War Poems

What many war poems are trying to tell us is : war is bad , don't join it. But we must come to realise that war is irriversible and it is undeniable that a war may occur again. Even though we learn history to reverse the undesirable effects of war and learn from our past mistakes.In the poem "disabled" , we can see the devastation the world has cause upon him. The soldier was once young. He had many girls who love him and he was strong with good looks. However , after the war , he was disabled and weak , with no one loving him anymore. This shows us that war has undesirable effects on the persona. However , there are also poems which a are highly patriotic and conveys the exact opposite message: War is good and great. What we must remember however , is that the war is never great , but we also must see that not everyone hates war. The atrocious effects of war can be seen greatly with the many death and blood in the poem "redeployment" and other poems to show that war was not good.

Yog

With the hosting of the Youth Olympic Games for Singapore , many foreigners have come a long way to Singapore to participate in the various sports. Being able to host the Youth Olympic games gives us great pleasure, but with it come responsibily. We have to mind our language and our attitudes towards many things and give way to foreigners to give them a good impression. Watching the games give us great exhilaration and many volunteer for the games. What we must mind is our public behaviour . We must mind our postures and language while as we might be captured on national tv. We singaporeans have to give a good impression of Singapore to people from other nations.If we were not to mind our impression on others , the game itself would become a failure. As a volunteer myself , I have witnessed many rowdy spectators who did not care about their image infront of others.They talk very loudly during play and make unneccesary noises during the game. Being a local , even I could not bear to watch the locals hollering around and doing stuff not fit to be on global tv. What I think is that if this would continue , locals should get banned from YOG.

Emily of emerald Hills

To thoroughly analize Emily of emerald hills, I have come to realise that there are many things hidden inside the book which are left for we ourslefves to find out. One question for us to ponder is , is Emily really a bad mother? Is she really a failure? Can we come to realise the hardwork she has put for her children?
Well , personally , what I think is that Emily was just trying her best to be a good mother.She was overdomineering perhaps , but it is undeniable that she was trying her best to be a good mother.Though she wants to be made happy ,not make her children happy , Emily no doubt wanted the best for her children.
Maybe her way of loving and caring for her children was wrong , Emily no doubt loved them , even if they dont appreciate it. Emily is traditional she doesnt like to follow the flow of the society , as she remains fully old fationed and traditional. Though stubborn to accept change , we can come to pity her as we realise that her life was not as favourable as it should be.

Racial Discrimination

Racial Discrimination is a very hot topic of discussion in Singapore.This is due to the fact that Singapore contains 4 different racial groups and each one is unique in their own way. Though there are Chinese , Indians , Malays and Eurasians , the friendship between the 4 races contains no boundary.
Despite the fact that we 4 races live in harmony , there are occasionally people who provoke the harmony between the major races by doing unforgivable acts towards the other races.
Though of different skin tones , races and religion , everyone has the right to remain equal among the others. No one is the superior race and everyone should remain equal , not tipping the scale of equality.
In the past ,riots were caused due to tipping of the scale. Just like what Hitler once did :eliminate the jews ,he did not consider the Jews equal but of inferiority. Singapore also had racial riots due to the fact that peace was not present among races.
Learning from our mistakes , we must be willing to accept each other and be ready to make friends of the other race.

The Bane of technology

Personally ,I feel that with the technological advances mankind is achieving , the rapid development of our society would surely arise. However , even with its help to the society , the technologies have their bane.
With the rapid development of technology, we are getting more and more distracted with technological gadgets such as game devices like "psps" and "gameboys".Might the technological development ruin the future generations of mankind?
With the development of the world wide web, many people are also distracted by online games, pornography and social websites which are made way more readily on the world-wide-web. This decreases the work rate of many people and serve as a distraction to many.
Other than making us distracted , the technological developments have undeniably made us "lazier". In the past , many go to the library to read and borrow books , and more go to malls to buy clothe and toys. However , with the world-wide-web available , people don't need to go out anymore.They can access Ebooks , order toys ,cloths online easily and conveniently. Other than this , many websites offer discounts which makes the sold merchandise even cheaper than that of a normal store!
With the online chatting functions made readily available , many people have also become more accustomed to facing the computer and chatting with people rather than facing people in real life and chatting with them. This makes the person more and more antisocial with the rest of the society and eventually , the whole society might just be limited to facing the computer screen.
Just like in Disney Pixar's "wall-e" where robots have been developed to help humans , humans themselves lose the capabilities to help themselves.

Oliver Fricker

What happened? Well , Oliver Fricker , a foreigner , broke into changi depot and vandalized a two train carriages with graffiti. This incident has brought much attention to to the world as the break-in was a insult to Singapore National Security.Oliver received 6months jail and 3 strokes of the cane.
What I feel. If it was to be only a case of vandalism ,the punishment would have been more than lenient , especially towards foreigners. What government do not like is to punish foreigners . If the punishment is too severe , there might be a public outrage among foreigners. If the punishment is too light , locals would feel that the government is being biased towards the foreigners . Another thing is that foreigners are one reason why Singapore is Economically stable. If the foreigners were to be frightened by the government to not invest in Singapore businesses , then the results resultswould be disastrous. However, we must come to know that 3 canes and 6months of jail is already the best the government can do. The judgement is neither too strict or lenient. What we must realize is the fact that our depot getting easily "infiltrated" is the most important part. If this were to happen again , with the graffiti being replaced with a bomb , our lives may have been on stake. This event serves as a reminder that we should be more vigilant and that , low crime isint no crime .

Conflict: It was during the Vietnam war when the americans applied the use of agent rainbows to cause massive deaths.
Point of view: The writer is looking from an intellectual point of view , and stating that the Americans have done wrong. The poem emphasized on the wrongdoings of the Americans to have caused pain among the Vietnamese even though some are innocent, magnifying the American's ignorance.
Evidence : "America did not forsee" "Expecting others to pay a higher price"
Situation : The situationg was dire with many Vietnamese people dieing from the "agent ornage". This cause both social disorder and social development. With Vietnamese people dying while the War Technology has gone a step forward.
Evidence:"Green, pink, purple and other colors death potpourri!" Shows how the rainbow agents have caused the numerous death of the Vietnamese people and "Now thinking twice?" allows us to know that the situation has become so serious that even the Americans regret what they have done. "Execrable effects of agent orange spray!" shows what the orange agents have done.
Language diction : The poem is described in a AABB format. With every two lines ryhming. This can clearly emphasize on the words which describe life and death in the poem. The poem also uses sarcasm to describe the hideos results of the Agents.
Evidence: "America did not foresee" and "Green, pink, purple and other colors death potpourri!" established a fine contrast as to what the Americans expected . Forsee and potpourri were used to emphasize on the result of the hideocy. "Now thinking twice?" had a hint of sarcasm as the history could not redo itself and everything could not be reversed , showing the incompetency of the Americans.
Personal Reflection : I have learned that to resolve war. Death is not neccesary. It is not correct to think that sacrificing oneself for the honor and peace of the country. We must also consider carefully over issues or else we might regret what would to happen in the times to come.
Evidence: The americans thinking twice. and the death and mourning the war has caused