Word: peasant
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...well it should. Shostakovich's first impulses retain their power to shock and thrill even after 60 years, and the elements that so offended Stalin -- the detumescent sound of the slide trombones in the rape scene, or the drunken peasant's breakdown after he discovers the corpse of Katerina's husband -- still pack a wallop...
...security people that his safety there could not yet be guaranteed. So he chose to remain in the palace and slept in his office on a pull-out couch sent over by a helpful friend. There was no working shower; the President had to bathe a la paysanne -- peasant style -- using buckets of water and a sink...
...bodies dropping all around him. The Czechs celebrate the apparently obtuse Good Soldier Schweik, whereas in terms of plot Voltaire's Candide might have been a Gump pilot. Yet Schweik is not so much a defense of dumb optimism as an argument against militarism and a celebration of sly peasant smarts. And Candide may be literature's most ferocious send-up of cheeriness in the face of the world's cruelties. By its end, its battered hero has abandoned his opening premise that everything happens for the best in this best of all possible worlds...
...close friend of Jean-Bertrand Aristide who threw his body in front of machete-wielding attackers in 1989 to protect the now exiled president -- was shot and killed by gunmen suspected of being part of the military government. There was no indication why Vincent was slain. He was a peasant-rights movement leader, but he had made no political appearances since Aristide's 1991 ouster. In Washington, State Department spokesman Mike McCurry denounced the killing, and rejected speculation the Clinton Administration would delay considering a Haiti invasion until it had handled the Cuban crisis...
Constant understands the political power of Haiti's peasant religion. He often treats journalists to late-night voodoo rituals and trips to the sacred waterfall at Saut d'Eau as he calls for help from his loa, the warrior god who represents St. George. This Sunday, Constant is intent on communing with his loa at a temple in the valley north of Gonaives. By the time he arrives at the site -- a concrete hovel -- darkness has fallen. Inside is an altar topped with white lace, a cross and a merry christmas sign. At its base are rum bottles and skulls...