Today

Hey!!

As some of you may know it is my birthday :D but I have been at uni today so I thought I would just give a re-cap of what we have done this morning more for my benefit really but if someone finds it useful then that's great.

Originally, the term 'Third World' had nothing to do with a nation's economic development, or lack thereof :

First World
This term refers to so called 'developed' countries as a rule these tend to be:

• capitalist (an economic system in which the means of production are privately owned and operated for profit, usually in competitive markets)
• industrial countries
• and a bloc of countries that were aligned with the US after WW2, these also have more or less common political and economic interest.
• these include North America, Western Europe, Japan and Australia

Second World
This term refers to the former communist-socialist (social, political and economic movement that aims at the establishment of a classless and stateless communist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production), generally these tend to be:

• industrial states
• formally Eastern bloc, the territory and sphere of influence of the USSR
• Eastern Europe (e.g. Poland)
• and some of the Turk states (e.g. Kazakhstan) these 2 examples are now part of the EU
• and China

Third World
This refers to all other countries that did not fit into first or second world countries but now this is used to describe "developing" countries.
This includes:

• Africa
• Asia
• and Latin America

The term Third World includes as well:

• Capitalist states such as Venezuela
• Communist such as North Korea
• Very rich countries such as Saudi Arabia
• and Very poor such as Mali

The factors that categorise Third World countries are:

• Political Rights and Civil Liberties
• Gross National Income (GNI)
• Human Development
• Poverty
• Press Freedom

The least developed countries (LDCs) are a group of countries that have been identified by the UN as "least developed". The UN used the following three criteria for the identification of the LDCs.

1. a low-income estimate of the gross national income (GNI) per capita.
2. their weak human assets and
3. their high degree of economic vulnerability.

There are 50 countries listed in the United Nations comparative analysis of poverty,

34 African countries, 10 Asian countries, 5 Pacific Island Nations and one Caribbean nation.

Fourth World
This term came into use in 1974 with the publication of Shuswap Chief George Manuel's: The Fourth World: and Indian Reality.
This refers to nations (cultural entities or ethnic groups) of indigenous people living within or across state boundaries such as:

• American Indian
• Aboriginal
• Maori

Going back to Third World countries especially if they are a communist controlled regime it may be difficult if there is a lack of press freedom and then they would have to live in an abusive, poverty-stricken country with no or very little of 'outing' them to the outside world. Before anyone who spoke out of turn or had anything to say in disagreement would be killed and brushed aside, however, now with the invention of the Internet and especially social networking sites such as Facebook, they can make what is happening to them public and this goes global in seconds. So if they are brushed aside and killed then other questions are asked.

Regions that became the 'black holes' for news and media at the moment are: Maldives, Nepal, China, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Iran, Iraq, Belarus, Pakistan and Bangladesh due to media companies being privately owned and freedom of expression does not exist.

Rostow - Stages of Growth - 1960

Traditional Society:

• Characterised by subsidence economy - output not traded or recorded
• existence of barter
• high levels of agriculture and labour intensive agriculture

Pre-conditions:

• development of mining industries
• increase in capital use in agriculture
• necessity of external funding
• some growth in savings and investment

Take off:

• increasing industrialisation
• further growth in savings and investment
• some regional growth
• number employed in agriculture declines

Drive to maturity:

• growth becomes self-sustaining - wealth generation enables further investment in value adding industry and development
• industry more diversified
• increase in levels of technology utilised

High mass consumption:

• high output levels
• mass consumption of consumer durables
• high proportion of employment in service sector

However the criticisms of this model are:

• too simplistic
• necessity of a financial infrastructure to channel any savings that are made into investment
• will such investment yield growth? Not necessarily
• need for other infrastructure - human resources (education), roads, rail, communications networks
• efficiency of use of investment - in palaces or productive activities?
• Rostow argued economies would learn from one another and reduce the time taken to develop - has this happened?

Reference: Calvert, P and Calvert, S. (2007) Politics and Society in the Developing World, 3rd Edition, London: Pearson Education Ltd

I have some bits and bobs that I'm going to include for Lin's lecture tomorrow regarding the Lamb Inquiry, The Bercow Review and the Salamanca Statement (which I should have done last week oops...)

Sorry to have probably bored you all.

Bye xx