Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Safron]

I'm curious if anyone else has this observation besides me. It seems to me that Muslim countries and areas in general are poor except for revenue from oil. Am I seeing this incorrectly? They seem to fight for causes that are often underlyingly wealth related. See Thailand, Philipines, Africa, etc. And it's not getting any better. There may be an exception or two, but this seems to be a general trend. Was this a vast conspiracy that started at the beginning of the 20th Century? I'm curious to know the thoughts of those on the board.

[Ilsanman]

Yes, other than oil, all the middle eastern countries combined have an economy the size of....(drum roll please) Belgium!!!! One tiny European country with few natural resources.

Why are they poor? Hmmmmm....many are theocracies, they lack imagination, they are regressive, and they tell 50% of their populations (women) to shut the *beep* up or die.

[mindmetoo]

It's called the Dutch Disease:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_disease

Resources that are easy to pull out of the ground don't help your economy develop other industries. And when the state controls the distribution of oil funds...

[Adventurer]

[riverboy]

Why are Jewish countries poor? Except for banking and the media....and the diamond industry.

Oh and huge government transfer payments from other countries.

[Nowhere Man]

[Adventurer]

[VanIslander]

Same could be said of most Catholic countries.


Oh hail the Protestant work ethic!


Please. if you wanna talk about the connection between religion and economics then head for grad school.

[pugwall]

Malaysia is doing a fair bit better than its neighbours(bar Singapore). Indonesia not so. Pretty much shows that correlation is pretty weak.

[pugwall]

Lebanon is loaded but not from oil as well. And they have loads of wars.

[Rum Jungle]

[desultude]

Anyone hear of a little place called "Dubai"?

They have taken their oil money and invested in becoming a non-oil based economy. Yeah, they have the huge capital to do it, but they have successfully become an country more known for finance, tourism and spectacular architecture than oil and Islam.

But the point can be taken that the home bases of Islam tend to be poor. We can take some educated guesses as to why, but probably should leave the heavy lifting to the experts who won't confuse analysis with finger pointing and cheap blame placing. I'm no expert, but now that I am living in the Middle East, I can appreciate how much more complex things are than they appear from the West.

Now that I have lived in the magic Kingdom (of Saudia) for a while, I can see what a least a few of the problems are.

First, whoever pointed out the sandy nature of Middle Eastern countries is on the part of the problem- maybe a big part. This place is not really intended for permanent human habitation, except for a few fertile oases. The desert has its charms- but without AC, well, can you imagine high-rise development in 50 degree centigrade, shockingly humid sand, with regular dust storms? The nomadic Bedouin know how to live here, but the rest of us are dependent on modern luxuries like desalinized water and air-conditioning.

If it weren't for oil, and Mecca, this place would probably still be traversed by camels and Bedos with tents.

A lot can be said for the forms of government (Sheiks and Kings) and the effects of religion and the history of colonialism on the development of diversified economies.

If you look at the poorest countries in the world, though, you will find that more of them are Christian, and most of them Catholic. So, can we really draw a conclusion about Islam and poor states?

This is a bit of a ramble (probably the drugs I'm taking for a bad tooth), but the longer I live here the more of my preconceptions I have to toss.

[wannago]

[bucheon bum]

[wannago]