does religion do something with the poverty of one country?

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I just want to ask you a question ? My friend told me about this and i think it does make sense. there's a wealthy foreigner who happend to be here in the country and my friend had lunch with him, How wealthy? He was earning two million dollors a month. ( no kidding) he was here in the philippines visiting our smaller islands. My friend ask him how he liked the visit. the foreigner said he love it that he have never met a more polite,more courteous,nicer people than the filipino. then he noticed how religous filipinos are because he saw the tricycles with signs, saying " god loves you" and john 3:16" there is much god in our country. and yet there is much poverty. ouch! that hurts because that's true. that line reminds me of one country vietnam. theres not much god in that country. it's been a communist country for decades. but the economy is exploding. and according to statistics poverty has gone down by a huge 60%! can you believe that? One reason foreign investments. Last year, the philippine's foriegn investments reached a measly $2.5b. In vietnam last year, they reached $15B. and do you know what happend this year? from January to July 2008, foreign investments in vietnam already reached $33b! Look at china another "godless" nation. but poverty has gone down as well. and the're now poised to be next superpower of the world. Look at japan. Only 2% of it's population is christian. many of them don't even have religion. Yet their economy has been thriving for decades. But look at few south american countries. Like Philippines, there's a lot religion and poverty there too. So here is my questions: why so much god and poverty in our country? does certain brand of religion cause poverty? or am I missing something here? could you please share your thoughts i'am so confused.