Bully: A Novel

This is the pitch for "Bully: A Novel" that has made it through the first stage of Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest.

Ninety percent of the population wants him for president. There is only one problem. The ninety-percent is poor, and the ten percent wealthy wants him eliminated. They have good reason. Papa Aristide spits fire against the upper class. But, the poor mass is watching hard. Nothing could stop Papa Aristide from reaching the presidency; except of course, if the Haitian elites could botch or steal the election. They cannot do it by themselves. They seek help from their habitual collaborator – Washington.  The Republican Administration is fighting a major recession, but President Djorl feels that it is the duty of the Police of the world to shut up this foul mouth Priest that has been bedeviling capitalism.

They failed to prevent him from winning the election. But, few months into his term, Washington and the bourgeoisie overthrow him. Papa Aristide cries foul and would not stop until he is restored. It becomes an international crisis as the world of democracy scrambles to deal with the ouster of a legitimate government in this plain 21^st century. Yet, President Djorl and the ousted president agree on one thing –an embargo on Haiti. To Papa Aristide, it would push the bourgeoisie to return the country to legitimate governance. To President Djorl, it would starve the poor people and force them to abandon their Papa Aristide. The poor mass eats dust. Washington feeds the bourgeoisie through illegality in collaboration with the neighboring Dominican Republic.

Then, President Djorl loses power to Liberal Young Zipper. The new president works out a shoddy deal that brings Papa Aristide back as president. The Haitian opposition becomes irate. The Djorl’s dynasty unleashes its most treacherous CIA Buddy Ghouls to unmake the Haitian president a second time. Haiti recognizes one of its most turbulent moments.

 

 

 

 

The Way Our Society Goes These Days

In the age of cellular phones, Facebook, Twitter, and all, is it too easy to neglect the human being the maker of it all? There was a time when transferring messages between distant places was highly inconvenient. A letter could take months, even years to reach its destination. With the advent of technology and faster traveling, distant communication is drastically ameliorated. Now, we have the wireless. Google is out there mapping every inch of our planet. Nothing is too far or too isolated. Just pick up a cell phone. In few seconds one is talking to another at the end of the world. We should infer thus that men have so much progressed that they have consolidated their environment into a one-world-community.

Is it so?

Our astonishingly progressive technological advancement may have caused us to neglect certain social responsibilities and norms. We are stuck on our computers, cell phones, and tablets; and, we are paying less attention to our kind. A certain article reads, “Alabama Woman, 78, Lived With Dead Husband for Weeks…” What happened? The old woman suffers Alzheimer. Her husband died in his bed. She was left alone in the home with two dogs until the police finally checked on them four weeks later “at the request of relatives.” What may we infer? These two senior citizens were obviously forgotten within the quagmire of our world of electronic. Nobody checked on them during the one month that the husband was lying there dead in his bed and the wife suffering the stench.

This is no surprise. People are no longer so busy with people around them. It is a virtual world. We are chatting with whom? We don’t know. Perhaps we are keeping communication with an alien way out in Siberia. Who lives next door to us? We don’t know! And, we keep our eyes transfixed into our portables. We walk; we sit; we lie down with our machines. We don’t pay much attention to people. We talk less; we salute less; we see less.

Where were the children? Where were the grandchildren? Where the social services? And, where were the neighbors? They must have all been busy with their latest technologies or something like that. That’s the way our modern society goes. Our friends on Facebook are keeping us busy. We don’t know the neighbors who sleep in the apartment next door. And, this is big city. People should not care about one another’s business anyway.

One of the neighbors of the old couple that had known them for decades lamented, “To think that all of us live right here, this close, and none of us knew anything about this.” This neighbor must be feeling really bad. She is very likely advanced in age too and probably not so much hooked up into our wireless craze. Still, she must have her television. She was not so connected with her neighbor to take a little time to check on them. It is a virtual world. Also, the police discovered the two dogs died of starvation in the home as well. 

By E.C. GRANMOUN
E.C. Granmoun is the author of "The Social Worker" ebook on amazon.com
Join E.C. Granmoun on Facebook and Twitter  

Where Do You Find The Heart To Hurt A Child?

Children are little precious beings that come along to replenish and maintain our society. And, just like “God made man in his image,” our children are reflections of ourselves. In general, when a child is born the parents are happy and often other people as well. One just has to look at the little newborn lying there innocently, smiling, crying, and staring blankly; and one must feel a certain urge to pick a child up and cuddle him. Modern societies have applied certain measures to control the flow of birth and to appropriately care for children among us. We shower our children with love. They develop and interact with us. We protect them and bring them happiness. We arrive to share very special bonding. And, when we become old and unable to care for ourselves, they take charge of us.

Where does anyone find the courage to hurt a child to death? The little three-year-old boy carries a broad smile on his face with his two hands inside his front pockets. He wears a nice clean sweatshirt, jeans, and a necklace that appears to hold some type of heart-like pendant. By simply looking at this picture on the Miami Herald, no one could imagine that the little boy had been living a traumatized life. However, on Tuesday January 21^st 2014 this child was found dead. He was murdered by his own mother. Why did she do it? How could she even stand torturing her own child until he expired? Most of us may not even be capable to apply minor punishment to a child; we would never imagine torturing and not to mention killing one.

Yet, this remains a common affair around us. Among destitute parents, children are going hungry; children are lacking medical care; and, children are being ultimately abused. As the newspaper reported, “…behind the brilliant smile was a life of torment and pain.” The boy “was burn by his mom with a lighter when he urinated on the floor. He was beaten with an aluminum broom handle when he soiled himself. He was hurled across a room and hit a table.” That was too much. He died. The irony is everything appeared fine on the surface. The reporter wrote, “…the picture of a healthy, carefree boy, grinning broadly…” was on the mother’s Facebook page.

Yet, deep within we would dive into the mystery of poverty and instability that is ravaging our less fortunate communities. This mother was young, poor, uneducated, and very likely single. She had three prior reports with DCF, the child welfare system. She worked as a security guard. And, the father of her three children was not present at the time of the murder. One could understand therefore how unstable her home environment must have been. The media and the police have ultimately condemned her action. She greatly deserves that. For, it is so horrendous to imagine a mother or any other human being torturing a little child to death. However, we still have a big question as to the role of our society in this lamentable circumstance.

We don’t even have to touch the child welfare system. We know already that it has often done a poor job. So many children have died under DCF’s watch we would not expect it to save a particular one. Society likewise must accept the blame with this mother. She is poor and unstable. When those individuals are locked up inside the inner cities shutting off from the prosperity of our society as it is, they are bound to failure. We have witnessed so many cases similar to this; so many little precious beings have been abused; so many families are neglected by society.

By E.C. GRANMOUN
E.C. Granmoun is the author of "The Social Worker" ebook on amazon.com
Join E.C. Granmoun on Facebook and Twitter