International investment, including tourism, is in general the fastest way a country can improve it's standard of living. Of course, it's not guaranteed since c

International investment, including tourism, is in general the fastest way a country can improve it's standard of living. Of course, it's not guaranteed since corruption can easily eat away at the gains but baring that it works rather well. The alternative is a very slow and long grind to improve the economy while every other country is improving even faster since they have more money to throw at it. Here's the dark secret: these countries are already the playthings of other countries and effectively irrelevant and powerless. The question is how they stop being that and not they avoid becoming it.