Look at India.
Their natural resources are simply staggering - yet most of them live on a bowl of rice or dal a day. How? Total and utter corruption cf Rhodesia, sorry, the wonderful utopia that is Zimbabwe.

Wasn't as bad under colonial rule. This is a non-PC observation but cold, hard fact (and before I get carted off for this viewpoint I did study this for three years).
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Tue 19 Jan 2010, 10:17, 2 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

I recommend
everyone read The Undercover Economist. Written in plain English and entertaining, there's a chapter on Cameroon (an example struggling country) and about why it's in the poverty it is.

There's a lot of political establishment figures in this country on the gravy train but it could be a lot worse.
( djtrialprice, Tue 19 Jan 2010, 10:22, Reply)

It's not just a non-pc observation, it's a stupid one.
If I wasn't so busy today I'd have a field day in this thread.
(PsychoChomp, Tue 19 Jan 2010, 10:30, Reply)

You clearly know more than several senior lecturers at SOAS, then.
As well as the head of South Asian Studies at North London University.

You've obviously read more than these internationally-respected experts with their decades of specialist study, and therefore I bow before your mastery of this complex subject.

I only studied the British in India for just the three years - unlike you, so what do I know, eh?
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Tue 19 Jan 2010, 10:38, Reply)

PS....(!)

( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Tue 19 Jan 2010, 10:44, Reply)

I didn't read anything after "north london university"

(PsychoChomp, Tue 19 Jan 2010, 10:58, Reply)

It's that attention to detail that has helped you gain your expertise, I expect.

( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Tue 19 Jan 2010, 10:59, Reply)