Farouk al-Kasim
Norway is a huge exporter of oil. Here’s an article about “The Iraqi who saved Norway from oil”
Norway’s state oil company, StatoilHydro, is internationally recognised as a competitive commercial player and one of the most environmentally and socially conscious ones to boot. Since 1996, every krone the government has earned from oil has gone into a savings fund, which now totals some £240bn – more than a year’s gross domestic product and equivalent to about £50,000 for each of Norway’s 4.8 million citizens.
Right now, that’s about $73,000 per person. Anyhow, that Iraqi was named Farouk al-Kasim, and moved to Norway in 1968 out of necessity: it was the only country that could provide medical care to his son. I find his quote at the end of the article particularly interesting:
Not everything in life has been good – but things have mostly come in a fortunate order. It’s got nothing to do with skill, it’s simply luck.