Home learning

Task 1:

The poem is written by Hubert Wilson, who fought in the Vietnam war,which is the setting of the poem.The poet himself was besotted with the poor conditions of the war and his health was battered by the chemicals used in the vietnam war. The poem portrayed the height of chemical warfare in Vietnam, where the Americans started to use "agent orange", a chemical used to kill and bare trees to counter the Vietnamese's guerilla warfare, and that it caused many side effects.

Point Of View:

The Persona was a soldier during the vietnam war and he was a victim of the toxic agent, his health suffered after many years and he was paralysed, hence he decided to write about his experiences. His stance is anti-war, as seen when he, almost forcefully points out that " Generations untold will pay!" showing that diving into this war means severe consequences.

While Hubert's view may be a little bias, it is also not baseless, as he has evidence to support his claims. He stated in his poem that the chemicals gave out rainbow colours which was indeed the case, he also vividly described the sympotoms "premature death and birth defects", showing that he in fact, is reliable and that his views, while radical to some,actually have a point.

Situation and setting

The setting is the vietnam war as seen from the poem, which talked about agent orange, the chemical used in the vietnam war, the situation is tense and dangerous, americans have started using "agent orange" chemicals to fell the trees, to counter the Vietnamese's overwhelming guerilla warfare, however, there is an illusion at first that the situation is rosy, as seen from the mentioning of attractive colours in the first stanza, however, the second stanza reveals it all, and shows that the colours are not attractive, but deadly, and the the falsely rosey situation, is extremely dangerous and would also "take a toll on the innocent and the unborn" The poet wants people to know that war, while seemingly "paradise" is deadly and its detriments last, as can be seen from many Vietnamese children who die at infancy who have birth defects(some can only stand on their hands from the moment they are born, and some are born without certain body parts) and from the poet himself, who suffered from many defects and illnesses in his later life.

Language and Diction

Potpourri- mixture of dried petals of roses or other flowers with spices, kept in a jar for their fragrance, the mixture is usually colourful and brings forth sweet smells after long periods. There is an ironic tone in this as this word comes right after the word death, which shows that in this context, there is no positivity, there is no fragrant smell, only the smell of death, which once again emphasised that the war is not going to "smell nice" but it's going to "stink".

Toll-usually used when someone has to pay a price. In this context, the poet is trying to convey a message that war leaves behind consequences that we have to pay for, he even goes on to mention the future generation meaning that he wants us to know that we are laying a burden on our future generation, through this, he creates a sense of guilt that probably awakes everyone and reminds everyone not to go to war. This still counts, as no matter how modern the war is, deaths and destruction still occur.

He also uses exclamation marks to emphasise how strongly he is against the war, and the word "will" is enlarged, as if it is affirmative nd that he is sure that war definitely brings harm, long lasting harm that affects the later generation.

Personal Response:

This poem serves to remind me that war does not pay, indeed, people are still paying the price for the war, Hubert Wilson suffered many years after the war, many vietnamese children are still paying the price for the previous generation's mistake, they are born disabled and deformed. Cliche it may be, but once again, the lesson is not to go to war, for the innocent get hurt, and lives are scarred, some lives have already been scarred and possibly destroyed before they even came out.

Why laugh when you ain't much better?

Yes. Why? Why laugh at people's inferiority or when they make stupid mistakes? Are you much better? Most of the times, NO. You(No Specific person/dont wanna say your name)make fun of people, just because of some weaknesses or mistakes. You snigger at the way people talk, the way they pronounce words, you just pinpoint everybody's "noob points" and do your disgusting mocking giggle.

You think you're superior, that's why you mock, you think you can do it better, the effort the person puts in are just recognised by your jeering, whatever people think or do that you think doesn't fit, you just refute him with cruel ruthlessness.

But then, are you in anyway, superior. A resounding "DUH-NOT!". You stumble too, you make mistakes too, you have unfavourable weaknesses too. But people can't poke fun at you, people can't mock you, only you can, and you have this sickening air of arrogance.

Why laugh when you ain't much better. Precisely. You aren't much better, which is why you laugh at others. You feel inferior, which is precisely why you make fun of others, you mock others. so as to make yourself feel better, to divert the attention from yourself, to deflect people's attention from your own inferior complex.

This is how i view those that do this, so, next time, when someone mocks your stupidity/mistakes/weaknesses, and keeps on raking it up and giving those nerve irritating kind of laughter, dont feel inferior, because it is highly possible that he is mocking you because he feels more insignificant and more inferior to you, and propbably wants to prove to himself that it's not the case.

Do you think this is how it works?
Please give you comments. Thank you very much (:

CCA superiority

In every school there are CCAs, obviously right? Hwa Chong's no different. Schools have niche CCAs and normal CCAs. Well basically, the difference between the two is thatone receives more funding than the other because of its better achievements, but in all other aspects, they are treated equally.

CCAs, especially sports, in Hwa Chong, are divided into two, mainly, the elite sports, and the non-elite sports. Elite and Non-elite? I didn't like that. I still don't.

I come from a CCA(table-tennis) that belongs to the category of Non-elite sports. We are the so-called Perennial Underachievers, bringing back puny zonal medals while the high and mighty elite sports bring home national championships. At this description, you might think being labelled non-elite sports isn't too unfair, because we dont acheive much, but the effort in which "non-elite" sports, in no way, pales in comparison to the high flying sports. For example, let's look at the volleyball and badminton teams.(I won't talk about table tennis, in case of suspicion of bias) They train relentlessly, and make full use of their limited resources and training times, and seek to improve unwaveringly. But yet, due to the high standards of the competition, they are unable to achieve much. Do we simply disregard them as lower grade sports in the school and label them as mediocre? I am not saying that elite sports do not train hard to achieve what they have today, but that they are the only ones being recognised, while the other sports who also train hard but are unable to achieve, are being neglected and pushed aside.

I do feel that CCAs/sports, should not be judged base on their achievements, but based on their efforts. Being recognised as elite sports makes students from such CCAs have arrogance, they think that because they are the creme de la creme, they are above everyone, and many look down on others, whule the others feel dispirited because they aren't recognise for their efforts.

Elite sports.Non Elite sports. There should be no superiority or inferiority, as the effort put in do not differ, and it should be recognised regardless of achievements.

You are what you eat.

"You are what you eat." We have seen this many times, be it on the streets or through the television, encouraging people to eat healthy,and telling people that their health depends on what they eat. Many think that it is exaggerated, but "You are what you eat" isn't baseless.

Recently, on an article by the straits times,it was reported that singaporeans today are fatter, taller and heavier than singaporeans in the previous generation. One of the main reasons is because Singaporeans have a better life now. But the food that we eat plays a very big role too.

Have you ever wondered what your potato chips are made of? Potatoes? Salt? That's all? Not exactly. If potato chips contained just potatoes and salt, they wouldn't be so popular now. Those chilli, onion flavours dont just come from potatoes. Then those flavours come from real onions, chillies, right? Apparently not. The so-called orginal flavours come from artificial flvourings which are detrimental to our body. Additionally,Potato chips are deep fried in oxidized oil that is re-used for weeks at a time. Deep fried at high temperatures which cause the chemical, acrylimide to be released. Acrylimides are a known cancer causing agent that also causes nerve damage. When you eat 1 single serving bag of potato chips you may be eating up to 500times more acrylamide than the maximum level allowed in drinking water. The simple chip ain't that innocent anymore.

Chips aren't the only culprits. Burgers, another all time favourite. Most Burgers contain MSG (monosodium glutamate), which is a chemical used for flavour enhancement and fattening of animals. MSG is also common in most foodstuffs. MSG also causes many problems. It can cause headaches, swelling of cheeks and constant dehydration. Such problems are not uncommon, in fact, my mother experienced swollen cheeks after eating an especially delicious bowl of noodles.

Chickens today are a lot fatter than they used to be. So what fills them up? Hormone injections. As we consume the hormome laden chickens it enters our bloodstream, and we become hormone laden, being intoxicated with this causes health problems ranging from cancer to obesity.

You are what you eat. And today, that isn't good. For better taste, we have forsaken the genuine goodness in our food with artificial flavourings and hormones or whatever, that do nothing but harm us. The reason why we are fatter now as compared to the previous generation is not just because they had a tougher life, but that their food was just food, today, food is more hormones than food itself. The potato of the past has now transformed into the cancer-obesity-blahblahblah disease-causing, and probably life threatening chip.





Which do you want? If we want to be in the right shape, size, condition, then we have to curb this unhealthy processing of food, food should not be artificial and full of taste but void in benefits, and full of detriments, food should be kept natural, and the way it should be. A great man(sorry, forgot his name) once said "let food be your medicine, and let medicine be your food.That was before our food had things added to it. When food was clean and "untouched", things were like that, until we ruined our food. Food used to make us fit, now food makes us fat. Cancer used to be a rarity, now its the norm. The solution to being healthy lies in our food.

We are what we eat.