There are a number of explanations for situations like this, which can be replayed and repeated across Africa, the Middle East, and elsewhere. These explanations include gross mismanagement by postcolonial governments and grotesque corruption and self-enrichment by the governing class, who spent their years in office prioritizing the siphoning off of the nation’s wealth to private bank accounts in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. On the other hand, there are countries that have been relative success stories. More than seven decades after independence, India today is not just the world’s most
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