Some rather stupid questions about Rust and FreeBSD

Let's start with the only thing I know about Rust is it is some
language that is all the rage among in some corners and not in others.
  I have built it in ports before when just setting a normal old XFCE4
desktop and looked at some sample code in it from that I will say:

1. It takes FOREVER to compile
2. The code looks no better than portable assembly and if that is the
case why does it need to be in the kernel when there is already a
perfectly good portable assembly already there known as C?

So to help me understand all this fuss can people tell the
journalistic (who, what, when, how and why) for the following:

1. What exactly is Rust?
2. What's all the fuss about it over (both here and the larger
computing community)?
3. What is the entire debate about ports vs. base and why should a
normal user care?

-- 
Aryeh M. Friedman, Lead Developer, http://www.PetiteCloud.org