Friday
May182012
Bono Writes About Resource Extraction in Time
Friday, May 18, 2012 at 5:06PM
This is from the issue dated May 28, 2012:
It's become the go-to cliché of modern economics. Natural resources are a "curse." When a nation is over-reliant on one or two commodities like oil or precious minerals, corrupt government ministers and their dodgy associates hoard profits and taxes instead of properly allocating them to schools and hospitals. Happy the country that lives on nothing but its wits; cursed be the one that thinks it can get rich by planting or digging or drilling for wealth.
Such is the collective wisdom. So we must ask the collectively wise, How did the U.S. avoid the curse? And what might that tell us about other countries' chances of doing the same?
Read the rest of the article here.
Reader Comments (2)
Typical Bono, patronizing to the core. It's all about the G8 (or 1st world) imposing reform and good governance on the poor ignant Africans. Like Robert Mugabe perhaps?
Nothing from outside will have any effect on Africa. You can't impose on unwilling people. As long as tribal politics and state backstabbing continues Africa will stay a morass. Most of the world can see that as well since in the 4 years that he wrote that article bupkiss has happened.
Until a true Pan-African political system can florish this will always be so. The only reason for that to happen is either cooperative greed like OPEC or fear and anger, generally from an outside threat. Neither seems to be on the horizon.
Happy the country that lives on nothing but its wits; cursed be the one that thinks it can get rich by planting or digging or drilling for wealth.