Singapore has no minerals. Japan was bombed to rubble in 1945. Vietnam was at war for decades. All three built cities with parks, public squares, functional public transport, and green urban spaces that serve their people.
Walk through Accra, Lagos, Nairobi, Douala, or Kinshasa and find somewhere to sit that is not a shop, a bar, or a church. You will not find it.
These cities sit inside some of the most fertile, green, tropical land on earth. And somehow every trace of it was designed out of the urban experience. No parks. No shade. No public squares. Nowhere a person can simply exist without spending money.
The geopolitics argument runs out when you look at who recovered from worse and built better. We are collectively and embarrassingly disorganized and we need to start saying that out loud.
Change does not start with governments. It starts with enough people refusing to accept this as normal. Share this if you agree. Talk about it. Demand better from your city.