2084, the world is where no one anyone ever fathomed it would be. Hovering cars, utilising magneto drives that repel the Earth's magnetic force known as gravity, whirr past in streaks of silver, blue and black. High rise buildings soar past the clouds, the once mighty Burj Dubai now paling in comparison to buildings such as ADtube Corp. Titanium alloy sky road barriers beeped with regularity as cars drove past at more than 2 km/h over the speed limit, earning them a point demerit. On ground level, robot sweepers aimlessy drove up and down the street, seeking dust which was not visible to the naked eye but was being detected by the robot's dust detection system. Hydrogen powered buses drove past, emitting water as a by product which flowed down to under road tanks for purification and use. Scores of people, all dressed in suits and various formal attire, walked down the street clutching holographic smart phones, wrapped up in their world and barely opening up their mind to the disaster that lay, literally, a few metres away.
On the outskirts of Dubai lay a rubbish dump. Not any rubbish dump, but the Al-Khalifa rubbish tip, the largest rubbish tip in the world. People who lived here sought after the occasional gem to trade for money and therefore food. The poor, who could not be educated, were determined to follow the lead of a man called Al-Khalifa, who found a few diamonds and spectacularly rose to stardom, currently living in an upmarket apartment and enjoying an easy life. His legacy, however, was rather embarrassing, having the world's largest rubbish tip named after him. There weren't enough diamonds to go around for the 1.5 million occupants of the tip though, and that meant that many people struggled to make ends meet.
Lasina stared at the hovering methane pumps, routinely buzzing past to and from the BIOgas power station. 'I wish I could work at the factory,' she thought. Earning 50 UAE Dirham a week would go a long way to helping feed her ailing family, even though working at a power factory like this was the lowest of lows for any human. 'Everyone starts low,' she thought, as she tried to wipe out the thoughts of the humiliation she would get from people in higher ranks and onlookers. This was better than what she had to do everyday to sustain her family, risking her life in search for food and illegal jobs that could help her provide for her paralysed mum and 2 younger sisters.
6 year old children usually start learning letters at this age. Lasina, however, had already endured more hardship than any average human would in their lifetime. The fact that an apple core would have to sustain her family for a day broke her, not only because it was physically taxing but the emotional pain she had to endure watching her family struggle. It was a tale that represented the gross inequality of the world, where promises that wealth would be shared with the poor. Rather, money was kept by the rich and the poor had no gateway into this realm, virtually stuck there forever once born into a poor family. For every rich city, there was a huge poor section where people had rights, but had virtually no money to exercise their freedom. Greed had taken over the world through false promises , and the well off were disillusioned about these poor people. Rio de Janeiro, Paris and even Tokyo, were like this, amongst others. It showed how capitalism was not something to be believed. Even with all its apparent benefits, no one factored in one important variable into their calculations, something that has no value- the human characteristics known as selfishness and greed.
Everyone in the tip would make small slums and move constantly, in search of the elusive diamond as well as the illegal traffickers who required people for errands, and promised them money or a life in the mystical, legendary land far away called China, where people were treated equally. Communism had stayed in China, and poverty was an issue that was not tolerated and acted upon with immediate urgency. These
