The paper Juxtaposed: Where there is light, there is shadow addresses specific issues regarding resource-rich countries, particularly those flush with oil resources. It presents the paradox of plenty such that in the long run, most of these countries perform poorly on almost all parameters of development, prosperity and wealth. The paper aims to sensitize the reader to the tragedy afflicting the people inhabiting these countries; they live in repressive systems designed to deprive of them what can be considered rightly theirs. These peoples’ misfortune has caught them in the quagmire of power politics, such that their nations’ fates are decided by other resource-poor but influential countries. It is hoped that this paper instigates thought and debate among its readers about the need for evolution of these resource-rich nations.