Rainbow Death analysis task 2

Unknown words:

· Potpourri: A combination of incongruous things/ a mixture of dried flower petals and spices used to scent the air.

· Omnipotent: Having unlimited or universal power, authority, or force; all-powerful.

· Deceit: A deception

· Nefariously: Infamous by way of being extremely wicked.

· Nefariously: hateful

Analysis:

Point of view:

I feel that this poem is written in the point of view of someone who sits out of the war and observes it. A person who is capable of seeing the effects of the war and what the world has become, more like “the wise one”. “Toll on the innocent and unborn”. This shows us that the person knows the deaths and sufferings of the war, Hence someone somewhat like an observer. “Omnipotent and disregarding who will mourn.” He sees the evil of those who are in power. Those which do not see the truth and horrors of the war.

Setting and situation:

I feel that this poem is written in the time after the war in America. The poem was about the outcome of the war and the regrets some may have. At the beginning, America thought that war was a glorious action, showing honor and bravery in fighting for your country. However, after seeing the aftermath of the war, their thought of the war changed and saw that there is no glory in war, instead sufferings and pain were all over the place.

Language and Diction:

In relation to the theme, the author added “colours” to his poem. I feel this is well used as we know that different colours evoke different kinds of emotion. Personification is used in this poem as “All the deceit continues to spread”. Deceit spreads like a human spreading his arms. Rhetorical questions were also used in the poem, “Now thinking twice?” The rest of the poem, the poet used vivid and descriptive language to bring out the feelings of the poem and make an impact on us.

Personal response:

I feel that the war may be over, however the hatred and pain will be brought to the future. Enemies will always be replaced by even more powerful ones when defeated and this vicious cycle will continue, one taking revenge and the other party too. War will always be a lose-lose situation. During a war, humanity will be lost, where everyone is selfish and only the survival of themselves matter. Death tolls are in 5 digit numbers, hence 1 or 2 will be forgotten. Everyone fighting in a war is suffering and the pain of your loved ones dying times the 5 digit number, it is unimaginable the pain of the people. Ultimately, problems should never solved via a war or conflict, instead have a peaceful talk over a cup of tea.

Task 2 Language Arts Home Learning: Children in the darkness

I feel that the poem is written in the point of view of someone who knows the common knowledge whereby children are innocent and pure and is able to differentiate them, most probably being an adult as an adult is wise enough to know these differences. Through the poem, the poet distinguished and has drawn a clear line between a ‘normal’ child to the one in the picture.

The situation is during war or during the mobilization. As the country does not want to lose the war, however they have not enough able man, hence they mobilized innocent children to fight in the war. In the poem, it mentioned that,” From this life they cannot flee”. And the whole of stanza 3. This shows the feelings and thoughts of the children and those not. The children felt that it was their fate to fight in the war. Also, there was a sense of pity inside as innocent children’s’ fate was to serve and most likely die in a war. Stanza 3 showed the emotion whereby asking rhetorical questions, showing that the children were hopeless and their ‘normal’ lives will be gone forever. Sort of like saying that they were ‘goners”. The whole poem is evoking a sense of hopelessness as throughout the poem, the poet emphasized the hopelessness of the children and us as we could no prevent this from happening.

The poet used repetition, “the darkness”. The poet repeated this phrase to make an impact that there was no justice to the world as if there is, the children would not have gone to war. In contrast with darkness, there is also light. Light in this poem I feel that it represents justice. Hence when the children have not seen the light, this implies that there is no justice here as it is very cruel to bring the children to take up arms. The word ‘consume’ is used here, meaning that the children is totally conquered by darkness, hence giving the impact that there is totally no hope or justice here. At the last stanza, ‘back in the darkness’ is used to show that there is no way out of the darkness but back in there. Overall, the words and diction used in this poem is very accurate as it brings out the feeling of hopelessness and creates a deep impact on us as readers.

After reading this poem, I feel that it relates me to the reality that life is unfair. Someone may be having the best of life, with wealth, and leading a carefree life. However on the other side of the world, there is someone who is poor and living a life of troubles and maybe danger. A question also appears in my head, “Why can’t other people be the same as us?” The world is unfair as everyone has a different fate. Regarding war, I feel that it is cruel and horrific as it absorbs life and makes people war-mad, until the point that children have to enter this war. It kills with no one winning in the end and young, innocent children’s life is sacrificed through this evil process.

Thank you.

Task 1 Language Arts Home Learning

Poem 1: Children in the darkness

The poet, Henry M Betchtold was in Vietnam in 1967 - 68 and again in 1969. The poet want back often as his soul lives in Vietnam and he wants to go back to visit it from time to time.

He wrote this poem during the Christmas season in 2009, in his hotel room in Saigon. His initial intention was to write a poem about the girls who work in the park and was treated badly by the men there. At the sight of this Henry was furious. However he was unable to write anything that did not sound weak. His inspiration was when he watched the news from the TV. From this, he saw that in the background, there was a photo of a small boy with a helmet and an automatic rifle. Upon seeing this, words kept flowing out of his mind and thus, this poem was born.

This totally contradicts what the poet, together with what we think. To us or the common knowledge is that children are supposed to be pure and innocent, free of sin. However, through the photo and the poem about children going to war. War is a sin and by the children going to war, means that they are committing a sin, which is totally against the common knowledge.

Topic: Students and their awareness of world matters

Topic: Students and their awareness of world matters

Hi descendants of heaven,

This post will be a short one.

Students do not really know what is happening in the world or has no feelings towards it as they feel that it does not concern them. As the Hwa Chong values say," Global Perspective". Students should start to get themselves into the matters the world is experiencing. A good example would be the Haiti earthquake. Students only know that there was such a tragic event. If to write their thoughts they can do it. However if we ask them what are you going to do about it, I am sure that in their hearts, they would not doing anything or change anything about themselves. This can also be seen from the credit crisis. Parents are suffering as their income decreases, but the children spend it like always. Students just take things for granted and they do not know how people around the world is suffering.

I feel that children should get themselves more involved in world matters. This will allow students can plan for their own future and have a clearer sight on what they really want. Students will also be more sensible in controlling what they buy during the downturn. Another familiar sight would be students not eating cleanly their plate, having leftovers or just wasting food. They would also know what their parents are going through and can understand their parents better and change their own lifestyle according to the situation.

Question: What do you think students should do? How to attract them to world matters? Are you involved? Please enter your comments in the comment box. Thanks!!!

Topic: Students and their tuition

Topic: Students and their tuition

Dear the people whom are destined to overcome hell,

My question is do students really need tuition? O is it they are scared of doing well for the exams, somewhat like not being confident in yourself. So the question lies on whether tuition is that important or that your parents are just wasting money?

Students in Singapore are known to have their lives full of activities and packed with tuition, due to rivalry between students. Now a days, the world has became more competitive as parents wants their children to be the best or at least better than his or her mother's friend? This can be said as bragging or showing off. I am sure to say that at least 85% of the students in Singapore have at least a tuition lesson per week.

For some students, the tuition is really necessary to them as they really need external help from outside sources, to guide them in the right path. Parents are willing to pay about $60 easily for a lesson as they dream that their child is the best the world has ever seen. They want to groom the child and hope that he or she could fulfill the dream that their parents were unable to do so, pinning their hopes on you and to continue the family line.

However I feel that most students are having the second scenario: The students feel that the tuition is redundant as the students feel that it is boring and studying in school i already sufficient. Them going to tuition is mainly forced by parents or the parents feel a need to. They feel that revising at home is more effective than compared to going to tuition. Tuition is also time consuming and gives extra pressure to the student as they have extra homework for tuition and less time to do school work, resulting in burning the midnight oil. Studying at home, the student feels more relaxed and comfortable, compare to tuition. The general opinion is that the tuition is boring and have no need for it and currently going due to parents.

Questions for my dear readers: Which do you think is more effective, studying at home or in tuition? If you were a parent, what would you do if you had children? Please share with me your interesting views. Thanks!!!

Topic today: The mindset of students now a days and their attitudes

Topic today: The mindset of students now a days and their attitudes

Hi fellow crusaders of the sky,

Today my topic would be on the mindset of secondary 1 and 2 students through my observations. I have seen nowadays that most teenagers only get serious when near the date line of whatever they were doing. For example the test is on a Wednesday. Students would tend to have a carefree days before the exam and only really studying hard (by bringing their files and notes and studying at every time possible) the night before the test or worst, on the actual day itself.

This may be helpful to a certain extent where you remember fresh information from what you studied right before the test. This also shows the concept of revising as for the human mind, there would be a peak where you remember all the information clearly, like as they were at the back of you hand. However after some time, you start to forget some information and will come a time when you forget almost everything. The goal which we want to achieve is to have the tests or exams at the peak time or nearest to the point where we remember almost all the information. This is when revision comes in. Revision allows us to have another peak point, hence will have a higher chance of taking the test near the peak. (Can be imagined in a graph).

This leads me to my point of view. revision is definitely a must, however I feel revision at the Last Minute is bad as by doing that, you are stressing yourself out more. For example, the test is in one hours time. I am last minute revising and you suddenly realise that you did not remember this particular point, thus stressing up, trying to remember that point and in the process forget other important points for the test. There is also a chance where you may experience a mental block if the pressure is great enough. This is a time where the person totally forgets everything and remain "blank" during the test. Also, there is no use in revising everything over one night as the human can only stay focused for roughly 40 minutes. Hence instead of all in one day, the student should spread it over 40 minute intervals spread over a few days. Students will feel that it is very difficult to study the notes in one day and hence give up remembering some data. This will result in not desirable results. On the other hand, the student may actually revise the work over a few days and not find it overkill and at least revising it once.

Questions for the young at heart: How do you prepare for your tests? Is there a good solution as to how students should revise for their work? Please give me your great feedback in the comment box. Thanks!!

Maids in Singapore

Hi people of the above,

Recently, My maid was arrested for stealing jewelry worth of $5000 and after interrogating her she admitted her crime. The police came and soon after I never heard a word about that event.

Before the event took place, she started to have bad attitudes and laziness was observed. For example, When told her to complete a simple task, she would say that she was tired and when called for her, she would be either sleeping or in the toilet. Last time, she would do everything almost perfectly and very hardworking. But then I think that everything changed when she got hold of a phone and started making phone calls back to her brothers in her home town of Java. I am not sure why but after that call, she called again and again day by day and that was when her attitude towards work changed. My parents tolerated for a long time, her bad attitude that is and it caused my parents to be easily angry.

I feel that it is very difficult to have the courage to become a maid to earn money for your family. Imagine that you would not be able to see your family for a minimum of three years, it would feel like forcefully separating mother and daughter. Also, you would be in a place you have never been before and living under a roof of people you have never seen before. There had been cases where the owners abuse their maid by resulting in physically hitting her. The maids have to overcome the fear of that happening to her. There are some cases where maids undergo too much pressure, stress and sadness that they just commit suicide.

In my case, only my grandparents really understand them. During times when my parents attack her by scolding her, if my grandparents are there, they would definitely come to the defence of her. Sometimes, my grandparents even reward her for cleaning the car.

I feel that we as employees should really understand maids more. After all, they are humans instead of machines or robots. They have fatigue and feelings. Even the prime minister sees this as a problem and issued a law where by the maid must have at least one day off and proper accommodations. When maids get out of hand and have a change in mind, we should maybe have a proper talk of her, instead of immediately scolding her and this will only promote more hatred between the two. This would not solve anything.

When we have maids, we should take time to understand them more and befriend them, making them feel more at home. This will not only foster a greater relationship between the employee and the maid, this may make the maid feel more at home and work harder. When a person feels happy, he or she would feel more happy to work. Everything is well when a person feels no pressure.

Humble questions for the young mind: What suggestions do you have to have the maids feel more welcomed in Singapore? Or what would you do if you were the employee? Please post your thoughts in the comment box. Thanks!!!