Rainbow Death Task 2

This poem is written from the point of view of a Vietnam war veteran. We are able to see this as the poem talks about Agent Orange, a chemical agent which gained fame during the Vietnam war for poisoning crops and people. Therefore, Wilson would have experienced the horrors of jungle warfare, including ambushes and perhaps accidental collateral damage by the extensive chemical warfare.

The poem, set in Vietnam, describes the damage the chemicals are inflicting on the people. The chemical agents are described as "omnipotent" - unlimited power, and indifferent to who is affected, as if it was God himself. It causes "illnesses, birth defects and premature deaths"

The author deliberately chooses words with a strong impact. He describes the mixture of chemical agents as a potpourri, a mixture of fragrant plants material. In this case, a deadly concoction of poisons. Using the words "nefariously and deceit" his personal opinion of the Vietnam War is the means used to carry it out were unjustifiable

My personal opinion of this poem is that it quite accurately describes the front line conditions of the Vietnam war. Innocent civilians are shot, bombed and poisoned. The Communist activities are disrupted but not halted. A waste of resources for the US government that brought the world no further from Communism, instead rallying support for it. It is also true that future generation, American or Vietnamese, would be affected by Agent Orange by birth defects.

Television brought the brutality of war into the comfort of the living room. Vietnam was lost in the living rooms of America--not on the battlefields of Vietnam.
--Marshall McLuhan, 1975

Rainbow Death

This poem is written by Hubert Wilson, a soldier from Vietnam, sent by the US government in 1955 to prevent the spread of communism, which they ultimately failed in. However, in the process, there was much damage done to the country and casualties among the population.

USA attempted to use its technology to defeat the enemy and sap their morale. It acheived only the opposite effect. It made the enemy's will to fight even stronger while the public back in America was horrified by the violence dealt to the Vietnamese. They used herbicidal warfare. The defoliants, which were distributed in drums marked with color-coded bands, included the "Rainbow Herbicides"— Agent Pink, Agent Green, Agent Purple, Agent Blue, Agent White, and the most famous Agent Orange. They destroy crops, but most cruelly of all, they cause severe health problems to people, but don't kill them, leading to lifelong suffering.

The poem talks about all of these chemical agents and the effects on the people. More often than not, innocent civilians are hit and not the communists, because they have made adequate preparations. Also some US soldiers are affected, leading to widespread collateral damage. The effects may not have been felt immediately, but after the war, many veterans were unable to return to normality - normal life as an American

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_orange
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_war

E-learning assignment

Alright. Haven't been posting for a while. Now, I am off to do an English assignment right here on this blog. I'll take the two star and three star poems - "Rainbow Death" and "We slept by Our Boots On". On guard!

Intrapersonal Assignment - Diary of Atticus Finch

Date: 31/12/39

What a dreadful, dreadful year. First, I had to deal with a case I knew that I could never win. Tom Robinson, a Negro, a hardworking, honest man, was accused of raping a defenseless young girl whose father was an alcoholic. I knew that by taking the case, I was going down in terms of public approval. My children at school were also ostracised because their father was a "nigger-lover"
This county by the name of Maycomb, does, like all the southern cities, have a thing against the Negroes. I do not quite see why that is. They are hardworking, polite, don't usually commit crimes. The only reason, is that their ancestors were slaves. A ridiculous reason! it does not really matter who their great-great-great-great-grandparents were, its who they are now! Anyway back to the case, I knew Tom was innocent, but I also knew that the jury would never rule in favour of a Negro. I did not care, I did my best. But obviously it was a gone case. There was still an appeal, though. Unfortunately, Tom did not trust the appeal and tried to run, with the result of seventeen bullets placed through him, making no less dead than a doornail.

Though I also received a projectile after the trial, though it was less than a bullet. Bob Ewell, angry that I humiliated him at the trial, spat at me, in the face. He just had to chew tobacco. He, not being content with spitting in my face, had to attack my children. Fortunately, my weird and anti-social neighbour Boo Radley saved my children. And Bob Ewell was killed, by his own knife, and Jem was around. I insisted to Heck Tate that we have an inquiry on this.He refused point-blank and said that Bob Ewell fell on his own knife while trying to kill Jem and Scout and there will be no investigation. Period. Well, I certainly do hope that this is going to be a better year.

Bless be to us all.

Linguistic assignment

"Extra! Extra! Read all about it!"


Tom Robinson Guilty
Thomas Robinson, 25, has been convicted of raping Miss Mayella Violet Ewell, 19. Once placed in jail for 30 days for disorderly conduct, the father of three children is now going to be imprisoned for life. He intends to appeal against his sentence. The trial had lasted 12 noon to 11pm, the longest trial Maycomb has ever seen.

The crime took place on 21 November 1932, when Mayella Ewell asked Robinson to come into the Ewell's house. Mayella had asked Robinson to help her chop up a chiffarobe. Then, when he was inside, Robinson grabbed Mayella and started to beat her up violently and shouted obscenities at her. Her ordeal only ended when her father, Robert Ewell came through the window and shouted at Robinson, who then fled. Mr. Ewell quickly ran for Mr Heck Tate, the sheriff to report the incident.

Mayella, whose right eye was bruised and had injuries on the arm and around the neck, was also hurt emotionally and had burst into tears when she was questioned by Atticus Finch, the defence for Robinson. Mayella testified that Tom Robinson had come into her house several times before the crime to help her with chores, but this time he assualted her when her back was turned.

The prosecutor, Mr Gilmer, questioned Tom Robinson why he would help Mayella Ewell with her chores for free. Tom Robinson gave the most possibly shocking answer. "I felt sorry for her." Tom Robinson's side of the story was that he had gone in to the house to help Mayella to chop up a chiffarobe, but was hugged and kissed by Mayella on the cheek. He tried to resist her advances but Mr. Ewell had shouted a vulgarity at him through the window and he ran away. When asked the reason for escaping, he simply answered to Mr Finch "Mr Finch, if you was a nigger like me, you'd be scared, too."

Despite Mr Finch's claim that there was 'not one iota of medical evidence' to prove that Tom Robinson was guilty, the jury pronounced Tom Robinson guilty and sentenced him to life imprisonment in Enfield Prison Farm.

My learning style

I am number and linguistically smart. About being number smart, it was not quite a surprise, I always like Mathematics, though sometimes it really frustrates me when things get so tedious that careless mistakes come up. Though being linguistically smart came as a surprise, I thought I was interpersonal, though that also is a strong point of mine.

The test was relatively straightforward, I could see how the questions relate to that particular learning style. Was it helpful to me? Well, it certainly does show me where my weaknesses are, and my strengths. Does that help? Possibly, so that I know where I can improve on. But knowing my strength may allow me to take a break from that area, but may also result in me doing poorly the moment I slacken.

Bless be to us all.

End of the Chinese New Year

In our terms, the Chinese New Year celebrations are over once the holiday for it is over. So it supposedly ended in three days, and after that we have our examinations and the all too common piles of homework. Then during Chinese New Year, the time where we were supposed to relax, was not entirely relaxing. This combination of stress seems to have made us lose sight of what Chinese New Year really is.

Let us remind ourselves that Chinese New Year is 15 days, and the last day is quite something to celebrate, with all your family. For me, on that day, well, my father's car ran out of gas. Well, that certainly puts a dampener on the day right? On the contrary. It was my first experience of a car breakdown. My father took a taxi to the nearest petrol station to get some petrol and by the time he returned, the thing that you put some distance away from the car to show that your car has broken down, was knocked down but fortunately, I am not quite dead yet, nor am I in a hospital. I realised that if you wanted to buy petrol in a can, you have to show your IC, as they are afraid, I think, that you might use the petrol to set something blaze. The next thing I realised that the petrol one buys at the station, is actually pink in clolour. This is to distinguish it from water, as it is colourless by nature, so that you do not pour this over the fire in an attempt to extinguish it. So after the car breakdown incident, we went for a nice end of new year lunch and that is the end of the Chinese New Year.

Bless be to us all.