human
Provide an essay regarding Bottom Billion that is a book that discusses the reasons why the poorest countries that are failing and what that can be done about it.
assistant
#The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done About It by Paul Collier Essay (Book Review)
##Introduction
Going by the scholarly reviews that have been done on the book The Bottom Billion by Paul Collier and the numerous praiseworthy comments that have made on it; this book is undoubtedly a geographically-oriented economic masterpiece worth being given a serious reading.
According to Wolf (2007) of the venerated Financial Times, this book is indeed “a splendid book” which sheds light on the dark moral challenges that often impede the bottom billion countries from actualizing their economic goals.
Stewart (2007) of the Guardian calls it an “important book” and rallies behind Collier who, in the book, calls for well-performing countries—especially those positioned in the western geographical hemisphere of the world—to use their resources in areas like technology to help uplifting the suffering countries.
Stewart’s sentiments are echoed by Quinn (2008) who says that the book is a well written masterpiece talking of “a paradigm shift away from poverty alleviation as a goal of development”. All these strong opinions of the book, from authoritative sources duly qualify the book as an epitome of invaluable information on the nature of economies today (Reinert, 2011).
Of course, like many other books, there have been a few scholars who have opined that some places in the book were a bit too obvious (like the nature of poverty in Africa) or exaggerated (like the role of western governments in helping in poverty alleviation).
However, in one way or another, even these critics have confessed that, generally speaking, the book is an epitome of resourceful information. It is on the basis of such scholarly arguments that the expansive review, detailed below, is done.
Book Summary
Who is the author?
As glimpsed in the introduction, the Bottom Billion was written by Paul Collier. According to the Centre for the Study of African economies (2010), Paul Collier is an astute Professor of Economics, a revered director for the Centre for the Study of African economies at Oxford University and a widely published author whose several books and articles numerous scholarly genres have received a good number of honorary accolades.
For example, in 1988, he was prized with the Edgar Graham Book Prize for his worthwhile writings in the book Labour and poverty in rural Tanzania: Ujamaa and rural development in the United Republic of Tanzania. In 2008, the Bottom Billion deservedly “won the Lionel Gelber, Arthur Ross and Corine prizes ” typifying how good the book was written ( Centre for the Study of African economies , 2010).
Even more importantly, between 1998 and 2003, he served as a director of the development research group of the World Bank where he was not only able to conduct many high-profile researches on the geographical nature of economic power across the world but he also accessed several factual statistics and proofs of poverty in the world.
As will be explicatively detailed later, working in the World Bank greatly helped in getting valuable information which he later used to validate and support his arguments in the Bottom Billion.
As of today, Paul Collier continues to serve his aforementioned roles while he occasionally writes for magazines and newspapers like the Independent, the New York Times, the Financial Times, the Washington Post and the Washington Journal.
What is the book about?
Essentially, the book talks about why impoverished countries continue to dwindle down in abject poverty despite the international aid and support that they get from well-off countries (Batabyal, 2008, p.507-510). In the book, Collier asserts that there is a continued widening gap between the rich and the poor—with a majority of countries being on the poor side of the equation.
More specifically, Collier (2007, p.3-15) asserts that whereas most of 5 billion people in the developing world continue to get richer; there is another group of people (especially from Africa and Central Asia) who continually get poorer. This presents the need for fitting solutions to be found for these impoverished countries whose bad economic situation is worsening.
In a large section of the book, Collier delves into talking regarding root-causes of the problems being faced by these impoverished states. Once a firm background is laid on this issue, Collier then goes ahead and gives an expansive analysis of the effects of the eminent gap widening between the rich and the poor.
Towards the ending sections of the book, Collier recommends solutions—basing them on his researches as well as studies done by other scholars—and gives a limelight of what can be expected in the future (Da Cruz, 2009, p.201-204).
So in summary, it can be said that Collier offers the cause, effects and solutions of people in impoverished countries—which makes his book well-balanced in terms of his content (Mueller, 2007, p.542-546). More importantly, he sends a distress signal to other scholars calling for help in poverty alleviation.
As an answer to this call, a good number of scholars have commendably been able to follow in the footsteps of Collier by spotlighting other areas facing similar problems while intermittently offering solutions.
Where does the book “fit” in literature?
To a great extent, this book offered a lot of new insightful information into the nature of global poverty—highlighting trends and patterns in various geographical areas. However, taking a closer look at its content, one is bound to realize that the book offers some form of continuity to his previous works—which talked on global poverty and the economic situation in the world.
O’Brien (2007) explicates this by saying that Collier’s ideas in this book relies greatly on previous researches that he did with fellow macroeconomic scholars like Anke Hoeffler. This, probably, is the reason why Collier’s ideas on issues like international conflicts, financial aids and the need for help in fragile states, largely, cite previous works done by the likes of Hoeffler (Stewart, 2007).
Additionally, it is worth noting that, other than his close associates; the book also borrows heavily from past researchers and studies conducted by other macroeconomists. This is, especially, typified when Collier gives detailed narratives of past economic regimes witnessed in the 1960s and 1970s and the role that such regimes played in paving the way for the current state of affairs.
For example, Collier (2007, p.10-30), details how factors like civil wars, colonization, globalization and technological advancements led to shifts in global power.
As a result of such shifts, some countries—especially those in the west who were able to bountifully reap from events like colonization—found themselves in spheres of influence which have, to date, been used to exert control, influence and, occasionally, help to the rather powerless countries (Lipton, 2008, 750-760).
Moreover, the book gives a detailed analysis of the present nature of economic events. To this regard, events like the 9/11 bombing is USA and the global impact it had, is also given. Additionally, the current eminence of global catastrophes like floods, diseases and droughts has also been given by Collier to explain the reasons behind the suffering of the bottom billion.
Notably, around 2007 when the book was written, there was a looming danger of economic meltdown—which, as we now know, happened in 2008 in form of a global economic crisis. In the book, warnings of an economic down-surge happening, if urgent measures were not taken by the concerned parties, was blatantly give by Collier.
It is, therefore, say to say that the book was not only presented valid and candid ideas but it was also written at a perfect time when clear-cut ways of reducing poverty and global economic solutions were direly needed (Quinn, 2008).
Once he has detailed the current nature of events, Collier gives a rather prophetic insight of what might happen in the future depending on the positive or negative actions taken as an answer to the past and present nature of economic events across the world (O’Brien, 2007).
It therefore goes without saying that, topping the fact that the book offers new economic insights; it admittedly plays a huge role in facilitating literary continuity.
In other words, the book offers a connection between the nature of past, present and future nature of economic and geographic events that have shaped poverty across the world. In doing so, he has connected facts, opinions, arguments, notions and ideas from various scholars—which, in effect, has also facilitated scholarly continuity.
In a nutshell, the book is indeed a literary masterpiece—going by the way the author has fittingly joined various works of art to present his timely message to the world. The many follow-up literary works to support Collier’s ideas as well as the accolades the book has won, since it was written, attest to the book’s invaluable nature.
What are the main arguments?
In essence, several arguments with regards to the nature of poverty—especially in impoverished countries like New Guinea, East Timor and Solomon Islands—have been variably presented in the book. However, in summary, the plight of the bottom billon has been presented in four major categories, commonly termed by Collier as “traps.” These four traps are succinctly detailed below.
Firstly, we have the conflict trap. Here, Collier (2007) states that the prevalence of global conflicts civil wars, coups and international acts of terrorism—like the 9/11 bombings—tend to incur large economic costs (p.35-40). For example, in the book, civil wars are estimated to average at a cost of $64 billion each.
Resultantly, countries facing such wars are greatly affected economically. On the other hand, countries which openly or secretly support such wars by providing things like ammunition end up benefiting immensely at the expense of their counterparts.
Additionally, such conflicts tend to take a long a long time and even after the war; more time is taken to resuscitate the countries to their initial economic position. This makes it very difficult for progress to be sustained—particularly in war-prone countries that go to war easily (Collier, 2007, p.37). A good example here is the Middle East.
Secondly, we have the natural resource trap. On normal occasions, countries that lack natural resources are usually said to be more likely to face poverty. Of course this is true based on examples of countries in Africa which are not able to do much in alleviating their poverty levels (Collier, 2007, p.40-45).
However, Collier presents an intriguingly paradoxical view on the presence of natural resources in a country. According to him, countries that are richly endowed with natural resources tend to find themselves in a worse economic trap than their counterparts. Collier (2007, p.38-53) attributes this paradox on the following reasons:
 * The utilization of useful natural resources can easily lead to a situation whereby a country’s industries become less competitive based on currency valuation that might arise from revenue generated from the resource.
 * The fight for having a lion’s share of the resources can easily lead to conflicts.
 * In democratic countries, the availability of natural resources simply means that governments should not tax its citizen on products and services got from these resources. As a result, citizens are less likely to be keen on demanding for important checks-and-balance procedures like accountability thus encouraging ills like corruption and misuse of resources—which are recipes for disasters.
Thirdly, we have the landlocked with bad neighbors trap. According to Collier (2007, p.53-56), countries that face high poverty levels yet have well-off neighbors can easily find ways of surviving through their neighbors by borrowing or even learning from them.
However, for countries that are poor and have poor neighbors, it becomes utterly impossible for any economic progress to take place since they cannot connect with the rest of the world or even learn since their neighbors are just like them.
In addition, these poor landlocked countries tend not to have sufficient infrastructure that can help them market the little that they have to the rest of the world. This delinks them from getting any form of help from others thus further paralyzing the chances of progress. Several poor countries in Africa are alleged to be victims of this trap.
Fourthly, and lastly, we have the trap of bad governance in small countries. Principally, bad governance is a factor that affects both small and large countries.
However, in small countries, the effect, according to Collier (2007, p.64-78), is bound to worse since the cost of living is normally low which scares-off potential investors. In effect, only the typical labor-intensive work—which is usually less paying—continues to go on while their “economic masters” enjoy spoils of their hard work.
Notably, a large portion of the book explains the intricacies of these four traps detailing their effects and solutions. A critical analysis of these major arguments—particularly with regards to the proposed solutions and what other critics say regardingm—is given in the section below.
Critical Analysis
Argumentative and literary Critique of the Book
In doing a critical analysis of this book, it is worth to preliminarily note that, in spite of stating that there 58 countries that constitute the bottom billion, Collier does not list them. According to him, this name calling and branding might offend the wrong people thus lead to unnecessary conflicts and wars—which are not the intentions of the book (Collier, 2007, p.7).
Nevertheless, throughout the book, several countries are used to exemplify the nature of the bottom billion and the economic difficulties they face in their war against poverty.
Remarkably, avoiding the giving of a list is duly commendable based on the much tension that was existent at the time the book was written. Any small issue like listing these countries could have easily led to conflict thus worsening the already bad situation at that time.
Again, unlike most scholars who just point out problems and stop at that; Collier goes the extra mile and offers applicable recommendations and solutions to the aforementioned traps. For example, in solving the conflict trap, he points out stringent punitive measures should be put in place to punish those who fuel the occurrence of conflicts like civil wars.
Additionally, he outlines the crucial role played by some media houses in such conflicts and recommends that, objective journalism should be encouraged so as to guide these media houses in the right path while concomitantly curbing them from overstepping their boundaries (Da Cruz, 2009, p.201-204).
With regards to natural resource trap, Collier recommends that the practice of sharing resources should be encouraged across the world. In essence, at no point in time can one country can have everything. This lack, which is normal, can be solved by interrelations by various countries or even across various regions.
The forming of the G-8, is given as a good example of positive influence that can be effected from interoperating with others and sharing resources (O’Brien, 2007). Regarding the trap of being landlocked with bad neighbors, the following solutions are given:
 * Improvement of economic policies across regions starting from the grassroots of the society where abject poverty is normally eminent
 * Facilitating the construction of proper infrastructure (especially in terms of transport and communication) so as to ease the flow of valuable information and economic resources across region, to be specific, and the world, at large
 * Instituting economic regulations in terms of unchecked geographical endeavors like migration which, if not regulated can easily lead to increased poverty.
Finally, with regards to bad governance in small countries, Collier suggests that changes should be primarily made in the governance so as to offer proper guidance to the people.
Once this is done, the economic outlook of such countries can be changed through increased transparency standards being instituted, more governmental checks and balances being put in place, liaising with the rest of the world in the bid to get help in form of aids or even better education that can help them develop on their own.
Also, collier stresses that the mentality of overdependence on aids from well-off countries should be replaced with a culture that nurtures and encourages the growth of hard work. This way, such countries are able to survive on their own during crisis or in case their donors withdraw their support (Reinert, 2011).
These solutions and recommendations presented have been able to greatly help in facilitating economic progress across the world while concurrently alleviating poverty. The GDP of some countries that had been reported as languishing in abject poverty have been able to, reportedly, improve.
The wake-up call issued in the book, even to well-performing countries that had started being complacent of their economic strength, has also been able to yield fruits with positive competition being witnessed even in these well-off countries in their bid to perform better (Reinert, 2011).
Nevertheless, as earlier mentioned, a good number of criticisms have been issued concerning this book. Examples of such criticisms include the following. According to Lipton (2008, 750-760), the book does not have bibliography, as professionally written books should.
Instead, it has an incomprehensive list of research which does not clearly indicate sources of information and research detailed in the book. This makes it difficult for adequate follow-up to be done on the book’s contents.
Again, the failure of clearly listing the bottom billion, as her later did in his book Wars, Guns and Votes once this had been criticized, is considered as cowardice. If he really wanted to prove his facts and nail his ideas appropriately, Lipton (2008, p.750-760) says that he should have given the bottom billion list.
Finally, Collier’s criterion for defining the bottom billion based on their economic stagnation is considered by Lipton (2008, p.750-760) as not being utterly appropriate.
In supporting his critique, Lipton says that even though the countries cited as the bottom billion did, actually, stagnate, a good number of them had respectable “annual GDP-per-head growth “ between 1975 and 2005. Examples of countries given by Lipton include Equatorial Guinea, Laos, Myanmar, Uganda and Mozambique.
##Conclusion
From the arguments presented herein, it is undeniably clear that the Bottom Billion avails crucial information that was not only relevant in 2007 when it was written but is even vital in solving some of the economic problems being faced today (Reinert, 2011). However, in the process of expressing the ideas in the book, some issues might have been overstated or overlooked thus leading to its criticism.
Geographically, several crucial patterns, trends and mannerisms were noted in the book. In solving the nature of poverty in the book, Collier emphasized that apt geographical strategies and initiatives should be put in motion (Mueller, 2007, p.542-546).
Commendably, a good number of such strategies are currently underway. Examples here include the realignment of poor landlocked countries such that they are able to interact with those that are developed, the formation of joint regional corporations or even the emphatic agenda placed to maximize the use of natural resources in certain geographical set-ups to help alleviate poverty (O’Brien, 2007).
Such initiatives underscore the value of geography in the world. More studies of this kind should, thus, be conducted to not only help in poverty alleviation but also solve the many other problems being faced in the world today.