E-Learning Assignment Task 2

The following is my E-Learning Assignment Task 2, a much closer analysis on the poem Rainbow Death by Hubert Wilson based on a template Ms Soh gave us.

Just for reference’s sake, here is the poem, again.

America did not foresee
Green, pink, purple and other colors death potpourri!
Expecting others to pay a high price.
Now thinking twice?
Toll on the innocent and unborn.

Omnipotent and disregarding who will mourn.
Reflective about all the illness, birth defects and prematurely dead.
All the deceit continues to spread.
Nefariously America led astray -
Generations untold WILL pay -
Execrable effects of agent orange spray!

1. Point of View

From how the poem very clearly reflects the “execrable effects of agent orange spray”, I do believe that this poem is written from the first-person perspective of someone who has a first-hand account of the devastating results of the use of Agent Orange. By being able to describe the effects of Agent Orange with accuracy and also being able to know that “America did not foresee” the harmful after-effects Agent Orange brought, we can assume that the poet, who is the speaker in the poem, is a war-veteran who was involved in the Vietnam war, and had personally at least seen the effects of Agent Orange.

2. Situation and Setting.

Very obviously, the poem is set after the use of Agent Orange, probably a couple of years later, for the poet does not just describe the immediate effects of Agent Orange on the people, but also its implications on future generations of Vietnamese children, like “birth defects “ and even being “prematurely dead”. The poet even goes on to say that the “deceit continues to spread”, telling us that the U.S government probably tried to continue hiding the truth about the effects of Agent Orange from the public, and was still doing so when this poem was written.

3. Language/diction

I found the title of the poem puzzling and ironical, for the two words “rainbow” and “death” are not commonly associated with each other. Rainbows are symbol of magical bridges between life and heaven, or at the least something vibrant and colourful, in contrast to the bleak reality of death. I do believe that the poet chose this oxymoronic title as a direct reference to the “rainbow herbicides” (details in the previous post), and showing how the name of this group of harmful chemicals, responsible for so many deaths in the Vietnam War, is ironical.

Another oxymoron in the poem would be death potpourri. Potpourri is actually either a mixture of dried petals and leaves from various plants that gives off a pleasant smell, or just an interesting mixture of things, both rather positive. However, it is once again associated with death, something bleak and negative, making it ironical. Right before this the colours green, pink and purple are listed, which can be assumed as reflecting the Agents Green, Pink and Purple, other herbicides part of the “rainbow herbicides”. Perhaps the poet is trying to say that the U.S Military had not considered the possible implications before using those biological threats.

4. Personal Response

After reading about the effects of Agent Orange and how “untold generations WILL pay” as described in the poem, it left me feeling rather disturbed and uncomfortable. The poet started with an ominous tone, how “America did not foresee”, before ending with an equally ominous one. Throughout the poem the poet fills my thoughts with images of death and suffering, and shows that the Agent Orange spray is the one responsible for all of it, thoroughly convincing me that the use of Agent Orange is inhumane, serving the poem’s purpose.

~Kevan

E-Learning Assignment Task 1

The following is my E-learning assignment Task 1, an analysis on the poem Rainbow Death by Hubert Wilson.

America did not foresee
Green, pink, purple and other colors death potpourri!
Expecting others to pay a high price.
Now thinking twice?
Toll on the innocent and unborn.

Omnipotent and disregarding who will mourn.
Reflective about all the illness, birth defects and prematurely dead.
All the deceit continues to spread.
Nefariously America led astray -
Generations untold WILL pay -
Execrable effects of agent orange spray!

What I’m supposed to do is write a report about the conflict which is represented in this poem, of course after carrying out extensive research.

So basically after surfing around the net, I realised that this poem is actually talking about the use of “Rainbow Herbicides” by the U.S Military in the Vietnam war, in particular the use of the infamous Agent Orange.

Rainbow Herbicides, a direct reflection of the name of this poem, is a group of chemicals which the U.S Military used during the Vietnam War. Their main purpose was to destroy plants to expose Vietnamese soldiers hiding among the forests. Other Rainbow Herbicides besides Agent Orange were Agent Green, Pink and Purple, which are shown in the first line of the poem.

From 1961-1971, Agent Orange was widely used by the U.S Military, and apart from destroying large areas of vegetation, Agent Orange caused 400,000 deaths and 500,000 children born with defects. This devastation is repeatedly reflected in the poem, like how the agent tolls on the “innocent and unborn”, and the “illness, birth defects and prematurely dead” as a result of the use of Agent Orange.

As of now this is my research on the use of the Rainbow Herbicides shown in the poem, and the next pose will be about close analysis of the poem.

Cool Stuff! None Like It Hot!

So hi all you people of this world. Today I want to announce the start of a new segment of my blog, called "Cool Stuff!", which would primarily consist of interesting and well "cool" stuff I find on the internet from all around the world, as an attempt to make my blog less boring.

Anyway today I want to share with you guys a video from the creators of Futurama and the Simpsons about the fundamentals of Global Warming. Enjoy!

~Kevan

Is it right? -Life sentence for 88 year old nazi?

Greetings fellow earthlings! Your loyal geek Kevan here again. So anyway guys I have decided that besides just having rants about my very boring life in this blog, I'm going to add in a new segment called "is it right?", which will discuss controversial topics from all over the world. This is the first time i'm doing something like this, so please leave your comments and suggestions!

So, before you read on please check out this article here, which my post will be revolving around.

Just a summary of this article for those of you who got bored after reading the first sentence: Germany has recently convicted a 88-year old ex-nazi for war crimes, including murdering 3 Dutch Civillians as a SS Assassin. He will be spending the rest of his life in jail.

So what do you guys think? Should we convict this man- who claims he was following direct orders from Hitler himself, and even implies that he was brainwashed when he committed murder? Should we even still convict WWII soldiers for war-crimes- men who are about to die from old age and other natural causes anyway? This is what I will be discussing in this blog post.

I shall first present my stand on the issue. Personally I do believe that the old man should not be convicted. I don't even think that ex-soldiers should even be convicted for war crimes. The country that is convicted for war -crimes is the country that loses the war, like in this case Germany. However, in war, EVERYONE IS A MURDERER. If the loser country is convicted, shouldn't the victor be too, since it was probably responsible for more deaths then the loser country.

Also, the "murderer" in question, the ex-nazi, like many of his fellow nazis, had been subject to brainwash since young, which means that his actions during the war have been greatly influenced by external factors. Since his orders came directly from Hitler, not following them would have led to the murdering of him and his family. Considering all these factors my heart goes out to the old ex-nazi, who is, as he says himself, already "waiting for death".

Since I found this topic of enough substance, I decided to use it for my current affairs interview with Mr. Eddie Lau, our form teacher. While Justin, my partner for the interview, has the same views as me, Mr Lau feels that the the ex-nazi should still be held accountable for the murders he was responsible, no matter under what circumstances. He even gave us some vague modern-day example of some student leader having done something which frankly speaking I did not really think was relevant to the topic, but I still really appreciate Mr. Lau's effort in pushing his point forward.

So where do you guys stand? Do you, like me and Justin, pity the old ex-Nazi and think he should be allowed the rest of his life, or do you, like Mr Lau, believe that he should still be convicted anyway and held accountable to all the relatives of the murdered? Please your interesting and thought-worthy comments below! I eagerly reply your comments.

Signing off

~Kevan

Will you take the money?

If you found a wallet lying on the floor, right in front of you, and you pick it up, to find $200 and some important documents like NRIC, Cashcard etc. Now ask yourself, will you, hand the wallet over to the lost and found counter/ police/ the owner himself?

Ok I can probably predict your reply. With an angelic beam and innocent eyes you're gonna say : "Of course I'll return the wallet- I'm such a nice person and I love this whole world.

No seriously.

After years in the Singaporean education system any rounds of civic-moral education many of us are already programmed to answer this way- to behave like the pure-hearted beings we're supposed to be.

However, I want you to really look deep into your heart, and question your fundamental moral values: If you really had $200 in your hands, would you SERIOUSLY return it to the owner/authorities, or would you give in to temptation and keep the money?

So anyway you guys are probably wondering why I'm blogging about this. Well, just a couple of days ago my family and I decided to celebrate my younger brother's birthday at Downtown East resorts. Since we had checked into the resort in the afternoon and the party we had organized was not till late evening, we decided to burn some time at the arcade.

It was the classic tragic " i- left-it-there-and-it-went-poof" story. Since I was wearing shorts with no pockets in them, I was holding my valuables - wallet and phone, in my hand until my brother wanted to challenge me to mario kart. Being the muddle head I am, I had left my valuables on the chair next to me, and promptly forgot about me upon leaving the game. 5 minutes later upon hurriedly returning to find it, it was long gone.

It was largely my fault anyway. I could have left my valuables with my parents who were close by before rushing off to trash my brother at table soccer, but I had carelessly left them somewhere accessible to any random passer-by to pocket.

Since I was surrounded by teenagers at that time, the possibility that it had been a teenager like myself who took my valuables is the highest. Being the love-filled person I am, I'm simply going to ASSUME that the teenager who took my wallet had not eaten for 3 days, was starving, and desperately needed the money to buy food. And he had to take my phone to call the church and thank the lord or something like that.

So anyway, back to the topic. Before this episode I was, like many others, unsure whether or not I would keep $200 I found on the floor. In fact I would probably be more inclined to keep the cash. But now, after experiencing the fluster and desperation of looking for a lost wallet, I am absolutely sure that from now on, I will definitely return all lost possessions to their rightful owners.

I'm sure that many of you guys reading this have experienced losing prized possessions before-with the high theft rates in our class last year. To those lucky souls who as of now have not lost their possessions before, and everyone in general, may I urge all of you to follow your conscience, and return the poor soul his lost wallet.

Cheers!

~Kevan

A page off Atticus' diary

Intrapersonal question: Write a diary entry for a major character of the novel.

For this really interesting question I chose Atticus Finch as the character's diary entry I wanted to write. This is set just after Tom Robinson's trial

Dear Diary,

I lost. Just like I had predicted the moment Judge Taylor gave me the case, I lost. Tom Robinson was convicted guilty of a crime he had not even dared to think about. All these months I’ve slogged to get evidence and link them all up into a flawless flow of events in front of the jury to at least give Tom that flicker of hope, God know I’ve tried. That wasn’t much I had to do, it was so obvious from the start. The shrivelled arm, wounds on the wrong places, not to mention the lousy lies Mayella presented the trial. The solid evidence was all there, but Gilmer and the jury treated them like they were transparent.

I have been so selfish for the past few months, sacrificing the happiness of my children, and the reputation of the Finches all for my personal principles. I pretend to be blind towards the suffering they endured, and will endure for the rest of their lives. Maycomb’s an old town, where generations of lies and prejudice have been circulating since the formation of this town. My act will only be added to the top of the list, a white man protecting a black man, never before seen in Maycomb. The children will have a tough time ahead of them, children of “nigger lovers” tend not to do so well in this unjust society. I can only hope, that my attempts on teaching them about true courage and the true meaning of the word “equal” were at least slightly successful., and pass on my teachings to their children and let there be at least one tribe in maycomb that is not racist.

But I will definitely not give up here. I will once again take up the task to return Tom his pride and freedom, and will appeal to the court. In the trial, the jury had taken much longer to convict a black man than usual. It’s not much of an improvement, but it’s still one. As long as I keep fighting, I know one day, maybe not in my lifetime, or not in my children’s’ lifetime, that the white man and the black man will be treated equally.

Stay strong Tom.

God Bless us all,

Atticus Finch

Interview with master lotus root soup

Interpersonal question: Conduct an interview with a friend(not from HCI) or a family member. Find out from their point of view about prejudice and discrimination. Either record the interview or write out the interview transcript.

Okay guys I KNOW in the previous post that I said I wanted to do the linguistic and intrapersonal questions, but very luckily my uncle managed to drop by at my grandma's house for dinner, and since it was only 1 block away I managed to conduct an interview with him, and decided to use that for the assignment instead, so I'm dropping the linguistic question since I felt that the interview was more interesting.

So I interviewed my uncle (who didn't want me disclosing his charming name). He is in his mid 30s and works at CASIO.

Me: So erm.. Good Evening uncle, and thank you for participating in this interview.

Uncle: Wah…so courteous ah. Anyway what is this about ah?

Me: Oh, its part of my English assignment, so may I ask what are your views about prejudice and discrimination?

Uncle: Well… prejudice is when someone is treating you very unfairly, and this affects their ability to make fair judgements in situations.

Me: Could you give me any examples on displays of prejudice?

Uncle: Of course, the more you see of life, the more prejudice you see. Recently my company is bringing in many foreign workers like Chinese or Philippines workers.

Me: And how does this lead to prejudice?

Uncle: Well I’ve seen and heard a lot of my colleagues making a lot of prejudiced comments about the foreign workers, like how all china workers speak poor English and are lazy. However I have seen the Chinese workers work and I find them very hardworking and courteous, and many have , on their own, went for outside English classes.

Me: Hmmm very interesting. Recently I’ve been seeing more and more foreign workers working at the shopping centre in my neighbourhood.

Uncle: Yeah lah, many of the foreign workers are more hardworking and courteous than our local workers, and they are also willing to accept lower pay, of course employers want to hire them lah.

Me: Yeah it does make sense, many Singaporeans have been criticised of poor work attitude. So anyway about discrimination, do you think that a lot of it exists in Singapore?

Uncle: Of course. Humans fear the unknown and this leads to discrimination. Even though we’re a multi-racial community and there have not been racial riots in a long time, I’m sure you and I both know that racial discrimination still exists.

Me: Well…yes, I’ve seen some racist comments popping out in blogs and online forum.

Uncle: It’s impossible to have totally 0% discrimination and prejudice in society, but we should always try our best to be as unbiased and just as possible. Now erm.. could we leave the interview as this because your grandma made my favourite lotus root soup for dinner and talk about prejudice does work up an appetite.

Me: Of course, thank you very much for your participation, and enjoy your erm.. lotus root soup.

Uncle: Thank You.