Editor's note: While some countries make war, Norway is setting an international moral example of how both to utilize natural resources to benefit all its citizens and to assist other countries in doing the same.
"Norway, which began producing oil in 1971, has been remarkably successful at harnessing profits to help build one of the world's wealthiest and most equitable societies."
"We want to support these democratic revolutions [in Latin America] because we believe they will enhance development and bring marginalised power structures into government."
(IPS) - Norway is using its oil expertise to help similarly oil-rich, yet often poor and corrupt states that want to pass on more of their vast revenues to their citizens.
In theory petroleum-based economies are well placed to support higher standards of living than those countries with less lucrative resources. The reality is quite different. Most such economies instead serve to enrich small elites while engendering widespread corruption, poverty and conflict.
Oil-rich countries such as Nigeria, Chad and Angola have lower rankings on the United Nation's Human Development Index, analyzing some indicators of development and life quality, than do countries with virtually no natural resources such as South Korea, Japan and, with its large population, China.
Chad received large development loans from the World Bank on condition that oil revenues would be used to combat poverty. Last autumn Chad announced that it would spend the money on defence and weapons instead, prompting the World Bank to temporarily cease payments in January 2006.
In contrast Norway, which began producing oil in 1971, has been remarkably successful at harnessing profits to help build one of the world's wealthiest and most equitable societies.
"We have possibly the most successful petroleum sector in the world," Norway's Development Minister Erik Solheim told IPS.
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"In economic life there is extreme inequality and exploitation. Although colonialism no longer exists openly in the political and economic sphere, still it persists indirectly, and this should not be tolerated... In this respect you should remember that in economic life, we will have to guarantee the minimum requirements of life to one and all... There cannot be any sort of adjustment as far as this point is concerned. The minimum purchasing requirement must be guaranteed to all. Today these fundamental essentialities are not being guaranteed. Rather, people are being guided by deceptive economic ideas like outdated Marxism, which has proven ineffective in practical life and has not been successfully implemented in any corner of the world. Why do people still believe in such a theory, which has never been proved successful? The time has come for people to make a proper assessment of whether they are being misguided or not." |
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"Human beings have still not been able to form a human society, and have still not learned to move with the spirit of a pilgrim. Although many small groups, motivated by self-interest, work together in particular situations, not even a small fraction of their work is done with a broader social motive. By strict definition, shall we have to declare that each small family unit is a society in itself? If going ahead in mutual adjustment only out of narrow self-interest or momentary self-seeking is called society, then in such a society, no provision can be made for the disabled, the diseased or the helpless, because in most cases nobody can benefit from them in any way... in that case there always remains the possibility of some people getting isolated from the collective. All human beings must attach themselves to others by the common bond of love and march forward hand in hand; then only will I proclaim it a society." |