Task 2

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!


1.Point of View
This poem could have been written in the point of view of someone who has gone through the Vietnam war and seen the effects 'Agent Orange' have on the Vietnamese people. The person is able to know that the 'America did not forsee' that the 'Agent Orange' not only destroyed plants but also harmed the people, the 'innocent and unborn', causing illness, birth defects and significant amount of deaths.



2.Situation and Setting
The setting is after the 'Agent Orange' has been used and the effects could be seen on the innocent people. The poet mentions of 'toll on the innocent and unborn', 'omnipotent and disregarding who will mourn' and 'illness, born defects and prematurely dead', showing that he had seen the side effects of the 'Agent Orange' beside destroying crops - it also has harmful effects on the people who were exposed to it. He also regretted that 'Agent Orange' was used in the war as could be seen from 'Now thinking twice', showing that he was having second thoughts about 'Agent Orange' being used since the herbicide caused devastating effects on the innocent Vietnamese.



3.Language/Diction
In the title, rainbow itself symbolises something positive as in Bible, it means the symbol of God's everlasting agreement with the mankind that never will there be floods that will destroy all lives. Besides that, it also means to serve as a bridge between heaven and earth. Death means something negative since it is most feared by us. By putting rainbow and death together does not really make sense but in this case, it could mean that the rainbow herbicides cause many deaths of people, including innocent people, resulting them to cross the bridge to heaven.


4.Personal Response
This poem has invoke my sympathy for the innocent Vietnamese that were affected by the herbicides used by the Americans, and it seems to be blaming the America for using the herbicides as it was referred to as "nefariously" which means wicked. America also made other to pay a high price by causing illness, birth defects and toll on the innocent and unborn, making younger generations pay with their lives and bodies.

Task 1

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!



This poem is talking about the Vietnam War that was fought between the communist part of Vietnam and anti-communist part of Vietnam. This war caused lots of suffering and death on the Vietnamese as 'Agent Orange' was used on the enemies. 'Agent Orange' is the code name for the herbicide and defoliant. About 4.8million Vietnamese people were exposed to this herbicide, resulting in 400 thousand deaths and disabilities and 500 thousand children born with defects.

This 'Agent Orange' is by the far the most commonly used of the 'Rainbow Herbicides' eomployed in herbicidal warfare program. These 'Rainbow Herbicides' come in colours of purple, pink, orange and green and are used to cause the leaves of a plant to fall off, destroying cover for enemies and their main source of food.

Credit:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_Orange

Life is not easy

Life is not as easy as it may seems, and it is not just about living life to the fullest or enjoying it while you can but to do something that will make oneself proud. This is one thing that I have yet to achieved as I do not think I have done well in my exams, this certainly does not feel good for me as everyone around me seems to improve by leaps and bounds while I am still stuck at the same place, or deproving. This is certainly not something to be proud of and I feel that I did not meet my expectations in life.

Firstly, I failed my history test, it was something that I did not really expect, since I thought that the paper was quite okay, and it was the first time I failed a test in my whole primary and secondary life. I felt so upset over the first failed paper that I did not feel like studying for the next few tests as I have already failed one paper, why study for the other papers. This sentence seems to make sense at that moment as I had lost hope at that time. However, a friend of mine encouraged me to persevere on as I had already finished one paper, why not just finish all of them? In the end, I studied for the remaining of my test, I could say that I scored quite well for the others except for Language Arts which again is going to pull my marks down.

Maybe it's because I did not work hard enough, thus not able to fulfill my target that I set last term. Afterall, life is not easy, you cannot expect the marks to drop down from the sky. Nothing in the world is free, it comes with hard work and determination.

I guess it's time to go to mugging marathon, better than spending my time idling at home. I seriously need to get a MSG of 2 or less for next term and for EOY since I really do not want to go 3Q or 4Q. So mugging marathon, here I come.....

Bystander Effect

Bystander effect is a social pyschological phenomenon that refers to occasions where individuals do not offer help in an emergency situation when other people are present and such incidents happened in New York before. One incident was about Ms Kitty Gevonese in 1964 where she was being brutally murdered and raped with no residents coming down to her even though they saw her being stabbed a few times.

Not many people would remember about this incident since it was ages ago. Bystander effect was shown in this incident and there are many reasons behind why people do not go forward to help but just stay on to look or just shouting something for someone to do but not themselves. One main reason is the diffusion of responsibility which everyone usually adopt, onlookers will assume that someone else will go forward to intervene and this makes them to feel less responsible, hence refraining them from intervening. This happened to our class last year, where everyone adopted this attitude and nothing was done to solve the problem in the end. Maybe some people felt that those who created the problem should go forth to solve it but none did it anyway.

Another reason for the bystander effect is because the onlookers do not know who are the people involve and hence do not want to bring unwanted trouble or attention to themselves so the best way is to stay clear of the situation and not get involved since they are strangers and not relatives to them. Some may feel that their assistance may be unwanted or that their assistance may be rejected, causing them to lose face in front of others so they will rather wait for some expertise to help like doctors or police who could give some help. While some others look around and see no one going forth to help, hence thinking that the situation is under control and needs no one's assistance.

In conclusion, this bystander effect certainly does no good in emergency situations and this should not be promoted. Instead, everyone should lent a helping hand to those in need and not wait for others to do first, if this could be done, the society would not have the bystander effect.