Srilanka, July 21 -- The psychology of winning was present they say when the Malaysians led by Mahathir Mohamad conceived the Petrona towers, the then tallest buildings in the world. Others would scoff at the idea. They'd say Malaysian oil companies had accumulated tremendous riches selling crude oil, so it was not difficult for them to come up with a brazenly publicist idea.

But sometimes money can be squandered. Venezuela was oil rich too. But rather than iconic buildings the country had strife and tumult, and now barely limps along, facing various headwinds of international opprobrium, fair or unfair.

Though simplistic, the idea that the collective psychological make up of a country and its people is more important to progress than a...