At 06:06 PM 7/2/2001 +1000, you wrote:
>On Monday, July 02, 2001 8:42 AM, Peter Alling
>[SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
>wrote:
> > Your assumption is wrong, it's cold war terminology.
> >
> > First World Western European/North American( US Canada )/Asian (Japan
> > Korea Taiwan) block allied against...
> >
> > Second World (Industrialized Communist Countries) Soviet Union,
> > Peoples Republic of China, Most Eastern
> > European Countries, Cuba.
> >
> > Which leaves the third world, Mostly unindustrialized countries who
> > either didn't or pretended not to
> > take sides.
> >
> > This classification system stopped being useful almost immediately,
> > and was misused from the start. (It's always fun to realize that Sweden
> > under this system is a Third World Power, not what one would usually
> think).
> >
>
>
>Can't let this one go without comment!
>My feeling is that this terminology derives from the Euro-centric education
>that many of us had, where the Americas were the 'New World' for many
>centuries: thus, when one wished to describe non-European and non-American
>countries, the term 'Third World' was the only viable usage. My dictionary
>gives the origin as, and I quote:
>'1950's, translating tiers monde: first used to distinguish the developing
>African, Asian and Latin American countries from the capitalist and Communist
>blocs.'
>Certainly modern usage has the sense attached of 'under-privileged' or
>'under-developed', particularly in an economic sense. Many countries of the
>former Communist bloc can certainly never be called under-developed -
>over-developed and over-exploited is more like it, I think!
You can believe that if you wish, but I believe the term third world was
invented by
Mao to refer to the non-aligned nations. (He included China in this block
for his purposes).
This would have to be clearly non-European propaganda since his usage was
intended to create
a new power center with China as it's natural leader. "Old World", "New
World" these
terms were useful to the American and French revolutionaries, (yes I know
Europeans), and
the earlier European monarchies for their describing geo-political
reality. Most of the
current, (now passe, actually with the discrediting of Communism in it's
modern homeland),
terminology is born of the propaganda wars between The West, (not really
capitalism) and
the religion of communism, (and it is really easy to understand the pattern
if you consider
it a religion), with it's great schism between orthodox, (Soviet), and
reform, (Chinese).
It really isn't very helpful to mix the rhetoric of different eras.
>John Coyle
>Brisbane, Australia
>
>-
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