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I did a quick search to find a thread on this, but couldn't find one, maybe I missed it but...
I was reading a thread about the Olympics and people kept calling Brazil a Third World country. I visit Brazil frequently and don't view it that way. Anyway, it got me reflecting, but I started thinking maybe it was because I define Third World differently than others. I looked up Third World and realized the definition is complex and a little squishy. So, before you look it up, what does Third World mean to you?
For me third world is synonymous with developing world...the problem is there is a wide variance in quality of life in the developing world...one of my old co-workers went to Mexico for a vacation and came back and said he was shocked...he thought Mexico was supposed to be much poorer and couldn't understand why so many Mexicans came to the USA...my old co-worker is from the Democratic Republic of the Congo...both the Congo and Mexico would be called third world but in the eyes of a man from the Congo, Mexico is a rich country...Mexico and Congo are not classified as being on the same level by international organizations but those classifications have not become a part of popular culture in the same way that the cold war era and somewhat derogatory third world has
Brazil is technically third world but the reality is that it would be folly to place it in the same economic class as a Haiti or Bangladesh..."third world" is basically a faulty classification system at this moment in human history...Brazil would qualify as one of the richer countries of this faulty classification system
Last edited by whogoesthere; 08-25-2016 at 09:30 AM..
For me third world is synonymous with developing world...the problem is there is a wide variance in quality of life in the developing world...one of my old co-workers went to Mexico for a vacation and came back and said he was shocked...he thought Mexico was supposed to be much poorer and couldn't understand why so many Mexicans came to the USA...my old co-worker is from the Democratic Republic of the Congo...both the Congo and Mexico would be called third world but in the eyes of a man from the Congo, Mexico is a rich country...Mexico and Congo are not classified as being on the same level by international organizations but those classifications have not become a part of popular culture in the same way that the cold war era and somewhat derogatory third world has
Brazil is technically third world but the reality is that it would be folly to place it in the same economic class as a Haiti or Bangladesh..."third world" is basically a faulty classification system at this moment in human history...Brazil would qualify as one of the richer countries of this faulty classification system
Yeah, maybe the issue is the broadness of the definition, as you point out. We don't really talk about 2nd World Countries, it is more like you are 3rd World or not.
I thought the term 3rd world was out of date and the correct terms were developed and developing at this point in time. In any country .... ANY country you can find people living in different levels of proverty. I think the difference is the percentages. All 3rd world/ developing countries have an upper class that is living VERY VERY well. You can go to many 3rd world/developing countries as a visitor and depending on where you go, you may never see any significant signs. Many countries are able to have areas where poverty is just not that obvious.
For example where my family is from ...
Trinidad and Tobago
Images of Proverty
These places are really there and not too far from the nice places. I have been there many times and have never seen any of this.
Trinidad and Tobago:
That I have known ...
Depending on where you go and what you see when in the country you can get a very different picture. Trinidad and Tobago is a small island nation and has such extremes. One can only imagine what extremes are hidding in larger countries?
I doubt very much that all of those images are from T&T...your point about extremes is quite correct but the USA and Western Europe have those extremes as well...I think the middle class is really the deciding factor...how large is your middle class and how well are they living
Third world is an antiquated cold world term that's not really valid in today's world, however it's still commonly used colloquially and refers to any country that isn't completely developed despite the broad range of upper middle income countries and poor countries.
South America as a region is richer than South Asia, South-eastern Asia and Africa for example and not too far off Eastern Europe.
I doubt very much that all of those images are from T&T...your point about extremes is quite correct but the USA and Western Europe have those extremes as well...I think the middle class is really the deciding factor...how large is your middle class and how well are they living
Which ones?? These pictures are all suppose to be from Trinidad and Tobago. The nice ones 100% as I have seen all those and can confirm them. The others I can't 100% confirm because I would never in a million years be going in to the shanty town areas of Trinidad especially being visibly white. I would be asking to be robbed... kidnapped. ... murdered or all if the above. The police don't even like going there. I know the area exists because you can see it off a main road driving from the airport. The put these huge bill boards to sort of distract people's attention from noticing it... but it is there alright.
3rd world is a mindset. How Brazil treated American Olympians was a great example. For an alleged $50 in damages, they paid for the damages at gunpoint, one of the swimmers that didn't damage anything paid $11,000 for his freedom and now they want to extradite Lochte to hang him I guess after they get as much money out of him as they can. meanwhile, there are 51,000 murder per year and they are ignored.
Which ones?? These pictures are all suppose to be from Trinidad and Tobago. The nice ones 100% as I have seen all those and can confirm them. The others I can't 100% confirm because I would never in a million years be going in to the shanty town areas of Trinidad especially being visibly white. I would be asking to be robbed... kidnapped. ... murdered or all if the above. The police don't even like going there. I know the area exists because you can see it off a main road driving from the airport. The put these huge bill boards to sort of distract people's attention from noticing it... but it is there alright.
I agree re the middle class comment.
The more well off ones are T&T...the first 3 of the poorer ones could be...the last 4 don't look like they are in T&T...quite frankly they don't look like anywhere in the Caribbean except for a particular area of Port au Prince (not including the one with White or lighter skinned people) and even then, I don't think they are from Haiti...they seem to be from a place with a rapidly growing population that could produce massive swaths of shanty towns like that...I believe T&T population growth is too small to be able to produce a shanty town looking like that at this time..I have seen pictures of Laventile and it looks nothing like that...where is the traditional Caribbean zinc fence?...In one of the pictures, a small child has a coat on...I think that's southern Africa
I have never been to T&T but do not believe those last 4 of the poorer ones are from T&T without further proof
Third world is an antiquated cold world term that's not really valid in today's world, however it's still commonly used colloquially and refers to any country that isn't completely developed despite the broad range of upper middle income countries and poor countries.
South America as a region is richer than South Asia, South-eastern Asia and Africa for example and not too far off Eastern Europe.
^This. I also notice a tendency to use the term to discredit a country completely as a society, to pit countries against each other via a black/white analogy of 'first world' vs 'third world' and nothing in-between.
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