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February 15, 2005
I love canada... let's move!
http://www.little-gamers.com
On Feb 15, 2005, at 8:27 PM, Alexandre wrote:
Hi,
I may understand how you feel.
You know, when I was 11, I only had a vague idea of what America was and when I was 15, I started to understand who you where and what was the relationship between our two country.
Back then, everything was fine.
Before I continue, I must admit that my english is not perfect. Very comprehensible, but not perfect.
I was 17 when I bought myself an Xbox, and 18 (a year later, duh) when I got Xbox Live. In fact, I was one of the lucky dudes to take the Xbox Live Beta Test. I was so excited when I got the email saying I was part of the Beta Test.
The day I got the Beta Test DVD, I hooked it up in my Xbox, connected to Xbox Live and started playing Moto GP. It was cool, but I was too shy to talk, I tought you (American) would laugh at me.
I was totally right.
In my whole life, many people had bitch on me, but never like on Xbox Live : "Canada suck", "Return to your Igloo", "Learn to speak english you fuckhead Canashit".
And so on. At this very moment, my respect for you was about nothing. In fact, I played Xbox Live only two times during the Beta Test. Got bitched the two times.
If I may add, Americans are THE reason why I don't use quickmatch and optimatch features. (Unless optimatch have a language option). I only play with friends I know.
I know many of you are pleasant people who did not vote for Bush, but still, you live in America and must live with the "bad publicity" that those fuckhead give you.
Also, you has an American and not beign affected by it might not be aware, but the vast majority of Anti-American sentiment comes from your foreign policy. It's not "fun to hate America" as you said, it's just fun to "hate the country which had, by it's policy, made us loss many jobs, put us in constant danger (a Canadian who travel might be attacked as if he were an American), try to kill every (or almost) multinational we establish, have forced our leader in many ways they didn't like but had to accept in the fear of an embargo, proposed and forced the acceptation of the ALENA,..."
Don't get us wrong, we do not hate you for your freedom of speech or whatever. We hate you for what you don't see, we hate you for what you (multinationals and f.p.) to us.
(for the next three paragraph, please note that my neo-liberalism and capatilism releated english vocabulary is not particulary accurate, I am sorry for it)
You might not be aware, but Monsanto have been contamining, with various methods, a very large amount of canola seed. So much, that now some poor farmer got a geniticaly altered canola seed who spread like pest. The problem, you guess it, is that this "geneticaly altered canola" is the propreity of Monsanto, so the farmer have to remove all the unwanted seed (tell me how to "unplant" many thousand of fucking seeds) or pay compansation to Monsanto, absurd.
I do also hope that you get not breast cancer. Why ? Beacause Myriad Genetics now "own" a gene, one who develop breast cancer. Now labs everywhere in the world cannot continue their research, on this gene at least. As I said, better not getting breast cancer or you will die for sure, as the research are advancing pretty slowy.
And happy for you you don't live in India. Why ? Because if you did, you would find pretty weird that some U.S company ask your govenerment millions of dollars because, apparently, the spices your familly have been acquired by some company and now, are their own
YOU, have nothing, or about, to do with it. I am very concious of this, and I feel very sorry for you and for every other Americans who can think.
This email was only to inform you why so many people hate you and tell you that if you get bitched, don't worry, we get it back.
************************
~response from teh naku~
************************
Hello Alexandre ^_^
Your mail has made me smile.. because it was honest. I appreciate that and wanted to write back right away. My point in the rant today was not to heckle Brad for bashing Americans... the point was that the typical gamer is not going to be the brightest, most honorable and kind natured of people. That is the sad truth of the matter. It's not just an american problem.. it's just that I think people who are typically not the most popular, most attractive, etc. in normal society are placed into this virtual world where they can act out how they want because they have no real face. They excel at the game and it gives them false confidence and arrogance. It leads to a bad attitude towards others.
To think someone laughed at you for your accent or english makes me want to cry. I think that is horrible and I'm sorry you had to go through that. I have close friends from all over the world and I envy their accents. I am the one who feels the way I talk is laughable. My boyfriend is in the UK, has a beautiful accent and I sound like a character from the "Sopranos", so gritty and with no class at all. So never be ashamed of how you talk for you could sound horrible like me :D
I do know how you feel though. I have been there. I tried to play that wretched Counterstrike a long time ago. I was bashed for being so bad, kicked out of rooms, no one would help me, no one would take the time to teach me how to be good at the game. No patience. I think some people forget the fact that it's a GAME! It's supposed to be fun. Being cruel to someone because they sound different or don't know what they are doing is not the way to honorably play a game.
I think the above is why I stick to Final Fantasy type games. The people want to help you. There is a need to work together to get ahead and the only way is to help each other. The japanese players are noble and mighty and will never treat you like you should not be playing the game. I spend most of my time in that game helping others and seeing them get ahead is what makes the game fun! I just don't think you can have that kind of experience in a game like Halo. Perhaps I'm wrong... but that is just how I feel personally.
As far as my government is concerned.... dude all I can say is: JESUS I'M SORRY! -_-
I wish I could change how things are here. It's scary for us here that don't agree with what is going on also. I know it affects others in other countries and it makes me feel like crawling under a rock for a thousand years. All I could do was vote for someone that could have made things kinda ok. I did but still... it was not enough. I just think it's a shame that there are more idiots out there than there are honest, good caring people that want the world to be a good place for everyone. I know for a fact that so many people here in the US don't even think about what goes on in other countries unless it effects the price of the gas going into their cars. This is a valid reason I can see other countries thinking we are all a bunch of lazy, ignorant fscks. And a lot of the population is, I won't deny that. But there are a lot of good people here and it just hurts that we are lost in the shuffle of all the political drama.
I'm going to post this letter tomorrow because I feel you brought up a great point. I hope you don't mind but I think it's a great letter. Your english is wonderful... don't worry ^_^ You should be proud, most of us here don't even have knowledge of more than a sentence of a second language, so I'm envious of you (and all europeans for being badass and being able to hang with people all over the world) hehe.
Take care and please don't let some silly people stop you from playing games. If you ever decide to try FFXI I will help you and the little-gamers and kweh groups will help you because that's what we do.
Thank you for the wonderful letter and I hope you have a great night,
/Naku
Posted by naku at February 15, 2005 9:05 PM
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Comments
Great post naku! Thank you for sharing both sides of that conversation. ^_^
As a Canadian myself I can empathize with where Alexandre is coming from. There have been many times when I have just had to shake My head at things that go on south of the border. I don't know if you ever watch Jay Leno . . . and his "Jay Walking" segments. Geez it just painful to watch when Jay goes out on the street and asks college/university students simple questions about the US and I know more about their country than they do. I finally had to stop watching those segments . . . it as just too maddening.
On the flipside though some of the coolest people I know are American, hell my girlfriend lives in Louisiana. So I know what you mean too the good people getting lost in the crowd.
Anyway, Thanks for the thought provoking post naku. ^_^ Have a good day.
Oh and Canada would be blessed and honored to have you if you ever decide to move up here.
Posted by: SnowBear at February 16, 2005 12:41 AM
As interesting as ever.
Love to read those rants on LG you're writing Naku, so i just could'nt stop myself from all the stuff you're writing here.
And I was'nt disappointed. Hell how could I. It doesn't matter if you're writing about sth serious or just some "nonrelevant" (at least non relevant for most of the world), your rants are always entertaining and somewhat informative.
About the "lets hate Americans" thingeh...I'm german so i might as well stick to that one, but i got to know some nice people durin an exchange program (drumband members stayed at my home for some weeks) furthermore I'm playing Deathball(mod for UT ^_^) and its the absolute sad truths that bitchy little children can be found everywhere and usually are the ones who get the most attention and manage to somehow damage the community.
Nuff said. Hope to read more soon :)
P.s. theres one thing I dislike...AIM!
It's evil, dont use it! EVIL!
Posted by: FunGun at February 16, 2005 7:52 AM
You are not the only one who gets harassed by the online game players. The people who do that attack the American players as well. When plating Halo 2 online there always seems to be someone who wants to make a comment of how much better they are than you. They believe they are superior than everyone. In short they are pricks who pick on you and your country because they can.
Not all of us are like that, but perhaps there are too few of us who really care. One of my favorite highschool teachers is Canadian. I say God bless Canada!!
Posted by: Maelstrom at February 21, 2005 10:02 PM
I'm an american myself and I can't agree more with alot of what I've read. Although I have nothing to say in our defense, I will say that like Maelstrom your not alone. Americans are a spiteful crowd even from childhood. Ask any self respecting person here about their life as a kid in school and it'll be frought with comments of being made fun of, of being picked on, of not being accepted , and of course the notorious "I was picked last for Dodgeball". We all went through it in school and when we ask the adults for advice its always something like "turn the other cheek", or "Ignore them an they'll leave you alone.", or "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger."
Now keep in mind, I'm not saying we've all been marred from horrendous childhoods, just simply that thats the majority of the people that are online playing games, the kids from school... suddenly released in a world where as Naku stated, they have no face, no responsibility, no consequences... and sadly no need for kindness... to make up for their everyday lives they want to be the best they can be, and they'll noose anyone that gets in there way just to make themselves feel better that 'they' got to tell someone else off.
On a brighter note, I think its this very childhood that makes most of the American adults grow up to be the way 'Most' of us are. Something in our mind clicks one day and suddenly many of us become conscious of the people around us. We realise we can't go around being assholes because we can, it doesn't accomplish anything.
I personally like to think of myself as a decent person, and I can personally vouch that Naku's an awesome person... unfortunately I can't vouch for everyone, most espescially our youth of the nation we're rebellious growing up for the most part, but we seem to grow out of it decently enough for the most part.
Posted by: Garkin at February 24, 2005 1:41 AM
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