Scintilla 6.0
# Oh Great Men of this Planet!
Oh great men of this planet!
Why do you behave like this?
Where you cannot see that innocent little smile,
On the face of a small abandoned girl on your streets.
Oh great men of this planet!
Why do you behave like this?
Where you do not know the pain of a person,
When he struggles to earn for a day’s little food,
Not for him but for his daughter to have,
So that her quaint little legs can gather strength.
Oh great men of this planet!
Why do you behave like this?
Where you run after money, fame and honour;
While our poor little kids can’t go to school.
And experience that joy to learn a rhyme together.
Oh great men of this planet!
Why do you hurt those people?
The people who are not as fortunate as you,
By your words and deeds and action.
Why don’t you believe, that they too have a heart.
They too want the love of humanity.
They too can feel that pain.
Oh great men of this planet!
Please drop your quest for money.
For what use is that money,
When we spend our days like machines.
With machine hearts and machine minds.
Why do you fall into this vicious cycle?
You are human, it is okay to cry.
It is okay to love, it is okay to smile, and it is okay for some tears to flow.
But oh great men, you live a cruel life.
You live for everybody’s misery.
You learn to defeat others by competition.
You learn to be happy when others fail.
You learn to smile when others cry.
Why do you behave like this, great men?
For what use is that knowledge you gain?
From a pile of the books that you've made.
When you do not know how to treat a person,
With respect and love for his uniqueness.
In this small life of yours, great men,
Why don’t you make a difference to others?
A difference that can give knowledge to a weak little girl.
A difference, where you give your food to a starving old man.
A difference that can give wings to the dreams of little unfortunate children.
A difference, where you enjoy the laughter of your people.
A difference, where you cry for their sorrows.
A difference, where you can cry with happiness on seeing a sunset.
A difference, where your knowledge is used for inspiration.
A difference, where you alone, can change a generation.
-Vishnu Chandrasenan
The Veracious Optimist
SE, SIES Graduate School of Technology
# Agent Orange
Agent Orange. Thrash metal band Sodom’s true vintage classic masterpiece that has a lot of influence and impact on metal heads from all over the world. But there is more to those two words than just being a metal album. An herbicide dioxin sprayed by the US military in South Vietnam during the Vietnam War, Agent Orange has been a venom, an agent of death for millions of Vietnamese.
Agent Orange, recognized by the WHO as a carcinogen (causes cancer) and by the American Academy of Medicine as a teratogen (causes birth defects) is a 50:50 mixture of 2,4,5-Trichlorophenoxyacetic acid and 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid and is contaminated with 2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzodioxin. It is a chemical that US forces used as a part of its herbicidal warfare program, Operation Ranch Hand to reject the National Liberation Front cover on the ground as they transported supplies and personnel around, thus making them more easy to be spotted from the air and attacked by US forces. It exposed five million people, mostly civilians, to deadly consequences.
From the start of the spraying more than five decades ago, and even today, millions of Vietnamese have died from, or been totally debilitated by Agent Orange. The Vietnamese have experienced the most powerful and atrocious impact on human health and ecological wreckage. Second and third generations of children, born to parents exposed to Agent Orange, suffer from horrifying deformities. The Vietnamese exposed to the substance suffer from cancer, liver damage, pulmonary and heart diseases, defects to reproductive capacity and skin and nervous disorders. Their children and grandchildren have severe physical deformities, mental and physical disabilities, diseases and shortened life spans.
The woodlands in large parts of southern Vietnam were ravaged and stripped. Centuries-old locale was ruined and will not restore with the same diversity for hundreds of years. Animals that populated the jungles are endangered with extermination, unsettling the communities that depended on them. The rivers and underground water have also been polluted. Erosion and desertification has been causing dislocation of crop and animal life.
The Vietnamese have been to get the United States and Agent Orange synthesizers Dow Chemical, Monsanto and Diamond Shamrock to accept liability for the ongoing nightmare. But no relief or compensation has been provided yet. The Victims of Agent Orange Relief Act of 2001 has still not been passed in the US.
Be it nuclear bombs or chemical warfare, all the countries of the world must vouch to never use them again. After all, who wants to see imagery of undressed children running from napalm or soldiers wiping out a whole village or other mayhem associated with war, poverty and violence?
-Vivek Venkatram
Founder & Publisher, Scintilla Weekly
SE, SIES Graduate School of Technology
Oh great men of this planet!
Why do you behave like this?
Where you cannot see that innocent little smile,
On the face of a small abandoned girl on your streets.
Oh great men of this planet!
Why do you behave like this?
Where you do not know the pain of a person,
When he struggles to earn for a day’s little food,
Not for him but for his daughter to have,
So that her quaint little legs can gather strength.
Why do you behave like this?
Where you run after money, fame and honour;
While our poor little kids can’t go to school.
And experience that joy to learn a rhyme together.
Oh great men of this planet!
Why do you hurt those people?
The people who are not as fortunate as you,
By your words and deeds and action.
Why don’t you believe, that they too have a heart.
They too want the love of humanity.
They too can feel that pain.
Oh great men of this planet!
Please drop your quest for money.
For what use is that money,
When we spend our days like machines.
With machine hearts and machine minds.
Why do you fall into this vicious cycle?
You are human, it is okay to cry.
It is okay to love, it is okay to smile, and it is okay for some tears to flow.
But oh great men, you live a cruel life.
You live for everybody’s misery.
You learn to defeat others by competition.
You learn to be happy when others fail.
You learn to smile when others cry.
Why do you behave like this, great men?
For what use is that knowledge you gain?
From a pile of the books that you've made.
When you do not know how to treat a person,
With respect and love for his uniqueness.
In this small life of yours, great men,
Why don’t you make a difference to others?
A difference that can give knowledge to a weak little girl.
A difference, where you give your food to a starving old man.
A difference that can give wings to the dreams of little unfortunate children.
A difference, where you enjoy the laughter of your people.
A difference, where you cry for their sorrows.
A difference, where you can cry with happiness on seeing a sunset.
A difference, where your knowledge is used for inspiration.
A difference, where you alone, can change a generation.
-Vishnu Chandrasenan
The Veracious Optimist
SE, SIES Graduate School of Technology
# Agent Orange
Agent Orange. Thrash metal band Sodom’s true vintage classic masterpiece that has a lot of influence and impact on metal heads from all over the world. But there is more to those two words than just being a metal album. An herbicide dioxin sprayed by the US military in South Vietnam during the Vietnam War, Agent Orange has been a venom, an agent of death for millions of Vietnamese.
From the start of the spraying more than five decades ago, and even today, millions of Vietnamese have died from, or been totally debilitated by Agent Orange. The Vietnamese have experienced the most powerful and atrocious impact on human health and ecological wreckage. Second and third generations of children, born to parents exposed to Agent Orange, suffer from horrifying deformities. The Vietnamese exposed to the substance suffer from cancer, liver damage, pulmonary and heart diseases, defects to reproductive capacity and skin and nervous disorders. Their children and grandchildren have severe physical deformities, mental and physical disabilities, diseases and shortened life spans.
The woodlands in large parts of southern Vietnam were ravaged and stripped. Centuries-old locale was ruined and will not restore with the same diversity for hundreds of years. Animals that populated the jungles are endangered with extermination, unsettling the communities that depended on them. The rivers and underground water have also been polluted. Erosion and desertification has been causing dislocation of crop and animal life.
The Vietnamese have been to get the United States and Agent Orange synthesizers Dow Chemical, Monsanto and Diamond Shamrock to accept liability for the ongoing nightmare. But no relief or compensation has been provided yet. The Victims of Agent Orange Relief Act of 2001 has still not been passed in the US.
Be it nuclear bombs or chemical warfare, all the countries of the world must vouch to never use them again. After all, who wants to see imagery of undressed children running from napalm or soldiers wiping out a whole village or other mayhem associated with war, poverty and violence?
-Vivek Venkatram
Founder & Publisher, Scintilla Weekly
SE, SIES Graduate School of Technology