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If I were a millionaire, first of all, I would travel around the world, I would visit all the famous places and stay in each country to learn its customs and languages. Guided tours would not be for me because they do not allow me to get to know a place really well. I would tour the world on my own time and at my own pace. It would probably take me a few years to accomplish the tour but I am sure the time will be well spent. At the end of the tour I would have a rich knowledge of our planet. Then my life would be really rich, knowledge-wise at least.

Back home, I would build a mansion on a large piece of land. The mansion would be designed by me and it would have enough rooms to accommodate the large family that I intend to have. It would also contain a well-equipped gymnasium. On the grounds, I would have a beautiful garden surrounded by majestic trees. In the middle of the garden would be a fish pond cum fountain. In the evenings my family and I would stroll along with the lush green lawn and enjoy the beauty of the garden. Elsewhere I would have a swimming pool, a tennis court and a vegetable garden. Yes, a vegetable garden because I love to eat home-grown vegetables. Besides being fresh I know that they will not have the pesticides so often used indiscriminately by modern farmers.

Of course, I would not have to do all the work of looking after the mansion and its grounds. I would hire enough staff to keep the place in tip-top condition. Once in awhile I would potter around the garden and help around in other things and that is only when I feel like it. I am the boss and I do as I please. However please do not think of me as arrogant. I am not so, but a boss has to maintain a certain distance from his staff, otherwise, things can get out of hand and no work can be done.

For society in general, I would try to do many things to improve it. I would build a large community hall where people of all races can come to make use of. It will contain sporting facilities for badminton, squash, tennis, ping-pong, gymnastics and other equipment for keeping fit. There will be qualified instructors around to make sure that the users get maximum benefit. It would be pointless just to build the hall and hope that it would run by itself. In no time the place would be reduced to a wreck and probably become a haunt for undesirable elements.

Talking of undesirable elements makes me think of drug addicts, the scourge of society so many young people just wasting away. I would set up a centre for helping these addicts; “help” meaning getting them out the addiction AND giving them a meaning to life. In most of the cases, it means getting respectable jobs for them and making sure they keep them. They have to be taught to love life again. I know that such a task is formidable but it is not impossible. It takes time and a lot of care from genuinely interested people. If I could help some of them become useful human beings again, my efforts would not have been in vain. Most important of all, I will not allow my centre to degenerate into a semi-prison as some centres have.

For the intellectually inclined, I would give out scholarships to help bring them to the fore, especially the less fortunate ones who may have the brains but not the financial means. In tapping this potential, our country would benefit greatly in terms of having more well-educated and capable people contributing to its well-being. I would also set up a centre where such capable people can gather regularly to discuss the ways and means by which society as a whole can be improved. There would be no room for glory-seekers tr I will be there to weed them out. Only genuine people will be welcomed.

Last but not least, I will have to make sure I remain a millionaire. In other words, I must make sure my sources of money are not diminished. This will require that I keep a firm hold of the business I am involved in. Only then can I be sure that I remain a millionaire. Why would I want to remain a millionaire? Simple, if I were not one, all the things that I have started will come to nought and all my efforts would be wasted.

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