February 23, 1950

It was a cold morning.Iskandar pulled his blanket to cover his body.He turned his body around a few times to adjust his sleeping position so that he could sleep more comfortably.Noh,his 8 years old,younger brother was sleeping beside him.They slept on a wooden floor in wooden house with three room,one for his parents,one for his older sister and one for him and his brother to share.Iskandar tried to sleep but he kept waking up.He felt something is not right is happening not far from where he lived.The clock on the wall showed 5.25 a.m.He should be awake soon for Subuh prayer,he told himself when suddenly he heard someone knocking the front door hard.

He heard voices from outside the house saying it was an emergency.He quickly stood up and ran to the front door.When he opened the door,he saw five men,around his age standing in front of him.They came with a news that Bukit Kepong Police Station,that was nearby to their village, Kampung Tui, was under attack by the Communists.Iskandar quickly turned around to go to his parents room to call his dad but his father was already up to checked what happened.

After explaining what happened,his dad asked him to go to Bukit Kepong as reinforcement since Iskandar is a part of the village's guard group.Iskandar went back inside his room to take his rifle and leave the house straight with the group that came earlier.

They then went to the village chief's house where they joined a bigger group of people consist of about 5 men.There,they were briefed by the village's chief,Ali Mustafa about the situation.Around 5.50 a,m,the group left the village on foot into the jungle towards Bukit Kepong.It was dark so Iskandar can't really see the jungle clearly but the moon shines bright so it helped the group to have a clear vision to move around in the jungle.There were no sign of trouble as they moved nearer towards Bukit Kepong but half a kilometre before they got to Bukit Kepong,they were ambushed by the Communists.The group quickly find shelters behind trees to protect them from being hit by the bullet.Iskandar tried to fight back by firing a few round from his rifle but it seemed like a wasted effort because the enemies are using automatic rifles,which successfully managed to hold the reinforcement.

The battle went on for almost an hour and the enemies didn't show any sign that they would stop raining the reinforcement with bullets.Half of the reinforcement are down,with most of them dead or severly injured.Just when the reinforcement thought that there will be no hope for them to continue any further,the enemy suddenly stops firing and starts retreating.The ray of sun are starting to shine.It was around 7 a.m in the morning.The group decided to continue their journey.

10 minutes later,they arrived in front of the gate of Bukit Kepong Police Station but there were no police station,just burnt structure.Smoke rise up from the burnt buildings.A few dead policemen can be seen lying on the ground.He realized that they were too late.The Communist had won this battle and as he stood there,he knows that what happened on that day would leave a mark on the history of this country.

Should we keep dreaming?

A few weeks back,my lecturer, Mr.Hardip showed us a movie called Czech Dream (Český sen).It is a documentary film about how two young filmmaker persuade thousands of people to go to their fake supermarket through advertising,which I thought,was very brilliant.I mean,I don't know how they did it but I learned that advertising is a powerful form of media.It's like,through advertising,people can be deceived and made to believe of something that didn't existing into believing that it is there.

After the screening,Mr.Hardip starts telling us about his dream.He wanted to open up a hardware store that are women friendly since,not to be stereotype but hardware store are like shop which women don't usually go to.

As for me,I have a dream too,which I keep as a dream because in our current time,that dream seemed impossible to achieve.Well,I've watched a documentary called The Union.The documentary was about why Marijuana are made illegal and all the benefits can be seen if it is made legal.My dream do revolve around that.What I learned from watching the documentary was how the plant can benefit the whole human population!This is a dream and if it came true,I would want to be a farmer that plants Hemp but not for smoking it but for what it can do.Not many people know this but other parts of the hemp plant are useful too.Hemp can be made into papers,clothes,medicines,cosmetics and many more.It is a plant full of benefits if the growth is controls.Having legal plantation would also reduce the amount of Marijuana trafficking everyday.The police force could actually start focus on preventing more serious criminals rather than catching someone who sits in their couch watching television and eating chips.

Newspaper vs i-News

Online newspaper is becoming a new trend in today's lifestyle. A lot of people have decided to leave the old fashioned way of reading newsprint, this is mainly because online reading is easier and more convenient as readers do not have to hold the newspaper when reading it. Furthermore, online news are always up to date and convenient. Readers can now obtain news anywhere at any time at the tip of their finger as technology has evolved to the extent where people can read news online through the internet via their smartphones,Ipad and Tabs.

On the other hand,printed newspaper had been part of a tradition.This method had been used for hundreds of years and there isn't really much reason that it's going to stop anytime soon.Furthermore,newspaper can be keep as hard copy that can be keep for a long time.