Third World

Today in World Geography my teacher put up a slide that showed the world in regards to what countries are part of the first, second and third worlds. There are more countries that are considered part of the third world than I thought there were.

All of Africa.
All of South America.
All of the Middle East.
All of Latin America.
Southwest and South Asia.
Greenland.

That's right.
Greenland.

The map got me thinking... 'What exactly defines a third world country?' Honestly - we didn't even go over it in class. Most people just think of the level of economy when they think about the third world. 'Oh, well, these countries are poor, so they must be part of the third world.' But is that really all that helps classify countries as part of the third world?

I chose to let the people decide for me.
And so I went to Yahoo! Answers.

Lo and behold, the question had already been asked many a time.

Here are some of the answers people have produced:

- lack of advanced technology
- insufficient power
- [civil] wars
- lack of natural resources
- misuse of resources
- lack of educational systems
- exploitation by the Western world
- environmental issues
- more people than can possibly be fed, but an overwhelming urge to produce more and more babies (personal fave)

The Merriam-Webster dictionary definition of 'third-world' is 'a group of nations especially in Africa and Asia not aligned with either the Communist or the non-Communist blocs'; 'the aggregate of underveloped nations in the world'. Both are legitimate definitions. To be frank, I don't have any place I want to be going with this, I'm just trying to say that I was surprised at how many countries are considered third-world. So I may just leave it at that...

'I'm surprised at how many countries are considered third-world.'