Bottom Billion as a Major Issue
As Paul Collier note, the greatest challenge facing developmental experts is how to balance an economy of one billion rich people and five billion poor individuals. Although some strategies, such as the introduction of the Millennium Development Goals, have introduced, little would be achieved because the rich states are reluctant to resolve poverty in the world. To worsen the matter, Collier notes that some states are even developing poorer (Collier, 2008).
This is a significant challenge to developmental experts and analysts. Poor countries still live in the under poor conditions that can only be compared to the conditions witnessed in the fourteenth century. These conditions include tribal wars, disease, and unawareness. A number of these countries are found in Africa and central Asia. While the GDP of other countries is expected to raise, those of poor countries are expected to fall further.
A billion people are stuck because they are still faced by the fourteenth century conditions. In the twenty first century, people are supposed to live comfortably and enjoy material things. For instance, people are supposed to travel to various destinations to explore the world. In the 21st century, interdependence is inevitable because no individual can be self-sufficient. Specialization and division of labor has been embraced fully meaning that an individual would be a consumer of specialized services at one point.
The bottom billion is of interest to Collier because the existence of poor countries would impair integration. In the global economy, it is expected that states depend on each other for critical services such as security, technology, and labor. However, the bottom billion would impede this because it would not have the capacity to provide qualified personnel. It is factual that the education system of the bottom billion is devastating.
The poor states rarely produce qualified labor force that can work in industries with sophisticated machines. For instance, Collier observes that the agents of globalization, particularly MNCs, are reluctant to send their representatives to states such as Chad. This is because of the extreme conditions that cannot sustain huge business units. Moreover, living conditions are terribly poor, which prevents the labor force from taking up the jobs. Collier refers to such organizations as development biz (Collier, 2008). They are run by agencies specializing in offering aid. In the new millennium, states are supposed cooperate in order to ensure security is provided to states.
There are new security threats, such as terrorism and kidnappings, which cannot be handled by individual states. The bottom billion countries have extremely weak governments that cannot cooperate to offer adequate security. The bottom billion individuals are susceptible to terror attack because they do not have sophisticated technologies, policies, and methods of countering terrorism threats. Development bizes are concentrated in countries perceived to offer adequate security, such as Brazil and China due to terrorism threats.
Collier notes that development buzzes, such as the NGOs and celebrities, are interested in engaging in poor countries. However, such agents do not have the power and capacity to spur development. Therefore, bottom billion is of interest to Collier because world’s economy depends on development of the bottom billion. Without the cooperation of the bottom billion, the world cannot achieve its aims and goals, as stipulated in the Millennium Development Goals. Through the influence of development buzz, the bottom billion states find themselves in the agenda of the G8. However, the focus is not on developing the bottom billion.
Relationship between Poverty and Civil Wars
Collier notes that an approximated seventy-three percent of all bottom billion populations has ever witnessed a civil war. In fact, some are still struggling to get out of the civil war. Although almost all countries have ever witnessed a civil war, the developed countries witnessed it in the previous centuries. War impedes the economic growth of a country in a number of ways. Before discussing how civil wars affect the economic development of countries, it is beneficial to discuss the causes of the civil war briefly. Some factors that cause civil wars include repression of certain groups, exploitation of some members of society, and exclusion from state power.
In Collier’s view, poverty is partly caused by civil wars in the bottom billion countries. The civil war is known to damage infrastructure, institutions, production system, assets, and breaks communities that enjoyed social networks. Neoclassical growth theory proves that civil war an effect on the GDP of a country. Additionally, the civil wars affect the education system of an affected region. This means that the region would suffer from shortages in terms of capital labor. At the end, individuals would not be able to secure employment with the best performing organizations due to insufficient knowledge and skills.
This would undoubtedly result to reduced earnings among the households. This would mean abject poverty. If households cannot engage in production and distribution of goods and services, they would easily be trapped in poverty. Civil war creates conditions that make it difficult for individuals to move freely from one place to another. Moreover, civil wars scare potential investors who have the abilities to boost the economies of countries.
Production and distribution of goods result to accumulation of physical capital and human capital. Apart from impeding the education system, civil wars affect the health of the productive population. The author gives an example of Congo whereby people could not access healthcare because health providers feared for their lives. Individuals are forced to resort to traditional methods of curing diseases, which are mostly ineffective.
From a personal perspective, warfare affects the physical and human capital because familys members are killed, injured, and would be forced into refugee camps where they cannot depend on themselves. Moreover, civil wars provide an opportunity to thugs to engage in looting, robbery, kidnappings and destruction of property. Families lose millions of dollars invested in expensive industries and factories.
During civil wars, assets are destroyed while others are looted. Households lose land, houses, utensils, cattle, livestock, and even labor. This would mean that households would not have a source of livelihood, which affects their economic life. When a family loses land and houses, it is forced to depend on foreign and governmental assistance, which are highly unreliable. After the conflicts, family members would be struggling to make ends meet instead of thinking on some of the ways through which they would invest in their own country.
Individuals benefiting from the civil war through looting will form strong militia groups that would them in preventing the emergence of other powerful groups in society. The civil war erodes democratic values and creates a society that is characterized by tension, conflicts, and survival for the fittest. In such a society, individuals cannot own resources because militia groups would take them.
Effects of Resources on Politics
Collier notes that resources have a negative effect to politics in the developing countries. Resources are the cause of conflicts in countries such as Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, and other developing countries. Those in power will always want to exploit the poor by using public resources to achieve their selfish interests. For instance, resources messed up conflicts in Congo because each province declared independence and threatened to engage in war with any province that tempered with resources. This is extremely dangerous because provinces with fewer resources will demand that the border be demarcated afresh in order to distribute resources equally.
Those in control of the rich regions in terms of resources will instead find ways of arming themselves in order to protect resources. In Congo, the government has never been able to control state resources because of the external influence. Resources attract the attention of foreign powers who would be tempted to fund militia groups to destabilize the government. This would also help the foreign powers because they would swindle resources without restrictions from the central government.
Congo has been a country of interest since the Cold war because of its massive deposits of resources. The neighboring countries, including Rwanda and Uganda have been accused of meddling in the Congolese conflict. In fact, the UN Security Council is yet to decide this month whether to warn Uganda over the funding of a militia group that has been affecting the operations of government in Kinshasa. Uganda has threatened to pull its forces from Somalia in protest of the UN Security Council decision.
The above discussion shows that resources affect both national and international politics. Therefore, resources are the source of conflicts even at the global level. The US business personalities have always been accused of funding rebel groups to destabilize the functions of the government. This benefits them because they are able to loot resources from Congo without necessarily paying taxes. Congo has one of the resources used in the manufacture of mobile phones.
The US businesspersons believe that the price of the product would go up in case the government of Congo is stabilized. The author of the book concluded that resources could mess up politics after evaluating the conflicts taking place in Congo and other parts of the world with massive resources. He observes that militia groups in Congo are even powerful than the state security agencies because they receive funding from powerful governments and individuals. Politics and resources are closely related. In fact, politics is defined as the authoritative allocation of scare resources. Some define it as who gets what, when, and how. What individuals receive in a political system are resources. Political leaders scramble to ensure that the government caters for their interests, as well as those of their relatives.
If the issue of distribution of resources is not handled carefully, people are likely to fight in order to claim what rightfully belong to them. This had been witnessed in a number of countries, including Kenya, when people went to the streets to protest the presidential results, which were marred by flaws. In Sudan, the south felt that the north discriminated it from the national cake. It demanded sovereignty, which was granted after several years of civil wars. Even after independence, the north did not want to believe that the south had powers to use its resources to better the lives of its citizens. A large-scale war nearly erupted were it, not for the interception of the African Union and the United Nations.
Escaping from the Bottom Billion
According to Collier, the bottom billion countries can salvage themselves from the conditions of the fourteenth century by embracing modern technologies. In fact, the third world should learn how to apply the modern conflict resolution mechanisms instead of engaging in war whenever there is an inconsistency. For instance, the Kenya should have adopted the skills associated with dialogue instead of fighting each other.
During the post election violence in Kenya, it was reported that the GDP decreased by over ten percent. Furthermore, economic development stalled for over a year because investors never wanted to risk their capitals. Other than engage in war, the bottom billion countries should try as much as possible to revise their economic structures to incorporate the less privileged in the economic and social development.
In the bottom billion states, women are never allowed to participate in economic development. Furthermore, the minorities are perceived as people who should not engage in economic and social development of the country. This leads to conflicts that might escalate into civil wars. For instance, minority communities might seek for funding outside the state borders to fight for their rights. The bottom billion states should consider opening up their societies whereby each person is to be allowed to participate in economic development without discrimination.
Collier recommends further that the conditions of the fourteenth century should be avoided under all circumstances. These would be better eliminated by enlightening societies through education. Education should be given priority because it has the capacity of transforming society. Chances of an educated person to engage in a civil war are minimal. In fact, education would make life better for individuals since individuals would be able to use technology as they wish.
Benefits of Collier’s views on the UAE Society
The United Arab Emirates can learn much from the findings of Collier because it is one of the countries with large deposits of natural resources. The distribution of resources in the UAE is not egalitarian because there are few billionaires and an immense number of poor individuals. In the Middle East, instabilities have been witnessed in the recent past due to gaps witnessed in the distribution of natural resources.
In fact, the governments of Syria, Egypt, Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya were unable to contain the demands of the poor youth. In this regard, the UAE should come up with economic policies that would aim at opening up society. The society should learn from Collier that resources are the recipe for conflicts. Congo and Sudan have been in civil wars since independence because of resources. The UAE and other Middle East countries have coexisted peacefully for several years, but the emergence of technology and improved levels of awareness are a serious threat to the governments of the Middle East states.
The poor and the youths from the Middle East have a feeling that the government is not doing enough to ensure equality in society. In the neighboring Saudi Arabian society, the government enticed the youths by providing them with funds to invest and engage in social activities, such as marrying.
The UAE society has an opportunity to prevent the occurrence of civil unrests due to hard economic times. However, it might face the same problems experienced by the Egyptian and Libyan governments if necessary actions are not taken in time. The emergence of the social media does not permit governments to use force in dealing with matters touching on the economic and social life of individuals.
Reference
Collier, P (2008). The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Falling and What can be done about it. Oxford: Oxford University Press.