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Claudiu Stănculete participates in the “Short Prose” Section of the English Category, International Literary Creation Contest, 3rd Edition, from Bâlteni, Gorj County, Romania and is 18 years old. He is guided by Prof. Carmen Raicu, at Bâlteni Technological High School. We thank him for this participation and wish him success.

                                                              The world I would like to live in


        When I think of my future, I see it so shady and away. My future is practically any day of tomorrow, with every day I aim at more and my future takes a more clear shape. It is made of dreams and hopes, it is about taking chances and exploring possibilities. 
         I often try to imagine an ideal world to live in, without so many of the dark things that modern society has brought along, a world that could bring hope and all the peacefulness and serenity that harmony and happiness could bring. 
          I would like to live in a world where everyone is treated equally, regardless on their  gender, race, sexual orientation, religious belief or disability. 
          I would like to live in a world where nurses and doctors are paid what they’re worth, and not what we can get away with paying them. How can we, humans, can accept to have children dying for starvation in remotes parts of the world, or babies fading away in hospitals for the lack of technology?
          I would like to live in a world where prostitutes and drug dealers didn’t exist, not because we outlawed them, but because their services weren’t required. In this crazy chase for the money, people have lost their dignity, their moral values, their common sense and whatever good they might have once had inside their being.  
          I would like to live in a world which has eradicated poverty and dedicated time and resources to getting literacy levels as close to 100% as possible. The difference between the rich and the poor is still too big. Sadly, most of the times, being poor means not getting the right education and being left behind from all points of view. Without education, you cannot achieve your place in society, by all current requirements. 
          I would like to live in a world with no advertising industry, nobody that describes themselves as “a public relations consultant” and about 5% of the lawyers we have currently. If people chose to use their time wisely, they should spend more time in each other’s company, and more important, they would enjoy it.
I would like to live in a world that had worked out what causes people to sexually molest children and done something to stop it. There is too much sickness and too much evil around us, you can get disturbing news by watching TV, by reading the news, by hearing people talking in the bus and I believe that any one of us, the ones we care, would like to live in a safe world. 
          I would like to live in a world in which nobody has an argument about who is a terrorist and who is a freedom fighter, because there is no need for either to exist. Where is this world going to? There is pride and arrogance and deceit and all the capital sins and even more in this world. We don’t need wars and weapon displays or atomic bombs or nuclear power plants, we need to live in a beautiful and safe world, a world to hear the laughter of the children in and enjoying this wonderful gift that was given to us all: life.