It is really an intellectual game

 Development is really, ultimately, an intellectual game. 

 

The standard prerequisites for development are well known, but the power of intellect is hardly ever mentioned, if at all.

 

The fact that intellectual capital, intellectual wealth, trumps everything.

 

The intellect of a people to choose and elect the right leaders.

 

The intellect of the leaders to choose and doggedly follow the right policies.

 

The intellect to realise and understand that, ultimately, intellect trumps everything.

 

The intellect to realise that lack of natural endowments/resources does not doom you to failure, that there are many paths to development, that in fact, in a perverse but virtuous way, lack of endowments may actually be a blessing because it frees the intellect to think creatively, to innovate, not to depend on ‘natural capital’, but to depend on abundant, perpetual intellectual capital. Or, conversely, that abundant natural resources are not a prerequisite, nor do they ensure, development and that, perversely, if unaccompanied by intellectual power may actually be a ‘curse’ for they tend to lull the mind and promote lazy thinking.

 

Give me a resource rich country, and I’ll give you a country with none but is at the top of all human and economic development indices.

 

All that is required is to free the intellect and shun lazy thinking like the plague.