Everyone has an opinion on what needs doing in his or her patch, whether it’s fixing up that rotten roundabout where you just know there’s going to be a terrible crash one day, or putting roofs over the stockyards so the sheep don’t suffer any more than they have to, or starting a program in your local school, or giving the local hospital a new cancer treatment ward.
What would you spend the billion dollars on?
This is the kind of thing I like to think about while I’m blow-drying my hair. By the time it’s all sitting nicely I’ve got the entire nation under control, too.
I had a hard time deciding, because whenever I did decide, immediately another need would pop up which was even more deserving than the previous one. How could you put a billion dollars into a senior cits leisure centre when you could build a homeless shelter?
Once upon a long-ago time, I used to daydream about being prime minister, and getting this place Sorted Out Good And Proper. Now, I’m not so sure. I’d be in constant conflict with myself.
After much thought, however, this is what I came up with for my one billion dollars:
Commission some Australian authors to write a collection of books for teenagers, set in Ballarat.
Now, as a writer, and before even that as a reader, I’m pretty big on the value of books. I’ve seen what an advantage being a reader is.
The emphasis would be on stories which captured the imagination: contemporary fantasy, mostly, because in my experience that’s the genre that most grabs hold of the imagination. The word ‘eureka!’ would be banned, as would ‘gold mining’. Moralising in a submission would bring instant failure. The emphasis would not be on learning something worthy, but on story. A schoolgirl from the local girls’ school falls in love with a werewolf. A teenage boy has to defeat an evil force that’s invaded his Alfredton backyard. Vice versa!
And all within Ballarat.
I’d like to give Ballarat’s teenagers a chance to feel that great, big things could happen in Ballarat, and that they could be part of it. I’d like them to actively want to stay in Ballarat rather than planning the fast get-out ticket five years in advance. I’d like them to write their own stories in Ballarat.
Profit would be irrelevant, and that, combined with the lack of emphasis on worthy messages (apart, of course, from the themes within the story, which would be subtle) means this will probably never happen. Ever!
But it’s nice to dream.
Where would your one billion go?
Local Rainfall
