Task 1

The author

The author of the poem, Rainbow Death, Hubert Wilson, was a Vietnam War veteran who served in the USAF Security Service. Hubert along with a dozen or so intelligence school graduates, prepared for about 14 months at Kelly AFB in San Antonio, Texas, before anticipating being 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 were assigned to Shemya Island, Alaska, with the 6984th Security Squadron, and what eventually was a more contaminated environment than Da Nang.
His 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 ever diagnosed the specific illness. No VA physician has ever rendered any medical assistance. During that time, the author’s number one educated guess is the heavily contaminated drinking water at Shemya during his year there as an intelligence analyst. Organo-phosphate toxins may not run their toxic course until 20 to 30 years after initial exposure.

Since his brain still functions moderately well (and he had mobility issues), the author turned to writing just like his late Father and the late singer (and writer) Johnny Cash.

The Poem

The poem 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”.

Wikipedia reports, “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.

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.”

This poem may remind us that wars aren’t over when the wars are over. Hubert wrote this poem to tell us that, although the war is already over, and that America has so called 'win', suffering is still going on, and it is still going to last for many more generations, that with conflict, war, comes great suffering and sacrifices. Hubert hopes to tell us that no matter which side wins in a war, both will suffer, and that it will last for a long time.

References:

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

http://www.poemhunter.com/hubert-wilson/

Education

Have you ever wondered, why is it that we are all still stuck here on this planet Earth?

That there have not been any major new inventions nowadays?

Well for this two simple question, we have also a simple answer, all that is to be blamed is ourselves, the sense of envy which is deeply rooted into every one of us, the education system now, is also another cause to it.

You may be wondering, why is it that it is the education system that is the cause to no major new inventions, only modifications. The education system now, is always teaching us on past knowledge, what the ancients knew and what our forefathers invented. It is always showing us what our forefathers have achieved, the knowledge they have acquired. However, this kind of education is limiting our imaginations, our thinking. It is putting all of us into one small room of a big mansion, stretching over miles and miles. It is limiting us, only allowing us space to explore one small piece of the whole puzzle, keeping the rest away from us.

All of this may not come to sense to you, but there is only one main idea here, that everything that we have here, is limiting us, only allowing us enough space to breath, but not to stretch ourselves until our limits.

Envy lies in every one, and it is only how far to an extent one can control it. Some who can control it, lives in happiness despite living in poverty, some who can’t, will always be on their feet, always planning to strip others of their possession and make it their own and this is the exact situation, going on in our very own society.

As I have said earlier, our education system now, always shows us and tells us what our forefathers have achieved, or rather telling us about great inventers, those who invented things that we can’t live without, and many of those who came out of this education system, no longer hold what the ancients possess, they no longer have the ability to think freely, as their brains are now affected by what they learned, on what others created and many of this education no longer hold the ability to invent but rather they could only improve on what the ancients or our forefathers have created.

It is not that I am saying that this education system now is bad, it is not bad, it have nurtured great thinkers, who are skilled in improving, spotting mistakes and making inventions of our forefathers, better, but it no longer nurtures great inventors, free minds, who think freely, who have the ability to think out of the box, not restricted by the invisible box, created by the now education system.

What I am trying to say here, is that the education system now, is only nurturing thinking minds, minds that study the past inventions and tries to improve it, making it even better. The education system now is somehow teaching the young that what we have now is what we can have, that we will not get more, only better. Look at the cars, we keep on getting newer designs, newer engines, which are modified, improved, but we are not getting new ideas, new inventions.

Look at the past, there wasn’t much education but there were a lot of inventions, the people then had free minds, they pursued their dreams, and made their imagination into reality. I am not saying that the people now don’t have dreams, imaginations, but I am saying that the people now no longer have the ability to think out of the box. Maybe it is those that have great dreams, imaginations, their dreams were rejected by the researchers, saying that it is just not workable, that it is just not possible because science doesn’t say so.

Ah, and this is just what the education system now nurtures. It nurtures people that goes strictly according to the book, people that only believe in things recorded down in the books, and treating everything that is not in there as blasphemy, that it is not acceptable and not true. However, don’t you realize that everything that is in the books we are reading now, was once only merely thoughts, imaginations, dreams of our ancestors, forefathers.

This fact is always forcefully rejected, or somehow ignored by the scholars, that everything the ancients recorded down is true. However, they are ignoring the truth that once people thought that the Sun was rotating around Earth, until someone stood up and say that it was actually the Earth that is rotating around the Sun. The people then objected and rejected this fact, but slowly accepted this truth when everything was clear. However, this will not happen in our times, as it is very clear that the education system now is somehow insisting that every tiny bit of information we are learning now is undeniably correct and there is no space for us to question it.

Look at the greatest inventor, Sir Tom Edison, he was thought to be an idiot during his school days, he spent most of his time out of the classrooms, and therefore he did not receive much education but look at him, he invented so many great things when his teacher thought that he was a complete idiot, so how can the education be possibly right, usable when people that are supposed to be idiots, compared to the standards set up by the education system, was one of the greatest inventor of all times?

This tells us that what this education system nurtures, is thinking minds, minds that tends to improve things, makes betterment, but not minds that holds the ability to think out of the box, minds that have no thinking boundaries, minds that can think freely and are not restricted by the invisible boundary set up by the education system. However, this creates a social balance, or somehow generation balance, the past had been times of somehow unlimited new initiatives, inventions and after such long time of inventions, now is the time for betterment, time for people to improve on past inventions, a time to improve on things that were invented in the past, and some time in the future should once again be a time of inventions and when that time comes, this education system should be able to change, to adapt, or it would be overwhelmed by minds that do not, and will not accept and go through this education system and the world will collapse, it will die of brilliant minds, as I believe those minds will find a way to escape this prison, this invisible box that is limiting us, to somewhere far away, where they can think freely, and be accepted, maybe they would be taken away, or follow some still unknown being to us, to a much more free space, where minds can still think freely.

And when that day comes, all will mourn on the loss, but to only know that all of this is already too late...

Tests

They are meant to test your intelligence, your knowledge on certain things but realistically, it does not come out it is supposed to be. Do you know what I am talking about? If you know the answers to this question, ‘congratulations, you are not a mugger or you are a mugger who knows what the non-muggers face. If you do not know the answer, I have only one word for you, that you have no life and continue mugging, for you do not have a future.
I am not trying to insult or scold the muggers but I am just trying to express what is deep down in my heart. The answer to the question is ‘tests’. Why do I say that they are not testing and knowing our intelligence and knowledge on certain things? This is because in tests nowadays, you could easily score a distinction but do you really know what it was talking about and what it really meant?
In tests nowadays, all the answers to the questions could be found in their notes, in the textbook so how could it really be to test our intelligence and knowledge when it is very obvious that everyone could pass with distinction if they study and memorize everything given? Also, you just need to analyze and predict what the teacher is going to give in the test and memorize all the examples given by her or go to the internet to find an answer. It is very ironic to say that it is to test our intelligence and knowledge when it is very obvious that it is testing our mugging skills? Why not call it the arts and acts of mugging or reading your teacher’s mind?
Also, the tests also test your skills of not making mistakes. For example, when you are doing science you wrote the correct chemical name, you remembered the chemical number but forgot to take the 2s away when there was ‘2’ on both sides and you got 0 marks. Doesn’t this show that the teacher doesn’t care about whether you know what the chemical is and that you only made a careless mistake, at least I remembered the chemical symbol and power right? This further showed that the teacher nowadays only care about your answer and that they only cared about your answer, they want you to give an answer that they want and there you go, you got the marks, even if you are to forget all the things after it.
Also, the tests also tests whether you have enough time to study and that what CCA you are in. If you joined a CCA that only requires you to go one day and you have no extra lessons, then you can stay at home mugging but for many, their CCAs require full commitment, they must attend their CCA and when they go home at night, they had already lost off to those who had already started mugging at home as they had nothing to do at school. Having extra lessons also makes you have less time to study and have more subjects to study for but for many, it is worth it to go through the trouble as they get to learn new things.
From all that I have said, we can draw a conclusion, a conclusion that tells you that even if you have good exam grades, it does not mean that you truly understand it., having good exam grades does not mean that you will have a bright future waiting for you, that good exam grades will bring you jobs, bring you food because in the community now, it is not what you can knows that matters, it is what you truly understand, what you can achieve and how you present yourself that matters. If the current system of study is not changed, I believe that in the near future, it will no longer be the academics that matter, and that the exam slips will become trash, something that is totally useless.

Trying to Make Sure

Have you all heard about a myth, or rather a legend, which told us about Orpheus, a musician. It was said that his music was so beautiful that it could not only charm humans and animals, it could also make trees and even rocks move. Orpheus fell in love with a lady, by the name of Eurydice but she was killed on the wedding day. The sorrow and grief filled Orpheus descended into the underworld in hope of bringing her back. He got his way to the King of The Underworld by charming everyone in his way with his music, not surprisingly, the king was also charmed and was ready to release her, but on one condition, that he cannot look back at Eurydice before they reach the exit at the very top. However, when he was already near the top, when sunshine shone on his face, he looked back at Eurydice, as he was worried that the king had tricked him and when he turned back, as promised, Eurydice fell back to the underworld and why did this happen, this is because he wanted to make sure and from here why Orpheus failed, it is because he tried to do what all good hero had done-he tried to make sure.
Today, we are to talk about ‘making sure’. Many problems only start to surface or start when people try to make sure. Picture this, ‘when a immigration officer felt something odd with a package and wanted to make sure that it was nothing threatening, he opens to the lid to the package and it triggers the count-down of a bomb’. This case here shows you how ironic it is for people who liked to make sure. We can see from here that it is not always good to make sure about things and that sometimes it is not a good thing to make sure about things. Sometimes it is better to not think about much thing and just do what you need to do, that might bring you a better out-come. From here, we can conclude that sometimes it is not an appropriate move when you try to make sure about things, sometimes it is better to keep things how they are as making sure will only lead to more trouble.

The Secret History of The World

For quite a few days, I had been working on a book, titled ‘The Secret History of The World’ which the ideas in it I found extremely fresh and new. This book mainly focuses on mystic revelations and decoding esoteric codes. It also talks about the beliefs of the secret societies, this book can be said as a radical re-interpretation and a view of the world previously hidden from us.
From starting the book till now, I had learned many ideas that the writer is trying to hypnotize into the readers mind. For most of the time, the book quoted from books to legends, ancient carvings to ancient tablets, and it used a new way to show and explain to us what is the creators of them are trying to tell us. For an example, we all know that god created our world in 7 human days but the writer said that the 7 days did not really mean 7 human days and may be in another form of day and that it was a total of 7 gods who created Earth together, one creating each day. This is seriously not as we have been told, everything in the book is not of the original interpretation but of a new way, a different way, from a different view.
This book tries to tell us of what the secret societies believe and what is being taught in the secret schools. This book also tries to show facts that the ancients already knew a lot of things that we just found out and that more which we still don’t know.
However, the key point that the writer is trying to say is that science could not tell us everything and that sometimes it is not telling the truth. The writer also stressed that everything went the ‘Nature Way’ and that it has nothing to do with science and that science can only briefly tell us what happened but not how it happened.
I have yet to finish the book and I hope to find and learn more new ideas and that I shall share more of the book next time when I have read more.

Diary Entry by Jem

Today, could be said as the most wonderful day I had ever had since birth. The day started as usual, breakfast then to school. Scout and I then walked back home after school, using the same route, doing the same thing, looking like yet another normal and uneventful day. However, what is to come will make today the best and most memorable day in my life.
After Scout and I got home, we had our bath and lunch, we then sat at the chair next to the door to get some wind. Scout kept looking out of the window as if she had spotted something so I turned and looked out too. In the middle of the street, a dog was walking slowly towards town. As I found it quite odd to have a dog that walked with a twitch so I told Calpurnia about it and at first sight of the dog, she exclaimed a curse that there is a mad dog in town and ran to the phone to phone Atticus and the town operator.
After quite some time, Atticus and the town sheriff came. The sheriff stepped out of his car with a shot-gun in hand. Atticus asked him to shoot and kill the dog immediately so that it will not cause any harm to the town folks. He also told the sheriff that if he misses he will hit the Radley’s window and if he injured the dog, it will go berserk and start biting people. However, the sheriff exclaimed that he could not possibly kill the dog with one shot at such distance and that he will most probably miss and hit the Radley’s window.
Then, the sheriff asked Atticus to shoot but ‘Atticus can’t shoot,’ I thought. After a long conversation, Atticus finally got hold of the gun, he then took aim. Finding it not clear to aim with his spectacles on, he took them off and took aim again. After a short silent pause, he pulled the trigger. The sound of the bullet broke the town’s silence. I could not believe my eyes that Atticus can shoot and that it was so well. I only realized after asking Calpurnia that Atticus was once known as ‘One-Shot Finch’ and that he is the best shooter in Maycomb.
Although I really wanted to ask Atticus why he doesn’t shoot but I resisted it because I know that there must be a reason behind it and if Atticus wants to tell me he would. Most importantly, I know that Atticus is a great shooter and that is all I need.

DramaPlay(Based on the book To Kill a Mockingbird)

This is a play that is based on the book, ‘To Kill a Mocking Bird’. The storyline of the play is based on the book but the speeches and characters are of some changes.
The play starts with a empty street, with old-style houses lined around it. A dog will then enter the scene, walking into town slowly, with a twitch. Jem and Scout coming out of the house and spots the odd looking dog. They will then go in again and come out with Calpurnia. And that is the beginning of the play…

Jem : Calpurnia, isn’t that dog Tim Johnson?
Calpurnia: Yes, you are right there boy. (nodding the head) The dog out there is indeed Tom Jonhson.
Scout: But Calpurnia, why is he walking with a twitch?
Calpurnia: That is indeed a mystery. (Calpurnia in deep thought, after a long pause) Could it not be… Oh no! That’s a rabid dog . I better call the town operator to inform everyone that there is a rabid dog in town and that they better stay in their houses today.

Calpurnia on the phone…

Calpurnia: Hello, is this the town operator?
Operator: Yep ma’am, how can I help you?
Calpurnia: Hello, this is Calpurnia here. I have just spotted a rabid dog going towards town and I was wondering it may be appropriate to phone you to issue a alert to the others.
Operator: If what you said is true, then it is indeed a serious matter we are dealing with here. I will immediately issue a emergency notice and I will call the sheriff to have a look at the situation.
Calpurnia: I believe this is all I have.
Operator: Thank you for your information.

The lights are dimmed and the scene returns the street…
A car slowly comes into the scene. The sheriff, Heck Tate and Atticus then comes out of the car, with the sheriff holding on to the shotgun. Calpurnia, Jem and Scout are in the house, looking out from the window.

Atticus: And that’s the rabid dog.(pointing at the dog)
Jem: Hey Uncle Heck, go on and kill that dog out there, I know you can do it.
Heck Tate: Oh Jem, I can’t possibly kill that dog from a safe distance, I could only injure it.
Scout: But Uncle Heck, you are the best we have here in Maycomb, you are the sheriff.
Heck Tate: Don’t the two of you know that your father is the best shooter in Maycomb? He was once known as ‘One-Shot Finch’.
Jem: You must be kidding Uncle Heck, Atticus don’t even know how to shoot, I never seen him holding a gun before.
Atticus: Hey Heck, we have a situation out here so stop chit-chatting with the kids. The dog must be killed now or it will cause trouble when it gets to town
Heck Tate: Atticus, you know me, I can’t even possibly hit the dog from here. You are the only one in Maycomb who can hit the target from such distance.
Atticus: You know me Heck, I don’t like going around with a gun, shooting at things.
Heck Tate: Stop caring about those things. It is a matter of life and death here. If I am to shoot, the bullet will go into the Radleys if I miss, which I most probably would but for you, it’s different. You wouldn’t miss from here so for once, take up the gun again, shoot the dog, for the sake of the Maycomb community.
Atticus: Ok, I will take up a gun again for only this once.

Heck Tate handed over the gun to Atticus. Atticus took aim but he felt uneasy with his spectacles on, he then threw his spectacles on the floor and took aim again. Then, in a split second, a bullet roared through the still air, piercing through the dog’s head. The dog then dropped dead onto the ground with blood rushing out from the bullet-hole.

Jem: Oh my god! Atticus actually shoots and that he has a dead accuracy man!
Calpurnia: Now, boy, do you know why Atticus never told you about this? It is because he doesn’t feel proud about this so I do not wish that you and your sister here will go around town talking about how your father killed a dog at such a distance.
Scout: But Calpurnia, why isn’t this a thing to be proud of? That was just awesome!
Calpurnia: Your father, feels that God has given him an unfair advantage over the others whenever he holds on to a gun, because no one can shoot as accurately as him so he does not hold on to a gun to shoot, unless it was a must.

Atticus: Now, business is done so we should head back to town, and son, life is like this, God gives everyone a specialty so do not feel that you are better than anyone when you do better than him in something because he also has a specialty so do not go around telling and showing others how good you are, because one day when someone does better than you, you will feel as if you have lost everything and I do not hope to see you like that one day.