Word: victus
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...fellow guerrillas call him Ka Victus--Ka being short for kasama, or comrade, in Tagalog. He is like many of the Filipinos who have joined the New People's Army in the past few years. An activist since his student days, Victus, 36, became disillusioned with the political system after losing an election for town councilor in 1980. Dressed in a yellow T shirt and sporting a mustache and small beard, he speaks earnestly about Philippine Communism. "In central Luzon, many Communists like me are not direct victims of Marcos," Victus acknowledges, "while in Mindanao, many join the party because...
...When Victus and his comrades decide to extend their Communist campaign to uncharted territory, they typically select a remote group of villages that have received little largesse from the central government. The first step is to dispatch an advance team to live in the home of a local family. Unlike government soldiers, whose own legacy to the village may be a trail of stolen chickens or worse offenses, the guerrillas try to behave courteously, listen sympathetically and pay their way. A nun or priest often adds a reassuring presence. They begin by organizing teach-ins and drawing out the villagers...
...rebels and their political allies stress "simple living and hard struggle." Before a person can join the party, says Ka Victus, "we must change him entirely, re-educate him and indoctrinate him." Once inside the party, he continues, "if you want to court a girl, you must submit her name, and she will be investigated." On matters of internal discipline, the guerrillas can be ruthless. If a rebel discredits the insurgency, says Victus, "the N.P.A. will kill its own member...
...Warbler of Watergate" [Dec. 5], as any political bird watcher knows, is not a warbler, but a silver-crested lib thrasher (Cranius vacantus) who mates with the now famous red. white and blue American bald eagle (Juris patriotus). The thrasher is often confused with the Communist-eating hawk (Victus eternus), but differs in its diet, for the thrasher thrives on yellow-bellied land snatchers and pink-tufted dissenters (Marxis militanus). The thrasher is a close relative of the Baltimore hatchet wielder (Agnewus intim-idalus) and the rednecked robin (Thur-mondus segregatus), until recently thought to be extinct...
Like the prose, the poetry ranges from good t disappointing. In "Jonathan Victus," Peter MacVeagh chose his theme with care, nurtured it through four fine stanzas, and then uprooted it poetically with a jarring last verse. Similarly, Benjamin La Farge, in his "letter To a Friend," includes phrases like "where old men snore" which may satisfy a demanding rhyme scheme but which destroy the tone of the poem...