Almost forgot to answer your question......while the example are few and far between , I suppose greed is woven in every culture, including ours.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qatar
Qatar tops the list of the world's richest countries by Forbes. In 2010, Qatar had the world's highest GDP per capita, while the economy grew by 19%, the fastest in the world. The main drivers for this rapid growth are attributed to ongoing increases in production and exports of liquefied natural gas, oil, petrochemicals, and related industries. Qatar has the second-highest human development in the Arab World after the United Arab Emirates. In 2009, Qatar was the United States’ fifth-largest export market in the Middle East
Originally Posted by WTF
Not exactly sure what you're getting at here.
Perhaps you just wanted to provide an exception to the generality that oil-related wealth has often looked more like a curse than a blessing(?)
What I said in my previous post (to which your above response was directed) is that vast natural resources
often turn out to actually be a liability for a country, since they allow autocratic rulers of various types to pay off supporters and create an illusion of prosperity for the masses. Although Venezuela is a good example of this, there are many others. Often oil-rich nations fail to build the the institutional structure necessary for a prosperous civil society that's not primarily dependent on a single resource. They sometimes look a little like uber-macro versions of spoiled rich kids who have a lot of money dumped in their laps at an early age, and are too lazy to get a good education and build a successful career. If their money runs out, they're fucked.
Qatar has such vast oil wealth relative to the miniscule size of its population that it can get away with things very few other nations can even dream of. Still, that country would be far better off in the
very long run if it would begin laying the foundation for an economy built to last. The oil wealth might get them through another generation or two, but that may be about it.
The sad fact is that although Chavez took power in Venezuela just before the dawn of a huge run-up in oil prices, and ruled during a time when the international financial system was flush with cash and eager to lend to resource-rich nations, he and his cronies fucked it up big-time.
Given these enormous advantages, it would have required a concerted effort to wreck the Venezuelan economy in more devastaing fashion than Chavez managed to do. Yet he's actually revered by many poor Venezuelans who have been shut off from even the most basic information.
It's amazing what a cult-of-personality strongman skilled in the art of propaganda can accomplish, especially when propped up by ignorant leftist celebrities.
