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You know, back in the day, nations that couldn't mine or afford to buy enough tin to make their own bronze ended up learning how to forge their own iron tools and weapons, which later took over the world. The rich always end up complacent and stagnant because well, if it ain't broke, why fix it? And so they are slow to see change coming, which usually turns out to be disastrous for them.
In this way the poor nations that have neither their own fossil fuels nor the military power to capture foreign fossil fuels must needs make do with innovation, which in turn will make them rich (just you wait) when the existing status quo runs out of, well, fossil fuel.
I'm hoping that Senegal will find that building nuclear power plants is a risky venture, even more so if you have (gasp!) Muslim population or if you happen to make the wrong kind of friends. I'm hoping they figure this out very quickly and pursue innovation instead. It's horrific poverty may be Africa's best hope for future prosperity.
Or I may be on crack. Whichever.
