Schubert Oil Curse: Article Review

In the article entitled Revisiting the Oil Curse, Samuel R. Schubert the author present facts regarding economic and political scenarios relating to oil, he essentially perceives these scenarios as an expression of the oil curse. The author argues that though most governments with oil within its environs have shown efforts to promote transparency and fight corruption, these programs are in one way, or the other raided in favour of other needs. The author in this article brings forth some of the initiative that have since been adopted by some governments. In Alaska for instance, citizens are compensated through shares of interests; the author argues that such initiatives could be a better solution for the oil curse because it provides a framework under which wealth is distributed from the wealthy to the poor in the country. On the contrary, he accentuates that such initiatives may not be effective in some poor countries ensuing the fact that most of its residents may not have bank accounts a fact that boost corruption because the elites that brought problems in the first place are the very ones that foster such initiatives. The author further argues that oil may in the near future disappear since it’s a non-renewable resource, when this happens, those countries that will have diversified will move forward while those that made use of the resource irrationally will collapse economically and politically.
I am in total agreement with the author’s arguments. Evidently, it is apparent that, in those countries where oil is one of the main resource, corruption and unfair distribution of wealth retrieved from oil sales is foreseeable. In some countries, oil is the main cause of disagreement and in extreme ends war. Considering that there is an overdependence of this resource by those countries with abundant oil, some of these countries in the near future are likely to face a downfall both economically and politically if in case their oil wells run dry.