Tuesday, 17 February 2009

Tonton Macoutes


The Milice de Volontaires de la Sécurité Nationale (MVSN), or Militia of National Security Volunteers, was commonly known as Tonton Macoutes. The Tonton Macoute was the ‘Gestapo” (the secret police) of Haiti, originally it was based on the Italian fascist “Black shirts”. The force was made by Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier who was the president of Haiti at the time in 1959. The Tonton Macoute would report directly to Papa Doc until his death in 1971. After Papa Docs death the militia was renamed to MVSN by Baby Doc the son of Papa Doc. All together the Tonton Macoute/ MVSN was well know for its brutality against the Haitian people.

Papa Doc was democratically elected by the Haitians people in 1957. A year later there was a attempted coup to over throw the government and Papa Doc, but it had failed. After the failed coup Papa Doc rewrote the Haitian constitution in his favorer and made him self president for life. Papa Doc believed that the Haitian army wanted to overthrow him. So he broke up all law enforcement agency and the army. He executed all of his high ranking generals, and then created his own private security force which he new he could trust, the Tonton Macoute. All the personnels of the Tonton Macoute were granted automatic amnesty through the power of president Papa Doc.

The Tonton Macoute had a very bad a brutal repuation. Because of their automatic amnesty from prsident Papa Doc they can do what ever they want, and how ever they want all they had to do was to be loyal to their prisdent. They are well known for wearing dark glasses and holding machetes. Tonton Macote murdered hundreds of Papa Docs opponents, most times they would hang their victims in public places as a warning to the others. Haitians call them voodoo demons or zombies. After the over throw of Baby Doc although the Tonton Macoute were broken up, the group continued to spread terror.

The name Tonton Macoute originated from the official language of Haiti Creole. It was the name of the Haitian Boogeyman, he kidnaps the children who stay out late ,and takes them in his gunnysack (which is a big bag which can hold potatoes) and the children and never seen again. That’s exactly what the Tonton Macoute did in real life. Anyone who talked against Papa Doc would never be seen again the next morning, because the Tonton Macoute would kidnap them and take them away. Anyone who would talk about the MVSN would risked their own seizure, so the Haitians would called them the Tonton Macoute that is where they got their name.

As you can see from what we have shown you the Tonton Macoute was the most horrible organization in Haitian history. It is ghastly to imagine people were given a license to go around Haiti and torture, kill, and shake down innocent peoples lives. It’s been estimated that over 100,000 people have died under because of the Tonton Macoute. Till today the Tonton Macoute is still in Haiti and there are still butchering and killings in the name of Papa Doc.

Bibliography:
Encyclopedia > Tonton Macoute. From Nation Master
Retrieved: February. 17. 09
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Tonton-Macoute

Wikipedia Free Encyclopedia > Tonton Macoute
Retrieved: February. 17. 09
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonton_Macoute



Monday, 9 February 2009

Weekend: My Crappy Dream :-)


It was Saturday night and I was really tired and cranky to do anything so I hit the sack quite early. Switching off my phone, and all electronic equipment I fell into a deep sleep. But I didn't really prepare myself for the bizarre dream I was about to have.
It was around 3 a clock in the afternoon and I was at a bar. I was really confused how I got there suddenly. I walked up to the bar, and the bar man handed me a glass with something in it. I snatched the glass from his hand and quickly drank the beverage, not really knowing what it was I asked for more. Within minutes I drank a dozen glasses. Dizzy, tired and confused even more I collapsed on the counter.
Then when I regained conches I found myself driving a car. As I turned around to see what was happening there was a dog in the front passenger seat looking pretty worried. Luckily enough I could understand what the dog was saying, he told me to switch places with him so I can rest my eyes. And so we did
The dog seemed to be a pretty good driver
When we stopped the dog told me to get out of the car because I didn’t have a lot of time left. So I quickly hopped out of the car ,and had the in stick to open the cars truck, where I found a pair of golf clubs.
It seemed that I was going to play a round today. But the problem was I forgot actually how to play and what each club was used for. So I knew that I was in a pickle now.

So as I was walking to take my first shot so many thoughts just came in my head. “What if I make a fool out of myself”. ‘Maybe I’m going to hit someone with the ball and kill them!”. “The club might slip out of my hand”. I took a step back, took a deep breath went to the ball took a swing

Immediately I opened my eyes and had a scary smile on my face, I was relived that it was all just a dream, and non of this really happened. But strangely enough the following morning my mother came to me and asked me if I knew why the Absolute Vodka bottle was empty.