I’ve been listening to this year’s BBC Reith Lectures given by Jeffrey Sachs. It’s interesting and thought-provoking stuff, even if I don’t agree with everything he says, and it’s good to hear someone talk about Africa’s problems without blaming everything on government corruption.

In the latest lecture, he mentioned a figure of $70 billion/year that would be required for African nations to move towards full development.

Meanwhile, we are going to spend $18 billion here in London on a two-week sporting competition.

That got me thinking: how profligate are we? Well, here’s a list of countries whose GDP is less than $18 billion (derived from Wikipedia):

  • Afghanistan
  • Albania
  • Antigua and Barbuda
  • Armenia
  • Azerbaijan
  • Bahamas, The
  • Bahrain
  • Barbados
  • Belize
  • Benin
  • Bhutan
  • Bolivia
  • Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Botswana
  • Brunei Darussalam
  • Burkina Faso
  • Burundi
  • Cambodia
  • Cameroon
  • Cape Verde
  • Central African Republic
  • Chad
  • Comoros
  • Cyprus
  • Côte d’Ivoire
  • Democratic Republic of Congo
  • Djibouti
  • Dominica
  • El Salvador
  • Equatorial Guinea
  • Eritrea
  • Estonia
  • Ethiopia
  • Fiji
  • Gabon
  • Gambia, The
  • Georgia
  • Ghana
  • Grenada
  • Guinea
  • Guinea-Bissau
  • Guyana
  • Haiti
  • Honduras
  • Iceland
  • Iraq
  • Isle of Man
  • Jamaica
  • Jordan
  • Kenya
  • Kiribati
  • Kyrgyz Republic
  • Laos
  • Latvia
  • Lesotho
  • Liberia
  • Madagascar
  • Malawi
  • Maldives
  • Mali
  • Malta
  • Marshall Islands
  • Mauritania
  • Mauritius
  • Micronesia, Fed. Sts.
  • Moldova
  • Mongolia
  • Mozambique
  • Namibia
  • Nepal
  • Nicaragua
  • Niger
  • Palau
  • Panama
  • Papua New Guinea
  • Paraguay
  • Republic of Congo
  • Republic of Macedonia
  • Rwanda
  • Samoa
  • Senegal
  • Seychelles
  • Sierra Leone
  • Solomon Islands
  • St. Kitts and Nevis
  • St. Lucia
  • St. Vincent and the Grenadines
  • Suriname
  • Swaziland
  • São Tomé and Príncipe
  • Tajikistan
  • Tanzania
  • Timor-Leste
  • Togo
  • Tonga
  • Trinidad and Tobago
  • Turkmenistan
  • Uganda
  • Uruguay
  • Uzbekistan
  • Vanuatu
  • West Bank and Gaza
  • Yemen
  • Zambia
  • Zimbabwe

What a waste.