2011 Term 2 Online Lesson 25/5 Task 1

The poem that I will be doing on is Rainbow Death by Hubert Wilson.

Difficulty Rating: * *Rainbow Death

America did not foreseeGreen, 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

About the poet:

He was a Vietnam War veteran (as were his four brothers) who served in the USAF Security Service. He, along with a dozen or so intelligence school grads, prepped for about 14 months at Kelly AFB in San Antonio, Texas, before anticipating to be sent to Vietnam or elsewhere in Southeast Asia in 1970. About half of them ended up in Da Nang (an Agent Orange hotspot) in the 6924th Security Squadron. The rest of them, along with Hubert Wilson, were assigned to Shemya Island, Alaska, with the 6984th Security Squadron, and what eventually was a more contaminated environment than Da Nang!
Hubert Wilson’s health problems started approximately 15 years ago with unexplained headaches and limb pains. Four years ago his central nervous system radically deteriorated with Parkinsonian type tremors, severe headaches, progressive limb pains, etc. No physician has everdiagnosed the specific illness. No physician has ever rendered any form of medical assistance! Hubert Wilson’s number one educated guess is the heavily contaminated drinking water at Shemya during his year there as an intelligence analyst.
Fortunately, since his brain still functions moderately well (and I have mobility issues), he had turned to writing.

About the Poem:

Hubert Wilson’s Rainbow Death speaks of a modern day ingredient of warfare that has caused appalling death and suffering – not only to its intended victims, the Vietnamese people, but also the service personnel that used or even just came into contact with “Agent Orange”, which appears to be the code name for a herbicide and defoliant—contaminated with TCDD (Tetrachlorodibenzodioxin) —used by the U.S. military in its Herbicidal Warfare program during the Vietnam War. According to Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 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.

“From 1962 to 1971, Agent Orange was by far the most widely used of the so-called "Rainbow Herbicides" employed in the herbicidal warfare program. During the production of Agent Orange (as well as Agents Purple, Pink, and Green) dioxins were produced as a contaminant, which have caused numerous health problems for the millions of people who have been exposed. Agents Blue and White were part of the same program but did not contain dioxins.” -- Wikipedia

Thus, we can see from this quote why Hubert Wilson had written a poem entitled Rainbow Death. This poem, Rainbow Death, may remind us that wars actually are not over when the wars are over.

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

Online Learning - Letter of encouragement (30/3/11)

Bukit Batok Street 34 BLK 341 #97- 44

Singapore 874103

Dear Mr. Jones,

I am someone from Singapore that has read your article about the Japan Crisis and I would like to write this letter of encouragement to you as well as to the people of Japan. I understand that you have felt the earthquake tremors on March 11, 2011. This earthquake, as seen on the newspaper worldwide, caused a 10-metre tsunami as well as a current nuclear crisis at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

Videos and pictures of the tsunami is everywhere. Trending on twitter and spreading on Tumblr and Facebook. I found out that this is the worst Mother Nature has give Japan since the 1995 earthquake that hit the Western city of Kobe. All the buildings in the affected areas were destroyed completely; nothing could be seen left in shape. The rebuilding of cities, towns and provinces costs hundreds of millions to rebuild. This takes the help of the entire planet, and I am please to say that contributions made were a significant amount. These food and water would be sent to the affected areas as soon as possible. I hope that your family, friends and yourself would be fine and in one piece.

The nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant is huge problem currently. The radioactive leakage is causing major problems to Japan and parts of the world. Food supplies around the world from Japan are banned from entering the country. I hope the government would be able to solve this as soon as possible to avoid further complications.

I hope that you are fine, not forgetting your family and friends too. I have confidence that the Japanese nation would be able to overcome this as even after all that has happened, the people are still calm and composed and not panicking. I wish everyone in Japan a few safe weeks ahead and good luck!

Yours truly,

Kang Jun Yi.

Setting

Telephone - Wole Soyinka

1)This poem is full of colours no just that of skin, what do you think these colours signify?

One of the colours mentioned in the poem is the colour gold. The gold generally meant that the persona had some wealth as it is believed that gold was for the wealthy people as only they could afford it. The next colour is brunette. Its not really a colour but people with brown-coloured hair. I think it is for the landlord to make herself feel more at ease as I think she prefers brunettes to Africans.

2) What does the dialogue in this poem reveal about the two characters?

This poem reveals the two characters other side of their personality. This is because the landlord, whose skin colour is white, looks down on the persona, whose skin colour is totally different, dark brown, or West African sepia. The persona on the other hand, feels very awkward about talking about her own skin colour.

3) The poet dramatises a battle, who wins finally and why?

The landlord is curious to how dark the skin colour of the African lady is and keeps asking and asking. However, the African lady tries again and again to not answer directly to the landlord. This make the landlord impatient and wants to hang up. So the African lady had no choice but to give in and thus resulting in the landlord being the winner of this ‘battle’.

Civil War

a. Identify the southern states.

South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia,

Arkansas Tennessee and North Carolina.

b. Who was the US president who proclaimed the war against the south?

It was President Abraham Lincoln.

c. Why was the Civil War fought?

The South was taxed way more then the North and the Southerners felt that it was unfair and so the Civil War.

d. When was this war fought?

The Civil War took place between 1861 and 1862.

e. What was the outcome of this war?

The North won and prevented the South from being an independent republic.

f. How does the Civil Right movements relate to the novel (To Kill A Mocking Bird)?

Both talk about the racism in American life.

Identity

It has been years. It has been years that I finally came back. Glad to be back, yet at the same time, I do not know if I am able to blend in as a local like when I was a kid. In those times, people were more adventurous, fit and optimistic. Now, things have changed the way I never imagine it to be. However, it might not be so bad after all. It could be a unique personality of us. A personality that no where in the world has, as I have said, a unique personality, even new words were created just to describe us. In fact, a new language was created.

Coming back was a totally different feeling then leaving. When you arrive, you feel welcomed. Like thousands of people waiting at the airport upon your arrival and greet you when you look at them, but in fact, no one is there but strangers waiting for their relatives and friends. No one would even bother looking at you. However, it just feels good to be back.

This trip back home would just a two-week holiday. Visiting friends, shopping and do everything and anything. And of course, understand how and what my homeland has became after eight years abroad in London. Went over when I was thirteen because my father was posted there to work. Pretty excited at first but leaving behind all my friends, it was hard. All the friendships that took years to build can simply be left behind just like that. However, I had no choice. My whole family was going. I cannot just say no to that. I was thirteen.

The only thing left was to make new friends in London, keep in touch with old ones and come back to visit. And there I was eight years later I am finally back on home ground. A sense of joy and anxiousness runs in me.

Everything has changed. From the old dirty island, to the clean, green and fresh island today. From a world of rural areas, to an island of urbanized city. However, some things still have not changed, that is the multi-racial and multi-cultural we have in Singapore. Not many places are able to cope with 4 or more religions living together because of the much friction caused between two religions, fights and rioting tend to happen and peoples’ lives are at stake. This is a one thing about government that I admire, able to control and races and all live in peace.

The Central Business District is another world famous place. Or at the very least, to me it is. This is because this is the place where the country’s economy depends on. If it crashes, all is doomed. Thus, it takes much consideration and feedback from others before a major change would take place. It is like the New York City’s ‘Wall Street’, but simplified.

Talking about my homeland, the thing that most tourists would talk about is the language we speak. We speak a unique combination of every language here. It started from mandarin, Chinese. It then evolved and other language started coming into this. Reason is simple, because the world is evolving, surely we too have to do the same and thus, English, Malay were slowing added into the language. Furthermore, we even added Chinese dialects, such as Hokkien, Teochew into in! It somehow mange to turn out fine, but only if you speak to locals who say it as well. And this is called none other than ‘Singlish’!

From our Central Business District to our clean and green gardens to our invented language, that's our identity. Once you hear someone speaking in a language you feel that is confusing and at the same time containing a lot of languages and dialect, you know what it is, it’s ‘Singlish’!

I guess you already have a clue to where I come from. I come from Singapore! Have you guessed it right? And this was how I felt after coming back to Singapore after eight years. Eight whole years out of your home country, I mean, who can not feel homesick, even though your home is now else where, your home country is your home country, no other place will be able to replace this significant country in your heart.

And that's our Singapore Identity!

Slavery

a. When and how did slavery in the southern state?

Slavery recorded went as far back as the civilisation of Sumer, which spans over the Uruk period (5th millennium BC), followed by the proto-historical early dynastic period (early 3rd millennium BC) and the dynastic period of Sumer proper in the mid 4th millennium BC, until the conquest of Sumer by the Akkadians around 2400 BC. Native Sumerian rule re-emerged for about a century in the so-called Sumerian Renaissance of the 21st to 20th century. It started when people had a shortage of workers and did not want to pay the workers their salary, thus they became slaves against their own will.

b. Which country/countries did the slaves come from?

Slaves mostly came from Africa with about 12 million to 27 million brought out of their country each year. The women and children were mostly brought to the sex industry which eventually would go into the drugs.

c. Who traditionally bought and owned the slaves?

The white people mainly bought and owned the slave. They normally own companies or factories for these slaves to work in.

d. Were there rules/ laws that the slaves had to abide by? If yes, what were they?

The slaves were not allowed to own any piece of land, get married, to testify in court for any sort of cases and have family. Any other rules/laws would most probably made up the slaves' owner.

e. How does the nation of slavery relate to the novel? Does the study of slavery help you understand the novel better?

It helps by telling me why there was a need to have slaves during that period of time when manpower was needed, and with limited amount of money, nobody had a choice but to go into slavery.