Making sense of the Third World

It's kind of weird how a subject that you would never normally spend time thinking about will come up over and over again within a short period of time - but I guess it's something we can all relate to.

In my case it's the definition of a 'Third World country'. Although it's not something that normally comes up in day to day conversations, it is something all of us should have a working knowledge of, so when it actually came round to talking about it I have to admit I felt a little put out with myself for not being able to be more certain of my opinion on the subject.

But, when I realised that everyone I spoke to about it each had there own differing thoughts on the matter, I did feel a little relived that it wasn't just me who was a little ambiguous on the correct definition. I did, however, decide that it was time to educate myself a little better.

According to Nations Online, the Third World is categorised in various ways. As far as political rights and civil liberties are concerned it refers to countries and territories where state control over daily life is pervasive and wide-ranging, independent organisations and political opposition are banned or suppressed and fear of retribution for independent thought and action is part of daily life.

In terms of Gross National Income (GNI) the term refers to countries with the least gross national income based on purchasing-power-parity (PPP) per capita in international dollars. Simplified the GNI PPP is the average annual income earned by a citizen of a country.

In Human Development terms, the Human Development Index (HDI) measures the average achievements in a country in three basic dimensions of human development: A long and healthy life (as measured by life expectancy at birth), knowledge (as measured by the adult literacy rate and the combined primary, secondary and tertiary gross enrolment ratio) and a decent standard of living, as measured by GDP per capita (PPP US dollar).

There are other aspects such as freedom of Press to take into consideration also, but that's where it starts to get complicated and I think that in general terms all the above is plenty to go on.

Interestingly, while I was doing my research I found out that the term 'Third World' was initially meant to refer to the way the countries were discovered, most of them starting off as colonies of bigger, more powerful nations - which would have included the US, a country now considered a superpower.

These days there are many who consider the term 'Third World' derogatory and politically incorrect, preferring to refer to countries as either 'developed' or 'developing' instead.

Using it in reference to a country's political and civil liberties, their GNI or human development is simply stating a fact. It's only when used as the means of an insult that it then becomes derogatory. Much the same as with many things in life, it's a generic term than can and has been used by the more ignorant as a means of looking down at others but in reality we've all been there at some point in history. Development is relative, a continuous process.