Tài liệu Clean Break doc

LINK DOWNLOAD MIỄN PHÍ TÀI LIỆU "Tài liệu Clean Break doc": http://123doc.vn/document/1039151-tai-lieu-clean-break-doc.htm

N
othing more exciting ever happened to Oliver Watts than being re-
jected by his draft board for a punctured eardrum until, deferring
as usual to the superior judgment of his Aunt Katisha and of
Glenna—his elder and militantly spinster sister—he put away his
lifelong dream and took up, at the age of twenty-five, the practice of
veterinary medicine.
The relinquished dream was Oliver's ambition, cherished since child-
hood, to become some day a hunter and trainer of jungle animals. It had
been discouraged firmly and at length by his Aunt Katisha, who main-
tained that the skin of the last male Watts was not to be risked in a pur-
suit so perilous; and his Aunt Katisha won. He would do far better, Oliv-
er realized finally, to resign himself to the quiet suburban life of
Landsdale, Florida, and to perpetuate the Watts line by marrying some
worthy and practical local girl. The quiet life, it developed, was that of a
D. V. M.; the worthy and practical girl, Miss Orella Simms of Tampa, to
whom he was now engaged.
To put it plainly, Oliver was until the moment of his Great Opportun-
ity a good-humored stooge with a cowlick and a sense of responsibility,
whose invariable cue was family obligation and whose crowning virtue
was docility. He was maneuvered into becoming a D. V. M. (though to
tell the truth the profession suited him well enough, being the nearest
possible approach to realizing his ambition) solely because the veterin-
ary college in Tampa was near enough to Landsdale for commuting and
because his later practice could be carried on under the guiding aegis of
his personal matriarchy. The virtuous, and vapid, Orella Simms became
his fiancee by the same tactics and for the same reasons.
Oliver had considered rebellion, of course, but common sense discour-
aged the idea. He had no intimates outside his family nor any experience
with the world beyond Landsdale and Tampa, and his fledgling self-con-
fidence invariably bogged down in a welter of introspective apprehen-
sions when he thought of running away. Where would he go, and to
whom could he turn in emergency?
Such was the character and condition of Oliver Watts when his newly
undertaken practice of veterinary medicine threw him into the company
of "Mr. Thomas Furnay" and of a girl whose name, as nearly as it can be
rendered into English, was Perrl-high-C-trill-and-A-above. Their advent
brought Oliver face to face for the first time in his sedentary life with
High Adventure—with adventure so high, as a matter of fact, that it took
him literally and bodily out of this humdrum world.
4
T
he initial step was taken when Mr. Furnay, known to Landsdale as
a wealthy and eccentric old recluse who had recently leased a
walled property on Federal Route 27 that had once been the winter re-
treat of a Prohibition-era gangster, was driven by emergency to call upon
Oliver for professional service. Mr. Furnay usually kept very much to
himself behind his iron-grilled gates and his miles of stuccoed wall; but
it happened that in pursuit of his business (whose true nature would
have confounded Landsdale to its insular core) he had just bought up the
entire menagerie of an expiring circus billed as Skadarian Brothers, and
it was the sudden illness of one of his newly acquired animals that
forced him to breach his isolation.
Mr. Furnay called at the Watts place in his town car, driven by a small,
dark and taciturn chauffeur named Bivins. He found Oliver at work in
his neatly ordered clinic at the rear of the big house, busily spooning
cod-liver oil into a trussed and thoroughly outraged chow named
Champ.
"I have a sick animal," Mr. Furnay stated tersely. He was a slight man
with a moderately long and wrinkled face, a Panama hat two sizes too
large and a voice that had, in spite of its excellent diction, a jarring
timbre and definitely foreign flavor.
Oliver blinked, surprised and a little dismayed that Fate should have
sent him so early in his career a known and patently captious million-
aire. Bivins, waiting in visored and putteed impassivity to reopen the
door for his master, was silently impressive; the town car, parked on the
crushed shell driveway outside, glittered splendidly in the late afternoon
sunshine.
"I'll be happy to call later in the day," Oliver said. He removed the pad-
ded block that had held Champ's jaws apart, and narrowly missed losing
a finger as the infuriated chow snapped at his hand. "My aunt and sister
are bringing my fiancee down from Tampa for dinner this evening, and I
can't leave the clinic until they get here. Someone might call for his pet."
Mr. Furnay protested his extremity of need. "The animal suffers peri-
odic convulsions," he said. "It may be dangerously ill!"
Oliver unstrapped Champ from his detention frame and dodged with
practiced skill when the chow tried to bite him on the thigh. He had
taken it for granted—having heard none of the gossip concerning Mr.
Furnay's recent purchase of the Skadarian Brothers' menagerie—that the
sick animal in question was a dog or cat or perhaps a saddle horse, and
the bald description of its symptoms startled him more than Champ's
predictable bid for revenge.
5
"Convulsions? What sort of animal is it, Mr. Furnay?"
"A polar bear," said Mr. Furnay.
"Polar bear!" echoed Oliver, and in his shock of surprise he dropped a
detaining strap and let Champ loose.
T
he dog sprang across the room—without a breath of warning, as
chows will—and bit Bivins on the leg just above his puttee. The
chauffeur screamed in a high and peculiarly raucous voice and jerked
away, jabbering in a vowelless and totally unfamiliar foreign tongue. Mr.
Furnay said something sharply in the same grating language; Bivins
whipped out a handkerchief, pressed it over the tear in his whipcords
and went quickly out to the car.
Oliver collared the snarling Champ and returned him to his cage,
where the dog pressed bristling against the bars and stared at Mr.
Furnay hungrily with wicked, muddy eyes.
Mr. Furnay's shocked voice said, behind Oliver, "What a ghastly
world, where even the pets… ."
He broke off sharply as Oliver turned from the cage.
"I'm truly sorry, Mr. Furnay," Oliver apologized. "If there's anything I
can do … a dressing for Bivins' leg—"
Mr. Furnay gathered himself with an effort. "It is nothing, a scratch
that will heal quickly. But my bear—you will come to see him at once?"
At another time, the thought of absenting himself without due notice
to his Aunt Katisha and Glenna would have prompted Oliver to refuse;
but the present moment called more for diplomacy than for convention.
Better to suffer matriarchal displeasure, he thought, than to risk a dam-
age suit by a millionaire.
"I'll come at once," Oliver said. "I owe you that, I think, after the fright
Champ gave you."
And, belatedly, the realization that he might handle a bear—a great,
live, lumbering bear!—surged up inside him to titillate his old boyhood
yearning. Perhaps it was as well that his aunt and sister were away; this
chance to exercise his natural skill at dealing with animals was too pre-
cious to decline.
"Of course I won't guarantee a cure," Oliver said, qualifying his prom-
ise, "because I've never diagnosed such a case. But I think I can help your
bear."
Oddly enough, he was almost sure that he could. Oliver, in his young-
er days, had read a great deal on the care and treatment of circus
6
animals, and the symptoms in this instance had a familiar sound. Mr.
Furnay's bear, he thought, in all probability had worms.
The Furnay town car purred away, leaving Oliver to marvel at his own
daring while he collected the instruments and medicines he might need.
In leaving the clinic he noted that Mr. Furnay's chauffeur had dropped
his handkerchief at the doorway in his hurry to be gone—but Oliver by
this time was in too great a hurry to stop and retrieve it.
His Aunt Katisha might spoil the whole adventure on the instant with
a telephone call from Tampa. Bivins could wait.
T
he drive, after a day spent in the antiseptic confines of his clinic,
was like a holiday jaunt.
The late June sun was hot and bright, the rows of suburban houses
trim and clean as scrubbed children sunning themselves among color-
splashed crotons and hibiscus and flaming poincianas. Oliver whistled
gaily as he turned his little white-paneled call truck off the highway and
drove between twin ranks of shedding cabbage palms toward the iron
gates of the Furnay estate.
A uniformed gateman who might have been a twin to Bivins admitted
him, pointing out a rambling white building that lay behind the stuccoed
mansion, and shut the gate. Oliver parked his truck before the menagerie
building—it had been a stable in the heyday of the Prohibition-era gang-
ster, when it had held horses or cases of contraband as occasion deman-
ded—and found Bivins waiting for him.
Bivins, looking upset and sullen in immaculate new whipcords,
opened the sliding doors without a word.
The vast inside of the remodeled stable was adequately lighted by
roof-windows and fluorescent bulbs, but seemed dark for the moment
after the glare of sun outside; there was a smell, familiar to every circus-
goer, of damp straw and animal dung, and a restless background stir of
purring and growling and pacing.
Oliver gaped when his eyes dilated enough to show him the real ex-
tent of Mr. Furnay's menagerie holdings. At the north end of the build-
ing two towering Indian elephants swayed on picket, munching hay and
shuffling monotonously on padded, ponderous feet. A roped-off enclos-
ure held half a dozen giraffes which nibbled in aristocratic deprecation at
feed-bins bracketed high on the walls; and beyond them three disdainful
camels lay on untidily folded legs, sneering glassily at the world and at
each other.
7
The east and west sides of the building were lined with rank after rank
of cages holding a staggering miscellany of predators: great-maned lions
with their sleek green-eyed mistresses; restless tigers undulating their
stripes back and forth and grinning in sly, tusky boredom; chattering
monkeys and chimpanzees; leopards and cheetahs and a pair of surly
black jaguars whose claw-scored hides indicated either a recent differ-
ence of opinion or a burst of conjugal affection.
The south end of the vast room had been recently partitioned off, with
a single heavy door breaking the new wall at its center. On either side of
this door the bears held sway: shaggy grizzlies, black bears, cinnamon
and brown; spectacled Andeans and sleek white polars padding silently
on tufted feet.
The sick bear sulked in a cage to himself, humped in an oddly doglike
pose with his great head hanging disconsolately.
Oliver sized up the situation, casting back to past reading for the prop-
er procedure.
"I'll need a squeeze-cage and a couple of cage boys to help immobilize
the brute," he said. "Will you—"
He was startled, in turning, to find that Bivins had not accompanied
him into the building. He was not alone, however. The door at the center
of the partitioning wall had opened while he spoke, and a slender blonde
girl in the briefest of white sunsuits was looking at him.
A
pparently she had not expected Oliver, for there was open interest
in her clear green eyes. She said something in a clear and music-
al—but completely unintelligible—voice that ranged, with a remarkably
operatic effect, through two full octaves.
Oliver stared. "I'm here to doctor the sick bear," he said.
"Oh, a native," the girl said in English.
Obviously she was trying to keep her voice within the tonal range of
his own, but in spite of the effort it trilled distractingly up and down the
scale in a fashion that left Oliver smitten with a sudden and unfamiliar
weakness of the knees.
"May I help?" she said.
She might, Oliver replied. She could have had as readily, he might
have added, a pint of his blood.
Many times while they worked, finding a suitable squeeze-cage and
dragging it against the bear's larger cage so that the two doors coincided,
Oliver found the prim and reproachful image of Miss Orella Simms
rising to remind him of his obligations; but for the first time in his life an
8
obligation was surprisingly easy to dismiss. His assistant's lively conver-
sation, which was largely uninformative though fascinatingly musical,
bemused him even to the point of shrugging off his Aunt Katisha's cer-
tain disapproval.
The young lady, it seemed, came from a foreign country whose name
was utterly unpronounceable; Oliver gathered that she had not been
long with Mr. Furnay, who was of another nationality, and that she was
homesick for her native land—for its "saffron sun on turquoise hills and
umber sea," which could only be poetic exaggeration or simple unfamili-
arity with color terms of a newly learned language—and that she was as
a consequence very lonely.
She was, incredibly, a trainer of animals.
"Not of such snarling fierce ones as yours," she said, with a little shiver
for the polar bear watching them sullenly through the bars, "but of my
own gentle beasts, who are friends."
Her name was a startling combination of soprano sounds that might
have been written as Perrl-high-C-trill-and-A-above, but which Oliver
was completely unable to manage.
"Would you mind," he asked, greatly daring, "if I called you Pearl
instead?"
She would not. But apparently Mr. Furnay would.
T
he millionaire, who had entered the menagerie unheard, spoke
sternly to the girl in his own raucous tongue and pointed a peremp-
tory finger toward the door through which she had come. The girl mur-
mured "Ai docssain, Tsammai," in a disappointed tone, gave Oliver a smile
that would have stunned a harem guard, and disappeared again into her
own territory.
Oliver, being neither Chesterfield nor eunuch, was left with the giddy
sensation of a man struggling to regain his balance after a sudden earth
temblor.
His client reoriented him brusquely, "Treat my bear," Mr. Furnay said.
"I've been waiting for help," Oliver said defensively. "If you'll send
around your menagerie manager and a cage boy or two—"
"I have none," Mr. Furnay said shortly. "There are only the four of us
here, and not one will approach within touching distance of a brute so
vicious."
Oliver stared at him in astonishment… . Four of them meant only Biv-
ins, the gateman, the lovely blonde creature who called herself Perrl-
high-C-trill-and-A-above and Mr. Furnay himself.
9
"But four inexperienced people can't possibly look after a menagerie of
this size!" Oliver protested. "Circus animals aren't house pets, Mr.
Furnay—they're restless and temperamental, and they need expert care.
They bite and claw each other—"
"There will be more of us later," Mr. Furnay said morosely, "but I
doubt that numbers will help. We had not anticipated a ferocity so ap-
palling, and I fear that my error may have proved the ruin of an expens-
ive project. The native beasts were never so fierce on other—"
He broke off. "I am sorry. You will have to manage as best you can
alone."
And he left the menagerie without looking back.
To deal tersely with subsequent detail, Oliver did manage alone—after
a fashion and up to a point. It was a simple matter, once he found a four-
foot length of conveniently loose board, to prod the unhappy bear from
his larger prison to the smaller. The process of immobilizing the brute by
winching the squeeze-cage tight was elementary.
But in his casting-back Oliver had overlooked two vitally important
precautions: he'd forgotten to secure the gear fastenings, and he'd neg-
lected to rope the smaller cage to the larger.
The bear, startled by the prick of the needle when Oliver gave him a
sizable injection of nembutal, reacted with a frantic struggling that re-
versed the action of the unsecured winch and forced the two cages apart.
The door burst open, sprung by the sudden pressure.
The bear stood free.
A considerable amount of legitimate excitement could be injected into
such a moment by reporting that the bear, at last in a position to revenge
itself for past indignities, leaped upon its tormentor with a blood-freez-
ing roar and that Oliver, a fragile pygmy before that near-ton of slaver-
ing fury, escaped only by a hair or was annihilated on the spot.
Neither circumstance developed, however, for the reason that the bear
was already feeling the effects of the anesthetic given it and wanted
nothing so much as a cool dark place where it might collapse in privacy.
And Oliver, caught completely off guard, was too stunned by the sud-
denness of catastrophe to realize his own possible danger.
What did happen was that Perrl-high-C-trill-and-A-above chose that
particular moment to open her door again and look out.
Her fortuitous timing altered the situation on the instant; the bear,
bent only on escape and seeing comparative gloom beyond the door,
charged not at Oliver but through the opening. And Oliver, still too
10
confused to think past the necessity of retrieving his error, ran after it,
brandishing his length of board and shouting wildly.
T
he smaller area beyond the partition was dimly lighted, but to
judge by its straw-covered floor and faint animal smell was evid-
ently a special division of Mr. Furnay's menagerie. The light was too dim
and the emergency too great to permit Oliver more than a brief and in-
credulous glimpse of the improbable beast placidly munching hay in a
corner; his whole attention was centered first on the fleeing bear and
then upon the prostrate form of Perrl-high-C-trill-and-A-above, who had
been violently bowled over by the bear's rush.
"Pearl!" yelled Oliver, petrified with horror.
The bear stood swaying upright over her, threshing its tufted forepaws
for balance and showing yellow tusks in a grimace that stemmed from
drugged weakness but which passed quite creditably for a snarl of de-
moniac fury.
Obviously something had to be done. Oliver, galvanized by the realiz-
ation, came to the rescue with a promptness that amounted to reflex
action.
"Down, boy!" he said, and dealt the bear a sharp blow across the
muzzle with his board.
The bear dealt Oliver a roundhouse clout in return that stretched him
half-conscious beside Perrl-high-C-trill-and-A-above. Then, at precisely
that moment of greatest dramatic impact, it shook its head dizzily and
passed out cold.
The girl scrambled up and knelt beside Oliver to listen to his heartbeat,
found that he was alive and raised her voice in an urgent arpeggio that
held in spite of its operatic timbre a distinct note of command.
In answer to her call the great beast in the corner—built something on
the order of a hippopotamus but with unorthodox variations in that it
boasted six legs to either side and was covered with close-curling, bright
blue wool—trotted out of the shadows and scooped up the unconscious
bear in its four powerful anterior arms.
A word from Perrl-high-C-trill-and-A-above sent it into the main me-
nagerie quarters, where it stuffed the limp bear into its old cage and trot-
ted back to its mistress with a look of adoring deference on its round
face.
The girl gave the creature a random trill of commendation and, dis-
playing surprising strength for one so slight, herself dragged the reviv-
ing Oliver back to the scene of his unfinished diagnosis. The order given
11
her earlier by Mr. Furnay was not forgotten, however, for she did not
linger.
"Not handsome, no," she murmured, locking the partition door behind
her this time. "But O Personal Deity of Unmarried Maidens, such head-
long bravery!"
O
liver roused ten minutes later to find himself alone with a memory
of nightmare and a sleeping bear that offered no resistance
whatever when he funneled a quantity of tetrachlorethylene down its
throat.
He was still alone an hour later—and still trying dizzily to separate
fact from fancy, having tried the partition door and found it
locked—when the bear returned to semi-consciousness and submitted
groggily to a follow-up dosage of purgative.
Oliver would have liked to stay long enough to learn the results of his
diagnosis and to see Perrl-high-C-trill-and-A-above if she should re-
appear, but a glance at his watch electrified him with the realization that
he had been away from his clinic for more than two hours and that his
Aunt Katisha and Glenna might by now have the state police beating the
palmetto flats for his body. Accordingly he left the Furnay estate in a
great hurry, pausing at the gate only long enough to leave word for Mr.
Furnay that he would ring later in the evening to check his patient's
progress.
It was not until he had returned home and found his Aunt Katisha still
out that his overworked nerves, punished outrageously by shock, viol-
ence and confusion, composed themselves enough to permit him a reas-
onable guess as to what actually had happened—and by that time his
conclusions had taken a turn so fantastically improbable that he was lost
again in a hopeless muddle of surmise.
He poured himself a glass of milk in the kitchen (he preferred coffee,
but his Aunt Katisha frowned on the habit) and took his grisly suspi-
cions down to the clinic, where he felt more at ease than in the anti-
macassared austerity of the house. There he mulled them over again, and
time was able to weave into the pattern the disjointed impressions car-
ried over from his period of semi-consciousness and dismissed until now
as nightmare figments from the delirium of shock. Their alignment with
other evidence increased his conviction:
Mr. Furnay and Ménage, Oliver concluded with a cold thrill of horror,
were not human beings at all but monsters.
12
T
he pattern became even more disturbing when he considered vari-
ous stories of local saucer-sightings and fireballs, which linked
themselves with chilling germanity to the events of the day.
First there had been Champ's instant distrust of Mr. Furnay and Biv-
ins, and his attempt to rout them for the aliens they were. There had
been Bivins' anomalous scream when bitten—a raucous sound certainly
not human—and Mr. Furnay's grittily inconsonant order, spoken in no
identifiable earthly tongue. The isolation of the Furnay estate took on a
sinister and significant logic, as did its understaffed condition; there was
the evident but baffling reluctance of Mr. Furnay and his myrmidons
(with the notable exception of the golden-voiced Pearl) to approach even
safely caged beasts, and the greater mystery of why a man so terrified of
wild animals should have bought a menagerie in the first place.
Considering the part played by Perrl-high-C-trill-and-A-above in a
scheme of things so fantastic left Oliver more disturbed than ever, but for
a different reason. That she was unarguably as alien as the others made
her equally mysterious, but connoted no share in whatever devious plot
occupied the Furnay faction; a reexamination of Mr. Furnay's harshly
dictatorial attitude toward her, coupled with Oliver's own uncertain
memory of the moment when the girl had come to his rescue, convinced
him that she was not ipso facto a member of the extraterrestrial cabal but
was its prisoner instead.
Visualizing the probable fate of a beautiful girl held captive by ali-
ens—and forced by them to train outlandish, half-remembered brutes
like the one behind the partition—rather strained Oliver's talent for sur-
mise, but at the same time moved him to the uneasy conviction that it
was his duty to rescue her in turn.
The thought that he might already be too late appalled him. The
slender blonde beauty of Perrl-high-C-trill-and-A-above was distract-
ingly fresh in his mind, the eager arpeggiation of her voice an indelible
memory. Recalling the smile she had given him in parting stirred an in-
ternal warmth unguessed at before, an emotional ignition certainly never
kindled by his fiancee or family.
O
rella Simms, Glenna, his Aunt Katisha!
Thought of his obligations brought him back to reality with a
jar; the appalling gulf between fact and fancy made clear to him with
sudden and shocking clarity the nonentity's role that had been played,
and must be played, all his life by Oliver Watts.
13

Tài liệu WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA By CHARLES WATERTON pdf

LINK DOWNLOAD MIỄN PHÍ TÀI LIỆU "Tài liệu WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA By CHARLES WATERTON pdf": http://123doc.vn/document/1039879-tai-lieu-wanderings-in-south-america-by-charles-waterton-pdf.htm

above six yards in circumference. If larger have ever existed they have fallen a
sacrifice either to the axe or to fire.
If, however, they disappoint you in size, they make ample amends in height. Heedless,
and bankrupt in all curiosity, must he be who can journey on without stopping to take
a view of the towering mora. Its topmost branch, when naked with age or dried by
accident, is the favourite resort of the toucan. Many a time has this singular bird felt
the shot faintly strike him from the gun of the fowler beneath, and owed his life to the
distance betwixt them.
The trees which form these far-extending wilds are as useful as they are ornamental. It
would take a volume of itself to describe them.
The green-heart, famous for its hardness and durability; the hackea for its toughness;
the ducalabali surpassing mahogany; the ebony and letter-wood vying with the
choicest woods of the old world; the locust-tree yielding copal; and the hayawa- and
olou-trees furnishing a sweet-smelling resin, are all to be met with in the forest
betwixt the plantations and the rock Saba.
Beyond this rock the country has been little explored, but it is very probable that
these, and a vast collection of other kinds, and possibly many new species, are
scattered up and down, in all directions, through the swamps and hills and savannas
of ci-devant Dutch Guiana.
On viewing the stately trees around him, the naturalist will observe many of them
bearing leaves and blossoms and fruit not their own.
The wild fig-tree, as large as a common English apple-tree, often rears itself from one
of the thick branches at the top of the mora, and when its fruit is ripe, to it the birds
resort for nourishment. It was to an undigested seed passing through the body of the
bird which had perched on the mora that the fig-tree first owed its elevated station
there. The sap of the mora raised it into full bearing, but now, in its turn, it is doomed
to contribute a portion of its own sap and juices towards the growth of different
species of vines, the seeds of which also the birds deposited on its branches. These
soon vegetate, and bear fruit in great quantities; so what with their usurpation of the
resources of the fig-tree, and the fig- tree of the mora, the mora, unable to support a
charge which nature never intended it should, languishes and dies under its burden;
and then the fig- tree, and its usurping progeny of vines, receiving no more succour
from their late foster-parent, droop and perish in their turn.
A vine called the bush-rope by the wood-cutters, on account of its use in hauling out
the heaviest timber, has a singular appearance in the forests of Demerara. Sometimes
you see it nearly as thick as a man's body, twisted like a corkscrew round the tallest
trees and rearing its head high above their tops. At other times three or four of them,
like strands in a cable, join tree and tree and branch and branch together. Others,
descending from on high, take root as soon as their extremity touches the ground, and
appear like shrouds and stays supporting the mainmast of a line-of-battle ship; while
others, sending out parallel, oblique, horizontal and perpendicular shoots in all
directions, put you in mind of what travellers call a matted forest. Oftentimes a tree,
above a hundred feet high, uprooted by the whirlwind, is stopped in its fall by these
amazing cables of nature, and hence it is that you account for the phenomenon of
seeing trees not only vegetating, but sending forth vigorous shoots, though far from
their perpendicular, and their trunks inclined to every degree from the meridian to the
horizon.
Their heads remain firmly supported by the bush-rope; many of their roots soon refix
themselves in the earth, and frequently a strong shoot will sprout out perpendicularly
from near the root of the reclined trunk, and in time become a fine tree. No grass
grows under the trees and few weeds, except in the swamps.
The high grounds are pretty clear of underwood, and with a cutlass to sever the small
bush-ropes it is not difficult walking among the trees.
The soil, chiefly formed by the fallen leaves and decayed trees, is very rich and fertile
in the valleys. On the hills it is little better than sand. The rains seem to have carried
away and swept into the valleys every particle which Nature intended to have formed
a mould.
Four-footed animals are scarce considering how very thinly these forests are inhabited
by men.
Several species of the animal commonly called tiger, though in reality it approaches
nearer to the leopard, are found here, and two of their diminutives, named tiger-cats.
The tapir, the lobba and deer afford excellent food, and chiefly frequent the swamps
and low ground near the sides of the river and creeks.
In stating that four-footed animals are scarce, the peccari must be excepted. Three or
four hundred of them herd together and traverse the wilds in all directions in quest of
roots and fallen seeds. The Indians mostly shoot them with poisoned arrows. When
wounded they run about one hundred and fifty paces; they then drop, and make
wholesome food.
The red monkey, erroneously called the baboon, is heard oftener than it is seen, while
the common brown monkey, the bisa, and sacawinki rove from tree to tree, and amuse
the stranger as he journeys on.
A species of the polecat, and another of the fox, are destructive to the Indian's poultry,
while the opossum, the guana and salempenta afford him a delicious morsel.
The small ant-bear, and the large one, remarkable for his long, broad, bushy tail, are
sometimes seen on the tops of the wood-ants' nests; the armadillos bore in the sand-
hills, like rabbits in a warren; and the porcupine is now and then discovered in the
trees over your head.
This, too, is the native country of the sloth. His looks, his gestures and his cries all
conspire to entreat you to take pity on him. These are the only weapons of defence
which Nature hath given him. While other animals assemble in herds, or in pairs range
through these boundless wilds, the sloth is solitary and almost stationary; he cannot
escape from you. It is said his piteous moans make the tiger relent and turn out of the
way. Do not then level your gun at him or pierce him with a poisoned arrow—he has
never hurt one living creature. A few leaves, and those of the commonest and coarsest
kind, are all he asks for his support. On comparing him with other animals you would
say that you could perceive deficiency, deformity and superabundance in his
composition. He has no cutting-teeth, and though four stomachs, he still wants the
long intestines of ruminating animals. He has only one inferior aperture, as in birds.
He has no soles to his feet nor has he the power of moving his toes separately. His hair
is flat, and puts you in mind of grass withered by the wintry blast. His legs are too
short; they appear deformed by the manner in which they are joined to the body, and
when he is on the ground, they seem as if only calculated to be of use in climbing
trees. He has forty-six ribs, while the elephant has only forty, and his claws are
disproportionably long. Were you to mark down, upon a graduated scale, the different
claims to superiority amongst the four-footed animals, this poor ill-formed creature's
claim would be the last upon the lowest degree.
Demerara yields to no country in the world in her wonderful and beautiful productions
of the feathered race. Here the finest precious stones are far surpassed by the vivid
tints which adorn the birds. The naturalist may exclaim that Nature has not known
where to stop in forming new species and painting her requisite shades. Almost every
one of those singular and elegant birds described by Buffon as belonging to Cayenne
are to be met with in Demerara, but it is only by an indefatigable naturalist that they
are to be found.
The scarlet curlew breeds in innumerable quantities in the muddy islands on the coasts
of Pomauron; the egrets and crabiers in the same place. They resort to the mud-flats at
ebbing water, while thousands of sandpipers and plovers, with here and there a
spoonbill and flamingo, are seen amongst them. The pelicans go farther out to sea, but
return at sundown to the courada-trees. The humming-birds are chiefly to be found
near the flowers at which each of the species of the genus is wont to feed. The pie, the
gallinaceous, the columbine and passerine tribes resort to the fruit- bearing trees.
You never fail to see the common vulture where there is carrion. In passing up the
river there was an opportunity of seeing a pair of the king of the vultures; they were
sitting on the naked branch of a tree, with about a dozen of the common ones with
them. A tiger had killed a goat the day before; he had been driven away in the act of
sucking the blood, and not finding it safe or prudent to return, the goat remained in the
same place where he had killed it; it had begun to putrefy, and the vultures had arrived
that morning to claim the savoury morsel.
At the close of day the vampires leave the hollow trees, whither they had fled at the
morning's dawn, and scour along the river's banks in quest of prey. On waking from
sleep the astonished traveller finds his hammock all stained with blood. It is the
vampire that hath sucked him. Not man alone, but every unprotected animal, is
exposed to his depredations; and so gently does this nocturnal surgeon draw the blood
that, instead of being roused, the patient is lulled into a still profounder sleep. There
are two species of vampire in Demerara, and both suck living animals: one is rather
larger than the common bat, the other measures above two feet from wing to wing
extended.
Snakes are frequently met with in the woods betwixt the sea-coast and the rock Saba,
chiefly near the creeks and on the banks of the river. They are large, beautiful and
formidable. The rattlesnake seems partial to a tract of ground known by the name of
Canal Number-three: there the effects of his poison will be long remembered.
The camoudi snake has been killed from thirty to forty feet long; though not
venomous, his size renders him destructive to the passing animals. The Spaniards in
the Oroonoque positively affirm that he grows to the length of seventy or eighty feet
and that he will destroy the strongest and largest bull. His name seems to confirm this:
there he is called "matatoro," which literally means "bull-killer." Thus he may be
ranked amongst the deadly snakes, for it comes nearly to the same thing in the end
whether the victim dies by poison from the fangs, which corrupts his blood and makes
it stink horribly, or whether his body be crushed to mummy, and swallowed by this
hideous beast.
The whipsnake of a beautiful changing green, and the coral, with alternate broad
traverse bars of black and red, glide from bush to bush, and may be handled with
safety; they are harmless little creatures.
The labarri snake is speckled, of a dirty brown colour, and can scarcely be
distinguished from the ground or stump on which he is coiled up; he grows to the
length of about eight feet and his bite often proves fatal in a few minutes.
Unrivalled in his display of every lovely colour of the rainbow, and unmatched in the
effects of his deadly poison, the counacouchi glides undaunted on, sole monarch of
these forests; he is commonly known by the name of the bush-master. Both man and
beast fly before him, and allow him to pursue an undisputed path. He sometimes
grows to the length of fourteen feet.
A few small caymen, from two to twelve feet long, may be observed now and then in
passing up and down the river; they just keep their heads above the water, and a
stranger would not know them from a rotten stump.
Lizards of the finest green, brown and copper colour, from two inches to two feet and
a half long, are ever and anon rustling among the fallen leaves and crossing the path
before you, whilst the chameleon is busily employed in chasing insects round the
trunks of the neighbouring trees.
The fish are of many different sorts and well-tasted, but not, generally speaking, very
plentiful. It is probable that their numbers are considerably thinned by the otters,
which are much larger than those of Europe. In going through the overflowed
savannas, which have all a communication with the river, you may often see a dozen
or two of them sporting amongst the sedges before you.
This warm and humid climate seems particularly adapted to the producing of insects;
it gives birth to myriads, beautiful past description in their variety of tints, astonishing
in their form and size, and many of them noxious in their qualities.
He whose eye can distinguish the various beauties of uncultivated nature, and whose
ear is not shut to the wild sounds in the woods, will be delighted in passing up the
River Demerara. Every now and then the maam or tinamou sends forth one long and
plaintive whistle from the depth of the forest, and then stops; whilst the yelping of the
toucan and the shrill voice of the bird called pi-pi-yo is heard during the interval. The
campanero never fails to attract the attention of the passenger; at a distance of nearly
three miles you may hear this snow-white bird tolling every four or five minutes, like
the distant convent-bell. From six to nine in the morning the forests resound with the
mingled cries and strains of the feathered race; after this they gradually die away.
From eleven to three all nature is hushed as in a midnight silence, and scarce a note is
heard, saving that of the campanero and the pi-pi-yo; it is then that, oppressed by the
solar heat, the birds retire to the thickest shade and wait for the refreshing cool of
evening.
At sundown the vampires, bats and goat-suckers dart from their lonely retreat and
skim along the trees on the river's bank. The different kinds of frogs almost stun the
ear with their hoarse and hollow-sounding croaking, while the owls and goat-suckers
lament and mourn all night long.
About two hours before daybreak you will hear the red monkey moaning as though in
deep distress; the houtou, a solitary bird, and only found in the thickest recesses of the
forest, distinctly articulates "houtou, houtou," in a low and plaintive tone an hour
before sunrise; the maam whistles about the same hour; the hannaquoi, pataca and
maroudi announce his near approach to the eastern horizon, and the parrots and
paroquets confirm his arrival there.
The crickets chirp from sunset to sunrise, and often during the day when the weather
is cloudy. The bête-rouge is exceedingly numerous in these extensive wilds, and not
only man, but beasts and birds, are tormented by it. Mosquitos are very rare after you
pass the third island in the Demerara, and sand-flies but seldom appear.
Courteous reader, here thou hast the outlines of an amazing landscape given thee; thou
wilt see that the principal parts of it are but faintly traced, some of them scarcely
visible at all, and that the shades are wholly wanting. If thy soul partakes of the ardent
flame which the persevering Mungo Park's did, these outlines will be enough for thee;
they will give thee some idea of what a noble country this is; and if thou hast but
courage to set about giving the world a finished picture of it, neither materials to work
on nor colours to paint it in its true shades will be wanting to thee. It may appear a
difficult task at a distance, but look close at it, and it is nothing at all; provided thou
hast but a quiet mind, little more is necessary, and the genius which presides over
these wilds will kindly help thee through the rest. She will allow thee to slay the fawn
and to cut down the mountain-cabbage for thy support, and to select from every part
of her domain whatever may be necessary for the work thou art about; but having
killed a pair of doves in order to enable thee to give mankind a true and proper
description of them, thou must not destroy a third through wantonness or to show
what a good marksman thou art: that would only blot the picture thou art finishing, not
colour it.
Though retired from the haunts of men, and even without a friend with thee, thou
wouldst not find it solitary. The crowing of the hannaquoi will sound in thine ears like
the daybreak town-clock; and the wren and the thrush will join with thee in thy matin
hymn to thy Creator, to thank Him for thy night's rest.
At noon the genius will lead thee to the troely, one leaf of which will defend thee from
both sun and rain. And if, in the cool of the evening, thou hast been tempted to stray
too far from thy place of abode, and art deprived of light to write down the
information thou hast collected, the fire-fly, which thou wilt see in almost every bush
around thee, will be thy candle. Hold it over thy pocket-book, in any position which
thou knowest will not hurt it, and it will afford thee ample light. And when thou hast
done with it, put it kindly back again on the next branch to thee. It will want no other
reward for its services.
When in thy hammock, should the thought of thy little crosses and disappointments, in
thy ups and downs through life, break in upon thee and throw thee into a pensive
mood, the owl will bear thee company. She will tell thee that hard has been her fate,
too; and at intervals "Whip-poor- will" and "Willy come go" will take up the tale of
sorrow. Ovid has told thee how the owl once boasted the human form and lost it for a
very small offence; and were the poet alive now he would inform thee that "Whip-
poor- will" and "Willy come go" are the shades of those poor African and Indian
slaves who died worn out and broken-hearted. They wail and cry "Whip-poor- will,"
"Willy come go," all night long; and often, when the moon shines, you see them
sitting on the green turf near the houses of those whose ancestors tore them from the
bosom of their helpless families, which all probably perished through grief and want
after their support was gone.
About an hour above the rock of Saba stands the habitation of an Indian called Simon,
on the top of a hill. The side next the river is almost perpendicular, and you may easily
throw a stone over to the opposite bank. Here there was an opportunity of seeing man
in his rudest state. The Indians who frequented this habitation, though living in the
midst of woods, bore evident marks of attention to their persons. Their hair was neatly
collected and tied up in a knot; their bodies fancifully painted red, and the paint was
scented with hayawa. This gave them a gay and animated appearance. Some of them
had on necklaces composed of the teeth of wild boars slain in the chase; many wore
rings, and others had an ornament on the left arm midway betwixt the shoulder and the
elbow. At the close of day they regularly bathed in the river below, and the next
morning seemed busy in renewing the faded colours of their faces.
One day there came into the hut a form which literally might be called the wild man of
the woods. On entering he laid down a ball of wax which he had collected in the
forest. His hammock was all ragged and torn, and his bow, though of good wood, was
without any ornament or polish: "erubuit domino, cultior esse suo." His face was
meagre, his looks forbidding and his whole appearance neglected. His long black hair
hung from his head in matted confusion; nor had his body, to all appearance, ever
been painted. They gave him some cassava bread and boiled fish, which he ate
voraciously, and soon after left the hut. As he went out you could observe no traces in
his countenance or demeanour which indicated that he was in the least mindful of
having been benefited by the society he was just leaving.
The Indians said that he had neither wife nor child nor friend. They had often tried to
persuade him to come and live amongst them, but all was of no avail. He went roving
on, plundering the wild bees of their honey and picking up the fallen nuts and fruits of
the forest. When he fell in with game he procured fire from two sticks and cooked it
on the spot. When a hut happened to be in his way he stepped in and asked for
something to eat, and then months elapsed ere they saw him again. They did not know
what had caused him to be thus unsettled: he had been so for years; nor did they
believe that even old age itself would change the habits of this poor harmless, solitary
wanderer.
From Simon's the traveller may reach the large fall, with ease, in four days.
The first falls that he meets are merely rapids, scarce a stone appearing above the
water in the rainy season; and those in the bed of the river barely high enough to arrest
the water's course, and by causing a bubbling show that they are there.
With this small change of appearance in the stream, the stranger observes nothing new
till he comes within eight or ten miles of the great fall. Each side of the river presents
an uninterrupted range of wood, just as it did below. All the productions found
betwixt the plantations and the rock Saba are to be met with here.
From Simon's to the great fall there are five habitations of the Indians: two of them
close to the river's side; the other three a little way in the forest. These habitations
consist of from four to eight huts, situated on about an acre of ground which they have
cleared from the surrounding woods. A few pappaw, cotton and mountain-cabbage
trees are scattered round them.
At one of these habitations a small quantity of the wourali poison was procured. It was
in a little gourd. The Indian who had it said that he had killed a number of wild hogs
with it, and two tapirs. Appearances seemed to confirm what he said, for on one side it
had been nearly taken out to the bottom, at different times, which probably would not
have been the case had the first or second trial failed.
Its strength was proved on a middle-sized dog. He was wounded in the thigh, in order
that there might be no possibility of touching a vital part. In three or four minutes he
began to be affected, smelt at every little thing on the ground around him, and looked
wistfully at the wounded part. Soon after this he staggered, laid himself down, and
never rose more. He barked once, though not as if in pain. His voice was low and
weak; and in a second attempt it quite failed him. He now put his head betwixt his
fore-legs, and raising it slowly again he fell over on his side. His eye immediately
became fixed, and though his extremities every now and then shot convulsively, he
never showed the least desire to raise up his head. His heart fluttered much from the
time he laid down, and at intervals beat very strong; then stopped for a moment or
two, and then beat again; and continued faintly beating several minutes after every
other part of his body seemed dead.
In a quarter of an hour after he had received the poison he was quite motionless.
A few miles before you reach the great fall, and which indeed is the only one which
can be called a fall, large balls of froth come floating past you. The river appears
beautifully marked with streaks of foam, and on your nearer approach the stream is
whitened all over.

Tài liệu The Planet Savers doc

LINK DOWNLOAD MIỄN PHÍ TÀI LIỆU "Tài liệu The Planet Savers doc": http://123doc.vn/document/1040743-tai-lieu-the-planet-savers-doc.htm

The chubby man scribbled something on a card. "Interesting. In-ter-
est-ing. Do you know where we are?"
I looked around the office. "In the Terran Headquarters. From your
uniform, I'd say we were on Floor 8—Medical."
He nodded and scribbled again, pursing his lips. "Can you—uh—tell
me what planet we are on?"
I had to laugh. "Darkover," I chuckled, "I hope! And if you want the
names of the moons, or the date of the founding of the Trade City, or
something—"
He gave in, laughing with me. "Remember where you were born?"
"On Samarra. I came here when I was three years old—my father was
in Mapping and Exploring—" I stopped short, in shock. "He's dead!"
"Can you tell me your father's name?"
"Same as mine. Jay—Jason—" the flash of memory closed down in the
middle of a word. It had been a good try, but it hadn't quite worked. The
doctor said soothingly, "We're doing very well."
"You haven't told me anything," I accused. "Who are you? Why are
you asking me all these questions?"
He pointed to a sign on his desk. I scowled and spelled out the letters.
"Randall … Forth … Director … Department … " and Dr. Forth made a
note. I said aloud, "It is—Doctor Forth, isn't it?"
"Don't you know?"
I looked down at myself, and shook my head. "Maybe I'm Doctor
Forth," I said, noticing for the first time that I was also wearing a white
coat with the caduceus emblem of Medical. But it had the wrong feel, as
if I were dressed in somebody else's clothes. I was no doctor, was I? I
pushed back one sleeve slightly, exposing a long, triangular scar under
the cuff. Dr. Forth—by now I was sure he was Dr. Forth—followed the
direction of my eyes.
"Where did you get the scar?"
"Knife fight. One of the bands of those-who-may-not-enter-cities
caught us on the slopes, and we—" the memory thinned out again, and I
said despairingly, "It's all confused! What's the matter? Why am I up on
Medical? Have I had an accident? Amnesia?"
"Not exactly. I'll explain."
I got up and walked to the window, unsteadily because my feet
wanted to walk slowly while I felt like bursting through some invisible
net and striding there at one bound. Once I got to the window the room
stayed put while I gulped down great breaths of warm sweetish air. I
said, "I could use a drink."
5
"Good idea. Though I don't usually recommend it." Forth reached into
a drawer for a flat bottle; poured tea-colored liquid into a throwaway
cup. After a minute he poured more for himself. "Here. And sit down,
man. You make me nervous, hovering like that."
I didn't sit down. I strode to the door and flung it open. Forth's voice
was low and unhurried.
"What's the matter? You can go out, if you want to, but won't you sit
down and talk to me for a minute? Anyway, where do you want to go?"
The question made me uncomfortable. I took a couple of long breaths
and came back into the room. Forth said, "Drink this," and I poured it
down. He refilled the cup unasked, and I swallowed that too and felt the
hard lump in my middle begin to loosen up and dissolve.
Forth said, "Claustrophobia too. Typical," and scribbled on the card
some more. I was getting tired of that performance. I turned on him to
tell him so, then suddenly felt amused—or maybe it was the liquor
working in me. He seemed such a funny little man, shutting himself up
inside an office like this and talking about claustrophobia and watching
me as if I were a big bug. I tossed the cup into a disposal.
"Isn't it about time for a few of those explanations?"
"If you think you can take it. How do you feel now?"
"Fine." I sat down on the couch again, leaning back and stretching out
my long legs comfortably. "What did you put in that drink?"
He chuckled. "Trade secret. Now; the easiest way to explain would be
to let you watch a film we made yesterday."
"To watch—" I stopped. "It's your time we're wasting."
He punched a button on the desk, spoke into a mouthpiece.
"Surveillance? Give us a monitor on—" he spoke a string of incompre-
hensible numbers, while I lounged at ease on the couch. Forth waited for
an answer, then touched another button and steel louvers closed noise-
lessly over the windows, blacking them out. I rose in sudden panic, then
relaxed as the room went dark. The darkness felt oddly more normal
than the light, and I leaned back and watched the flickers clear as one
wall of the office became a large visionscreen. Forth came and sat beside
me on the leather couch, but in the picture Forth was there, sitting at his
desk, watching another man, a stranger, walk into the office.
Like Forth, the newcomer wore a white coat with the caduceus em-
blems. I disliked the man on sight. He was tall and lean and composed,
with a dour face set in thin lines. I guessed that he was somewhere in his
6
thirties. Dr Forth-in-the-film said, "Sit down, Doctor," and I drew a long
breath, overwhelmed by a curious, certain sensation.
I have been here before. I have seen this happen before.
(And curiously formless I felt. I sat and watched, and I knew I was
watching, and sitting. But it was in that dreamlike fashion, where the
dreamer at once watches his visions and participates in them… .)
"Sit down, Doctor," Forth said, "did you bring in the reports?"
Jay Allison carefully took the indicated seat, poised nervously on the
edge of the chair. He sat very straight, leaning forward only a little to
hand a thick folder of papers across the desk. Forth took it, but didn't
open it. "What do you think, Dr. Allison?"
"There is no possible room for doubt." Jay Allison spoke precisely, in a
rather high-pitched and emphatic tone. "It follows the statistical pattern
for all recorded attacks of 48-year fever … by the way, sir, haven't we
any better name than that for this particular disease? The term '48-year
fever' connotes a fever of 48 years duration, rather than a pandemic re-
curring every 48 years."
"A fever that lasted 48 years would be quite a fever," Dr. Forth said
with the shadow of a grim smile. "Nevertheless that's the only name we
have so far. Name it and you can have it. Allison's disease?"
Jay Allison greeted this pleasantry with a repressive frown. "As I un-
derstand it, the disease cycle seems to be connected somehow with the
once-every-48-years conjunction of the four moons, which explains why
the Darkovans are so superstitious about it. The moons have remarkably
eccentric orbits—I don't know anything about that part, I'm quoting Dr.
Moore. If there's an animal vector to the disease, we've never discovered
it. The pattern runs like this; a few cases in the mountain districts, the
next month a hundred-odd cases all over this part of the planet. Then it
skips exactly three months without increase. The next upswing puts the
number of reported cases in the thousands, and three months after that, it
reaches real pandemic proportions and decimates the entire human pop-
ulation of Darkover."
"That's about it," Forth admitted. They bent together over the folder,
Jay Allison drawing back slightly to avoid touching the other man.
Forth said, "We Terrans have had a Trade compact on Darkover for a
hundred and fifty-two years. The first outbreak of this 48-year fever
killed all but a dozen men out of three hundred. The Darkovans were
worse off than we were. The last outbreak wasn't quite so bad, but it was
7
bad enough, I've heard. It has an 87 per cent mortality—for humans, that
is. I understand the trailmen don't die of it."
"The Darkovans call it the trailmen's fever, Dr. Forth, because the trail-
men are virtually immune to it. It remains in their midst as a mild ail-
ment taken by children. When it breaks out into the virulent form every
48 years, most of the trailmen are already immune. I took the disease
myself as a child—maybe you heard?"
Forth nodded. "You may be the only Terran ever to contract the dis-
ease and survive."
"The trailmen incubate the disease," Jay Allison said. "I should think
the logical thing would be to drop a couple of hydrogen bombs on the
trail cities—and wipe it out for good and all."
(Sitting on the Sofa in Forth's dark office, I stiffened with such fury
that he shook my shoulder and muttered, "Easy, there, man!")
Dr. Forth, on the screen, looked annoyed, and Jay Allison said, with a
grimace of distaste, "I didn't mean that literally. But the trailmen are not
human. It wouldn't be genocide, just an exterminator's job. A public
health measure."
Forth looked shocked as he realized that the younger man meant what
he was saying. He said, "Galactic center would have to rule on whether
they're dumb animals or intelligent non-humans, and whether they're
entitled to the status of a civilization. All precedent on Darkover is to-
ward recognizing them as men—and good God, Jay, you'd probably be
called as a witness for the defense! How can you say they're not human
after your experience with them? Anyway, by the time their status was
finally decided, half of the recognizable humans on Darkover would be
dead. We need a better solution than that."
He pushed his chair back and looked out the window.
"I won't go into the political situation," he said, "you aren't interested
in Terran Empire politics, and I'm no expert either. But you'd have to be
deaf, dumb and blind not to know that Darkover's been playing the im-
movable object to the irresistible force. The Darkovans are
more advanced in some of the non-causative sciences than we are, and
until now, they wouldn't admit that Terra had a thing to contribute.
However—and this is the big however—they do know, and they're will-
ing to admit, that our medical sciences are better than theirs."
"Theirs being practically non-existent."
8
"Exactly—and this could be the first crack in the barrier. You may not
realize the significance of this, but the Legate received an offer from the
Hasturs themselves."
Jay Allison murmured, "I'm to be impressed?"
"On Darkover you'd damn well better be impressed when the Hasturs
sit up and take notice."
"I understand they're telepaths or something—"
"Telepaths, psychokinetics, parapsychs, just about anything else. For
all practical purposes they're the Gods of Darkover. And one of the Has-
turs—a rather young and unimportant one, I'll admit, the old man's
grandson—came to the Legate's office, in person, mind you. He offered,
if the Terran Medical would help Darkover lick the trailmen's fever, to
coach selected Terran men in matrix mechanics."
"Good Lord," Jay said. It was a concession beyond Terra's wildest
dreams; for a hundred years they had tried to beg, buy or steal some
knowledge of the mysterious science of matrix mechanics—that curious
discipline which could turn matter into raw energy, and vice versa,
without any intermediate stages and without fission by-products. Matrix
mechanics had made the Darkovans virtually immune to the lure of
Terra's advanced technologies.
Jay said, "Personally I think Darkovan science is over-rated. But I can
see the propaganda angle—"
"Not to mention the humanitarian angle of healing—"
Jay Allison gave one of his cold shrugs. "The real angle seems to be
this; can we cure the 48-year fever?"
"Not yet. But we have a lead. During the last epidemic, a Terran scient-
ist discovered a blood fraction containing antibodies against the
fever—in the trailmen. Isolated to a serum, it might reduce the virulent
48-year epidemic form to the mild form again. Unfortunately, he died
himself in the epidemic, without finishing his work, and his notebooks
were overlooked until this year. We have 18,000 men, and their families,
on Darkover now, Jay. Frankly, if we lose too many of them, we're going
to have to pull out of Darkover—the big brass on Terra will write off the
loss of a garrison of professional traders, but not of a whole Trade City
colony. That's not even mentioning the prestige we'll lose if our much-
vaunted Terran medical sciences can't save Darkover from an epidemic.
We've got exactly five months. We can't synthesize a serum in that time.
We've got to appeal to the trailmen. And that's why I called you up here.
9
You know more about the trailmen than any living Terran. You ought to.
You spent eight years in a Nest."
(In Forth's darkened office I sat up straighter, with a flash of returning
memory. Jay Allison, I judged, was several years older than I, but we
had one thing in common; this cold fish of a man shared with myself that
experience of marvelous years spent in an alien world!)
Jay Allison scowled, displeased. "That was years ago. I was hardly
more than a baby. My father crashed on a Mapping expedition over the
Hellers—God only knows what possessed him to try and take a light
plane over those crosswinds. I survived the crash by the merest chance,
and lived with the trailmen—so I'm told—until I was thirteen or four-
teen. I don't remember much about it. Children aren't particularly
observant."
Forth leaned over the desk, staring. "You speak their language, don't
you?"
"I used to. I might remember it under hypnosis, I suppose. Why? Do
you want me to translate something?"
"Not exactly. We were thinking of sending you on an expedition to the
trailmen themselves."
(In the darkened office, watching Jay's startled face, I thought; God,
what an adventure! I wonder—I wonder if they want me to go with
him?)
Forth was explaining: "It would be a difficult trek. You know what the
Hellers are like. Still, you used to climb mountains, as a hobby, before
you went into Medical—"
"I outgrew the childishness of hobbies many years ago, sir," Jay said
stiffly.
"We'd get you the best guides we could, Terran and Darkovan. But
they couldn't do the one thing you can do. You know the trailmen, Jay.
You might be able to persuade them to do the one thing they've never
done before."
"What's that?" Jay Allison sounded suspicious.
"Come out of the mountains. Send us volunteers—blood donors—we
might, if we had enough blood to work on, be able to isolate the right
fraction, and synthesize it, in time to prevent the epidemic from really
taking hold. Jay, it's a tough mission and it's dangerous as all hell, but
somebody's got to do it, and I'm afraid you're the only qualified man."
"I like my first suggestion better. Bomb the trailmen—and the
Hellers—right off the planet." Jay's face was set in lines of loathing,
10
which he controlled after a minute, and said, "I—I didn't mean that. The-
oretically I can see the necessity, only—" he stopped and swallowed.
"Please say what you were going to say."
"I wonder if I am as well qualified as you think? No—don't inter-
rupt—I find the natives of Darkover distasteful, even the humans. As for
the trailmen—"
(I was getting mad and impatient. I whispered to Forth in the dark-
ness, "Shut the damn film off! You couldn't send that guy on an errand
like that! I'd rather—"
(Forth snapped, "Shut up and listen!"
(I shut up and the film continued to repeat.)
Jay Allison was not acting. He was pained and disgusted. Forth
wouldn't let him finish his explanation of why he had refused even to
teach in the Medical college established for Darkovans by the Terran em-
pire. He interrupted, and he sounded irritated.
"We know all that. It evidently never occurred to you, Jay, that it's an
inconvenience to us—that all this vital knowledge should lie, purely by
accident, in the hands of the one man who's too damned stubborn to use
it?"
Jay didn't move an eyelash, where I would have squirmed, "I have al-
ways been aware of that, Doctor."
Forth drew a long breath. "I'll concede you're not suitable at the mo-
ment, Jay. But what do you know of applied psychodynamics?"
"Very little, I'm sorry to say." Allison didn't sound sorry, though. He
sounded bored to death with the whole conversation.
"May I be blunt—and personal?"
"Please do. I'm not at all sensitive."
"Basically, then, Doctor Allison, a person as contained and repressed
as yourself usually has a clearly defined subsidiary personality. In neur-
otic individuals this complex of personality traits sometimes splits off,
and we get a syndrome known as multiple, or alternate personality."
"I've scanned a few of the classic cases. Wasn't there a woman with
four separate personalities?"
"Exactly. However, you aren't neurotic, and ordinarily there would not
be the slightest chance of your repressed alternate taking over your
personality."
"Thank you," Jay murmured ironically, "I'd be losing sleep over that."
"Nevertheless I presume you do have such a subsidiary personality, al-
though he would normally never manifest. This subsidiary—let's call
11
him Jay
2
—would embody all the characteristics which you repress. He
would be gregarious, where you are retiring and studious; adventurous
where you are cautious; talkative while you are taciturn; he would per-
haps enjoy action for its own sake, while you exercise faithfully in the
gymnasium only for your health's sake; and he might even remember
the trailmen with pleasure rather than dislike."
"In short—a blend of all the undesirable characteristics?"
"One could put it that way. Certainly he would be a blend of all the
characteristics which you, Jay
1
, consider undesirable. But—if released by
hypnotism and suggestion, he might be suitable for the job in hand."
"But how do you know I actually have such an—alternate?"
"I don't. But it's a good guess. Most repressed—" Forth coughed and
amended, "most disciplined personalities possess such a suppressed sec-
ondary personality. Don't you occasionally—rather rarely—find yourself
doing things which are entirely out of character for you?"
I could almost feel Allison taking it in, as he confessed, "Well—yes. For
instance—the other day—although I dress conservatively at all times—"
he glanced at his uniform coat, "I found myself buying—" he stopped
again and his face went an unlovely terra-cotta color as he finally
mumbled, "a flowered red sports shirt."
Sitting in the dark I felt vaguely sorry for the poor gawk, disturbed by,
ashamed of the only human impulses he ever had. On the screen Allison
frowned fiercely, "A crazy impulse."
"You could say that, or say it was an action of the suppressed Jay
2
.
How about it, Allison? You may be the only Terran on Darkover, maybe
the only human, who could get into a trailman's Nest without being
murdered."
"Sir—as a citizen of the Empire, I don't have any choice, do I?"
"Jay, look," Forth said, and I felt him trying to reach through the barri-
cade and touch, really touch that cold contained young man, "we
couldn't order any man to do anything like this. Aside from the ordinary
dangers, it could destroy your personal balance, maybe permanently. I'm
asking you to volunteer something above and beyond the call of duty.
Man to man—what do you say?"
I would have been moved by his words. Even at secondhand I was
moved by them. Jay Allison looked at the floor, and I saw him twist his
long well-kept surgeon's hands and crack the knuckles with an odd ges-
ture. Finally he said, "I haven't any choice either way, Doctor. I'll take the
chance. I'll go to the trailmen."
12
The screen went dark again and Forth flicked the light on. He said,
"Well?"
I gave it back, in his own intonation, "Well?" and was exasperated to
find that I was twisting my own knuckles in the nervous gesture of
Allison's painful decision. I jerked them apart and got up.
"I suppose it didn't work, with that cold fish, and you decided to come
to me instead? Sure, I'll go to the trailmen for you. Not with that Allis-
on—I wouldn't go anywhere with that guy—but I speak the
trailmen's language, and without hypnosis either."
Forth was staring at me. "So you've remembered that?"
"Hell, yes," I said, "my dad crashed in the Hellers, and a band of trail-
men found me, half dead. I lived there until I was about fifteen, then
their Old-One decided I was too human for them, and they took me out
through Dammerung Pass and arranged to have me brought here. Sure,
it's all coming back now. I spent five years in the Spacemen's Orphanage,
then I went to work taking Terran tourists on hunting parties and so on,
because I liked being around the mountains. I—" I stopped. Forth was
staring at me.
"You think you'd like this job?"
"It would be tough," I said, considering. "The People of the Sky—"
(using the trailmen's name for themselves) "—don't like outsiders, but
they might be persuaded. The worst part would be getting there. The
plane, or the 'copter, isn't built that can get through the crosswinds
around the Hellers and land inside them. We'd have to go on foot, all the
way from Carthon. I'd need professional climbers—mountaineers."
"Then you don't share Allison's attitude?"
"Dammit, don't insult me!" I discovered that I was on my feet again,
pacing the office restlessly. Forth stared and mused aloud, "What's per-
sonality anyway? A mask of emotions, superimposed on the body and
the intellect. Change the point of view, change the emotions and desires,
and even with the same body and the same past experiences, you have a
new man."
I swung round in mid-step. A new and terrible suspicion, too mon-
strous to name, was creeping up on me. Forth touched a button and the
face of Jay Allison, immobile, appeared on the visionscreen. Forth put a
mirror in my hand. He said, "Jason Allison, look at yourself."
I looked.
"No," I said. And again, "No. No. No."
13
Forth didn't argue. He pointed, with a stubby finger. "Look—" he
moved the finger as he spoke, "height of forehead. Set of cheekbones.
Your eyebrows look different, and your mouth, because the expression is
different. But bony structure—the nose, the chin—"
I heard myself make a queer sound; dashed the mirror to the floor. He
grabbed my forearm. "Steady, man!"
I found a scrap of my voice. It didn't sound like Allison's. "Then
I'm—Jay
2
? Jay Allison with amnesia?"
"Not exactly." Forth mopped his forehead with an immaculate sleeve
and it came away damp with sweat, "No—not Jay Allison as I know
him!" He drew a long breath. "And sit down. Whoever you are, sitdown!"
I sat. Gingerly. Not sure.
"But the man Jay might have been, given a different temperamental bi-
as. I'd say—the man Jay Allison started out to be. The man he refused to
be. Within his subconscious, he built up barriers against a whole series of
memories, and the subliminal threshold—"
"Doc, I don't understand the psycho talk."
Forth stared. "And you do remember the trailmen's language. I
thought so. Allison's personality is suppressed in you, as yours was in
him."
"One thing, Doc. I don't know a thing about blood fractions or epidem-
ics. My half of the personality didn't study medicine." I took up the mir-
ror again and broodingly studied the face there. The high thin cheeks,
high forehead shaded by coarse dark hair which Jay Allison had slicked
down now heavily rumpled. I still didn't think I looked anything like the
doctor. Our voices were nothing alike either; his had been pitched rather
high, falsetto. My own, as nearly as I could judge, was a full octave deep-
er, and more resonant. Yet they issued from the same vocal chords, un-
less Forth was having a reasonless, macabre joke.
"Did I honest-to-God study medicine? It's the last thing I'd think about.
It's an honest trade, I guess, but I've never been that intellectual."
"You—or rather, Jay Allison is a specialist in Darkovan parasitology,
as well as a very competent surgeon." Forth was sitting with his chin in
his hands, watching me intently. He scowled and said, "If anything, the
physical change is more startling than the other. I wouldn't have recog-
nized you."
"That tallies with me. I don't recognize myself." I added, "—and the
queer thing is, I didn't even like Jay Allison, to put it mildly. If he—I can't
say he, can I?"
14

em hiểu thế nào về tư tưởng “ nhà nước của dân do dân và vì dân “. để thực hiện điều này bối cảnh hiện nay chúng ta cần phải làm gì

LINK DOWNLOAD MIỄN PHÍ TÀI LIỆU "em hiểu thế nào về tư tưởng “ nhà nước của dân do dân và vì dân “. để thực hiện điều này bối cảnh hiện nay chúng ta cần phải làm gì": http://123doc.vn/document/1041690-em-hieu-the-nao-ve-tu-tuong-nha-nuoc-cua-dan-do-dan-va-vi-dan-de-thuc-hien-dieu-nay-boi-canh-hien-nay-chung-ta-can-phai-lam-gi.htm

Đề tài : Em hiểu thế nào về tư tưởng “ nhà nước của dân do dân và vì
dân “. Để thực hiện điều này bối cảnh hiện nay chúng ta cần phải làm gì?

BÀI LÀM :
Nhà nước của dân do dân và vì dân:
- Thế nào là nhà nước của dân?
Điều 1 Hiến pháp nước VNDCCH (năm 1946) nói: "Nước VN là 1 nước dân
chủ cộng hòa. Tất cả quyền bính trong nước là của toàn thế nhân dân VN,
không phân biệt giống, gái trai, giàu nghèo, giai cấp, tôn giáo."
Điều 32, viết "Những việc liên quan đến vận mệnh quốc gia sẽ đưa ra nhân
dân phúc quyết "thực chất đó là chế độ trưng cầu dân ý, một hình thức dân
chủ đề ra khá sớm ở nước ta.
"Nhân dân có quyền bãi miễn đại biểu Quốc hội và đại biểu Hội đồng nhân
dân nếu những đại biểu ấy tỏ ra không xứng đáng với sự tín nhiệm của nhân
dân".
Nhà nước của dân thì mọi người dân là chủ, người dân có quyền làm bất cứ
việc gì mà pháp luật không cấm và có nghĩa vụ tuân theo pháp luật. Nhà
nước của dân phải bằng mọi nỗ lực, hình thành thiết chế dân chủ để thực thi
quyền làm chủ của người dân. Những vị đại diện cho dân cử ra chỉ là thừa
ủy quyền của dân, chỉ là công bộc của dân.
- Thế nào là nhà nước do dân?
Nà nước đó do nhân dân lựa chọn bầu ra những đại biểu của mình, nhà nước
đó do dân ủng hộ, giúp đỡ, đóng thuế để chi tiêu, hoạt động; nhà nước đó lại
do dân phê bình xây dựng, giúp đỡ. Do đó Bác yêu cầu tất cả các cơ quan
1
nhà nước là phải dựa vào dân, liên hệ chặt chẽ với nhân dân, lắng nghe ý
kiến và chịu sự kiểm soát của nhân dân. "Nếu chính phủ làm hại dân thì dân
có quyền đuổi chính phủ" nghĩa là khi cơ quan nhà nước không đáp ứng lợi
ích và nguyện vọng của nhân dân thì nhân dân có quyền bãi miễn nó.
- Thế nào là nhà nước vì dân?
Đó là nhà nước phục vụ lợi ích và nguyện vọng chính đáng của nhân dân,
không có đặc quyền đặc lợi, thực sự trong sạch, cần kiệm liêm chính. Trong
nhà nước đó, cán bộ từ chủ tịch trở xuống đều là công bộc của dân.
"Việc gì có lợi cho dân ta phải hết sức làm, Việc gì có hại đến dân ta phải
hết sức tránh"
HCM chú ý mối quan hệ giữa người chủ nhà nước là nhân dân với cán bộ
nhà nước là công bộc của dân, do dân bầu ra, được nhân dân thừa ủy quyền.
Là người phục vụ, nhưng cán bộ nhà nước đồng thời là người lãnh đạo,
hướng dẫn nhân dân. "Nếu không có nhân dân thì chính phủ không đủ lực
lượng. Nếu không có chính phủ thì nhân dân không ai dẫn đường". Cán bộ là
đày tớ của nhân dân là phải trung thành, tận tụy, cần kiệm liêm chính , là
người lãnh đạo thì phải có trí tuệ hơn người, sáng suốt, nhìn xa trông rộng,
gần gũi với dân, trọng dụng hiền tài Cán bộ phải vừa có đức vừa có tài.
Tthcm về sự thống nhất giữa bản chất GCCN với tính nhân dân và tính dt
của nhà nước ta.
Nhà nước ta mang bản chất giai cấp, "là nhà nước dân chủ nhân dân dựa trên
nền tảng liên minh công nông, do GCCN lãnh đạo." Bản chất GCCN biểu
hiện ở chỗ:
- Nhà nước tà do đảng của GCCN lãnh đạo. Đảng lãnh đạo bằng những chủ
trương, đường lối thông qua tổ chức của mình trong quốc hội, chính phủ, các
ngành, các cấp của nhà nước; được thể chế thành pháp luật, chính sách, kế
2
hoạch của nhà nước.
- Bản chất giai cấp còn thể hiện ở định hướng đưa nước ta đi lên CNXH.
"Bằng cách phát triển và cải tạo nền kt quốc dân theo CNXH, biến nền kt lạc
hậu thành 1 nền kt XHCN với công nghiệp và nông nghiệp hiện đại, khoa
học và kỹ thuật tiên tiến".
- Bản chất giai cấp của nhà nước ta còn thể hiện ở nguyên tắc tổ chức cơ bản
là nguyên tắc tập trung dân chủ. "Nhà nước ta phát huy dân chủ đến cao
độ mới đọng viên được tất cả lực lượng của nhân dân đưa cách mạng tiến
lên. Đồng thời phải tập trung cao độ để thống nhất lãnh đạo nhân dân xây
dựng CNXH."
Bên cạnh dân chủ, bác cũng nhắc đến chuyên chính, "chế độ nào cũng có
chuyên chính. Vấn đề là ai chuyên chính với ai?" "Dân chủ là của quý báu
của nhân dân, chuyên chính là cái khóa, cái cửa để đề phòng kẻ phá
hoại dân chủ cũng cần chuyên chính để giữ gìn lấy dân chủ."
Bản chất giai cấp của nhà nước ta thống nhất với tính nhân dân và tính dt.
Tính thống nhất thể hiện ở chỗ:
- Nhà nước dân chủ mới ra đời là kết quả của cuộc đấu tranh lâu dài và gian
khổ với sự hy sinh xương máu của bao thể hệ CM.
- Nhà nước ta vừa mang bản chất giai cấp vừa có tính nhân dân và tính dt vì
nó lấy lợi ích của dt làm nền tảng và bảo vệ lợi ích cho nhân dân. Trong thời
gian người lãnh đạo đất nước, nhờ sách lược mềm dẻo, cũng như Người
dung nạp nhiều nhân sĩ, trí thưc, quan lại cao cấp của chế độ cũ vào bộ máy
nhà nước đã thể hiện tư tưởng nhà nước tà là nhà của khối đại đoàn kết toàn
dt.
- Nhà nước ta vừa ra đời đã đảm nhiệm vai trò lịch sử là tổ chức toàn dân
kháng chiến để bảo vệ thành quả của cách mạng.
3
Tư tưởng HCM về 1 nhà nước pháp quyền có hiệu lực pháp lý mạnh mẽ.
Nhà nước có hiệu lực pháp lý mạnh mẽ trước hết là 1 nhà nước hợp hiến. Vì
vậy sau khi giành chính quyền, HCM đã thay mặt chính phủ lâm thời đọc
Tuyên ngôn độc lập, tuyên bố với quốc dân đồng bào và với thế giới khai
sinh nhà nước VNDCCH. Chính phủ lâm thời có địa vị hợp pháp.
Sau đó Người bắt tay xây dựng hiến pháp dân chủ, tổ chức TỔNG TUYỂN
CỬ với chế độ phổ thông đầu phiếu, thành lập ủy ban dự thảo Hiến pháp của
nước Việt Nam Dân Chủ Cộng Hòa.
Nhà nước pháp quyền có hiệu lực pháp lý là nhà nước quản lý đất nước bằng
pháp luật và phải làm cho pháp luật có hiệu lực trong thực tế. Trong nhà
nước dân chủ, dân chủ và pháp luật luôn đi đôi với nhau, đảm bảo cho chính
quyền trở nên mạnh mẽ. Mọi quyền dân chủ phải được thể chế hóa bằng
hiến pháp và pháp luật. Xây dựng một nền pháp chế XHCN đảm bảo việc
thực hiện quyền lực của nhân dân là mối quan tâm của HCM. Là người sáng
lập nhà nước VN dân chủ, có công lớn trong sự nghiệp lập hiến và lập pháp:
một mặt, Người chăm lo hoàn thiện Hiến pháp và hệ thống pháp luật của nhà
nước ta, mặt khác, Người chăm lo đưa pháp luật và cuộc sống, tạo cơ chế
đảm bảo cho pháp luật được thi hành, cơ chế kiếm tra, giám sát việc thi hành
của các cơ quan nhà nước và của nhân dân.
Để tiến tới 1 nhà nước pháp quyền mạnh mẽ, có hiệu lực, Bác hồ cho rằng,
phải nhanh chóng đào tạo, bồi dưỡng nhằm hình thành một đội ngũ viên
chức nhà nước có trình độ văn hóa, am hiểu pháp luật, thành thạo nghiệp vụ
hành chính và nhất là phải có đạo đức cần kiệm liêm chính chí công vô tư,
một tiêu chuẩn cơ bản của người cầm cân công lý.
Để đảm bảo công bằng dân chủ trong tuyển dụng cán bộ nhà nước, Người
ký sắc lệnh ban hành quy chế công chức. Công chức theo chế độ chức
nghiệp, vì vậy phải qua thi tuyển công chức để bổ nhiệm vào nghạch, bậc
4
hành chính. Nội dung thi tuyển khá toàn diện bao gồm 6 môn thi: chính trị,
kt, pháp luật, địa lý, ls và ngoại ngữ. Điều này thể hiện tầm nhìn xa, tính
chính quy hiện đại, tinh thần công bằng dân chủ của tthcm trong việc xây
dựng nền móng cho pháp quyền VN.
4-Tthcm về xây dựng nhà nước trong sạch, vững mạnh, hiệu quả
Tăng cường pháp luật đi đôi với đẩy mạnh giáo dục đạo đức. Do tập quán
của kt tiểu nông, muốn hình thành ngay 1 nhà nước pháp quyền là chưa
được, vì vậy một mặt phải nhấn mạnh vai trò của luật pháp, đồng thời tăng
cương tuyên truyền, giáo dục pháp luật trong nhân dân nhất là giáo dục đạo
đức. Đạo đức và pháp luật là 2 hình thái ý thức xh có thể kết hợp với nhau.
Bên cạnh giáo dục đạo đức, Người kịp thời ban hành pháp luật.
Kiên quyết chống ba thứ "giặc nội xâm" là tham ô, lãng phí, quan liêu. Sức
mạnh và hiệu quả của luật pháp, một mặt dựa vào tính nghiêm minh của thi
hành pháp luật, mặt khác dựa vào sự gương mẫu, trong sạch về đạo đức của
người cầm quyền. Bác nói: "tham ô, lãng phí,quan liêu, dù cố ý hay không,
cũng là bạn đồng minh của thực dân phong kiến, tôi lỗi ấy cũng nặng như
tội việt gian, mật thám." Mác và ăngghen đã từng cảnh tỉnh cán bộ và nhân
dân rằng chủ nghĩa quan liêu có thể dẫn các ĐCS cầm quyền đến chỗ "đánh
mất 1 lần nữa chính quyền vừa giành được". Lênin cũng viết " chúng ta bị
khốn khổ trước hết về tệ quan liêu. Những người cộng sản đã trở thành tên
quan liêu. Nếu có cái gì sẽ làm tiêu vong chúng ta thì chính là cái đó."
Vì vậy không thể nói đến 1 nhà nước trong sạch vững mạnh, hiệu quả nếu
không kiên quyết, thường xuyên đẩy mạnh cuộc đấu tranh về ngăn chặn tận
gốc những nguyên nhân đã gây ra nạn tham ô, lãng phí, quan liêu.
* Vận dụng tư tưởng hồ chí minh về xây dựng nhà nước VN ngang tầm
nhiệm vụ của giai đoạn lịch sử mới.
1-Phát huy dân chủ đi đôi với tăng cường pháp chế XHCN, đảm bảo sự tôn
5
trọng quyền làm chủ của nhân dân.
2- Cải cách và kiện toàn bộ máy hành chính nhà nước, xây dựng một nền
hành chính dân chủ, trong sạch, vững mạnh.
3- Tăng cường sự lãnh đạo của đảng đối với nhà nước; gắn liền với xây
dựng, chỉnh đốn đảng với cải cách bộ máy hành chính.
Nội dung tư tưởng hồ chí minh về đoàn kết. Vận dụng tthcm để tăng cường
đoàn kết dt, đoàn kết quốc tế hiện nay.
* Nội dung tthcm về đoàn kết
Trong quá trình lãnh đạo CMVN. HCM đã để lại cho chúng ta tư tưởng về
đoàn kết, kết hợp sức mạnh dt với sức mạnh thời đai.
Để đoàn kết dt là nội dung xuyên suốt trong tthcm cũng như trong hoạt động
thực tiễn của người. Trong các bài viết, nói, vấn đề đại đoàn kết dt được Bác
Hồ đề cập đến chiếm tỷ lệ 40%.
1- Cơ sở hình thành tthcm về đoàn kết dt.
a) Tinh thần yêu nước gắn liền với ý thức cố kết cộng đồng dt, đại đoàn kết
dt đã hình thành và củng cố trong ls dựng nước và giữ nước của dt, tạo thành
truyền thống bền vững thấm sâu vào tư tưởng, tình cảm, tâm hồn của mỗi
con người VN. Đối với mỗi người VN, yêu nước, nhân nghĩa và đoàn kết trở
thành 1 tình cảm tự nhiên, 1 triết lý sống, thành phép tư duy và ứng cử chính
trị.
Tất cả đã trở thành dấu ấn trong xh truyền thống VN, tạo thành quan hệ 3
tầng: gia đình, lãng xã, quốc gia. Đây cũng chính là sợi dây liên kết các giai
tầng, các dt trong xh VN. Truyền thống đoàn kết, nhân ái được phản ánh
trong kho tàng văn học dân gian, được các anh hùng trong ls nâng lên thành
phép đánh giặc, trị nước.
Đó là tư tưởng tập hợp lực lượng các dt của các nhà yêu nước trong lịch sử.
6
HCM đã sớm kế thừa truyền thống yêu nước-nhân nghĩa-đoàn kết của dt.
Người khẳng định "từ xưa đến nay, mỗi khi tổ quốc bị xâm lăng thì tinh thần
ấy lại sôi nổi, nó kết thành 1 làn sóng vô cùng to lớn và mạnh mẽ, nó lướt
qua mọi sự khó khăn, nguy hiểm, nó nhấn chím tất cả bè lũ cướp nước "
HCM còn nhấn mạnh phải phát huy truyền thống ấy trong giai đoạn cách
mạng mới "phải giải thích, tuyên truyền, tổ chức, lãnh đạo, làm cho tinh thần
yêu nước của tất cả mọi người được thực hành vào công việc yêu nước, công
việc kháng chiến."
b) Từ quan điểm của CNMLN: cách mạng là sự nghiệp của quần chúng,
nhân dân là người sáng tạo ra ls, GCVS là lực lượng lãnh đạo cách mạng
phải trở thành giai cấp dt. Mác nêu khẩu hiệu "VS toàn TG liên hiệp lại".
Lênin làm cách mạng vô sản thành công ở nước tiền TB, lực lượng công-
nông là cơ sở để xây dựng lực lượng to lớn của cách mạng, xây dựng khối
đại đoàn kết dt, đại đòan kết quốc tế. Khẩu hiệu của Mác được mở rộng "VS
toàn thế giới và các dt bị áp bức đoàn kết lại". CNMLN là cơ sở lý luận quan
trọng nhất đối với quá trình hình thành tthcm về đại đoàn kết dt. HCM đến
với CNMLN vì người đã tìm thấy con đường giải phóng các dt bị áp bức
khỏi ách nô lệ, tìm thấy sự cần thiết và con đường tập hợp lực lượng CM
trong phạm vị từng nước và trên phạm vi toàn TG.
c) Từ thực tiễn đấu tranh CM.
HCM tổng kết, đánh giá các di sản truyền thống về tư tưởng tập hợp lực
lượng của các nhà yêu nước VN tiền bối và các phong trào cách mạng ở
nhiều nước trên TG, nhất là các phong trào gpdt thuộc địa, từ đó Người rút
ra bài học kinh nghiệm để hình thành và hoàn chỉnh tư tưởng về đại đoàn kết
của mình. Các phong trào CMVN thực tế vừa hào hùng, vừa bị tráng đã
chứng tỏ nếu chỉ có yêu nước thôi thì không đủ để đánh thắng giặc. "Sử ta
đã dạy cho ta rằng, khi nào dân ta biết đoàn kết thì khi đó dân ta giành thắng
7
lợi".
Yêu cầu của thời đại mới là phải có lực lượng lãnh đạo đủ sức qui tụ cả dt
vào đấu tranh cách mạng, đề ra đường lối cách mạng đúng đắn, xây dựng
khối đại đoàn kết dt bền vững thì mới giành thắng lợi. HCM đã thấy hạn chế
trong phương pháp tập hợp lực lượng của các nhà yêu nước tiền bối, bác đã
tìm cách sáng Pháp để tìm hiểu và trở về giúp đồng bào mình.
Khi ở nước ngoài, HCM khảo sát tình hình các nước TBCN và các nước
thuộc địa, bác nhìn thấy tiềm ẩn to lớn của họ và cũng thấy hạn chế là các dt
thuộc địa chưa có tổ chức, chưa biết đoàn kết, chưa có sự lãnh đạo đúng đắn.
Trong các phong trào cách mạng thuộc địa và phục thuộc, HCM đặc biệt chú
ý đến cách mạng của TQ và Ấn độ, với tư tưởng là đoàn kết các giai tầng,
các đảng phái, các tôn giáo nhằm thực hiện mục tiêu của từng giai đoạn
cách mạng.
Thắng lợi của CMT10 Nga, người đã tìm hiểu thấu đáo con đường CMT10
Nga, bài học kinh nghiệm quý báu, đặc biệt là bài học huy động lực lượng
quần chúng công-nông giành và giữ chính quyền xô-viết non trẻ. Người cho
rằng đây là cuộc cách mạng đến nơi, đến chốn.
2-Quan điểm cơ bản của HCM đại đoàn kết dân tôck.
a) Đại đoàn kết dt là vấn đề cơ bản có ý nghĩa chiến lược, quyết định thành
công của cách mạng. Tư tưởng HCM về đại đoàn kết dt nhất quán, xuyên
suốt toàn bộ tiến trình CMVN. Đó là chiến lược tập hợp lực lượng nhằm
hình thành sức mạnh to lớn của dt chống kẻ thù của dt, của giai cấp.
Trong từng thời kỳ của cách mạng, có thể phải điều chỉnh chính sách và
phương pháp tập hợp lực lượng cho phù hợp với từng đối tượng, nhưng đại
đoàn kết dt phải là vấn đề sống còn của cách mạng. HCM đã nêu:
"Đoàn kết là sức mạnh, đoàn kết là thắng lợi , đoàn kết là then chốt của
thành công"."đoàn kết là điểm mẹ, điểm này mà thực hiện tốt đẻ ra con cháu
8
đều tốt". "đoàn kết, đoàn kết, đại đoàn kết, thành công, thành công, đại thành
công ".
b) Đại đoàn kết là mục tiêu, là nhiệm vụ hàng đầu của cách mạng.
Tư tưởng đại đoàn kết dt được quán triệt trong mọi đường lối, chính sách
của đảng là lực lượng lãnh đạo duy nhất của CMVN. Trong lời kết thúc buổi
ra mắt Đảng lao động VN năm 1951, HCM nêu mục đích của Đảng lao động
VN gồm 8 chữ: "đoàn kết toàn dân, phụng sự tổ quốc". Trước CMT8 và
trong kháng chiến nhiệm vụ của tuyên huấn là làm sao cho đông bảo hiểu
được mấy điều: một là, đoàn kết, hai là, làm cách mạng đòi độc lập dt. Sau
kháng chiến Bác lại nêu nhiệm vụ của tuyên huấn là để dân hiểu: 1 là, đoàn
kết, 2 là, xây dựng CNXH, 3 là, đấu tranh thống nhất nước nhà.
Như vậy, đại đoàn kết không đơn thuần là phương pháp tập hợp lực lượng
cách mạng, mà đó là mục tiêu, nhiệm vụ hàng đầu của cách mạng. Vì vấn đề
cơ bản của cách mạng suy cho cùng là phải có bộ tham mưu đưa ra đường
lối tập hợp sức mạnh toàn dân đánh giặc. Vấn đề đại đoàn kết dt phải xuất
phát từ đòi hỏi khách quan của cách mạng do quần chúng tiến hành. Đại
đoàn kết dt là 1 chính sách chứ không thể là 1 thủ đoạn chính trị. Đảng phải
có sứ mệnh thức tỉnh, tập hợp, hướng dẫn, chuyển những đòi hỏi khách
quan, tự phát của quần chúng thành hiện thực có tổ chức, thành sức mạnh vô
địch của cuộc đấu tranh vì độc lập cho dt, hạnh phúc cho nhân dân
c) Đại đoàn kết dt là đại đoàn kết toàn dân.
Dân và nhân dân là khái niệm có nội hàm rộng, chỉ toàn bộ con dân nước
Việt, "con Lạc, cháu Hồng", "con Rồng, cháu Tiên". Tư tưởng đại đoàn kết
toàn dân là đoàn kết với tất cả nhân dân không phân biệt: dt thiểu số hay đã
số, tín ngưỡng, già, trẻ, gái, trai, giàu, nghèo Đoàn kết với mỗi người dân
cụ thể, với toàn thể đông đảo quần chúng và cả 2 đối tượng trên đều là chủ
thể của khối đại đoàn kết dt.
9
Bác hồ nêu "Ta đoàn kết là vấn đề đấu tranh thống nhất và độc lập tổ quốc,
ta còn phải đoàn kết để xây dựng nước nhà. Vậy ai có tài, có đức, có sức, có
lòng phụng sự tổ quốc và phục vụ nhân dân thì ta đều đoàn kết với họ".
Trong khi xây dựng khối đại đoàn kết dt phải tin vào dân, dựa vào dân và
phấn đấu vì quyền lợi của nhân dân. Mỗi người "ai cũng ít hay nhiều có tấm
lòng yêu nước" tiềm ẩn. Cần thức tỉnh lương tri của mỗi con người thì lòng
yêu nước sẽ bộc lộ. Điểm chung để quy tụ khối đại đoàn kết dt là nên độc
lập dt, là cuộc sống ấm no, hạnh phúc của nhân dân.
Đại đoàn kết dt là nên tảng là gốc rễ là nguồn sức mạnh vô địch, quyết định
thắng lợi của CMVN. Trong khi tập hợp khối đại đoàn kết thì "lực lượng chủ
yếu của khối đại đoàn kết dt là liên minh công nông, cho nên liên minh
công-nông là nền tảng của mặt trận dt thống nhất". "Đại đoàn kết trước hết
là đoàn kết đại đa số nhân dân, mà đa số nhân dân ta là công nhân, nông dân
và các tầng lớp nhân dân lao động khác". Về sau HCM mở rộng, "liên minh
công-nông và lao động trí óc làm nền tảng của khối đại đoàn kết toàn dân".
"Trong bầu trời không có gì quý bằng dân, trong thế giới không có gì mạnh
bằng l/lượng đ/kết của nhân dân".
Điều kiện để thực hiện khối đại đoàn kết toàn dân là: phải kế thừa truyền
thống yêu nước-nhân nghĩa, đoàn kết, phẩi có tầm lòng khoan dung, độ
lượng. Người mà có lầm lạc, mà biết lỗi thì đoàn kết với họ, tránh khoét sâu
cách biệt. "Bất kỳ ai mà thật thà tán thành hòa bình, thống nhất, độc lập dt
thì dù người đó trước đây chống lại chúng ta bây giờ chúng ta cũng thật thà
đoàn kết với họ". "Cần xóa bỏ hết mọi thành kiến, cần thật thà đoàn kết với
nhau, giúp nhau cùng tiến bộ để phục vụ nhân dân ".
d) Đại đoàn kết phải trở thành sức mạnh vất chất, thành lực lượng vật chất
có tổ chức thể hiện khối đại đoàn kết dt là mặt trận dt thống nhất dưới sự
lãnh đạo của Đảng.
10
Khối đại đoàn kết dt phải được giác ngộ về mục tiêu, tổ chức thành khối
vững chắc và hoạt động theo 1 đường lối chính trị đúng đắn. Và đưa quần
chúng vào tổ chức phù hợp với từng giai tầng, từng lứa tuổi, giới tính, ngành
nghề, tôn giáo, phù hợp với từng bước phát triển của phong trào cách mạng.
Ví dụ có hội hữu ái, hội công, hội nông, hội phụ nữ
Mặt trận dt thống nhất là nơi qui tụ mọi tổ chức và cá nhân yêu nước. Trong
từng thời kỳ mặt trận có tên gọi khác nhau nhưng đó phải là mặt trận chính
trị rộng rãi tập hợp đông đảo các lực lượng phấn đấu vì hòa bình, vì mục tiêu
của dt.
Trong bối cảnh hiện nay chúng ta cần phải:
Đảng phải là Đảng dân
Tránh tha hoá quyền lực:
Nhận thức rõ như vậy để hiểu cho kỹ, thấu cho hết sự trăn trở và lời căn dặn
thiết tha của Hồ Chí Minh trước khi Người đi xa: "việc cần làm trước tiên là
chỉnh đốn lại Đảng" {2}.
Bằng sự trải nghiệm của chính bản thân mình, Hồ Chí Minh hiểu rõ những
thành tựu cũng như những sai lầm mà phong trào cách mạng đã trải qua, đặc
biệt hiểu rõ và thường xuyên cảnh báo về sự tha hóa của quyền lực, nguy cơ
thường trực của một đảng cầm quyền.
Sự tha hóa ấy sẽ đẩy tới mọi biến thái của thoái hóa về phẩm chất đạo đức
của người cán bộ đảng viên. Càng nguy hiểm hơn khi những cán bộ đảng
viên ấy lại đảm đương những trọng trách vì như Bác vẫn thường xuyên
khẳng định "Mọi việc thành hay bại, chủ chốt là do cán bộ có thấm nhuần
đạo đức cách mạng hay không".{3}.
11
Có thể nói rằng, không chỉ trong đảng và trong nước ta, mà nhìn rộng ra
trong phong trào cách mạng thế giới, Hồ Chí Minh là người viết nhiều, nói
nhiều nhất đến vấn đề phẩm chất đạo đức của người chiến sĩ tiền phong.
Mệnh đề "Đảng là đạo đức" trong lời phát biểu nhân kỷ niệm 30 năm ngày
thành lập Đảng cần phải đặt vào trong đặc điểm đó mới hiểu sâu được ý
nghĩa cảnh báo của Hồ Chí Minh đối với Đảng.
Trong bối cảnh hiện nay, lời cảnh báo đó càng có ý nghĩa khi mà "khó có thể
kể hết những việc làm, mưu mô, thủ đoạn làm nghèo đất nước, vơ vét tài sản
của nhân dân, làm giàu cho bản thân. Hiện tượng quan chức trở nên giàu
có vượt bậc ngày càng phổ biến và lộ ra nhiều khi khá công nhiên với
những lời biện giải ngô nghê khó ai chấp nhận. Trong đó, có nhiều việc là
tham nhũng, được xác định tội danh rõ ràng, dù có thể còn chưa bị phát
hiện và trừng phạt. Nhưng không ít việc không thể quy kết tội danh tham
nhũng, cùng lắm chỉ bị xem là yếu kém, quan liêu, thiếu trách nhiệm nghĩa
là những thiếu sót cá nhân, gây ra do thiếu hiểu biết, năng lực hạn chế là
chính. Sự việc loại này ngày càng nhiều, lặp lại ở các cấp, ở nhiều địa
phương, đơn vị".
Đó là một thực tế gây bức xúc được đưa lên trên trang báo diện tử
Vietnamnet ngày 14.12. 2009 trong bài "Những người cản trở đổi mới". Đó
là một thực trạng mà trước đó, Phạm Văn Đồng trong bài viết cuối cùng
đăng trên báo Nhân Dân đã quyết liệt vạch ra: "trăm con mắt đều nhìn vào,
trăm ngón tay đều chỉ vào" để nhắc nhở rằng "đây là một nguy cơ không thể
coi thường"!
Càng suy nghĩ, càng hiểu được, vì sao thường trực trong nỗi lo của Hồ Chí
Minh mà vì vậy Người thường xuyên cảnh báo nguy cơ tha hóa, biến chất
của cán bộ đảng viên dẫn đến sự sa sút niềm tin của dân vào Đảng và Nhà
nước mà thông qua đó, Đảng thực thi vai trò lãnh đạo của mình.
12
"Gánh việc chung cho dân, không phải đè đầu dân"
Ở một quốc gia mà nhà nước xuất hiện từ rất sớm và mang nặng "truyền
thống" quan liêu, Hồ Chí Minh đã đòi hỏi xây dựng một "nhà nước đày tớ
của dân", điều mà nhiều nhà tư tưởng lớn của loài ngưòi đã từng ấp ủ và
cũng đã đựơc nhấn mạnh trong học thuyết của C. Mác. Nhưng, vấn đề là Hồ
Chí Minh đã sớm đưa ngay ý tưởng đó vào việc tổ chức nhà nước và cố
gắng thực hiện.
Hồ Chí Minh hiểu rõ mục tiêu của từng chặng trên con đường dẫn đến lý
tưởng ở phía chân trời. Người không lẫn lộn mục tiêu cụ thể và trực tiếp của
từng chặng với cái đích lý tưởng ở phía trước để tránh đi những ảo tưởng
duy ý chí, dẫn đến hành động nôn nóng "đốt cháy giai đoạn", gây hậu quả
ngược lại với mục tiêu. Cho nên, Hồ Chí Minh "có sự dị ứng bẩm sinh với
bệnh giáo điều rập khuôn, bệnh công thức sáo mòn"
Người đòi hỏi "không được sao chép nguyên văn những gì có sẵn, điều cốt
yếu là hiểu đúng tinh thần và biết vận dụng các nguyên lý sát với tình hình
cụ thể" nhằm thực hiện cho được sứ mệnh cao cả của một "Đảng cầm
quyền".
Người quyết liệt phê phán bệnh hình thức, khoa trương, đưa ra rất nhiều
những khẩu hiệu, những phong trào, những đợt vận động mà không có thực
chất: "Than ôi! Khẩu hiệu cách mạng của Đảng mà hóa ra lá bùa của thầy
cúng. Lỗi đó tự ai? Thế mà bảo "đại chúng hóa", "dân tộc hóa" thì hóa cái
gì? .
Xin nhắc lại một sự kiện đặc biệt, ngày 19/12/1946, Bác ra lời kêu gọi toàn
quốc kháng chiến thì trước khi chuyển toàn bộ cơ quan Trung ương lên Việt
Bắc, Thủ đô kháng chiến, trung tuần tháng 2/1947, Bác có một quyết định
13
đột xuất: cùng mấy cán bộ đi về Thanh Hóa, một tỉnh ở hậu phương giàu sức
người sức của để thăm hỏi và nói chuyện với cán bộ và nhân dân tỉnh Thanh.
Thế là, để chuẩn bị bước vào cuộc kháng chiến trường kỳ, Hồ Chí Minh
trước hết chuẩn bị về tư tưởng và phẩm chất cho người cán bộ và mối quan
hệ giữa cán bộ, tức là người thay mặt cho Đảng và Chính phủ, với nhân dân.
Tại đây, trước hết Bác nói về dân chủ: "Các cơ quan của Chính phủ từ toàn
quốc cho đến các làng, đều là công bộc của dân, nghĩa là để gánh việc
chung cho dân, chứ không phải để đè đầu dân Dân chủ thì Chính phủ phải
là đày tớ. Làm việc ngày nay không phải để thăng quan phát tài. Nếu Chính
phủ làm hại dân thì dân có quyền đuổi Chính phủ"
Cũng tại đây, Bác đã thẳng thắn vạch ra những tật bệnh của sự thoái hóa
biến chất của người có chức có quyền và đề nghị nhân dân giám sát, phê
bình: " có người làm quan cách mạng chợ đỏ, chợ đen, kinh dân, mưu vinh
thân phì gia. Từ một năm nay, nội hoạn, ngoại xâm không lúc nào không có,
nên còn nhiều việc Chính phủ Trung ương không làm được. Có nhiều cái
biết là hay, nhưng còn việc gấp phải làm gấp cái đã. Xin đồng bào phê bình,
giúp đỡ, giám sát công việc của Chính phủ. Còn những việc làm mà chưa
làm được thì xin đồng bào nguyên lượng". Đây chính là cách Hồ Chí Minh
thực hành tư tưởng về nhà nước của dân, do dân và vì dân một cách sống
động và giàu sức thuyết phục.
Dựa vào ý dân để sửa cán bộ, tổ chức
Người đòi hỏi, "phải đưa chính trị vào giữa dân gian", và bằng hành động
cụ thể, Người đã chứng minh nguyên lý ấy.
Hồi ký của Vũ Kỳ đã ghi lại chuyến đi đặc biệt ấy, khi mà tại Ninh Bình và
Nam Định, Pháp đóng quân dày đặc, Bác phải đi tắt qua đồn điền Chi nê về
Thanh Hóa để "chuẩn bị" cho cuộc trường kỳ kháng chiến mà Người nhìn
14