REVIEW: The Bottom Billion

The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done About It.
BY Paul Collier, Oxford University Press £16.99. Review by Lucy Reeve.

In 1980 we saw the beginning of Children In Need, this was closely followed by Comic Relief in 1985. On July 13th of that year Sir. Bob Geldof held ‘Live Aid’, which was to be repeated 20 years later in 2005 as it was resurrected as ‘Live 8’. Together all the charities and events ever held to raise money in order to abolish poverty have successfully donated billions of pounds to the world’s poorest countries. It makes us feel pretty good, donating all that money through sponsored swims, endless school uniform days and three legged races, we thought we were changing the world. Until ‘The Bottom Billion’ came to realisation.

Paul Collier is not a politician, nor is he a journalist or even a medical professional. Paul Collier is an economist, and a very good one at that. He has spent years looking into the economic history of the worlds poorest nations, trying to find out why so many of them are, for want of a more polite word, failing. His findings, conclusions and suggestions for rectification may come as a surprise to some readers, for example Collier recognises that Britain may have to send in troops to support democratic regimes in order for the economy and way of life to stabilise, as was successful in the case of Sierra Leone.

Collier recognises four ‘poverty traps’ which need to be overcome before the delicate economy can begin to grow, in order to do so, the poorest nations need our help. Through his research, Collier found that conflict is one of the major traps that are keeping nations in these states, but unlike the worlds media and politicians’ would suggest, this is not necessarily due to especially poor politicians or a ‘uniquely fractious population’ but by poverty. He identifies a shocking threat that in any given 5 year period, the worlds lowest income countries have a 14 percent chance of falling into civil unrest or even war. “Young men, who are the recruits for rebel armies, come pretty cheap in an environment of hopeless poverty. Joining a rebel movement gives these young men a small chance of riches”.

And of course, poverty and civil unrest bring about a whole host of health problems and epidemics, with limited healthcare running alongside and even intertwined within these issues, it is no wonder the life expectancy of those in the poorest nations falls well below the happy 80 years we can expect to live to in this country. There is not extensive detail about the problems faced by the health of these nations; however, I do urge all those whose concerns lie within this field to read ‘The Bottom Billion’ in order to gain extremely valid insight into the complex tangle that is the situations of these countries.

Furthermore, Collier speaks of the ‘headless Heart’ whereby he identifies that well- meaning but essentially misguided campaigners oppose certain measures such as cutting trade barriers or sending in troops which could actually help these countries in the long run.

In conclusion, Collier writes for every person who has ever been concerned for their fellow human beings in the poorest places of the world. He has researched and witnessed the poorest nations struggle for equality through striving for rising economy. He does not write for his fellow economists, using economic terms or examples that might as well be in a foreign language to the rest of us average-Joe’s. He writes with genuine concern, enthusiasm and heart, he is simply trying to inform us of what needs to be done and what can be done.

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Lucy Reeve is a third year Medical Student at UCL.