Woody Magic
In Kampung Sri Aman, everybody was given a block of wood on the day they were born. It was to be with them forever. Nobody knows the reason but the custom has been practised for many years.
Lokman Longman was like any other eight-year-old active child in Kampung Sri Aman, but he hated his sister, Normi whom he considered a nuisance. Lokman channelled his anger towards his sister by bullying little children. Each time he teased little children, his piece of wood would grow heavier. His wood now weighed the same as a Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English.
With its weight, Lokman felt like throwing away his piece of wood (which he nicknamed Jahat). He told his mother about his thoughts but his mother objected by saying “No! It’s essential ………a MUST for you to carry this piece of wood wherever you go. Not contemporary Lokman, but forever, or else bad things will happen. Do you get the picture, dear?
With his mother’s advice lingering in mind, that night, Lokman dreamt he was in a dark room with a wise-looking old man. ”Do you see there,” pointed the old man to a room, filled with wood, “those are all mine! Do you want to trade Jahat with one of mine?”
Excitedly, Lokman dashed into the dull dark room, leaving Jahat behind. He studied the wood meticulously and picked the smallest and went out . Eyeing back suspiciously at Jahat. Lokman compared the weights of the two woods. Jahat was slightly lighter !
“On second thoughts, I think I prefer my Jahat,” mumbled Lokman. “Let this be a lesson,” said the wise old man. ”Every time you do something bad, your wood will become heavier. Every time you do good thing, it will become lighter.”
Lokman woke up with a new feeling of respect for Jahat and now regarded Jahat more as a companion rather than a burden. Remembering the old man’s words, Lokman stopped bullying other children.
Written by:
Wan Nur Afifah
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Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Inter Racial Harmony Through Cultural Understanding
INTER RACIAL HARMONY THROUGH CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING
Peace is a dream for all people, nations and country in this world. Peace does not mean being in a place where there is no noise, trouble, or hard work. Peace means to be in the midst of all those things and still be calm in your heart. Peace is a state of harmony, the absence of hostility.
This term is applied to describe a cessation of violent international conflict; in this international context, peace is the opposite of war. That is the real meaning of peace. All human beings belong to a single species and are descended from a common stock. They are born equal in dignity and rights and all form an integral part of humanity. We have our own rights to have peace. Our worlds have no longer made peace a priority. Peace can also describe a relationship between any parties characterized by respect, justice and goodwill. Today, many countries are having inconsequential wars about oil, land and wealth. They do not care about people's feelings.
Imagine if this world does not care about peace, what will happen to the upcoming generation? What will happen to your country? What will happen to your kids? We can make a different. In Iraq or Afghanistan, thousands of innocent children die without the happiness we have now.
We must do something to change the bad attitudes of some of the people that hold important positions - bribery, irresponsibility, and the cruel oppression of the poor. We must shape good attitudes to perform a wonderful combination or cooperation. We can shape these attitudes by urging great effort, or organizing some community activities. Together we can make a strong community union to hinder war and bring peace.
We can also organize the community activities that can make our nations hearts change. In Islam, peace is compulsory. It is the main things in our lives. If there is no peace, there will be no happiness. If this peace gets a higher priority, we can make the upcoming generation dream to live with peace, harmony and peace true. Our kids, our nation, our country and our world will be the important things to think for the future. As we try to go further with technology and live a great life, we should make world peace a priority.
Without peace, we will suffer until death. We must work together to fight and toss out the word "war".
Peace is a dream for all people, nations and country in this world. Peace does not mean being in a place where there is no noise, trouble, or hard work. Peace means to be in the midst of all those things and still be calm in your heart. Peace is a state of harmony, the absence of hostility.
This term is applied to describe a cessation of violent international conflict; in this international context, peace is the opposite of war. That is the real meaning of peace. All human beings belong to a single species and are descended from a common stock. They are born equal in dignity and rights and all form an integral part of humanity. We have our own rights to have peace. Our worlds have no longer made peace a priority. Peace can also describe a relationship between any parties characterized by respect, justice and goodwill. Today, many countries are having inconsequential wars about oil, land and wealth. They do not care about people's feelings.
Imagine if this world does not care about peace, what will happen to the upcoming generation? What will happen to your country? What will happen to your kids? We can make a different. In Iraq or Afghanistan, thousands of innocent children die without the happiness we have now.
We must do something to change the bad attitudes of some of the people that hold important positions - bribery, irresponsibility, and the cruel oppression of the poor. We must shape good attitudes to perform a wonderful combination or cooperation. We can shape these attitudes by urging great effort, or organizing some community activities. Together we can make a strong community union to hinder war and bring peace.
We can also organize the community activities that can make our nations hearts change. In Islam, peace is compulsory. It is the main things in our lives. If there is no peace, there will be no happiness. If this peace gets a higher priority, we can make the upcoming generation dream to live with peace, harmony and peace true. Our kids, our nation, our country and our world will be the important things to think for the future. As we try to go further with technology and live a great life, we should make world peace a priority.
Without peace, we will suffer until death. We must work together to fight and toss out the word "war".
Helter-Skelter
Helter-Skelter
My first day on the space station was something out of this world. It was the first time Malaysians landed on the multi million-dollar station. With me was Zul, an expert in space engineering. As I piloted us into the station, our hearts began to overwhelm with wonder. The sight of Mars added to the ecstasy.
Excitedly, we eased out of the shuttle and were spellbound with the sight before us. Several robots wheeled freely, scientists were busy experimenting while rows of high-tech gadget blinked simultaneously. It was exactly like a scene from the Star Wars movie. During the walk, a miniature laser gun caught my attention.
‘ CAUTION! HANDLE WITH CARE. SMALL YET DEADLY’ was written on the display section. The word ‘deadly’ lingered in my mind when suddenly the station jolted.
“Attention to all!!! We’ve been attacked,” a loud voice boomed off the wall.
In a split second, the crew panic. The peacefulness was quickly broken. The stressed-out scientists bumped into another, a child wailed for her mother and a turned-turtle robot was stomped by the hundreds of feet. The air was full of brutality. We quickly muscled our way through but only to face the worst.
Outside, the atmosphere was filled with deadly coloured rays. Then, one of them beamed inches away from my shoulder, straight at Zul. In the blink of an eye, he disappeared into thin air. A millisecond later, I felt coldness gradually grasped my chest. The world began to darken.
“Argh!” a piercing voice shot into my ears. Slowly, light shone into my eyes as I regained consciousness. Looking around, I was imprisoned by an ugly frog shaped alien. Then, I spotted Zul, trapped inside a gigantic glass structure with tubes all over him.
“Zul! It’s me. Don’t you recognize?”
Suddenly, he shivered and screamed. His face melted and unfolded into something inhuman. Furs began to shoot out unevenly on his scaly skin. His legs slowly mutated into slimy, oversized flippers. He was metamorphosing into an animal!
Shocked, I pinched my arm to justify the reality. “ I must escape but how? Aha!” I took out the mini-sized laser gun and beamed its deadly ray, slicing the door open like butter. After that, I tiptoed to the sentry before knocking it out with powerful silat blows. Suddenly, the alarm rang. Not far away, several sentries were hopping frantically towards me.
“Let’s see how deadly you are”
I beamed the gun and within seconds they all froze. I looked at the gun with wonder. Then, I braved my way through the roasted frogs and several other prisons full of mutated creatures. As if luck was on my side, a large MZ51 space shuttle froze just meters away from me. Quickly, I dashed inside. Several aliens who where chasing me began to open fire. But, it was too late. In a split second, I rocketed away from the alien’s mother ship. My destination ; Earth.
My first day on the space station was something out of this world. It was the first time Malaysians landed on the multi million-dollar station. With me was Zul, an expert in space engineering. As I piloted us into the station, our hearts began to overwhelm with wonder. The sight of Mars added to the ecstasy.
Excitedly, we eased out of the shuttle and were spellbound with the sight before us. Several robots wheeled freely, scientists were busy experimenting while rows of high-tech gadget blinked simultaneously. It was exactly like a scene from the Star Wars movie. During the walk, a miniature laser gun caught my attention.
‘ CAUTION! HANDLE WITH CARE. SMALL YET DEADLY’ was written on the display section. The word ‘deadly’ lingered in my mind when suddenly the station jolted.
“Attention to all!!! We’ve been attacked,” a loud voice boomed off the wall.
In a split second, the crew panic. The peacefulness was quickly broken. The stressed-out scientists bumped into another, a child wailed for her mother and a turned-turtle robot was stomped by the hundreds of feet. The air was full of brutality. We quickly muscled our way through but only to face the worst.
Outside, the atmosphere was filled with deadly coloured rays. Then, one of them beamed inches away from my shoulder, straight at Zul. In the blink of an eye, he disappeared into thin air. A millisecond later, I felt coldness gradually grasped my chest. The world began to darken.
“Argh!” a piercing voice shot into my ears. Slowly, light shone into my eyes as I regained consciousness. Looking around, I was imprisoned by an ugly frog shaped alien. Then, I spotted Zul, trapped inside a gigantic glass structure with tubes all over him.
“Zul! It’s me. Don’t you recognize?”
Suddenly, he shivered and screamed. His face melted and unfolded into something inhuman. Furs began to shoot out unevenly on his scaly skin. His legs slowly mutated into slimy, oversized flippers. He was metamorphosing into an animal!
Shocked, I pinched my arm to justify the reality. “ I must escape but how? Aha!” I took out the mini-sized laser gun and beamed its deadly ray, slicing the door open like butter. After that, I tiptoed to the sentry before knocking it out with powerful silat blows. Suddenly, the alarm rang. Not far away, several sentries were hopping frantically towards me.
“Let’s see how deadly you are”
I beamed the gun and within seconds they all froze. I looked at the gun with wonder. Then, I braved my way through the roasted frogs and several other prisons full of mutated creatures. As if luck was on my side, a large MZ51 space shuttle froze just meters away from me. Quickly, I dashed inside. Several aliens who where chasing me began to open fire. But, it was too late. In a split second, I rocketed away from the alien’s mother ship. My destination ; Earth.
My Ideal School
My Ideal School
Stop, look and listen. Can you hear it? Do you feel the gush of anticipation, adrenaline and anxiety pumping through your veins? Yes, there definitely is teen spirit in the air!
It is 7.00am and teenagers of all shapes and sizes dressed in all shades imaginable pour into the entrance accompanied by the buzzing of the latest gossips. Uniforms, such a bore! Though free to dress in whatever attire we desire, we still have a dress code to follow. The warmth of welcome surrounds you when you step foot on the school’s entrance. You will not feel isolated as you can join many groups or societies to your liking. As the bell rings, clanging of lockers fill the air. School has commenced. First period, homeroom. Attendance would be rechecked since it was already registered from the main entrance by using the ‘matrix card’. The class teacher would read the announcements and before you know it, the second period bell has rung.
First class; ‘English for Science and Technology’, our class headed to the computer lab to look for inventions and their inventors. This is one of our preparations for our class to perform on ‘Focus Day’. The theme our class chose was ‘Heroes’. We were to combine all the knowledge gained from previous lessons of all subjects to present on ‘Focus Day’.
For this particular subject, we were to look up for the greatest inventors of our time. For English and Bahasa Melayu classes, we were to write scripts for a play we were to present on ‘Focus Day’. The play is going to be about a clash in time of where the heroes of the past and present are having a conference. It is going to be one hilarious play as it pokes fun of time and ideas of people in their era. Scenes such as a very aggressive Saidina Hamzah bin Abdul Mutallib trying to grasp the poetic teachings of Shakespeare would be one of the highlights of the play. In Art and Living Skills classes, we will be making props and costumes for our play. During these classes, we will collaborate with History lessons to make prop and costumes accurately according to the right periods.
Seriously speaking, this project is ideal as it tests our application skills. Most of the time, we depend on our own research papers which we sustained from other sources, rather than referring to the textbooks, which only offer limited information. To me, it gave a satisfying feeling to delve deeper into subjects specifically. We must remember though, without the teachers’ endless efforts of pushing us to do our best, this project would have been harder. Automatically, this project is our homework and also accounts for 20% of our end-of-year exam marks.
Riiiiiing, lunch time! Everybody heads to the shady garden at the back of our school with such a panoramic view of a waterfall flowing with glistening water and the shady trees protecting the grass from the glaring sun. Lunch can either be bought from the vending machine which offers a variety of food ranging from ‘nasi lemak’ comers to tea-time snacks for those staying for after school activities or you can ring your own food from home! This is my favourite time, as you can see people sharing and giving among friends. Together they sit, sharing storied of what has happened.
Though my school is not massive, it is fully equipped with the latest technology. Even with the slick high tech gadgets such as ‘smart classrooms’, which automatically switches off any electrical appliances when the infra-red censors do not detect any human heat in the classroom, the school still feels very homey and does not reflect the cold stares of sleek devices that you would usually feel. I like the way everything is orderly and very well planned. Take for example the library; it is very systematic and easy to find books there as it follows the Dewey Decimal System and colour code. The school provides the best facilities. For example, the school provides a skateboarding rink for the skateboard enthusiasts, a swimming pool for those swim fans and many more.
As I sit for my last period, I wished time would stop and let me stay in my school. This school makes me like coming here, not just to look for friends, but also to expand my boundaries of knowledge that is different from reading from the textbooks.
The bell finally rang, and I woke up from my sleep. I looked around and saw the same blackboard with a boring textbook in front of me. Hmmm….I must have been daydreaming about my ideal school again. If only it were true…
Written by:
Wan Nor Afifah
SMS Muzaffar Syah Melaka
Stop, look and listen. Can you hear it? Do you feel the gush of anticipation, adrenaline and anxiety pumping through your veins? Yes, there definitely is teen spirit in the air!
It is 7.00am and teenagers of all shapes and sizes dressed in all shades imaginable pour into the entrance accompanied by the buzzing of the latest gossips. Uniforms, such a bore! Though free to dress in whatever attire we desire, we still have a dress code to follow. The warmth of welcome surrounds you when you step foot on the school’s entrance. You will not feel isolated as you can join many groups or societies to your liking. As the bell rings, clanging of lockers fill the air. School has commenced. First period, homeroom. Attendance would be rechecked since it was already registered from the main entrance by using the ‘matrix card’. The class teacher would read the announcements and before you know it, the second period bell has rung.
First class; ‘English for Science and Technology’, our class headed to the computer lab to look for inventions and their inventors. This is one of our preparations for our class to perform on ‘Focus Day’. The theme our class chose was ‘Heroes’. We were to combine all the knowledge gained from previous lessons of all subjects to present on ‘Focus Day’.
For this particular subject, we were to look up for the greatest inventors of our time. For English and Bahasa Melayu classes, we were to write scripts for a play we were to present on ‘Focus Day’. The play is going to be about a clash in time of where the heroes of the past and present are having a conference. It is going to be one hilarious play as it pokes fun of time and ideas of people in their era. Scenes such as a very aggressive Saidina Hamzah bin Abdul Mutallib trying to grasp the poetic teachings of Shakespeare would be one of the highlights of the play. In Art and Living Skills classes, we will be making props and costumes for our play. During these classes, we will collaborate with History lessons to make prop and costumes accurately according to the right periods.
Seriously speaking, this project is ideal as it tests our application skills. Most of the time, we depend on our own research papers which we sustained from other sources, rather than referring to the textbooks, which only offer limited information. To me, it gave a satisfying feeling to delve deeper into subjects specifically. We must remember though, without the teachers’ endless efforts of pushing us to do our best, this project would have been harder. Automatically, this project is our homework and also accounts for 20% of our end-of-year exam marks.
Riiiiiing, lunch time! Everybody heads to the shady garden at the back of our school with such a panoramic view of a waterfall flowing with glistening water and the shady trees protecting the grass from the glaring sun. Lunch can either be bought from the vending machine which offers a variety of food ranging from ‘nasi lemak’ comers to tea-time snacks for those staying for after school activities or you can ring your own food from home! This is my favourite time, as you can see people sharing and giving among friends. Together they sit, sharing storied of what has happened.
Though my school is not massive, it is fully equipped with the latest technology. Even with the slick high tech gadgets such as ‘smart classrooms’, which automatically switches off any electrical appliances when the infra-red censors do not detect any human heat in the classroom, the school still feels very homey and does not reflect the cold stares of sleek devices that you would usually feel. I like the way everything is orderly and very well planned. Take for example the library; it is very systematic and easy to find books there as it follows the Dewey Decimal System and colour code. The school provides the best facilities. For example, the school provides a skateboarding rink for the skateboard enthusiasts, a swimming pool for those swim fans and many more.
As I sit for my last period, I wished time would stop and let me stay in my school. This school makes me like coming here, not just to look for friends, but also to expand my boundaries of knowledge that is different from reading from the textbooks.
The bell finally rang, and I woke up from my sleep. I looked around and saw the same blackboard with a boring textbook in front of me. Hmmm….I must have been daydreaming about my ideal school again. If only it were true…
Written by:
Wan Nor Afifah
SMS Muzaffar Syah Melaka
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