Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Task Two (Home Learning)

Steps in Analysis

1)Point of View

Point: Dramatic tone
Evidence: "Green, pink, purple and other colors death potpourri!" and "Generations untold WILL pay"
Elaboration: "Green, pink, purple and other colors death potpourri!" suggests that the different agent colours will cause more deaths and cause the "death potpourri". Furthermore, "Generations untold WILL pay" suggests that the later generations will pay for the sins the current generation had committed.

2)Situation and Setting

Point: The setting of the poem is after Agent Orange has been used.
Evidence: "Toll on the innocent and unborn"
Elaboration: The speaker is talking about the devastating effects of the Agent Orange. Those innocent soldiers losing their lives while fighting and the unborn having birth defects when they are born. Toll is a harsh word which evokes emotional feelings.

3) Language/Diction

Point: Death is inevitable in large-scale wars
Evidence: "Death potpourri"
Elaboration: Potpourri is any mixture of any object which in this case, a mixture of deaths. Death potpourri is a mixture of deaths due to the devastating effects of war.

4) Personal Response
I share the same sentiments as the writer. In a war, many innocent lives are lost. Its just not fair. Furthermore, the future generation will be affected due to the effects of Agent Orange. The devastating aftermath of the war will always be remembered in the hearts of many.

Posted by Ho Siu Joon Jones at 8:33 PM

Task One (Home Learning)

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

Brief Introduction of Hubert

He was a Vietnam War veteran who served in the USAF Security Service. Along with a dozen or so intelligence school grads, prepped for about 14 months at Kelly AFB in San Antonio, Texas, before anticipating being sent to Vietnam or elsewhere in southeat Asia in 1970. About half ended up in Da Nang (an Agent Orange hotspot) in the 6924th Security Squadron. The rest of them were assigned to Shemya Island, Alaska, with the 6984th Security Squadron, and what eventually was a more contaminated environment than Da Nang.

Hubert's health problems started around 15 years ago with limb pains and unexplained headaches. His central nervous system radically deteriorated with Parkinsonian type tremors, severe headaches and progressive limb pains four years ago. No physician has ever diagnosed the specific illness and ever rendered any medical assistance to Hubert. He guessed that the symptoms were caused by the drinking of large amount of contaminated water at Shemya during that year there as an intelligence analyst. Organo-phosphate toxins may not run their toxic course until 20 to 30 years after initial exposure.

Reason why Hubert wrote this poem

Agent Orange is the code name for an herbicide and defoliant—contaminated with TCDD—used by the U.S. military in its herbicidal warfare program during the Vietnam War.
According to Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 4,800,000 Vietnamese people were exposed to Agent Orange, resulting in 400,000 deaths and disabilities, and 500,000 children born with birth defects. This chemical has been reported to cause serious skin diseases as well as a vast variety of cancers in the lungs, larynx, and prostate.

From 1961 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, 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.

He wanted to remind people that the war does not end even though it was over.

Posted by Ho Siu Joon Jones at 8:30 PM