Do you see beggars on the streets? Ok you seldom see them in Singapore that’s for sure, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist.

Maybe they are not really beggars. They are just some old uncles and aunties selling tissue paper at four packets for a dollar. Or they just go around hawker centers or digging into bins collecting empty can drinks. Or they just stand at one side of the road, giving out flyers.

These senior citizens most likely do not have any children to feed them or they have unfilial children. Their parents have spend lots of time and effort just to bring them up but yet these children do not spare a thought for the effort that their parents put in to rise them and just abandon them just like that. These people are what I call jerks. The parents being old would not be able to find work easily since even graduates cannot even find a job nowadays. They can only work as toilet cleaners if the job is available which is also hard work especially for a 50-70 year old auntie.

Thus, seeing their plight, we should lend them a helping hand. How? By buying their tissue and by taking a flyer. They are in such a desperate situation with no jobs available that they have no choice but to sell tissue and flyers as people who whom they approached will evoke sympathy for them and buy tissues from them or just take their flyers. However, they cannot really earn much from selling tissues and giving out flyers and they can barely support themselves.

However, some people just ignored the old uncles and aunties completely and walked past them like they are not there, even when they approached them. These people did not help the old uncles and aunties maybe because they find them a hassle or they do not want to spend money buying tissues because they don’t need them. I feel that no matter how much a hassle it is or no matter how much you don’t need the tissue, you at least can fork out a few dollars to the elderly as a form of donation instead or just by taking the flyer which is FREE. Isn’t that what all Singaporeans look forward to? They are already very old and do not have the support of their children and thus we must try our best to help them. They need to feed themselves and thus if they cannot feed themselves, there can only be two things they can do. First, they starve to death. Second, they fight for survival. How? They steal and rob others off their money, although I have never come across any elderly robbing or stealing from anyone. This is just a theory or it only applies to those who are younger and are desperate for money. Therefore, if we offer to help them as much as possible, it can reduce the number of theft cases significantly.

I always see a poor uncle on my journey home from training at around 7pm-8pm at Choa Chu Kang Interchange. He is always standing at the entrance giving out flyers. He wore a very sad face hoping to appeal to the public and I often pity him but all I can do to help him is to take the flyer as there is only so much I can do.

Then again, the real world is cruel. If you are not competent enough you will not survive. However, those that are competent should really share some of their money to the less fortunate as they are also fellow human beings. Even with that said, how many people are willing to give for no return? Very few of them will do that as humans are selfish by nature and there is little you can do to change that unless through education which sometimes might also not work.

Maybe we can solve this problem by allowing those selfish people to live a life being poor and full of hardship for a short period of time. Only then will he be able to understand what it feel and will sympathize for the less fortunate more.

As the Chinese saying goes “生在福中不知福” Before you buy something next time, make sure that you really need it and not want it. If you really do not need it then maybe you can donate the money to those of less fortunate.

So next time you see elderly selling tissues or giving out flyers, keep this in mind that you are a lot more fortunate than them and should thus lend a helping hand.

When people talk about ITE, short for Institute of Technical Education, they usually associate the students with smoking, gangster, tattoo, rowdy, unruly, uncouth, bad attitude, difficult to get along with, bad grades, no future, etc

I once heard a conversation between two people. “ Huh? You want to go ITE? You go there, it’s the end for you.”

I feel that these people have misconception about ITE students. These people might not even met an ITE student before and they just label them as bad students. Why is this so? Maybe because they are just following the crowd. They are not critical enough and do not have an opinion of their own. They just label them as 烂货 “lousy goods” in English which is quite a cruel thing to say. Maybe these people are the ones that are lousy since they cant think for themselves.

I feel that these students who goes to ITE might not necessarily be bad after all, or in other words there is still hope for them. It takes a lot of courage for them to have the will to carry on studying even when the whole world seems to turn their backs against them. For that we should at least credit them by not stereotyping them. There might be smart and bright people in ITE who are just lazy to study or work hard.

Those students who chose not to study and dropped out of school should deserve the nicknames instead not them. They have worked very hard, hoping that there is still a chance for them to succeed. I admire their hard work and never-say-die attitude and hope that they can do well in life.

Here is a case of an ITE student still being able to succeed in life:

My mother told me that their company has recently hired a graduate from university that was originally from ITE. This guy went into ITE and realized that his life was not what he expected to be. He was actually quite a smart boy, but it so happens that he walked the wrong path of road and thus entered ITE. However, when he entered ITE, he told himself that he did not want to enjoy his carefree life anymore. He did not want to play anymore. It seemed that he has finally come to his sense and has matured to finally see things from a different light. Therefore, he worked very hard and entered Junior college after ITE. He was still not satisfied and did not give up. From there he entered university and became what he is today.

This goes to show that we should not have stereotypes of people and we should experience it ourselves and from there generate your own point of view instead of following others. Before we criticize others, we should try to improve ourselves first.

So what if you are from Hwa Chong Institution? So what if you are the top 3% cohort of Singapore? Does this means that you will definitely succeed in life? The answer is NO. Without working hard it is almost impossible for you to be successful in life.

Sadly to say, the real world is cruel. If you are not competent enough you will easily be “dispose of”. The competitive nature of our society might cause some teenagers to be reluctant to study because even though they tried very hard, they still could not get good grades and be one of the best. Furthermore, some teenagers don’t even know the competitiveness of our society since they have parents who are quite well-off and they live in a carefree and relax life without having any stress or the pushing factor to strive harder in their study since they harbour naïve thoughts that their parents’ wealth will be theirs sooner or later and that they do not really have to work hard at all. However, when they grow up, they will soon realize what the real world is and will feel that the wealth left behind by their parents will run out soon enough and from there will they begin to regret not studying hard in the first place.

These ITE student have to understand the competitiveness of the real world and I still believe that they can do it provided they continue to work hard. They can be successful in the feel of technology as the name of the institution suggest. It is definitely not THE END for them.

Do not say I didn’t warn you guys to stop having these stereotypes of people as you might unknowingly hurt their feelings if they heard you. If you continue to be stubborn and keep ranting that ITE students are bad, maybe these “uncouth, unruly and rowdy students” might just come and get you and beat you to a pulp.

So please watch your mouth AND YOUR BACK !

Holiday just came and past with the blink of an eye. It is so fast that I still cant get use to school life yet, thinking that it is still the holidays and I can still slack.

Thinking back, I feel that I have not done any thing meaningful throughout the whole holiday except training, playing and more playing.

This topic suddenly came into my mind when I was thinking about what I should have done over the holidays to make it more exciting and meaningful and I feel that I can share with you guys what are the pros and cons of working during the school holidays in my point of view.

There are two long school breaks a year and it is a time where student relax and enjoy their carefree life of not going back to school. There is no homework and even if there is, there is about a month to do it so student don’t really do their homework. It is only during the last week or the last few days of the holidays do they start “chionging” their homework so as to hand in sloppy work to their ever-demanding teachers.

There aren’t many things that we student can do except for sleeping, playing computer games, watching the television, shopping, going out with friends, reading a book ( for those hard-workings ones) and going back to school for remedial lessons. Each day come and go just like that and by the end of the holiday, you will realize that you haven’t really make the most out of your time and didn’t accomplish much.

Hence, rather than wasting your precious time like that, why not try to work during the holidays?

Firstly, working allows you to earn extra cash, which allows you to buy anything that you want. It trains both your responsibility and independent as you do not have to depend on your parents for money and when you are working and you have to be responsible for what you are doing or else you will faced severe consequences and complaints from your boss and your clients or customers should you be working in the service line.

It also allows you to get the experience of working, how hard it is to earn money. This enables you to understand the hardship that your parent faced when they are working so as to provide the family with enough income. Through this you will slowly learn to be less spendthrift and even help your parents save money by not buying stuff that you don’t need. You can be more mature by not letting your parent worry about you be it your studies or your well-being by showing them that you can take care of yourself so as to lighten the already heavy burden that they had to carry. By working, it also allows you to widen your social circle and make new friends.

However, working also has its disadvantages. Firstly, you might be influence by your fellow colleagues and pick up their bad habits like smoking, gambling speaking coarse languages and maybe even drug trafficking which might pollute your pure and innocent minds and this is one of the major reason why parents are reluctant to allow their child to work during the holidays. Furthermore, some parents care so much about their child that they do not want to let their precious child to suffer any hardship derive from working. They rather their child stay at home and study or revise their school work.( most student don’t really do them during the holidays.)

I feel that these parents are being too over-protective of their child and they should allow their child to see what exactly is the real world instead of keeping them shut up at home. If they are afraid that the working environment might be bad for their child, they can find out more about what exactly will their child be doing before allowing them to work there.

In conclusion, I feel that those who want to make the most out of their time, they can try working during the holidays provided that their grades in school are quite good so that they would not have to study and can still catch up when school reopens.(like I said most student do not study during the holidays so it doesn’t really matter)

What are your opinions then? Should we really work during the school holidays? Are there any other meaningful things that we can do during the school holidays?

Task 2

Complete the template provided below (Annex A), focusing on (1) Point of View; (2) Situation and Setting; (3) Language/Diction; and (4) Personal Response, and post your response to Task 2 on your blog. This template is based on John Lye’s ‘Critical Analysis of Poetry’, and you can make reference to this in Annex B when in doubt.

Rainbow Death

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!

Hubert Wilson

Point of view

I think the poem is from the point of view a person who have seen the causes and effect of Agent Orange on the people of Vietnam, most probably from a third person point of view. This can be seen from “America did not foresee” which show that he is saying as a bystander on how careless America was without considering the effect of the deadly Agent Orange that will “Toll on the innocent and unborn.” He is like narrating the first-hand experience that he had seen from the war and thus this support my point that the poets adopts a third person point of view and is not actually one of the victims or it will be in the first person point of view. It can also be confirm with facts that the poet was participating in the war and had survived to narrate the story.

Situation and Setting

The setting and situation of the poem is most probably after the war whereby the Americans are “ Now thinking twice” in releasing the “Green, pink, purple and other colors death potpourri!”. This shows that the America regretted releasing the Agent during the war as “America did not foresee”. It is only after the released of the agent can we know “Execrable effects of agent orange spray” on people like “illness, birth defects and prematurely dead”. Thus, I conclude that the poem can only be set in the aftermath of the war to know the effects the agents had on the Vietnamese people and the feeling of regret by the Americans.

Language/Diction

Diction is carefully and uses very accurately to create and impact on the reader so as to let the reader feel the devastating effect the agents had on the Vietnamese people and the remorseful America.

The title “Rainbow Death” is an oxymoron whereby Rainbow is associated with death. Rainbow being colourful, lively and lead to heaven is seldom associated with death, which is dark, dull and lead to hell. The title also relates back to the Rainbow Herbicides that America used solely to remove the leaves of tree to prevent the enemy cover and concealment but have caused many deaths, which was never meant to be lethal or cause any heath problems. However, the rainbow used here has a contrast in saying that it leads to death that in turn leads to hell. This is showing how America used the Agent Orange without knowing its effect on people.

Similarly, death potpourri is also an oxymoron. Potpourri is a mixture of dried, naturally fragrant plant material, used to provide a gentle natural scent in houses. However, it is associated with death. Death that is commonly known to be negative is seldom associated with potpourri that is something positive since it gives a nice fragrant smell. Since death potpourri shows the dying of plant material, it might also relate to the Herbicides which kills off the leaves of trees. However, what the Americans did not know was that such harmless herbicides that were used to only destroy plants can destroy or kill humans as well.

Personal Response

The poem make me feel that the people of Vietnamese or maybe just the poet bore a grudges against America for causing death to so many people and birth deformities too. It enables me to understand the feelings and sufferings of the victims of the Agent Orange and the war itself. Although America is not to be totally blamed, the poem is portrayed to be anti-war and blame America for the sufferings that it had caused on the Vietnamese people. It also allows me to sympathized with the victims. I feel that the message of the poet is that war can bring devastating effect to both sides and that we should resolve everything peacefully instead of going to war as it will bring no good to both sides. I hope that war will cease to happen in future.

Task 1

Based on your understanding of the selected poem, perform extensive web research and write a report on your blog detailing the conflict represented in the poem(s) of your choice. Bear in mind that this piece of background information will allow your blog audience to further understand the poem as well as your analysis of the poem in Task 2.

Rainbow Death

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!

Hubert Wilson

Hubert Wilson was a Vietnam War veteran who served in the USAF Security Service. The Vietnam War was a Cold War military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from November 1, 1955 to April 30, 1975. Along with a dozen intelligence school graduates, Hubert was assigned to Shemya Island, Alaskawhich, which was an Agent Orange hotspot.

About 15 years ago, Hubert’s health problems started with unexplained headaches and limb pains. His central nervous system radically deteriorated with Parkinsonian type tremors, severe headaches, progressive limb pains. No physician has ever diagnosed the specific illness but he guessed that it was because of the drinking water heavily contaminated with Agent Orange at Shemya during his year there as an intelligence analyst. The effects of Agent Orange only showed up 20 to 30 years after initial exposure.

So what is Agent Orange? I have done some research and Agent Orange is the code name for a herbicide and defoliant—contaminated with TCDD—used by the U.S. military in its Herbicidal Warfare program during the Vietnam War. During the Vietnam war, the United States military sprayed 12,000,000 US gallons of chemical defoliants in South Vietnam as part of the aerial defoliation program known as Operation Ranch Hand. The purpose of the product was to deny an enemy cover and concealment in dense terrain by removing leaves from trees and shrubbery where the enemy could hide. It was principally effective against broad-leaf foliage, such as the dense jungle-like terrain found in Southeast Asia.

4.8 million Vietnamese people were exposed to Agent Orange, resulting in 400,000 deaths and disabilities, and 500,000 children born with birth defects like an extra toe or finger. It also caused other serious health problems like mental disabilities, hernias, skin diseases as well as a vast variety of cancers in the lungs, larynx( the hollow muscular organ forming an air passage to the lungs and holding the vocal cords in humans and other mammals)and prostate (a gland surrounding the neck of the bladder in male mammals and releasing prostatic fluid).

References:

http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/2010warpoetry.html

http://www.johntreed.com/agentorange.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_Orange