We transcribe “The 10 Commandments of the most successful nations of the planet” written by Dr. Carlos Alberto Montaner, which will be useful as a guide, in order that countries as ours could undertake the path towards development.

First Commandment: Live in peace. Wars are very expensive. You can choose peace. Countries as Switzerland, Costa Rica, Sweden, have made it. It is a perverse imbecility to suppose that the wars stimulate the economy. Besides the tangible destruction of people and wealth, war paralyzes the investments and introduces in the society a devastating element of uncertainty. Fortunately, nowadays there are international diplomatic mechanisms to protect us with enough effectiveness, from the aggressive neighbors.

Second Commandment: To have political stability. If the transfer of authority by peaceful means is not insured, and also predictable and with general consensus, there isn’t possible to have a sustainable development. The revolutions generate regression and delay.

Third Commandment: To have economic and political liberty. Liberty doesn’t come up from prosperity, but the other way around. Prosperity is the benefit of liberty. Without political liberty, it isn’t possible to examine the society problems, amend the errors, punish the guilty, and select the best ones. Without economic liberty, creativeness of the individual is suffocated, the production processes are degraded and there are privileges for the courtiers in detriment of the ones that make commendable work.

Fourth Commandment: To build States of Right. It is not the whim or the willingness of the eminent leaders, from which the prosperity of people derives, but from institutions and of rules and neutral laws which doesn’t harm nor benefit anybody in particular. That legal plot has to protect the natural rights of the people, even above of the will of the majorities. It is essential that the courts stay independent, fair and efficient.

Fifth Commandment: Protect the private property. The access to private property is a right linked to the existence of liberty. Without private property, people are at the mercy of the tyranny of the powerful groups or of the community. Without private property not even rebellion is possible. Without private property the economic development is tremendously inefficient. The arbitrary confiscations and the owner’s insecurity are one of the direct causes of poverty.

Sixth Commandment: Give education to everybody capable to learn. To assign money for education isn’t spending, but investing in human capital. In order to finish with poverty there is to especially educate children and adolescents, period in which the character is forged. To margin girls from education, besides of being a wicked discriminatory act, produces a terrible damage to the economy. Either as a labor force or as mothers, it is vital that women acquire the best possible education.

Seventh Commandment: To dominate the basic concepts of economy. The societies that don’t know how to create, increase and preserve richness are doomed to extreme poverty. There must be known what inflation is and how to avoid it. And there also is to be known the meaning of the fiscal imbalance; of the way to get into public debt and the tax rate. If saving isn’t stimulated, there won’t be growth. If the market isn’t free, we will perpetuate injustice. If the perimeters and the estate costs aren’t limited, everybody will end up being poorer

Eighth Commandment: To favor access towards information. The human being is a creature dedicated to make decisions in order to survive as an individual and prevail as species. Its rationality consists in this fact. And in order that his decisions are correct he needs to have information. Any group or person that proclaims its right to deny or to ration the information for other people is by definition, harmful for the society.

Ninth Commandment: To imitate, emulate and try to exceed the leader. The way towards development passes through identifying, who is heading the planet, what do they do in order to occupy that position and which are the dominating tendencies. Nowadays is what Japan did with the United States, or Singapore with Japan. In the past, is what Rome did to Greece land, the German with Rome, or the Arabs and the Turkish with Byzantium. That’s called globalization.

Tenth Commandment: To assume the ethic of responsibility. The prosperous people are those that cultivate the search for excellence, the cult for work, the respect to the rules and the appreciation for those that triumph with honesty. There are values and attitudes that tend towards development and there is also the contrary. If we want to reach the way of living of some rich countries, we have inevitably to behave like them.

These are the new law commandments. If we respect them, at least in a reasonable measure, we will transform in a positive way our ways of life. More or less in between these norms, is how the twenty-five happiest nations of the planet behave. If we ignore them, or violate them frequently, we can expect the fire of the eternal extreme poverty. It’s said by the new Scriptures.

* Cuban-Spanish Writer and Journalist. This article was published by MiPYMES magazine, May – June 2005,