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First World, Second World, Third World
INTRODUCTION
Alfred Sauvy, a demographer from France, invented the concepts of the world being divided into a "First World," "Second World," and "Third World" in 1952.
The First World was the world of individual freedom, democratic elections, private property, capitalism, and Christianity. It was therefore modern and prosperous.
The Second World was the world of socialism. It was marked by the complete subjugation of the individual to the state, collectivism, official atheism, genocide, and enormous human suffering.
The Third World was where the poorest of primitive peoples lived, with the daily features of hunger, malnutrition, disease, filth, and misery.
More recently, the concept of a Fourth World has arisen. This is a sub-population of aboriginal people mostly, though it can include nomads and hermits. It is of people socially disconnected from the global society, who neither produce nor consume and are largely bypassed by technology.
FIRST WORLD COUNTRIES
Originally, First World countries included all of those in Western Europe, as well as the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. It is notable that these are the Christian nations of the world, especially the predominantly Protestant peoples.
By the 1960s, Argentina, Chile, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Israel, and Turkey were considered full-fledged members of the First World. Since the fall of the Iron Curtain; Poland, the Baltic States, the nations of the Balkans and other Eastern European countries have joined the First World—having escaped the Second World.
The First World is noted for having achieved the highest levels in human history of life expectancy, literacy, education, and standard of living. One measure of this is the Human Development Index. By looking at a world map of comparative HDI, one can compare it with world maps that show the various levels of Freedom, Democracy, Free Enterprise, Productivity, Wealth, Health, Charity, and Christianity in the world.
THE SECOND WORLD
The Second World was the world of Socialism. In it were the Soviet Union, Red China, North Korea, Cuba, the countries of Eastern Europe subjugated by the Soviets, and parts of Southeast Asia.
Approximately 100 million of its own people were killed by the Atheistic, Socialistic, and Totalitarian governments of the Second World. The utopian dream that a godless Socialist State would bring mankind to a better, brighter future turned into a nightmare of astounding proportions.
Some may forget why the Berlin Wall was built. 15,000 East Germans per day were fleeing the coming Socialist utopia to live in the Free West—the First World—and this was quite embarrassing to the Socialists. So, they built a wall to imprison them complete with troops ordered to "shoot to kill" any persons trying to leave Socialist East Germany.
The Second World is notable for its oppression of individual freedom; lack of private property and free enterprise; lack of productivity; tyranny; secret police surveillance; religious persecution; and its replacement of God with the State.
THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES
Third World Countries included almost all of Africa, as well as South America, Central America, Mexico, India, most of the Middle East, and the majority of countries in Southern Asia. Originally, these were known as the non-aligned nations.
Third World Countries featured people who lived on less than $100 a year. A Third World Country is one with poor sanitation, a lack of clean drinking water, backward agriculture, minimal opportunities for education, without the Rule of Law or property rights, and usually low average intelligence.
It is a myth that the Third World was created by Colonialism. It was already the Third World before any colonizers showed up. If that myth were true, then the coastal areas where the Third World first came into contact with First World peoples would have been the most backward and uncivilized. By venturing up the Amazon, into the heart of the Dark Continent, or into the jungles of Papua New Guinea, one would have found Paris or London. But in fact, the farther inland one went one found even more primitive people who had not "evolved" in thousands of years.
Let us keep in mind that if Colonialism were the problem, how would one explain that the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand were all once colonies of England?
While we are at it, we can put to bed another myth: the wealth of the First World was built on the backs of common laborers. Labor is common all over the world. The Second World and the Third World both had far more laborers than did the First World. If that myth were true, the First World would be the Third World—the First World featured the fewest common laborers of the three worlds.
To understand why the First World became the First World, it would be helpful to check out comparative world maps.
FIRST WORLD, SECOND WORLD, THIRD WORLD
WORLD MAP OF INDIGENOUS INTELLIGENCE
WORLD MAP OF RELIGIONS
WORLD MAP OF DEMOCRACY
WORLD MAP OF HUMAN LIFESPAN
WORLD MAP OF CORRUPTION
WORLD MAP OF WEALTH PRODUCTION
WORLD MAP OF INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM
WORLD MAP OF HAPPINESS
PROTESTANT NATIONS OF THE WORLD (19TH CENTURY)
WORLD MAP OF GROSS NATIONAL INCOME
WORLD MAP OF AID RECIPIENTS
WORLD MAP OF AVERAGE INTELLIGENCE
WORLD MAP OF THE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX
CONCLUSION
Incredibly, while the Third World people yearn to move to the First World—and tens of millions have—there are people in the First World who think the old Second World of Socialism, or the Third World of "Noble Savages," are better worlds. There are Western intellectuals who teach at Western Universities who wish the First World would emulate the model of the Socialistic, Atheistic Second World; or even better, to create a New World Order where the entire planet is governed by a Global Atheistic, Socialist government.
The United States, a nation founded by Protestant Christians and based around Individual Freedom, Private Property, the Rule of Law, Free Enterprise, and Democratic Elections, has the highest average annual wages in the world at $53,000. The Gross National Income of the United States is almost triple that of the runner-up, now China, even though China has over four times as many people.
Americans are also by far the most generous people on earth—they give twice as much to charity each year as any other people. (Of all Americans, secularists give the least money to charity and volunteer the least of their time; Christians by far the most of both.) The point being that Americans strongly believe in Christian Charity and they are not greedy or uncaring about those less fortunate—as some Leftists claim.
In spite of all we learned here today about the world, perhaps 10 percent of Americans yearn to destroy their own country. They hate what it stands for, are disgusted by its history, think its flag a symbol of oppression, hate Free Enterprise, and are decidedly anti-Christ. They are obsessed with proving how oppressive America is to women and people of color despite the facts that women and people of color have never had it so good at any time in any place in world history as in America today.
One would think that upon reviewing the charts above, the public schools in America would teach children: If you take a people who are intelligent; imbued with the Protestant Work Ethic; have a Christian Worldview; believe in Free Enterprise Capitalism; and are fortunate enough to live in a country founded on individual freedom, private property, representative democracy, and the Rule of Law—the result will be a nation as wealthy and wonderful as America.
But that is the opposite of what is taught to American children in public schools and young Americans in college. A set of huge lies has been substituted for the Truth. If the anti-American Americans succeed, the light will go out of the world.
Comments
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You are most welcome GmaGoldie. What a pleasure it is to hear from you again. Thank you for visiting and for your gracious remarks.
Hi James,
I read this when you first published it and returned today and ironically I am facilitating a university viewing about one of my favorite subjects - macroeconomics. Your coverage of this topic with the world maps was wonderful. Thank you!
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mk-globetrotter! Thank you!! Thank you very much.
Great Hub!
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My barind~ My thoughts exactly
My at
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Vonthegreat--- Thank you for taking the time to read my article and offer your thoughtful feedback. I surely agree that Christianity is only part of the division between worlds. But isn't it interesting that it birthed the best part?
I think most info here are not right..Alfred Sauvy only coined the word "Third World". The idea of 'first world' was introduced by the United Nations in the late 1940s. And the division was first about 'allies' and 'socialists' countries, not merely on "Christianity" issue. Please do more research before giving info. I think wikipedia is more informative than this!
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Thank you.
We all are need word map for our personal uses, so here is a place from where you can get it http://www.mapsofworld.com/images-mow/world-map.jp...
I am living off the grid and actively pursuing the lifestyle of a hermit. (Without the filthy clothes and empty belly often associated with the image. I also break the true hermit stereotype because I love having my family around me.)
However when they release a map of the 4th world, I bet my house is on it!
Voted up and awesome. Great tool for home schoolers.
Great hub! So refreshing to read, especially as a college student.
Third world has become victim of super powers rivalry . First world and intellectuals are preaching democracy and welfare to the third
world nations.
It is a big hypocrisy. They sell arms to undemocratic nations across the globe and blood letting goes on.Mindset of the third world people and governments yet to change and not development oriented .
Financial aid and World bank funding does not bring desired results.
In Africa there is no civilian society and literacy will do but it will long time.
India promoted Non-Aligned-Movement to insulate from arms race and chose path of development and succeed.
In WTO ,first world dominates and existing global situation will not change anything there.
India is surrounded by failed nations and we spend more money on deference and that has eaten into our development .
We are singing tune of Globalization , Multi cultural world can not become one world .It is a dream !!
good article.
pramod gokhale
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Deb Welch— Hello there. I am well pleased that you decided to visit another one of my Hubs. I am glad you liked it. I appreciate your recognition of the hard work I put into my articles. :D
Yes, the people of North Korea are starving. What a human tragedy that is. But the so-called United Nations is too worried about criticizing the United States to say anything about Communist regimes. Maybe they are, as you say, in the Fourth World. Well put.
Thank you very much for the visit and your thoughtful comments.
Faithfully Yours,
James
James - decided to visit and read another one of your Hubs and I chose a great one. I could tell you put a lot of work into it. I heard on the news radio a short while ago that in North Korea many of the people are starving so desperately that they have gone to Cannibalism - killing and eating children. This must put them in the Fourth World. We should worry about that World - the sickness in humanity has gone too deep plus testing of Nuclear weapons. Your maps were beautiful. Have a fantastic day.
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Caleb DRC--- Thank you for both of your comments, Greg. :D
I have quoted the statistics before that clearly show, by a large margin, Christians, and to a somewhat lesser extent other Conservative people, give far more money to charity, donate more of their time to volunteer, and even give far more blood.
Conservatives want to give THEIR money to the poor. Liberals want to give YOUR money to the poor.
I do not recall in which Hub of mine I wrote about that though. I just now looked around a bit and couldn't find it. But if you found it, that's great!
I appreciate the inquiry and I look forward to reading your new Hub when it is finished.
James
Never mind James, it was this one. I found it already linked at another hub of mine. How embarrassing is this? It is times like this I'm really, really, really, really glad I go by a pseudonym rather than my real name, Greg . . . oops.
James, I spent 2 hours trying to find the hub you wrote comparing Christian giving to secular and USA giving to other countries, but no luck.
Where is it? I want to link to it in the hub I'm working on.
When did hubpages get rid of those search engines at each site? I remember when a hubber had a bunch of articles you could find what you wanted at his site with its own search engine.
It is possible I read it at another site, but I'm quite sure it was your's.
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Joel— I know that Sweden is a wealthy country. But did not Sweden become a wealthy First World country during the times when its people were very much Christians?
No people gives more money to charity per capita than Americans. Do you mean that your government gives more than the American government to foreign aid, per capita? The private citizens of America give more to charity than all the rest of the world's people combined.
You may have good morals over there. Where did they come from? Where did the basic morality of Swedes come from? Paganism? Atheism? Or from its Christian foundations?
Lastly, WHAT madman of the Bible are you referring to. There are so many. :D
Thank you very much for reading my article. I appreciate your excellent comments.
James
Sweden is one of the countries with the highest percentage of atheists and agnostics yet we scored higher than the US in most of those charts and we donate much more per capita than the US. I would actually say that I have far better morals than the madman described in the bible, even though I'm an agnostic.
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quicksand— It is always a distinct pleasure to hear from you, my friend. I enjoyed the humorous reminiscence about the Hoover advertisement. Your comments are, as always, thoughtful and insightful.
I'll come over soon to see what you've been writing lately.
I am glad you found this article interesting. I appreciate the visitation. Thank you for the correspondence.
James :D
Hi again James, this was extremely interesting. It's simply impossible to imagine that there are people around who are not touched by technology advancements.
Not having had a glimpse of the outside world and naturally no opportunities to be literate also is the cause. However much technology seeps in, not being literate is like a shield that would prevent involvement, right?
Reminds me of an advertisement I saw in my childhood days. This ad appeared in almost every issue of the Readers' Digest to which my father used to subscribe.
As the ad goes, a deer and it's young are in conversation. The young deer (I guess it's called a fawn) tells its mum, "mum I wanna go somewhere where no one has ever been before!" To which the deer replies, "that's not possible dear, wherever you go, you'll find HOOVER there before you!"
Well, Hoover polishers and appliances! Great ad it was. Remember?
(:------wide smile------:)
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Caleb DRC— Thank you ever much for the accolades! I appreciate your encouragement, my friend. God Bless You and Keep You!
James
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John Holden— Thank you for taking the time to come over here and read my article. I do not consider Sweden, Norway, or France to be Socialist. The USSR, Red China, North Korea, and East Germany—they were all officially Socialist nations and said so right in their founding documents and by what they named themselves.
You see that the three countries you named rank high for freedom and democracy—decidedly missing traits from Socialist countries. Sweden, for example, is a "constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary democracy form of government and a highly developed economy." And you might note that even countries that now implement Socialism Lite got wealthy in the first place through Free Enterprise. Socialism has never increased the wealth of any country anywhere ever.
Unbelievable!!! James, you did an outstanding job on this hub.
Incidentally, I'm still keeping up with your sagacious replies on your Iron Lady hub--both you and Will.
James, you say "The First World was the world of individual freedom, democratic elections, private property, capitalism, and Christianity. "
But your first map shows many countries in the first world which you would consider to be socialist, like Sweden, Norway and France!
How do you reconcile this discrepancy?
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Kebennett1— Thank ever much for the lovely laudations! How good it is to "see" you again. I hope all is well for you and yours. God Bless You! :-)
James
Lovin it James! What an awesome hub. Keep up the great information you always provide. Always a fan :)
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phdast7— Hello Theresa! Thank you for the compliment.
You wrote: 'Because these phrases "extensive tests" "worldwide" "over decades" "all sorts of people" indicate testing done on such scale and in so many locations and over so great a time span that it seems virtually impossible that the "results" have been hushed up. This would be a conspiracy on an absolutely incredible scale - crossing testers, nations, people groups and decades. Who has such power that they can repress research data gathered across time and space and nations?'
I understand your concern. I am not saying the data is "repressed" by anybody. You can Google "intelligence by country" or "intelligence by race" right now and 479,000,000 websites will pop right up with the information, including Wikipedia.
What I am saying is that despite it being readily available, when confronted with the data most people have not heard of it and are in a state of disbelief until they see the data for themselves. Something so common and well known but hardly any Americans know about it. I see the reason for that as being political correctness and multiculturalism—and the whole self-esteem movement.
You see in political correctness and multiculturalism, ideologies that come from Marxism and surely rule the day in our schools and universities today with an iron fist—sort of like an academic Iron Curtain—the idea is to bash the West. So you take the Third World and you tell students it is only so poor because the boogeyman—the West—exploited it. In other words, if the West and the Third World were isolated and had never met, the Third World would look just like the First World does today. When you really look at the intelligence of the people involved, it blows the cover off of that false teaching of history. It also sheds much light on the huge gaps in academic achievement in the United States that are routinely blamed on racism.
For instance, in the despised West an IQ under 70 is what used to be called retarded. But what if we find hundreds of millions of grownups who as a group average 64? Well, we decide not to talk about that or to blame the test; the test must not be right because it might explain the real reason why the Third World is so backward and impoverished and why the problems in the Third World have proven to be so intractable despite trillions of dollars thrown at them.
I have a adopted relative who has the mind of an eight-year-old. I love her dearly, she is a precious child of God. I do not disparage her low IQ of around 65. She can't help it, she was born that way. She is pretty happy in fact. But I wouldn't lie about it either and blame it on somebody else's exploitation of her. Nor would I put her in charge of IBM or send her to Harvard.
A great book about intelligence is "The Bell Curve."
I very much appreciate your extraordinary comments
James
Hello James -
An excellent Hub. I cover some of this in my classes, but not in such great detail and with such terrific and explanatory maps. Very informative. Sometimes pictures, and maps!, really are worth a thousand words. :)
However, I did find the maps of Intelligence disturbing. Responding to another comment you wrote,
"Extensive intelligence tests have been run worldwide for decades on all sorts of people. The results have been hush-hushed because they do not match up with the politically correct, multiculturalist worldview."
I have no doubt that information which is PC or unacceptable to a particular regime is hushed up or disappears. We know that happens, but your explanation leaves me concerned and unconvinced.
Because these phrases "extensive tests" "worldwide" "over decades" "all sorts of people" indicate testing done on such scale and in so many locations and over so great a time span that it seems virtually impossible that the "results" have been hushed up.
This would be a conspiracy on an absolutely incredible scale - crossing testers, nations, people groups and decades. Who has such power that they can repress research data gathered across time and space and nations?
I am no great fan of multiculturalism, but the proponents of MC are think tank sorts, talking heads, a few educators, and a few politicians...they do not all belong to any super party or government entity whose goal is to destroy all intelligence testing results.
Intelligence testing is a difficult discipline. Finding the correct balance between nature and nurture, innate intelligence and environmental factors (social, economic, cultural, familial, religious, political) which can impact the development of intelligence is a very difficult thing.
Also requiring close evaluation are the type and accuracy of intelligence tests, when tests are administered - at what age, who administers the tests, whose interests are served by the results whatever they may be, and so forth.
I did some reading in this area a few years ago, but I would like to do some more. Can you point me in the right direction, authors, titles, studies to substantiate the "intelligence " claims. I would appreciate it.
All in all, a very substantial Hub that all students everywhere ought to have to read and then pass a test on. :) Theresa
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Kaie Arwen— It is I that am blessed by your presence.
Thank you. :-)
Jimmy
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Dr Sheha— Hello. Thank you for the gracious compliments.
A Marshall Plan for Egypt? Maybe. I heard today the new government over there is holding a bunch of American citizens. And apparently an Islamist group has been elected that is of the Muslim Brotherhood, wants Sharia Law, and might be anti-American in outlook. If this is true, our foreign aid might disappear altogether. There is a growing feeling in America that we should only support people who like us.
I very much appreciate our dialogue. And you are quite welcome.
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Polly— Thank you ever much for taking the time to read my work and for your gracious comments. I am afraid that there is an epidemic of blindness in our nation today.
As you said so well, "There has never been a place like America."
You've got that right. America was an experiment of Faith and Freedom.
With great sorrow, I must agree with you that "it is not what it was, no not since we allowed our government to start pushing God out."
Let us pray for the soul of America; and for our countrymen that the eyes of their hearts might be opened.
You've educated me once again......... I am fortunate to have such a wonderful teacher~ K
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lilyfly— "God is not mocked" is in fact the title of one my Hubs, which is actually a sermon written by Dr Samuel Johnson.
As you say, you are inundated with "Proponents of threesomes, drugs, alcohol, everything is an end to their appalling desires and gluttony. . . . How can a nation such as this, stand?"
Indeed. I might ask the same question. Surely God's favor will eventually be withdrawn from such a nation. But God is extremely patient. I think He is waiting to see what we will do next.
Thank you for your love and your extraordinary insights. God Bless You!
James
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wba108@yahoo.com— I am glad we are in agreeance, my friend. Thank you for reading my Hub. Your comments are extraordinary. If I may quote you:
"Corruption caused by many immoral societal norms are at the root of the problem. Those in control of these countries on a whole don't practice Christian principles as the governing practice.
Bribery and corrupting are societal norms and the primary reason you can't solve the problem by throwing money at it, it will only end up in the wrong hands."
Amen!
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maxoxam41— Thank you!! Thank you very much! :D
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Denelle Gatchell Hunt! What a surprise to "see" you here, my friend. We go way back. I am glad you enjoyed my article. Thank you for the compliment. It is very cool to hear from you. :-)
Jim
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andromida— Thank you very much for that link to the Global Debt Clock. That is rather sobering.
I sure appreciate you sharing my Hub with your Twitter friends. I am honored that you would do so.
I found your comments about a lack of individual freedom in India quite interesting.
I am grateful that you visited my Hub. Your remarks are most excellent.
Hi,
In fact, I can't say any word except, you are great, even I don't agree with you in some points.
You have analysed my comment very thoroughly. And, this is a great hard work.
I know and confess that all you have said is true. But, in fact, this is only numbers and the realness is different. The majority of the funds and money you talked about didn't go for the Egyptians, our people. In fact, they go to those in authority or near the authority. And, I don't think that the donors have no idea.
I know that we shouldn't be very dependent; however, we need more help, such as the help given to Germany after the second world war.
Thank you.
Anyone would have to be blind or have some problem to not see what you say is true. There has never been a place like American and it is not what it was, no not since we allowed our government to start pushing God out. I always wonder myself why people care for people being "real" Christians, who are so generous and non-violent. Anyone can call themselves Christian but if you walk the walk and talk the talk then if God is for you who can be against you? Great stand to take James and I love you for it.
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suziecat7— You are welcome. It is a pleasure to "see" you here. Thank you for your gracious compliments, and for sharing my article with your friends. That is an honor.
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thelyricwriter— I sure appreciate the "Voted up and all across but funny!"
Thank you for taking the time to read my article and for your awesome accolades. :D
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PegCole17— You are most welcome. I always look forward to receiving your remarks. I am well pleased that you gave recognition to the maps displayed.
Thank you for your gracious compliments. :)
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thesingernurse— You are quite welcome, my dear, and I so agree with your comments.
Let us help each other indeed!
Thank you for visiting my Hub. I appreciate your kind comments. I am glad we are in agreeance. :-)
God is not mocked. Thank you James, for proving it. I have seen a great evil where I work. Proponents of threesomes, drugs, alcohol, everything is an end to their appalling desires and gluttony, it is a farce, but worse, I consider that these people are a reflection on America as a whole, and, and I feel God's clouds gathering. I am drowning in this sea of Chaos, and it's fingers of ignorance are everywhere. How can a nation such as this, stand? Much love, lily
I confirm your views that the wealthy western nations are not the primary cause of the poverty in 3rd world nations. Curruption caused by many immoral societal norms are at the root of the problem. Those in control of these countries on a whole don't practice Christian principles as the governing practice.
Bribery and corrupting are societal norms and the primary reason you can't solve the problem by throwing money at it, it will only end up in the wrong hands.
Great read as usual!
And every two to five years, there is a study that contradicts the former
Great job James...enjoyed the read:)
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Gypsy Willow— Ah! Thanks for coming back to fill me in. I will pray for the homeless of Sacramento right now.
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Will Starr— Thank you for the kind compliment, my friend. I always enjoy it when you stop by. I appreciate your thoughtful remarks. :)
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GmaGoldie— Thank you very much for taking the time to read my article. I appreciate your lovely laudations. Why, you have made my day! :-)
I like the way you put this: "Instruction and thirst for knowledge must begin at home. The light of the world is knowledge only overshadowed by kindness. Knowledge puffs up and love lifts up. If we are intelligent enough to support the education and training of others, if we value knowledge for the sake of wisdom not material gain, if we continue to give freely, we will grow and make humanity better and keep the light inside each of us burning."
Brilliant!!
I am glad you like my Hub. I surely enjoyed your keen insights.
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Dr Sheha— Welcome back. Why, yes the First World can certainly help Egypt develop. I would love to visit your country someday.
What kind of doctor are you? I mean, what is your practice or specialty?
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Trish_M— OK. "First World, Second World, Third World" is from nationsonline.org.
"Indigenous Intelligence" comes from psychologist Richard Lynn and political scientist Tatu Vanhanen.
"World Religions" is from the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire.
"World Democracy" comes from zonu.com.
"World Lifespans" is from Penn State University.
"World Map of Corruption" comes from Transparency International.
"World Map of Wealth Production" is from the Central Intelligence Agency Factbook.
"World Map of Freedom" comes from Freedom House.
"World Map of Happiness" is from the University of Leicester.
"Protestant Nations of the World" comes from firstmonday.org
"World Map of Gross National Income" is from Wikipedia.
"World Aid Recipients" comes from World Poverty and Human Rights Online.
"World Map of Average Intelligence" is from Lynn and Vanhanen.
"Human Development Index" is from the United Nations.
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Dr Sheha— Welcome to the HubPages Community! I look forward to reading your articles. Thank you for visiting my Hub. I very much appreciate your fine remarks and your excellent questions. And you are most welcome.
You wrote that the First World people "continue endlessly to steal our natural resources, even if they buy them."
It seems to me that gas and oil are your greatest national resources and they go mostly to Israel and Turkey. Does not Egypt draw huge annual revenues from its export profits?
Italy and the USA buy tons of products made in Egypt. Egypt has the best non-oil gross domestic product of any Arab country. $8 billion flows into Egypt each year from remittance payments from the 3 million Egyptians who live abroad. Multinational oil companies have invested $27 billion over the past 15 years in Egypt searching for oil and gas.
You write, "the first world supports our dictators."
I don't know much about that. Your first dictator was Nasser, yes? He was supported by the Second World, the Soviet Union.
You wrote, "You may have heard that there was a revolution in Egypt in 25 Jan. 2011. I can swear that no country of the first world has helped us since then."
I have heard about your revolution. Americans hope Egypt has a bright future.
I have read that in the past, charities from the United States have been blocked from helping Egyptian people by the government of Egypt, especially Christian charities. American individuals give an amazing $300 billion to charity each year.
The American taxpayers give Egypt about $2 billion a year in aid from our government. USAID provided libraries for 39,000 Egyptian public schools, totaling over 24 million books. More than 1.1 million Egyptian entrepreneurs are receiving microfinance services from USAID partner institutions.
Over the past 30 years, USAID’s support has contributed to an 80 percent reduction in the infant mortality rate, an 86 percent reduction in the mortality rate for children under five, a 68 percent reduction in the maternal mortality rate, and a 92 percent increase in immunization coverage against major diseases for all Egyptian children.
I think about 11 percent of all U.S. foreign aid goes to Egypt.
Unfortunately, just last month 17 U.S.-funded, non-governmental groups have had their offices in Cairo raided, their assets confiscated, and their offices closed. Their computers, documents and even cell phones were stolen.
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WD Curry 111— You know, you hit on something very important there. You said, "The best thing we can do for the third world, is to maintain our strong economy."
Yes. How can we help, as we do, without maintaining our own wealth creation? Well said.
I am glad you came by to read my "thesis." :D
Thank you for your very good comments.
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tillsontitan— You are quite welcome. Thank you for your gracious compliments and the "voted up."
As you said so well, "No man is an island as is no country. We need to help others to survive."
Amen!
1 Corinthians 12: 21 'The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty,'
I must agree that you have done some serious research for writing this hub.You've raised some interesting questions to compare the economical status of the first and the third world.I think the map shown for individual freedom in India is not correct.I've lived there for almost 5 years and I've found that as a foreigner I had more individual freedom than the local Indians with very good educational background.I would like to share with you the list of countries with the highest public debt:
http://www.economist.com/content/global_debt_clock
I've twitted this hub to my friends.Thank you so much.
This is such an interesting read I must share it. Very insightful and I was surprised at some of the maps. Thanks for this excellent Hub.
Voted up and all across but funny. Awesome article James. This was very interesting with all the percentages and maps. It was fun to learn all these stats. A very well researched article. I commend the hard work pal.
James, Your articles are always educational and informative. I think we should have better buttons for appreciating this type of hub. Thanks for the pictoral representation which brought your words into a visual frame of reference for me.
"Let us keep in mind that if Colonialism were the problem, how would one explain that the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand were all once colonies of England?" - James A. Watkins
Well, I so agree with that statement.
For once, let's stop subdividing our world in to 4 worlds. Let's just help each other. :D
Thank you for sharing such insightful hub. :D
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teachertalking1— Welcome to the HubPages Community! I am well pleased to meet a Christian lady who teaches. I love this from your profile page:
"I believe that teachers have been blessed with a gift to positively impact students"
Amen!
I am very encouraged to read what you wrote about your son and his generation. I share your hope that "America's light will never be extinguished!"
Thank you very much for reading my article and sharing it with your son. And you are welcome.
God Bless You!
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aguasilver— Hello John! It is always a distinct pleasure to hear from you, my friend. I hope all is well in that distant land in which you dwell. :D
I sincerely appreciate your gracious compliments, and I enjoyed your thoughtful and insightful remarks. Well said!
God Bless You Brother!
James
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tlpoague— You are most welcome. I agree with your remarks. Thank you very much for taking the time to read my article.
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poetvix— "James is a gem." You know I like that! Thank you for the accolades and your blessings.
I agree with your statement:
"Tolerance may have started out as a good idea but it has grown into a beast that tolerates way too much, too many things that are evil and dangerous."
And the ironic thing is that there is no people more "intolerant" than the "tolerance" crowd.
I am glad you appreciate the maps. And you are right that I am not into "candy coating" the Truth.
God Bless You!
James the homeless I refer to are in Sacramento where I spend a lot of time with my Son. They would not survive at Lake Tahoe!
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Tamarajo— I was moved to write this article the other day when the thought occurred to me that while most folks could identify the First World and the Third World, most have no clue what was the Second World. I started out just to write about that world and it morphed into this after I started finding and studying these maps.
You write: "I think some like the idea of socialism and governmental blame because it relieves individuals from personal responsibility."
Indeed! Part of the postmodern idea is that what is wrong with certain people is society's fault, thereby negating the old Christian idea of individual responsibility for one's behaviors.
I surely agree with you that "With all the complaining about our country we ought to be grateful."
Amen!
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Trish_M— Thank you for taking the time to read my article. It has been a while since I have run into you on HubPages. Good to "see" you again.
You write: "Lack of education and opportunity are not the same as lack of intelligence."
That is true. Extensive intelligence tests have been run worldwide for decades on all sorts of people. The results have been hush-hushed because they do not match up with the politically correct, multiculturalist worldview. It is obvious that all cultures are not equal, but that they are continues to be taught to children in America.
You correctly note: "It's interesting that we, running our rat-race in our concrete jungles, often yearn for holidays, where we can emulate a little of that more simple, less 'civilised' life-style."
Jacques Barzun calls this "Primitivism," and writes about it extensively in his magisterial work, "From Dawn to Decadence." Highly recommended.
I have read, as have you, that the term "Third World" has been used prejoratively. The politically correct term is "underdeveloped nations."
Your remarks are most excellent and discerning. I appreciate you making them here.
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drbj— You asked an outstanding question: "Do those thousands of protesters in the U.S. know the real reason why the Berlin Wall was built?"
Probably not. I have seen many folks equate having a wall between us and Mexico with the Berlin Wall, which leads me to believe they do not know the difference between a wall to keep invaders out and a prison wall.
I also read recently that among American under 30 years old, 23 percent think socialism just as good as free enterprise. Rather shocking unless you understand that the far left loons of the teachers unions push a socialistic world view on children for all their years of public schooling.
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creativeone59— You are most welcome. It is great to hear from you again.
Everybody has problems and limitations, but some folks have far more severe problems and limitations. Thank you for your comments. God Bless You!
James
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Portamenteff— Thank you!! Thank you very much! :D
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anndavis25— I love the pun. :D
And I love goofy songs and I am quite happy, thank you.
I appreciate this visit and your comments. Til next time,
James A Watkins esq.
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Gypsy Rose Lee— I sure appreciate the "voted up and interesting!" And I am thankful that you would pass my Hub on. I am honored.
I had no idea that Latvia was in financial trouble. I am sorry to hear that. Thank you for reading my Hub. :)
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cristina327— You are welcome, my dear. I am grateful for your kind regards, blessings, and lovely laudations.
You wrote: "America has been blessed by God to be a first world nation so that it can be a blessing to many third world nations particularly in bringing out the Gospel to them."
I agree with your view of history wholeheartedly. I believe this to be the Truth.
You said, "America has been a great blessing to the Philippines for bringing the Word of God to its shores."
I really appreciate you saying that. Thank you for your extraordinarily discerning comments.
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teaches12345— You are most welcome. I love your comments. As you said so succinctly:
"We still live in a country where we have freedom to pursue and live our dreams."
Indeed we do. Thank you for this visitation. And once again, I welcome you to the HubPages Community.
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Deborah Brooks— You are quite welcome, Debbie. Thank you for the voted up and your expression of love for this Hub.
Faithfully Yours,
James
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Old Poolman— Thank you for taking the time to read my article. I appreciate your kind compliments.
You ask a very good question, which is "why those who prefer the 2nd world style of living don't just move? Why go to all the work of trying to change this country when they could move to a place that thinks exactly like they do?"
I think what they want is for all of us to live like the 2nd world. In other words, they do not want the results that have been had by Second World countries—famine, suffering, and death—they want to take America, which is already rich, and turn it into a 2nd world country because we have lots of cash they can divvy up.
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Gypsy Willow— My ideas could be but the statistics aren't. You have a lot of homeless people in your town? In Lake Tahoe!? I never would have thought that. But of course, I have never been there. I am sorry to read that. Thank you for visiting.
Excellent work, James!
I've often wondered why certain countries and peoples are so stubbornly impoverished despite international aid, and you may have hit upon the answer.
James,
What a wonderful hub with a call to action at the end. Wow! You outdid yourself.
I have heard these terms, knew them somewhat but not really. Now I really know.
Instruction and thirst for knowledge must begin at home. The light of the world is knowledge only overshadowed by kindness.
Knowledge puffs up and love lifts up. If we are intelligent enough to support the education and training of others, if we value knowledge for the sake of wisdom not material gain, if we continue to give freely, we will grow and make humanity better and keep the light inside each of us burning.
I am sorry. I would like you to answer these questions please:
#1: Could the first world help us to be developed?
#2: If yes, Doesn't that mean that we would utilize all of our resources and there won't be no resources left for us to sell to the first world?
#3: And, if there won't be any problem with that, Why do the west do that?
I'm sorry, James, but I cannot find the origin of the maps and the information that they reflect. What are the sources, please? Thanks.
Hi,
I am one of a civilian of one of the third world countries, Egypt. As you know my country have one of the ancient civilizations in the whole world that may date up to more than 7 thousands years. You have said that the first world and Colonialism aren't the reason for the backward of the third countries. I agree only if you see they aren't the only reason.
But, I am sure that they are great and effective reasons for that backward. At first, they continue endless to steal our natural resources, even if they buy them. You know that we don't have enough weapons and arm. And, if we have they come from, for sorrow, the first world. So, we can't say no. In addition, the first world supports our dictators, and never calls for democracy except if they want something bad for our countries from these dictators. It is a type of blackmail.
You may have heard that there was a revolution in Egypt in 25 Jan. 2011. I can swear that no country of the first world has helped us since then. There are only promises.
After all, thank you for this informative hub. And, I know that you have worked hard to write it. All I aimed to do is to explain and show how the third world civilians look at the first world. We deserve more!
This is not a hub, it is a thesis! Very rich information. The maps are an incredible, credible resource. The best thing we can do for the third world, is to be maintain our strong economy. We should not be reinforcing the second world by freely doing business with them. The market will not straighten out their situation as the heads of the Fed suppose.
A history lesson we can all use. Great hub! If we would all go back to our Christian values and help each other here in this country perhaps we could go back to the great country we once were. No man is an island as is no country. We need to help others to survive. This hub has made many great points. Voted up. Thanks for SHARING.
Very thought provoking article! I shared your article with my son who is away at college- my texting skills couldn't keep up with the heated dialogue that ensued! You would be encouraged to know that he, along with many of his generation do, in fact, have strong -
Quote: Protestant Work Ethic; have a Christian Worldview; believe in Free Enterprise Capitalism; and are fortunate enough to live in a country founded on individual freedom, private property, representative democracy, and the Rule of Law—the result will be a nation as wealthy and wonderful as America.
This leaves me with great optimism that America's light will never be extinguished! God Bless and thank you for the excellent article!
Hi James,
Very informative and probably too logical to attract more than token resentment by those who have bought the NWO line.
I admire your devotion to detail and patience for sourcing those maps.
I also confess a marginal envy at you having six times more followers than me, and 20 times more readers! :)
But then I do not have your devotion to writing, so the answer is plain to see, and you deserve your success.
Always good to read you...
John
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maxoxam41— I do understand that Sauvy's terms are not in vogue. But still, I hear the terms First World and Third World quite a lot today. I never hear the term Second World anymore. And that was my original reason for writing this. What happened to the Second World—that great utopian paradise?
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Angela Blair— You are quite welcome, Sis. I appreciate the accolades and I am well pleased that we are in agreeance. Thank you for this visitation. I always enjoy hearing from you. :D
James
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picklesandrufus— I love your profile picture!
Thank you for reading my Hub. I appreciate the kind comments. Perhaps I at least provided some food for thought.
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maxoxam41— Thank you for taking the time to read my article. I appreciate your comments. You write:
"If colonisers did not pilfer their wealth where would they be now?"
That is debatable. I read a study not long ago that claimed to have figured out that the colonies of England cost them more than they took in. And the by far wealthiest nation in the history of the earth, America, had no colonies.
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itakins— You write: "Ireland, donates x5 times more 'Per Capita' to charity than the US"
Really? I did not know that. Bully for Ireland, a land I love though I've not been there. I am 1/8 Irish you know. So perhaps I can claim a wee bit of credit. :-)
I certainly did not mean to slight my fine friends who are Catholics or who live in predominantly Catholic nations. You know that "Christian worldview" surely includes my Catholic brothers and sisters in Christ.
However, perhaps Ireland aside, the Protestant nations did lead the world in wealth creation with what Max Weber called the Protestant Work Ethic.
Yes, we are all broke now but I would argue that the embrace of semi-socialism is the cause of our economic brokenness.
You know that I think the world of you and your countrymen. Thank you for providing balance to my account. God Bless You!
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Fullerman5000— Thank you, my friend, for the kind compliments. I sincerely appreciate your visit and your comments. Godspeed!
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piccard11— Hello my true friend Bob! How I appreciate your compliments and encouragement, Brother.
You say that "alas, facts are not enough" and add "they will claim the data is slanted."
Good points both. But, surely no one can say I made up these facts. They are readily available for anyone who seeks the Truth about the world in which we live.
What is important about it, I think, is that rather than saying, as multiculturalists do, that all cultures are equal, we should look at human history and see clearly that what really works and palliates human suffering and creates prosperity and happiness is well worth emulating by all peoples.
Jim
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billybuc— You are welcome. Thank you for being my first visitor! I visited your great home state of Washington once two years ago and wrote about its beauty here on HubPages.
I am glad you found this Hub to be interesting. I appreciate your comments. Welcome to the HubPages Community!
Terrific food for thought. I can't help but feel terrified by what the future for America holds if these ani-American Americans rule. Thanks for this helpful information and links.
The maps really drove home the overall picture. It's chilling when I consider numbers and how small a group we Christians with freedom really are.
What you say about public schools is the unadulterated truth. We are not teaching what we should. We are teaching "tolerance." Tolerance may have started out as a good idea but it has grown into a beast that tolerates way too much, too many things that are evil and dangerous.
James, you are a gem. You don't candy coat the truth and put it forth in a well presented way that is easily comprehended by all. God bless you!
The maps were useful in drawing your conclusion as it was the same conclusion I came to after looking at them. With all the complaining about our country we ought to be grateful because we are still the healthiest, wealthiest, and happiest comparatively speaking.
I think some like the idea of socialism and governmental blame because it relieves individuals from personal responsibility.
And excellent eye opening article and an educational one as well. I didn't know the history of first, second, and third world and how they were classified.
Hi :)
Quote:
"Third World Countries featured people ..... usually low average intelligence."
Lack of education and opportunity are not the same as lack of intelligence.
Quote:
"It is a myth that the Third World was created by Colonialism. It was already the Third World before any colonizers showed up .... the farther inland one went one found even more primitive people who had not "evolved" in thousands of years."
But they were living a perfectly reasonable life. Maybe they think that it is better than our more 'civilised' lifestyles.
Quote:
"Incredibly, while the Third World people yearn to move to the First World ... there are people in the First World who think .... the Third World of "Noble Savages," are better worlds. "
Certainly many of them seem to live more harmoniously with the planet. It's interesting that we, running our rat-race in our concrete jungles, often yearn for holidays, where we can emulate a little of that more simple, less 'civilised' life-style.
Quote:
"One would think that ... the public schools in America would teach children: If you take a people who are intelligent; imbued with the Protestant Work Ethic; have a Christian Worldview ... the result will be a nation as wealthy and wonderful as America."
I am sure that there is much that is good about 'America' but there are certainly criticisms to be made. And there are certainly criticisms to be made of Christianity, which has caused no end of hatred in the world.
It is interesting that Europe ~ also 'first world' ~ is becoming ever more secular.
By the way, I am sure that I have heard that the label 'third world' is actually seen as insulting.
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