I wouldn't be surprised to see 3rd. world countries announcing the same.

A natural progression of events in the developing world, I'm afraid. As resources become scarce, and thus more valuable, the desire to hang on to what you've got becomes overwhelming, especially if you have a history of being exploited by others.

There's not much point arguing the case for development where decades of exploitation have produced none. Like so many other broken promises, it rings hollow, no matter how good the intentions.

Maybe this is our fate - to retreat behind our own tiny drawbridges as the world becomes less and less trusting, and the food, water, metals and energy grow scarcer and scarcer. In that event, it will be hard for anyone to obtain the things they need, and a general decline in global living standards can be predicted.

We're definitely at a crossroad here, a major turning point in world history. The next few decades will be decisive, so perhaps it's better to put our investing energies into figuring out where our capital is best applied to solve these problems, rather than trying to profit from the inevitable shortages that will arise. There'll be more than enough people doing that, I'm afraid.

ebear