Risa: Your Home Away from Spacedock
Welcome to Risa
All the pleasure of shore leave, none of the holodeck glitches.
Rule 1 — Be Civil, Not Klingon
This is a vacation planet, not the neutral zone.
- No harassment, brigading, or trolling
- No bigotry
- Keep the banter playful, not hostile
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Some things aren’t welcome aboard.
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Rule 3 — Keep It Trek
Posts should be Star Trek memes or Trek-adjacent humor.
- Crossovers are fine
- Low-effort “unrelated” memes may be spaced out the nearest airlock
Rule 4 — Gatekeeping Belongs in a Black Hole
You’re welcome to have your own opinions on what counts as “real” Star Trek but forcing your view on others or pretending it’s the only valid one? That’s not the Starfleet way.
Everyone’s Trek is valid, from TOS purists to Lower Decks shitposters, and you don't get to dictate what is real or not for everyone.
If you see a post that violates the rules, or that doesn't inspire Jamaharon, report it so the mods can handle it.
Otherwise grab a horga’hn, order a Risan Mai Tai, and enjoy your shore leave.
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Leopold's colonial rule of the Congo Free State resulted in the death of up to 10 million. Belgian colonial rule didn't change that much. Shortly after Congolese independence, the CIA helped assassinate their newly elected leader Lumumba.
They replaced him with Mobutu. This allowed the worst colonial abuses to continue. Crucially so did the extraction of minerals. Copper, cobalt, uranium, ... very important for America's interests and economy. Unfortunately this meddling would ultimately result in the first and second Congo war and another 5 million dead. Oops.
Given Africom effectively allows the US to engage in force projection and colonialism in Africa, isn't it fitting that it's all white men running the show from Europe?
Some fun facts because I'm bored:
A few years back Tesla signed a large cobalt contract with Umicore. Umicore is in part a successor to Union Minière du Haut-Katanga, a mining company that is in part responsible for that 10 million death toll.
It is estimated that child labour still accounts for 30% of cobalt mining in the Congo. Some as young as 7. Tesla goes zoom.
AFAIK the Democratic Republic of Congo is currently not on Trump's travel ban list, likely because the US is negotiating a new minerals deal. It could also be because Trump or the Whitehouse confused the DRC with the much smaller Republic of Congo. It could also be because Trump is on record as saying he doesn't know what the Congo is, let alone where it is.
The DRC has a population of over 100 million, and suffers from the so called resource curse. They produce 70% of the world's cobalt, have 70% of the world's coltan, and 30% of the world's diamonds.
I would say it is symptomatic of the attitude that the US military leadership has towards its peers in Africa, certainly.