The Bottom Billion : By Paul Collier

The Book the Bottom Billion explains the plight of the poorest undeveloped countries in the World. Out of one billion people, 70 percent of the people belong to Africa. Africa is one of the fifty poorest countries in the world.  With virtually no growth and always seemingly to be on the heels of the rest of developed countries. Collier explains the danger of developed countries looking the other way and not embracing a critical cause for change.

Collier uses an example of living in the fourteenth-century where conditions were less than desirable. Where war, and disease plagued the era. Another issue Collier discusses is the large amount of aid given to countries. Even though large amounts of aid are a good effort to a solution to the problem; one has to be mindful of mass corruption within countries that receive this aid. Large aid increases risk of coup, and plentiful natural resources are economically damaging to a poorer country. Collier believes Aid can be an overemphasized solution.

The main points of the book deal with the four traps related to conflict, natural resources, geographical disadvantages and poor governance. The countries have in common one or more debilitating factors, which left unchecked define their future. He goes on to say if a country escapes a particular trap they have a 1.6 percent chance of staying out. No landlocked country has ever made it to middle income status and the average civil war lasts seven years at a cost of 64 billion.

There is hope as well as despair within this book, Collier believes efforts that have aided these countries are misguided and futile. He thinks most of the world is already better off than a hundred years ago but not for the poorer nations discussed the book. In conclusion Collier believes landlocked countries are at geographical disadvantage, therefore cash should be channeled to help these countries with long term aid to build effective infrastructure links. Countries of the bottom billion need to be given preferential access to the global marketplace if they are ever to compete with the export powerhouses of China and India. Lastly, Collier wants citizens of G8 countries to fight for change. Whether this change actually occurs still remains to be seen.

For the most I agreed with the author of this book and enjoyed reading it.  I thought it was a good read that gave insight to the problems concerning the bottom billion. The book did not make me angry or bored. I just felt why have privileged nations ignored this problem for so long; maybe more could have been done sooner. Some may say the book may have had to much dreariness to it. I didn’t think so, it’s not meant to be a feel good book. It deals with issues of the bottom billion. The questions I have for the author would be. What motivated you to write this book? Was it compassion for the bottom billion or some other reason?