The Curse of Black Gold

Have you ever heard about

"The Curse of Black Gold?"

Having abundant natural resources do not guarantee the citizen in a country will prosper. Conversely, the curse of natural resources (resource curse ") haunt areas that have potential for large oil and gas.

The book Escaping the Resource Curse edits Macartan Humpray, Jeffrey Sachs and Joseph Stiglitz explains, countries that have abundant natural resources would often fail to obtain long-term benefits of its natural wealth. Rich region even be more problematic than the poor and other areas with limited natural resources.

This condition can be seen clearly in Africa. Libya, for example. Although not the largest oil producer, Libya is a country in Africa with most oil reserves.

But the black gold running just so capital a luxurious life for Gaddafi and family. They dissipate spend money, partly by hiring international artists to entertain them. For example: Mariah Carey, Beyonce Knowles, and Usher was hired to appear in the new year Gaddafi child. Singer Nelly Furtado claimed to have paid U.S. $ 1 million to perform for 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, the Libyan people actually living in a dictatorship. The leader of the revolution did not want his power was threatened. Nearly 20 percent of the people of Libya used as spies to monitor their own friends and neighbors. This condition is getting worse after the attacks of allied troops into the country - a suspected case is also not separated from the oil reserves.

The wealth of natural resources makes a country's leaders tend to be authoritarian because he always wanted to master the enormous wealth. This condition is exploited by foreign companies interested in mastering the natural resources - that reward to the authoritarian rulers in order to maintain the concession.

Benefits become the financial capital of the rulers, and provide a strong reason for them to maintain power.

This explains the conditions that occurred, why the countries rich in natural resources become less democratic and repressive rulers often presided. Those countries are also easy to fall into civil war, in order to fight the power and convenience that come with that power.

Should manage the natural resources that are available is much easier than creating a new revenue source. But in fact just the opposite. In the end, it is evident that the prosperity of a country is not determined by the potential of natural resources, but by how the country is managed.