The entire subject of what creates a curse rather than a blessing and how to bring about the second and avoid the earlier is a particularly complex area for discussion. It is conspicuous that countries with natural resource wealth have experienced inferior economic growth in comparison to those devoid of such gifts. We advance the following propositions: i) there is evidence that natural resource abundance is associated with negative development outcomes; ii) current explanations of the resource curse do not sufficiently account for the role of the socio-economic background; iii) counteractive policy measures in alleviating/ preventing the resource curse are feasible.