As you all know, the World Expo has began. Actually it began a month ago but I was too busy to update my blog about the World Expo, so pardon my "lag". Anyways, so the World Expo kicked off on the 1st of May with an explosive start. Literally. If you don't believe me just watch this video:



See what I meant?
The mouth-gaping 10 minute fireworks display is not all, the opening ceremony of the World Expo had other various colourful performances contributed by not just China, but countries all over the world, signifying the main reason for this event-unity amongst all nations. Indeed, it was an eye-opener and a visual treat for all those who mange to catch it on Television. I was no exception, unwilling to miss such a huge-scaled global event.

In my opinion, the opening ceremony reflected China's prosperity and was even better than the opening ceremony of the last mega event China hosted, the Beijing Olympics, showing the nation's constant growth and improvement. However, only time will tell whether it reflects the success of the actual event itself or not; due to the recent economic crisis, many countries are short of funds and are unable to build lavish pavilions for the event to showcase their culture. Even superpowers like the United States are hardly able to come up with anything up to standard due to a shortage of funds. Greece was a particular example. Due to a failure in the country's economy and the collapse of their currency, Greece was unable to come up with anything more than a painted rectangular building, hardly enough to showcase its rich history which dates back even to the Stone Age. Furthermore, many people are unwilling to visit the World Expo due to the complaints of long queues and the sweltering summer weather.

Despite these, I believe the World Expo would still be a successful event and China and the world's efforts would not go down the drain. I would be visiting the World Expo during the June holidays, so stay tuned for part 2!


Happy Holidays everyone! :D




1. Point of view
Point- A war veteran of the Vietnam war who has personal experience in handling agent orange.
Evidence - "Toll on the innocent and unborn.", “Reflective about all the illness, birth defects and prematurely dead.”,
Elaboration – The writer feels that the war not only takes its toll on the soldiers who took part in the war but also the unborn child of those soldiers. These children, although had no part in the war, but still have to suffer the consequences. This expresses how the writer empathizes with such innocent beings, as they have to pay the price for their forefathers mistake- to join the war, when they themselves had not done anything wrong.

2. Situation and Setting
Point - The nature of this conflict is a combination of ethics and social characteristics.
Evidence - "Generations untold WILL pay", "Execrable effects of the Orange Spray"
Elaboration - The evidences shows the horrific effects of the Orange Spray which will be passed on to the next generation of Vietnamese people, affecting the lives of of the children about to be born. Thus, low ethic level of the Americans can be seen as they did not seem to care about the next generation. The social characteristics is that the conflict involving the herbicides will leave a mark, permanently scar society forever.

3.Language/Diction
Point-The author wanted to show and reveal the truth behind the America's herbicidal weapon in the Vietnam War through his language. The diction shows the speaker's sarcastic attitude towards the Americans.
Evidence- "America did not foresee", "Now thinking twice?"
Elaboration: Despite America not being able to foresee the pain and agony that herbicides will caused towards the people, they did not reconsider as seen from the question mark in the evidence, which implies that even after they realised the horrific effects of the Orange Spray, they did not take any actions and still continue with the original measure, and this signifies their little sense of guilt.

4)Personal response- War is cruel and inhumane. In a war, no one benefits. The Rainbow Herbicides were originally used by the Americans against Vietnamese crops. However, it also had an undesirable side effect. Many Americans came in contact with the Herbicides and as a result they had incurable health problems. The children of these Americans were born with many health defects. Despite being innocent, they will have to suffer for the rest of their lives, for reasons they can’t comprehend.




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

Conflict represented in the poem:
Firstly, let's start off with the poet's background. Hubert Wilson was a soldier who served in the Vietnam war in the USAF service. He was sent to Shemya island in Alaska, a place heavily contaminated with Agent Orange, a type of herbicidal gas used to clear forests in Vietnam in order to expose the hiding spots of the Vietnamese guerillas. It is part of the "Rainbow herbicides", a group of herbicides used for herbicidal warfare and as its name suggests, it consists of gases which had names such as "Agent Blue" and "Agent Purple", which were all highly toxic and indeed, he contracted numerous disease after his service. He begin to suffer from Parkinson-like symptoms and lose control of his central nervous system yet no physician or doctor could diagnose his condition. However, his mind still functions well despite the Agent-Orange poisoning and he has thus turned to writing.

His poems are dedicated to exposing the horrors of chemical warfare, especially those used in the Vietnam War which he had personal experience of. Rainbow Death is one such example, in order to display the inhumane use of Agent Orange.. Agent Orange is 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.


Bibliography:
http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/2010warpoetry.html#Rainbow
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_Orange