Rupert the Barefaced Liar

Thought a quick post to celebrate this hilarious song by the folks at Dailyreckless about the on going storm at News International was in order.

The political currency of Tetris

Sorry for the lack of updates, as penance I offer what I hope will be a convergence of multiple themes (for lack of a better word)that I've previously talked about, namely the history of the Soviet Union, and video games. I recently discovered the above very catchy music video detailing a brief yet surprisingly accurate and lyrical history of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and modern Russia. The only real criticism I'd make is the endings optimism about Russia's political leanings, its often forgotten that United Russia the Russian Federations governing and most popular party is a Conservative party not a left leaning one. The confusion on this front often stems from two things, first every western Conservative party has since the 1980's completely embraced 19th century liberal economics (hence why its called Neo-Liberal) all Milton Friedman (he bloke who gets the credit) did was update the terminology of Gladstone's speeches. And the seeming refusal of Putin and Medvedev to completely denounce the Soviet Union in its entirety, "Anyone who doesn't regret the passing of the Soviet Union has no heart. Anyone who wants it restored has no brains."

Anyway after hitting the replay button a dozen times I was reminded of a documentary I watched on BBC Four(first part viewable below*) about the actual Tetris game and how a simple puzzle game about oddly shaped blocks actually raised a few problems for International Relations because of its popularity.

During the Cold War there were periods of "thawing" between the West and the USSR, at this time trade did occur and were expanded. The most significant period of trade occurred in the 1970's after Nixon and Kissinger successfully achieved what became known as Great Power Detente. This period ended in 1979 when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. The then President Carter who was suffering a severe lack of popularity as throughout the third world especially in Angola, Nicaragua and Iran the "red menace" appeared to be gaining ground toppling friendly autocrats while the United States seem to do nothing, (actually Carter approved funding and military assistance to practically every trouble spot including the Mujahedeen) so to make a big show for the American public Carter suspended all trade agreements and boycotted the Moscow Olympics, unfortunately this was not enough to save President "Peanut" though it did give Reagan the opening he needed to expand aide to the mujahedeen, and the Contra's, and the government of El Salvador amongst others.

However entertainment was exempted since it had no tactical applications or aided Soviet Foreign policy in any meaningful way. However there was still one critical problem with East West trading of electronic products. Officially the Soviet Union did not belief in individual ownership of property so who exactly would the Western game makers (in the 80's there were literally dozens of competing computer systems) acquire the rights from? The games maker Alexey Pajitnov no unless he defects as the game was developed at a Soviet Research and Development lab and he doesn't have the necessary authority. Fortunately for Nintendo and there new Gameboy good old General Secretary Gorbachev would smooth the process. As part of his economic restructuring (Perestroika) Gorbachev was very keen to increase exports to the west so created a number of export institutions such as ELORG for software exports, whose remit Tetris obviously fell under. There was however still a problem in that these export ministries had absolutely no precedent to draw experience from and a lot of pressure to deliver results, much of Perestroika and the future of the USSR depended on there performance. So in practice they operated like a cross between the Soviet foreign office and the KGB, extremely paranoid.

All of this makes for fascinating viewing.




*Torrent of the full documentary can be found with seeds here.

Correcting a Revisionist theory about Star Trek

This ones only half serious. Now we all know what about Star Trek, its one of those "franchises" that became so popular and omnipresent that even if you've never watched a show, you'll know about the Enterprise, Captain Kirk, Spock, Picard (pictured) and maybe Worf and Data (a Klingon and Android respectively). The show is also well remember for its positive political messages, especially the first serious that despite airing in 1966 a time when racism sexism and homophobia were very common to the point of normality even in liberal commie Hollywood. So to make a show with a diverse cast of ethnics and mixed gender was quite ground breaking stuff. Though of course there were limits placed on it, the The three mains Kirk Spock and McCoy where white, and the female characters Uhura and Chapel where essentially a receptionist and a Nurse, and the female uniform was a lot more revealing then the male one so yeah. You might also have heard the story that Star Trek was the first show in America and probably the world to show an interracial kiss, thats true however again there was a bit of a cop out, you see that famous civil rights milestone takes place in the episode Plato's stepchildren, where a race of mentally powerful aliens force Uhura and Kirk to kiss for there amusement while both actors kick and scream and make it clear that they ain't consenting, essentially making the message be less, love is colour blind and more only a depraved alien intelligence would be pleased by "race treason". But to be fair most of these qualifiers where studio mandates, Gene Roddenberry the original idea man for the show stated that he wanted to go further, saying if he could of got away with it he would have made Kirk and Spock gay lovers, (which might explain how this video was made).

However in the States the shows political message has also garnered some criticism, more then a few have come to believe that the USS in Enterprise stands for United Socialist Soviets and that this great new world state is run on the principals of Marx and dear old Lenin. For example the above review, where the reviewer(Chuck also known as SFDebris) spends a could chunk of time railing against the hypocrisy of the "Marxist" writers. Now I happen to like Chuck also known as SFDebris reviews a lot I think he's very clever and witty, and his jokes often hit the mark and are very dark and cynical much like my own sense of humour. And if you like Star trek or any televised science fiction you should check his reviews out and can do so here.

However on this issue Chuck, and anyone who genuinely thinks that Star Trek represents a Marxist or even a socialist future show that they really don't know what those words mean. The main evidence for the Federation are a bunch of Bolsheviks is the absence of money first explicitly stated in the reviewed episode the Neutral zone. Again this just shows a glaring lack of knowledge of Left wing ideology. Socialists and Communists, do not hate money as a concept, they argue against making the private accumulation of money as a overriding goal, and against what are called artificial or surplus profits, which are the portion of sales that go to the Capitalist (the boss/owner)1. If anything Socialists accept money as a necessary and efficient method of standardising exchanges of goods and services. In the 1900's and early 20th century there was a debate in many nations as to whether to make paper currency the norm rather then metal coins, some of the most vocal advocates of this position where members of communist and socialist groups. Owen in the Ragged Trousered Philanthropist makes a similar argument in an early chapter, as does Ernest in Iron Heel, if I remember correctly. The reason for this is simply paper is extremely cheap and renewable therefore no risk of running out, or scarcity driving up the value of the currency and thus every commodity.


Some Anarchist do want to abolish money, however they are mostly of the Natural or primitivism school of thought and advocate scrapping industry and returning to a more "natural" agrarian existence complete with the barter system of economics. So does that mean the Federation is an Anarchist Federation? no thankfully. Star Trek is not really any form of political radicalism at all. It is in fact an example of Liberal Utopianism, more closely linked to the works of Rousseau.

Now I'm going to simplify here, the basic crux of Liberal Utopianism is this, humanity is at heart "good" and strive to be better. Our "flaws" are the result of living in an imperfect environment and having incorrect education. Therefore as humanity continues to develop better technology and education we as a whole will advance until finally reaching a point where all worldly vices are controlled and then eliminated. What was the biggest impediment to enlightenment facing an American audience when Star Trek was first made? discrimination, hence why Roddenberry made the cast as diverse as possible to both show that prejudice was stupid and show that a future where we've overcome these roadblocks is possible and desirable.

Fast forward to the 1980's and we have the next generation (the one with Sir Patrick Stewart) and the Neutral Zone, I should point out that I'm not defending the episode, I hated it myself but I feel some of the criticism is misplaced and it fuels the mistaken beliefs about the shows political orientations. A big complaint about this episode is that its odd how 20th century man is not only looked down upon as primitive barbarians but where essentially only guilty of avarice. Where not even given the excuse that the Stock broker's greed caused misery and suffering to others, he likes money (a lot) and should be sneered at. Well the answer to this seemingly bizarre choice of villain? lies in its Liberal subtext, since day one the Star Trek creative team saw it as an educating tool as well as entertainment hence all the social commentary, and like all good social commentary it should be relevant to the audience which in this case where Reagan era Americans. Which is why the object of scorn for this episode is essentially a Yuppie, rather then a warlord, terrorist, bigot or religious fundamentalist, the writers probably believed that America had at least progressed past those vulgarities, and was just having problems getting of its money obsessions. This is also probably why the Next Generation shows started explicitly stating money is gone and we all work to better are selves, to once again show the humanity is with a little patience capable of "evolving" beyond this flaw just like all others before it to show the audience that life is not purely a pursuit of monetary wealth, and that the alternative may well be desirable.

TL:DR Star Trek is not Socialist or anything of the sort, get over the Red scare and next time actually read a political ideology before you start slagging it off, otherwise the only one who looks bad is you.

1: Actually looking back this isn't completely accurate a large number of Communist groups do advocate the abolition of money eventually. However at the time this was written most of the active Marxist groups I was reading about advocated several alternatives like Labour Vouchers, or credits, which to me was just another form of money with a different name. But even these groups believed in the fundamental restructuring of the economy to remove things like surplus value, and the boss worker relationship. Marxism is not "right lads and lasses same as normal only your not getting paid/ enjoy your vouchers" its about the common ownership of the economy and the abolition of economic and social hierarchy.

Forget me Knot

Just got back from the Cleethorpes Memorial service for workers on International workers Memorial Day. Despite the melancholy nature of the event I think it went pretty well. The weather was good, nice and sunny with a cooling sea breeze, and there was a big turnout, with delegates and speakers from the local Labour group both Council and party, every Trade Union operating in our region (North East Lincolnshire, and North Lincolnshire there's a bit of an overlap) relatives of some of those killed in work related accidents in our area Unfortunately Northern Lincolnshire, is above the national average in this regard due to the towns Scunthorpe, Grimsby, Cleethorpes, Immingham and the surrounding villages are home to a large number of refineries and chemical plants, which contribute to the injuries and deaths from warehouse and factory accidents. There was even a delegation from the local Liberals ,well only two of them, but to there credit these two had supporting the event and the campaign for recognition before that, and kept the speech non-partisan so I have no objections to there attendance. Strangely though no local Tories turned up, maybe they collectively had a scheduling mishap, perhaps something had gone awry with the royal wedding preparations? or they didn't fancy having to answer for the ConDems "Easing business regulation" plans that will gut Health and Safety measures on our docks, airports and transport hubs? who can say if they won't.

Unfortunately since this was a memorial service it wasn't long before the content started to but dampen the mood. 151 killed in work related deaths in UK last year, and that figure does not include those killed while driving, or those whom have succumb from a work related injury or illness contracted several years prior. And an estimate of 2 million killed on the job globally. The speakers made a very good point, if every work related death received an eighth of the media attention that are service men receive when then sadly are killed in relation to there work (funny since the army used to a few years ago advertise the statistics that your more likely to be killed in a civilian occupation then as a front-line servicemen)then there would be a lot more pressure on government and employers to clean up there act.

If a country lost two million in a year due to war, there would be a lot of questions being asked to why, are the Generals incompetent? is the equipment or training inadequate? and what solutions are being offered to prevent next years 2 million casualties. But alas work related injury and deaths do not receive much attention, outside of the Morning Star. I couldn't even find details about today's service in the local paper I had to ring up a friend and double check the starting time.

Even big global disasters that are guaranteed to sell copies and get viewers usually ignore the human costs, like the Oil rig of the coast of the US, how much time was spent on the 11 workers killed in the explosion before the "mainstream" newsreaders started discussing things like stock hits and loss of confidence? not much. They didn't even bother covering the environmental impact in detail until heartbreaking pictures of oil covered animals started coming in. Nor did they show much interest in the loss of livelihoods suffered by the small fishermen and local business until people started getting angry and the issue of compensation numbering in the hundred millions started to turn a few heads.

In short we must as this memorial day implores us, remember the dead and continue to fight for the living.

Another Day of Life

Sorry for the quiet time, after attending the Union march on the 26th I had to work to get a lot of assignments finished. Anyway in between them I managed to find time to read Another Day of Life by Ryszard Kapuscinski Cold War journalist of much acclaim and controversy. The book is his account of both the last days of Portuguese colonialism, and the early months of the Civil War that followed.

One thing that has annoyed me greatly is the almost universal (in the west at least, maybe other regions and countries are better at this) "whitewashing" if you'll forgive the term of African history. Africa has a wealth of experience of conflict, liberation, subjugation, peace, compromise, mediation, Socialism, Marxism, Nationalism, Pan-Nationalism, Capitalism, formal and informal trade, cultural exchange, regional entities etc. Yet at best it is either depicted as a continent of passive victims, genuine lessons about the evils of imperialism and warnings of continued exploitation by the industrialised North and East are watered down by this perception that it is up to the benevolent Liberal sensibility of those nations to save the day usually ignoring the knowledge and resistance to those forces done on the ground and at high risk. Or even worse problems on the continent are seen as evidenced of native inferiority, words like "Tribal" and "Warlord" are thrown about without proper context or explanation. You could actually see a bit of this in the reporting of the earthquake in Haiti which of course is not in Africa it just shares ethnic and cultural links to it.

The most well known events of modern Africa are of course the fall of Apartheid in the South Africa, but again in the west there are some problems with the retelling of the tale. Most of the thanks goes not to the internal resistance to the regime of "Boer" supremacists or the Cubans dying to check South Africa's military expansion,but to the boycott movement, its true that the boycotting of South Africa helped and those who took part in it should rightly be proud. However as North Korea has shown an regime can survive no matter how marginalised globally so long as internal dissent is contained or non existent, also if it wasn't for the brutal repression of civil rights activists black and white like that ugly joke went "how many South African police does it take to crack an egg? none it fell down the stars" would enough people in the West care enough to say no to South African orange? I'm guessing no.

This is why I find Another Day so refreshing it like the documentary on Burkina Faso's Martyred revolutionary Thomas Sankara, seen here on Youtube and a few others get past the cultural blinkers and show us at least a glimpse of Africans acting on their own, responding to the great challenges that push down on them, sometimes successful sometimes not, but always acting like real proactive human beings.

The Civil war that forms both the "setting" and "narrative" of the book is perhaps most famous for two things first its length (late 1975-2002) and a battle outside a small southern town involving Cubans and Afrikaners , but despite that being in the 80's the events of Angola's turbulent birth as an independent nation can be seen as a dry run for South Africa's later invasion of its northern neighbour (Namibia was of coursed occupied by South Africa at this time giving it a direct land border with Angola's southern region.

The first section of this 144 page book describes the evacuation of the Portuguese from the Capital Luanda, how they stripped everything of value they could physically drag to the Airport and docks, there fears about "black primitives" coming out of there mud huts in the African quarters (a universal feature of colonialism in Africa was that the natives didn't even enjoy freedom of movement in the cities that were built by them on their own land) with sharpened knives, and their resentment at having wasted 40 or more years trying to tame these savage lands and build a new life for themselves. Many Portuguese colonists where relatively new as the then recently deposed Dictatorship of Salazar's cronies used the colonies as a dumping ground for the poor and restless. And the physical decay of Luanda as the infrastructure and services of the city one by one breakdown or leave, this was before the agreed official hand over of power to Angola in November 1975 which meant that all official state functions and property like the fire service and police where still under Portuguese control which meant that the Angolans couldn't legally replace them without violating the agreement leaving the few citizens left in the cities with a rough few weeks in the Autumn run up while the Faction (there where three) in control cobbled together its own replacements. Water pumping stations for example where kept running until fighting damaged them as an accepting feature of the war was those without water surrender or day quickly. But in the case of Luanda the Movement for the Popular Liberation of Angola (MPLA) was usually able to repair them after a counter attack.

The second section is about Ryszard's travels to the "front" unlike in Europe, the geographical features of Angola and much of Africa mean there exist a different form of warfare. Things like heat, and water scarcity meant that long lines of trenches and fortifications with clear statements of who controls what where infeasible. So a front was where ever a isolated unit happened to be stationed and territory was divided up based on who was the last faction to enter the village or town. To get to a front often meant passing through a number of checkpoints with almost no way to tell which faction held what ahead of time, since uniforms helmets and flags where pretty scarce. Given that the Civil War was from its start tied up in both African regional ambitions between Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) in the North and South Africa in the... well South and the global Cold War meant that foreigners like Ryszard from Warsaw where by default considered supporter of one Faction or another. In Ryszard's case he was sided with the MPLA due to the Soviet Union's support for that movement, in fact early anti-MPLA propaganda incited the murder of any East European in the country because of this. The trick was to call the guards either Camrada (comrade, for MPLA) or Irmao (brother for other factions) in a way that couldn't be heard properly so the guards would identify themselves asking for a repeating.

After a cross country tour of all the fronts, Ryszard while at the MPLA's most southern front hears rumours from a friendly Portuguese who initially fled to Namibia before returning after the massacres and looting long feared didn't materialise and his mother ended up baking bread for an MPLA unit, that the South Africans have been amassing across the border and have been recruiting local mercenaries, Portuguese exiles and UNITA troops for what can only be a big push straight up for Luanda and the MPLA national headquarters. The third faction the FLNA in North has an understanding with UNITA and the support of Zaire and will also be making a push down South in a coordinated attack on the MPLA. This means that Ryszard is in a unique position as one of the few journalists in Angola (the Portuguese media is more concerned with the turbulent domestic situation at the present) and who is friendly to the MPLA and has contacts with Poland which I'm sure we all know who else he has contact with by association (hint they drink Vodka) all of which add up to an immediate race by Car back to the Capital through no mans land and past several battles in a scene that would look great in a film adaptation to inform the Polish Press Agency whom will no doubt inform Moscow.

After passing on the message unaware if he is too late, remember the borders are confused and there little in the way of national communications, he is contacted by two Cuban military advisers for a chat. The airport and ports are still at this point in the hands of the Portuguese as the deadline for independence 11th November is a week or to off, which is probably why the South Africans where desperate to invade right away and finish off the MPLA before the gates where opened to economic and military assistance, after all even though Portugal is still Officially in control of the country its clearly in capable of resisting or punishing South Africa if it took offence to this technical invasion. And since the MPLA is nominally Communist the Western powers wouldn't shed more then Crocodile tears over there demise especially if South Africa generously gave power back to a FNLA-UNITA alliance, neither faction posed much threat to its regime.

You might be wondering what made Angola such a special interest for Cuba, since the 1970's where a decade of Insurgency with many Guerilla armies existing in Africa and South America why focus on Angola? well apart from first getting into contact with the MPLA during their ill fated Congo mission Angola and Cuba have an intertwined history. Angola was the capital of the slave trade, many Africans where captured and shipped over sea's when the Portuguese figured out how to exploit the inter tribal rivalries to negotiate "contracts" for captured prisoners. In fact the majority of Blacks living in Cuba, Brazil and the Dominican Republic ancestors where shipped from Angolan ports. So interlinked where these states that when the People's Republic of Angola was announced by the MPLA leader and first Native President Agostinho Neto the first country to recognise them was actually Brazil despite the vast political differences between them.

So when the MPLA began there Revolution it was the Cubans rather then the Soviets who first stepped up to the plate, in Solidarity and provided assistance. When the Airport in Luanda was relinquished to Angola the first planes to land where Cuban Airliners carrying troops and supplies.

Needless to say despite a close call the assault is repulsed and by March 76 the South Africans withdraw. They would return for a visit on occasion, officially they went into Angola the first time to protect the dam systems on the Cunene river that forms a natural border between Angola and Namibia. On aside note the South African "Defence" Minister at the time was Pieter Willem Botha who go on to lesser things in human terms. The final section of the book is an appendix for those unfamiliar with Angola and the conflict, it includes a history of the Portuguese colony and the new nation, as well as a time line of important events in regards to the forming of the three major factions, what they believed and who supported them. In fact it might be worth reading the final section first to acquaint yourself with some background information and key terms.

This book is a short and concise summary of the beginnings of Angola and the civil war and the MPLA, and I highly recommend it as a starting point for those interested in them and Africa as a whole.

The kind of Socialism Sinatra would enjoy

I first heard this "swing" version of the internationale on the end credits of Michael (no relation)Moore's Capitalism a Love story , and spent a few hours trying to track it down, however since I mistakenly thought it was by Richard Cheese perhaps most well known for his cover of "Get down with the sickness" in the actually not quite bad Dawn of the Dead remake(shame about the remake of the sequel), and not Tony Babino my searches where fruitless until recently.

Despite the odd marriage, the emancipation of the global Proletariat, the overthrow selfish tyrants and all artificial divisions (looking at you nationalism) and quite rich Sinatra inspired vocals by Tony B do make for a good song, I found this vid this morning and have been singing it all day.

Metro 2033

"Fear the Future"

A quick disclaimer, this a rveiw of the novel Metro 2033 and not the video game which I have not played, though a friend who has tells me the plot is fundamentally the same, so this may get into spoiler territory for both.

Metro 2033 by Dimitry Glukovsky is on one level the standard fiction tale of a young man growing up in a back water being a “chosen one” who must journey to the far corners of his world in order to save his home and by extension the rest of the world from a great external threat. That we've all seen in dozens of works for years. While on another level it is a complex, at times darkly comedic satire of Russia’s political history. Some stations are the run by Communists on the “red line” in clear reference to the Soviet Union, there’s also a Trotskyist station and a run in with some funny extremely dedicated but weird Trots. Three stations have been overrun by Fascists in a clear comment on the depressingly large “national Bolshevist” movement and the trend of Ultra nationalism in current Russian politics. The dominant faction in terms of stations under its control are the Hansa (short for Hanseatic league) a cabal of merchants who have embraced market capitalism, another critique of the rise in neo-liberalism in the 90’s. Some stations are run overtly by Mafiya’s and Caucasian gangs again a transparent comment on the rise of organised crime throughout the Russian Federation. Smaller factions include Jehovah witnesses again a group that has caused a bit of a stir in contemporary Russia.

The setting is of course the Moscow underground after a nuclear war in the near future hence the title, we never find out why the war was started and who exactly was involved, but we do know that humans cannot survive on the surface without environment suits and shielding without suffering extreme mutation. The Metro survivors subsist on a diet of moss, mushrooms and chicken, pig and rat, the only stable currency is ammunition meaning that you literally shoot money in a fight, which might explain why there have been so few overt takeover attempts between the factions, with the only one of note being a war between the reds and the Hansa that was resolved before the events of novel start.

Artyom our protagonist accidently opened a route to the surface as a child and now in his twenties it appears that large numbers of psychic mutants “the dark ones” have been entering the Metro and have begun encroaching on his home station VDNKH. Hunter a stalker embarked on a mission to seal the doors Artyom opened but presumably did not succeed. This means that Artyom via Hunter’s last request must journey throughout the Metro to Polis the closest thing to a city left underground and seek aide from the government there. Though initially a simple task the politics of the Metro force Artyom to take a painfully long and circuitous route to Polis frequently getting side tracked with some travelling companions. He frequently comes close to death particularly when being hung for shooting a Fascist officer only to be rescued by the aforementioned Trots. After finally making to Polis Artyom is forced to agree to a scheme by the cities scholars whom suspect him of being a prophet who can find them a sacred tome. This tome is located on the surface within the Moscow library a place infested with a type of mutant known only as the “librarians”.

After surviving the journey to the surface Artyom is given the information he seeks. It seems the key to his salvation is the location of a missile silo that was spared in the Great War, however getting there will require both a “rocket man” (a missile commander) and the location of a secret entrance to that Silo’s bunker found only on the hidden government underground Metro-2.

After a run in with a cult of cannibals Artyom and a group of Stalkers in the company of one of the few remaining “rocket men” discover Metro-2 and get to work on setting up the Missile launchers. Artyom is then tasked with aiding the missile targeting and must journey back on to the surface to a lookout post in order radio in coordinates. And the novel ends shortly after.

Before I get much further I should point out that there is a sequel cleverly named Metro 2034 however as far as I am aware that one has not yet been translated into English, it has however been translated into German so those who speak it or its original Russian might want to give it a try.

I have also omitted quite abit from the above synopsis because despite having the standard overall adventure plot Metro 2033 does have quite a few twists on the established tropes that would be ruined when spoiled. Also the first two chapters are easily the worst, the book has a lot of back story to establish and does so in the worst way, the first 40 pages out of a total of 459 are almost all flashbacks triggered by snippets Artyom hears whilst by the camp fire. Fortunately by the final half of the second chapter the writing gets immeasurable better, there are still frequent cases of exposition and background info being given to Artyom and by extension the reader but in those instances you not only have an established feel for the world of the Metro and have to come to grips with much of the establishing back story, and the fact that they take place in a more organic way in settings that make more sense given Artyom has never left his station before and needs information on the changing nature of the Metro particular its politics an area where the young man is especially clueless.

The tone of the book is very similar to Roadside picnic by the famous (to Russians anyway) Strugatsky brothers(they even have characters called stalkers) and of course the film it inspired though perhaps the comparison most well known to a Western audience would be the Ukrainian video games series S.T.A.L.K.E.R. not unsurprising given that both they and the game Metro 2033 share some of the development team.

I would definately recommend Metro 2033 to anyone intersted in the dystopian after the end style survival genre, as well as those who have an interest in Russian history and politics as well as Sci-Fi fans in general as aside from those first chapters and some translation hiccups it is an highly intelligent and enjoyable read.