HBL task 2

"Children in the Darkness" by Henry M Bechtold

Difficulty Rating: *

There are children in the darkness

Who have not seen the light

There are children in the darkness

Who someone will teach to fight

Chalk and blackboards will not be

To this door there is no key

From this life they cannot flee

And these children are not free

Could we simply light a candle

Could we give them half a chance

Could we teach them how to read

Could we teach them how to dance

Or will a war consume them

Their body and their soul

Will their life and blood be poured

Down some endless thirsty hole

Back into the darkness

From which there is no flight

Back into the darkness

Into which there shines no light

Task 2:

ANNEX A

1. Whose Point of View

Statement: From persona/poet's point of view

Evidence: “Their body and their soul”

Elaboration: From the above evidence, it shows that it is from a persona point of view, where he says about others, children's body and soul and not him himself.

2. Situation and Setting

Statement: The poem is in a period of war. The setting is in the children's mind or heart, reflecting their thinking.

Evidence: “Or will a war consume them”, “And these children are not free”,” Back into the darkness”

Elaboration: The poem had already stated, saying that there is a war scene. Evidence also state that the children were taught how to fight, and how they are going to give themselves into the war. The setting is very dark and gloomy, which represented by their future and life in that period of war.

3. Language/Diction

Statement: The poet used personification and repetition.

Evidence: “From which there is no flight”, “Into which there shines no light”, “Or will a war consume them”

Elaboration: The poem uses repetition in the poem as every alernate line of the poem, the ending word would have assonance in them, such as “From which there is no flight”, “Into which there shines no light”. The poet also used personification when he brings war to life, stating that the “war consume them”.

4. Personal Response

Statement: After reading the poet, I felt very sad for the children that were to fight for the war.

Evidence: “Their body and their soul”, ”Will their life and blood be poured”, “To this door there is no key”

Elaboration: From the poem, I can feel how miserable life is when war comes, especially if you are only a child and needed to go for war. My eyes watered when I read the lines of them, having to risk their lives, body and soul. This should not be a life for children! Children should be studying and not suffering this way. Instead of giving them education, they had been "prohibited" from studying and were force to fight for the war without even their knowledge as they were still young. What an unfair treatment!

HBL task 1

"Children in the Darkness" by Henry M Bechtold

Difficulty Rating: *

There are children in the darkness

Who have not seen the light

There are children in the darkness

Who someone will teach to fight

Chalk and blackboards will not be

To this door there is no key

From this life they cannot flee

And these children are not free

Could we simply light a candle

Could we give them half a chance

Could we teach them how to read

Could we teach them how to dance

Or will a war consume them

Their body and their soul

Will their life and blood be poured

Down some endless thirsty hole

Back into the darkness

From which there is no flight

Back into the darkness

Into which there shines no light

Task 1:
The fifth line of the poem states that "chalk and blackboards will not be" contrasting the reader's view of school with the way these children are taught. The next three lines are extremely strong in regarding on "Freedom", something that the children sincerely believe is their right to upkeep, which is now commonly known as Human Rights. But this fighting is the complete opposite. The children fighting have no ability to be free, taught to fight, this is their only way of life, to be involved in war and probably die.

The next few lines ask rhetorical questions, whether the children can be taught what 'normal' students are taught.

The next 3 lines shows their true fate and the reasons to why they cannot be taught what normal students are taught, which is somehow answering all the rhetorical questions. It is trying to say that they could never be taught all that, because they are "used up" in war, 'their body and soul' will be given to the war and their blood and life will be 'poured down some endless thirsty hole.' Examples used here are strong, like blood,poured and endless, making it seem like blood is being constantly poured and bloodshed is rampant.

The last stanza wrapped up the whole poem, by saying that these children could never be like normal children, they have no hope , when it says "Into which there shines no light", to live a normal life as it has been destroyed by war.

Reference:
http://keyserzone.blogspot.com/2010/05/poetry-analysis-children-in-darkness.html
http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/2010warpoetry.html

Osama

I feel that assassinating bin Laden before him even going for trial was not a justified one. Although he was a terrorist that bring a lot of harm to the global security, they must at least go through a trial before assassinating a person.

From Singapore's law, The plaintiff’s solicitors will open the plaintiff’s case (unless the burden of proof is on the defendant) by addressing the court and the plaintiff’s witnesses will take the stand first and be cross-examined. Each witness may be re-examined after his/her cross-examination has ended. After all the plaintiff’s witnesses have given evidence, the plaintiff’s case is closed. It is then the turn of the defendant’s witnesses to testify and be cross-examined and re-examined on their evidence. After the defendant’s witnesses have completed giving their testimony, parties will make closing submissions which may, depending on the Judge and complexity of the matter, be either oral or written. After a decision has been made and judgment delivered, the Registrar or the proper officer of the Court will enter in the minute book the judgment given by the Judge and any order made by the Judge as to costs.

Thus, it would be the fair judges that take the call if he is guilty and they would also be the one that decide how heavy the sentence is, therefore, it is not right to just assassinate bin Laden without a trial as it has violated the human rights law.

Space

Yes, it is still important for us to explore space and our solar system. As you know, Earth is now too compacted with people. There are 6,775,235,700 people currently on Earth and there will be not enough space for everyone to live in. Secondly, the amount of greenhouse gases release is much more than before due to the rising cost of living and the advance in technology. Climate model projections summarized in the 2007 IPCC report indicate that the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 1.1 to 6.4 °C (2.0 to 11.5 °F) during the 21st century.

Thus, global warming increases which caused the iceberg to melt, thus, flooding Earth. Subsequently, many other harmful effects would surface and cause mankind to be extinct! Therefore, it is very important to explore space and solar system so as to find another planet that mankind can exist and live in, before Earth is "totally destroyed".

National Service

Yes, making NS mandatory develops Singaporean boys into men as it makes us take up roles of what a true man does. A true man upholds responsibility and courage in everything he does, just like boys taking NS. Boys taking NS will undergo many tough and suffering situations when many of the boys would not pull it through easily. This is when responsibility and courage steps in.

As the hardship increases, they would try to take on responsibility such as leading the group through tiredness, make sure everyone leaves together etc. so that no one would get punished. Being a man next time, you will also need to take up the responsibility to take care of your family members too. Courage is shown when sacrifice comes in, many would be scared of death and not wanting to risk their lives when they do dangerous stuffs such as shooting or killing "opponents" in the dense jungles. Those possessed courage would be the first to take the lead, then everyone else would follow. Many would be freaked out in the first try, but subsequently, when they get used to it, it would be them leading the smaller and younger ones next time.

Thus, NS could turn a boy into a man by instilling courage and responsibility in him and whatever he does.

Battle of the bulge

It was really scary. The Germans are invading us like nobody's business! I am on cue with few of my badge mates. Suddenly, the commander came out and warn us that they are attacking NOW! My badge mates and I were freaking out, we have a few injured friends that need help to leave the miserable and cold jungle. While the commander loaded the gun, he was shot and died on the spot. That was the time when I dragged my friend up and told him that we needed to leave.

As we tried to dragged everyone to leave the jungle, the Germans are progressing well in attacking us. Their fires never stopped and had caused more of my friends to die as they tried to fight back so that we, including me, could have enough time to escape. It was a pathetic sight, many died in front of me as they tried to protect our leader as my friend and I was dragging my leader on. The price to pay was too big. Bombs and fires came concurrently which took away almost everyone's lives there.

After we successfully left the jungle, many of my badge mates had died. But I still keep my spirit high and convinced our leader that he will be able to survive through this attack and he needs to persevere on. In order to keep him alive and awake, I decided to provide him with water by injecting a needle to fill the water into his body. Luckily, there was one truck car that passed by which was under our military base, we requested him to send us back to our campsite.

After we reached our base, we carried our leader all the way into the barracks and told our commander that he is seriously injured but he seemed very helpless as he glanced towards all the injured ones from the German invasion. At that point of time, I realised that our leader was not the only that needed help and medication, many of them also need it. As I looked at my leader suffering in pain, it increased my hatred towards the Germans......

Logically Fallicies

1) All aged above 18 should be working.
2) AAA is above 70.
3) Thus, AAA should be working.

Social Media (Anti-sociality)

Yes, I agree that that social media has made us less social. Nowadays, teenagers are often surfing online and even when communicating with their parents, they would send each other message online when they might just sit around 10 metres away.

Research has shown that if social networking sites contribute to the decline or decay of social skills, thus creating an antisocial mindset for people as they become more comfortable with socializing in an online world. Thus, teenagers now would prefer to talk to each other online than having a face to face chat as they became not used to the way to interact.

Hence, this might arise in a generation of young people who cannot communicate well as they could only rely on social network to ‘talk’ to people, and this will cause problems in their later live.

Describing a poster

I think that PAP has more teamwork. PAP in the poster has a leader place right in front of the entire poster and the rest of the group were standing at the back while NSP's poster has all the group members standing all around, without any leader in the picture. Having a leader in a group will definitely have more teamwork as everyone chooses a leader that they respect and would follow and obey his orders. Comparing to NSP's poster, everyone are equal. This may bring in a certain problem as everyone gets to voice out all their point of views which would cause many disorders around. Therefore, PAP has more teamwork with a respectable leader.