Third World Essay, Research Paper

“Most of the world’s population resides in – and the overwhelming percentage of that population’s growth occurs in the incredible diversity of places we call the Third World.”

“Third world includes America’s south of the United States; the whole of Africa; Asia apart from the Soviet Union, China and Japan; and the Oceanic Islands apart from Australia and New Zealand.” Majority of these Third World countries is in complete poverty and due to that these countries face internal conflicts.

The citizens of the Third World countries are facing many difficulties such as poverty uneven economic share in the world economy, and injustice. Hunger; lack of shelter, health care and the less advanced technology are major aspects of this worldwide dilemma.

Many people die from starvation in smaller, underdeveloped countries, especially those in Africa. Due to their financial problems, the people lack proper shelter and clothing to keep themselves warm and clean water to keep their living areas hygienic. Since they lack adequate shelter and clothing, diseases break out and these diseases develop a lot easier with poor nutrition.

Third world poverty has developed for various reasons. In general those are; lacking social security; lacking natural resources and nutrition; and having no financial stability.

A third world country is economically depressed and continues to grieve.

Most third world countries don’t have social security or welfare. These countries cannot afford to support their citizens. Unemployment rates are extremely high and wages are drastically low. As a result, the people of those countries have no or insufficient income to keep themselves surviving. These extreme poverty situations could lead to hostile actions against the governments where governments are usually blamed for the problems.

The effect of the decline in living standards in the poor countries increases potential for political violence as an impact on the government. “There have been over twenty violent protests in recent years (late 1980s) specifically against the austerity measures imposed by the IMF, with over 3,000 people killed in those protests.”

Political violence or in other words reactions to the government will continue in the future as long as the needs of the citizens are not met. For the time being these impacts are passed over lightly by the third world governments but it is hard to predict the long-term effects of this cover-up. There are a variety of Third World countries in the world. Some are ruled democratically and give hope that they will manage to better off soon enough, and the rest are authoritarian regimes. In fact the political instability may make it more difficult for democratic regimes to survive, especially in Latin America, and may be replaced by authoritarian regimes which would be a step taken backwards. Plus the liberal, market economy may loose its popularity and new regimes, rejecting free market, may replace it.

However a second approach: “Poverty breeds Poverty” , could also be developed. In Third World countries people are born into extremely poor societies and grow up there. Becoming adults, they are usually destined to be poor for all through their lives. When adults, they struggle to earn money and try to get rid of their individual poverty but the efforts are not met. Therefore these people become extremely discouraged and loose self-respect. Eventually they become associated with being poor and ignorant. As a result they neither look for their rights nor try to get better off.

Another effect of poverty is the national shame it creates among the citizens of the Third World countries. Besides having individual poverty concerns, the citizens are also witnessing that their country has no or very low political prestige among the other world countries. Realising this fact, the citizens lose trust and respect to their governments. They either start to feel alienated or to blame the government. When they feel alienated the citizens want to run away from the poor country and start a new life where it’s possible to be better off. These try to immigrate to first world countries where they could be employed and paid adequately. The second group that develops a mistrust towards the government are more likely to protest it and in more serious cases rebel against the government or the regime. Unlike the alienated this group develops strong national identity and blames the regime or the government to destine the country to poverty.

It is true that without the massive amounts of foreign aid supplied by the first world some third world countries would be would not be around for this long and would have absolutely no hope of survival.

However these aids are not coming from the heart. The first world countries want the third world to better off and become self-sufficient since they make valuable markets for the future.

Concerning the reasoning of the developed’s actions taking place in the third world developed conflicts with the Third World view.

The developed countries arm and maintain military presence in the third world and declare: “to prevent takeovers by hostile foreigners” as their reason. However third world countries have a different point of view of these actions. They believe the threat is not the hostile foreign countries but their own corrupt governments. The troops are there to prevent uprisings of the nations’ own people against oppressive local governments consist of wealthy elites working in collusion with developed world.

Third world countries should try to improve their economies and social order as soon as possible before the gap between the third world and the first world becomes impossible to be covered up. Or else they will never break free of this entrapment of the world economic system that benefits the first world and exploits the third.

The possible resolution to diminish poverty may be improving education and by this way creating a bright, aware nation with a fresh vision. The better governing will emerge rapidly as the brains that make up the nation have a broader vision. As the corrupt government, which praises the wealthy minority, is replaced, new economic strategies will evolve and hopefully the poverty will be diminished.

The second idea to improve the third world country is to advance the technology. This will cause a late industrial revolution, which is strongly related to education reforms and better economy. The immigration should be controlled in order to stop brain drain to the first world countries.

Until the beginning of 1990s the citizens of the third world countries were only struggling for food and prevent poverty. By the end of the Cold War the third world citizens are more aware of their rights and the outer world since the communications have developed and Internet have reached all around the world. The poor citizens had the chance to compare themselves to the rest of the world. As consequences of this awakening they started to look for their rights and rejudged their governments. As a result the struggle for freedom from hunger, disease and poverty is transformed to the struggle for political rights and liberties.

Bibliography

Donald M. Snow, Distant Thunder (New York -St. Martin’s Press,1993)

Christopher Clapham, Third World Politics (University of Wisconsin Press, 1985)

Donald M. Snow, Distant Thunder (New York -St. Martin’s Press,1993)

Susan George, “The Debt Crisis: Global Economic Disorder in the 1990s” Speech given at Smith College, Northampton, MA, 10 April 1989.

http://probe.org/docs/poverty.html Proverbs 10:15