With those things runnin' around? You can count me out.
Hicks: Yeah I guess we can just count you out of everything, Hudson.
Bishop: [speaking under Hicks] I'll go.
Hudson: That's right, man.
Bishop: I'll go.
Hudson: Hey, why don't you go, man!
Bishop: [more loudly] I'll go.
Ripley: What?
Bishop: I'll go. I mean, I'm the only one qualified to remote-pilot the ship anyway.
Hudson: Yeah right, man, Bishop should go. Good idea!
Bishop: Believe me, I'd prefer not to. I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid.
Hudson: That's it man, game over man, game over! What the fuck are we gonna do now? What are we gonna do?
Burke: Maybe we could build a fire, sing a couple of songs, huh? Why don't we try that?
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