To reflect and… Act. The difference between the poor countries and the rich ones is not the age of the country. This can be shown by countries like India & Egypt, that are more than 2000 years old and are poor.

On the other hand, Canada, Australia & New Zealand, that 150 years ago were inexpressive, today are developed countries and are rich.

The difference between poor & rich countries does not reside in the available natural resources. Japan has a limited territory, 80% mountainous, inadequate for agriculture & cattle raising, but it is the second world economy.

The country is like an immense floating factory, importing raw material from the whole world and exporting manufactured products. Another example is Switzerland, which does not plant cocoa but has the best chocolate of the world. In its little territory they raise animals and plant the soil during 4 months per year. Not enough, they produce dairy products of the best quality. It is a small country that transmits an image of security, order & labor, which made it the world’s strong safe.

Executives from rich countries who communicate with their counterparts in poor countries show that there is no significant intellectual difference. Race or skin color are also not important: immigrants labeled lazy in their countries of origin are the productive power in rich European countries.

What is the difference then?

The difference is the attitude of the people, framed along the years by the education & the culture. On analyzing the behavior of the people in rich & developed countries, we find that the great majority follow the following principles in their lives:

1. Ethics, as a basic principle.
2. Integrity.
3. Responsibility.
4. Respect to the laws & rules.
5. Respect to the rights of other citizens.
6. Work loving.
7. Strive for saving & investment.
8. Will of super action.
9. Punctuality.

In poor countries, only a minority follow these basic principles in their daily life.We are not poor because we lack natural resources or because nature was cruel to us. We are poor because we lack attitude. We lack the will to comply with and teach these functional principles of rich & developed societies.

I got this email from Janet (a friend) …I tend to believe it’s true for the most part - especially when looking at the attitudes of us Arabs in our countries. We cannot even form a single file line, we cannot even respect a sign, or a traffic light, we nag and complain about not being productive due to lack of resources, but the truth is we lack the drive needed to make things happen, we could be way too generous when it comes to the wrong things, we’re very lazy and we’re hardly ever on time!