Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Poem Analysis: Arms and The Boy

Please give your invaluable comments:

Arms and the Boy:
Let the boy try along this bayonet-blade How cold steel is, and keen with hunger of blood; Blue with all malice, like a madman's flash; And thinly drawn with famishing for flesh.
Lend him to stroke these blind, blunt bullet-heads Which long to muzzle in the hearts of lads. Or give him cartridges of fine zinc teeth, Sharp with the sharpness of grief and death.
For his teeth seem for laughing round an apple.
There lurk no claws behind his fingers supple;
And God will grow no talons at his heels,
Nor antlers through the thickness of his curls.


Analysis:
This poem tries to bring out the cruelty of war through the destruction of innocence in a young boy. This poem has 3 stanzas, each stanza consisting 4 lines, with strict rhyme scheme. This restricted poem style brings out how the boy has lost his initial carefree innocence.

The setting is one of the boy stroking his weapons. Through this episode where the poet personifies the weapons, we can see how the boy has already become obsessed with these weapons of destruction.

The point of view is spoken in a third-person point of view. This shows how one is already unable to comprehend the boy’s obsession with the weapons, and how cruel a person he has turned into. Therefore, this poem is written not in first person point of view of the boy, but instead a third person observation of his incomprehensible behavior.

The language used in the poem is very effective in conveying the poet’s theme. One must note that there is much personification in the poem of the weapons - “steel...keen with hunger of blood”, “bullet-heads...long to muzzle in the hearts of lads”. All these serve to convey the theme that war is cruel. The gruesome imagery painted in the poem by the diction such as “malice”, “madman”, “death”, “famishing” totally contrast with the innocent and naive characteristics a young boy should have. The thought that such a young boy totally changes into a “madman” who strokes his weapons, “famishing” for “death” once he is sent into the battlefield, gains our sympathy for him, as well as arouse our hatred towards war - a cruel place.

Furthermore, there is also clever use of alliteration in the third and fourth line: “madman’s flash...famishing for flesh”. The harsh pronunciation of the letter “f” when being read emphasizes the cruelty and inhumanity of such thoughts by the boy. Also, the alliteration is deliberately put on these words precisely because they depict cruel images - “famishing for flesh”. The alliteration gives them an extra emphasizes and highlight. Another alliteration can be seen in the 1st line of stanza 2 - “blind blunt bullet”. Again the harsh pronunciation of the letter “b” brings emphasis to the cruelty of such weapons of murder. Indeed, the bullets just kill whoever they see - they have no target, or even any mercy.

The last two lines were especially well-written - “And God will grow no talons at his heels, nor antlers through the thickness of his curls”. Indeed, God did not design us, when we were born, to have “talons” and “antlers”, which are weapons of killing. They are symbols of inhumanity and violence, and the by making this link, the poet instill in us the idea that war is violent and inhumane. War is also meaningless - we were made to live in peace, yet now in this war where humans fight each other, even young boys lose their innocence, and turn into madman obsessed with weapons of destruction.

It may seem impossible, yet actually not difficult to empathize with the young boy in the poem. In a war, death is such a common thing, that the young boy is already numbed with these images and scenes. In fact, he is obsessed with weapons of destructions precisely because in a war, the only way one can defend his own life is to kill others.

The last two lines of the poem really do conclude my analysis. Life is created to live, work and play in peace, especially when we are young, we should play and live in innocence and harmony. However, this poem depicts a true but harsh reality of what war is like - soldiers have to constantly fight for their lives and even young boys are being conscripted into war, where they have to carry weapons of murder at such a young age and see images of death, blood and murder everywhere. Such traumatizing scenes has totally changed them into madmen who love their weapons, because its the only thing that can make them survive.

This poem has succeeded in making us sympathizing with young boy and his plight. Indeed, war is so cruel and inhumane. This quote summarizes my thoughts: “War is a novelty only to those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded”.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Clean and Green? It takes a lifetime.

The first batch of soldiers have entered the battlefield.

Armed in white polo-tees with a green trim, six new Litter-free Ambassadors zoomed in on one of Queenstown’s littering hotspots yesterday. This is an initiative by the National Environmental Agency to wage war against litter louts.

Without the authority to issue fines, NEA hopes that their presence only can encourage a new social norm - one where people will speak up upon seeing others littering.

However, I personally feel that this initiative will not succeed. I have three reasons to justify this.

Firstly, Singapore has already tried doing this before. In the past decade, we have seen many ambassadors encourage putting rubbish into bins before, but have any of them succeed?

Secondly, most being surveyed about why they litter respond that the bin is simply too far, and it is very inconvenient to bin their litter. Therefore, I think what NEA should do is to evenly distributed bins around the whole Singapore, instead of just concentrating them in Business Districts and shopping places like Orchard Road.

Lastly, I don’t think Singaporeans would be bothered by ambassadors walking around and talking to people. After all, we are busy people. Therefore, what I think should be done in addition would be to educate Singaporeans from young in Primary School and Secondary School about the importance of keeping our country clean.

Personally, I have not really gone through “green” education. My teachers are too focused on academic growth, that they often use Moral Education sessions to teach academic subjects instead. Therefore, I think this is something quite serious - the NEA and MOE should work together. Perhaps, the no. of sessions of Moral Education should be increased.

This is especially important as parents nowadays are so busy that they only can provide for their children’s physical needs, but lack the time and energy to inculcate moral values in them. Worst still, some of them even litter in front of their children. Such a bad example and role model would definitely guide the child wrongly.

Tackling cleanliness issues is not something that can be achieved in one month of ambassadors walking around. It also cannot be done in one month, one year, or even a decade. It takes a generation - of teachers inculcating moral values, and then of young morally educated to replace our population.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Healthy Competition Amongst Town Councils

Today Newspaper 11/06/2010 article "Good, but can do better" has reference.

Few has known that though Hougang is one of the biggest town in Singapore, its maintenance is also the worst.

In a Town Council Management Report (TCMR) released yesterday by the Ministry of National Development, majority of the town councils received an above average assessment overall, but almost all were found to have more room for improvement.

Out of 16 town councils being inspected, 14 were evaluated to have achieved commendable cleanliness and maintenance. This evaluation was baased on inspections carried out over the six months by HDB inspectors, and data from town councils were also used.

As Ang Mo Kio-Yio Chu Kang Town Council had said, "The report gives us a feel of how we are performing in different areas in comparison to others".

Indeed, this report paves the way for more healthy competition amongst town councils - for better town councils to "defend their title", and for town councils who have room for improvement to realize their shortcomings, and strive for better excellence.

Personally, the idea is good, but can be better. Perhaps, the Ministry of National Development can do more reports on other areas, such as family bonding, unity amongst citizens, how much effort the town council has put into the welfare of the residents etc. so as to promote a more holistic competition.

However, in the midst of running the race, it is vitally important for the town councils to ensure that competition remains at a healthy level. Should unity and brotherhood be destroyed in the process of the race, the race would become a meaningless attempt to impress the inspectors.

A hint of bitterness can be observed in the reactions of various town councils. For example, Hougang Town Council, the council which scored the least, emailed MediaCorp to complain that Opposition town council like his, "never received any Government funds to improve and rejuvenate the estate" and as such , they were "in a disadvataged position compared to other PAP town councils".

While, there is nothing wrong at pointing out a shortcoming of the PAP, such complains should be made in private during governmental meetings etc. but not whined in the newspapers. After all, this is just a report; the honest resemblance one can think of Hougang Council's reaction is a 6 year old child whining that the game is not fair!

A hint of red can also be seen in Potong Pasir Town Council Chiam See Tong's reaction. He said that Potong Pasir Town Council is the "best town council in Singapore" and that the report was deliberately made to put Potong Pasir down.

The fact that there is already hints of bitterness reflects the competition between town councils, as well as between the PAP and opposition parties to becoming an unhealthy game.

As citizens of our country, even if we are Oppositions who are marginalized by the ruling party, we should constantly think of the bigger picture. Instead of solely basking in the joy of "winning" other town councils, I strongly feel that town councils should also take note not to damage unity in the process, and most importantly, constantly think of how they can help the other town councils achieve excellence as well, because the ultimate objective of everything is to make our nation be one step closer to success.

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Time for Action to be Done

With reference to Sunday’s Straits Times article “Littering: What’s the fuss”.

This is not the first time this topic has been brought to public attention. Today, whenever we walk into public places, it is not surprising if eyebrows were not raised over “flying” tissue papers, spit, or even water on the mirrors.

Recently, NEA reports have even shown that at least one in three Singaporeans says he would bin rubbish only when it is convenient to do so.

This truly and sadly, is testament to our increasingly dirty garden city, despite the numerous efforts and propaganda by the government about our improving situation or rather image of our country.

And this phenomenon, I feel, cannot be explained by one reason. There are many matches that fuel this haystack, and with that, much smoke produced. I think the first match is the increasingly selfish nature of all of us as Singaporeans.

With the accelerating pace of our modern society, the need to earn materialistic possessions, especially money and time, is invariably heightened. The attempt to survive in this ever-changing society indubitably forces many of us to care about ourselves before others - from self-convenience before cleaners’ hard work, to time saved before the country’s cleanliness.

Another fuel that spurs on the fire is how our country’s general cleanliness has never been very clean in the first place, so why not throw another tissue paper? After all, one tissue paper would not influence much? However, if we are in a hotel room, we would not feel like throwing rubbish around because it will severely damage the whole feel of the hotel room.

I dare to say, this mentality is prevalent in all of us. And, no doubts, this will result in a vicious cycle, so I strongly feel it is important for us to start immediately on a massive clean up and beautifying project for our country.

Another problem is the lack of rubbish bins around. It is really troublesome to go all the way from one place to the nearest shopping centre just to throw a tissue paper, so this results in littering. This is also supplemented by the lack of time and patience in many youngsters nowadays. Therefore, it would be good if the government can set up more rubbish bins in all places, not just in the city or shopping centers.

Something has to done; the government cannot just keep doing reports.

Friday, June 4, 2010

Money corrupts

Reverend Kong Hee, pastor of City Harvest, was confirmed to be under a police investigation recently for misuse of church funds for personal use. Church financial transactions, as well as the Reverend’s background will be probed.

This is not the first time City Harvest has made headlines. Earlier in March, eyebrows were raised over a 310 million stake in Suntec Convention Centre. The Reverend, whose wife is a pop singer, cannot be found since reports about a possible investigation have appeared.

This incident indeed brings the limelight back to the charity sector of Singapore. Strange as it seems, it is nonetheless understandable why frauds and scandals will always be associated with charity and religious organization.

Every year, the charity sector earns the most amount of money worldwide amongst all other sectors. With the world becoming increasingly corrupted and selfish, the only way for stars and singers to gain popularity is to donate. Billions and trillions are pumped into this sector with the motivation to gain nods of approval from supporters. Furthermore, in this increasingly empty world, the only way we as humans can soothe our conscience is to donate.

Therefore, precisely because of this, the importance of the charity sector is invariably heightened. It has been reported in 2008 that if all charity organizations work together to help the poor, there would not be single starving child in Africa.

However, idealistic as it seems, reality proves otherwise. Look around us - NKF golden taps, Ming Yi Organization, Suntec City Investment. Indeed, money corrupts a person; even a once devoted christian.

Though nothing has been confirmed, I believe the money collected through City Harvest church offerings can certainly be put to better use than investment in the convention centre, or helping one’s wife to open a retail shop.

Indeed, this is testament to the saying money is the root of all evils. Though it is often preached that money is neutral - it is how we use it that is good or bad, in this modern society, the preacher should realize that things have never been so idealistic.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Singapore Deserves our Applause Too!

Much debate has been going on since Singapore clinched the world champions title for Table Tennis after China’s defeat, in fact, the first in 19 years. Some rejoiced for Singapore’s victory, while others labelled Singapore as the “2nd China Team”.


Personally, this matter relates to myself a lot, because being a amateur table tennis player myself, it is not difficult to understand the sweat and effort required for this seemingly small, but draining sport.


I sincerely applaud the efforts of our home team - they have fought well, and indeed they have put in all they have - from skill and technique, to spirit and determination. Indeed, as quoted from team manager Mr Eddy Tay, “They felt that the past didn’t count”.


Many coldly commented that Singapore’s victory is merely the “2nd China Team” winning the “1st China Team”. It is not difficult to see why such thoughts will arise, because our home team indeed consist of all Chinese players. However, it is definitely not easy to understand why there is no applause for Singapore’s effective training system.


Feng Tian Wei, who is World no 2 today, was once a rejected member of China’s table tennis team. But today, she stands at the apex of the table tennis world, and it was she who led Singapore to greater heights.


This is no doubt, testament to our effective training system, that I strongly feel, does not deserve such cold comments from ourselves, as Singaporeans. As quoted from Lee Bee Wah, President of Singapore Table Tennis Association, “At this level, the abilities of the players are quite similar and the difference between victory and defeat is mental strength”.


Well done, Singapore, for making our players believe in themselves!