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2013-08-22

11 new ways to define a country: Developing the non-western third world

Are you getting tired of seeing the same old news stories about "non-western" people and "developing" countries when you know it's not that simple a world? Let's look at how we should be looking at things instead, things that have an impact on the human psyche.

  1. CHEAP/RICH and EXPENSIVE/POOR countries: Cost of living vs. average income.
    An "expensive" country is one where the average income is low compared to the cost of living, which translates to the population being "poor", while a "cheap" country is one where the average income is high, translating the population to being "rich". A formula for the expenses is hard to normalize, even within each country. For example, some places require that you have an automobile, while you can live your entire life walking in other places. Either way, statistics might come as a surprise to some.
    "He came from an expensive country"
  2. MILITARY and PEACE countries
    What's the military expense per capita? How much of the taxes goes to the military? How many military conflicts does the country have with other countries over the last decade?
    "He came from a military country"
  3. INDUSTRIAL, ECOLOGICAL and DEPENDENT countries
    How is food made? There are three basic productions, the third being dependant on importing from others. Which food resource is dominant?
    "He came from a dependent country"
  4. TECHNOLOGICAL SCALE
    It's too easy to say "developing country" or "developed" - no country is ever fully developed. If that was the case, we would not longer be developing anything new. So the question is rather - how far in the technological development has a country arrived at? To claim that a country has reach a level, at least 90% of relevant implementations of said technology should be in place, such as:
    INDUSTRIAL: 90% of manual labour has been taken over by industrial machinery
    DIGITAL: 90% of population has access to digital equipment
    INTERCONNECTED: 90% of population has access to the Internet
    "He came from a digital country"
  5. MENTALLY STABLE and UNSTABLE countries
    Or, as politicians like to call them, "crazy" or "reasonable" countries. A country can be seen as "Mentally unstable" if more than 20% of the population have severe psychological problems. "He came from a mentally unstable country."
  6. VIOLENT and SAFE countries
    How many violent crimes per capita? "He came from a violent country"
  7. HAPPY and UNHAPPY countries
    Nations should check the happiness of their population on a regular basis and from this determine f they are a happy or unhappy nation. "He came from an unhappy country." "We don't know if he has happy or unhappy roots, his country refuses to release that data."
  8. ILLITERATE, PRIMARY, SECONDARY and EDUCATED countries
    How much education does 90% of the population have? "He came from a secondary school country."
  9. GRAVELLED, RAILED, SAILING and PAVED countries. WALKING, BICYCLING, RIDING, DRIVING and BOATING countries.
    There are these main methods of infrastructure for goods and passengers. Which type of infrastructure is dominant in terms of road conditions and vehicles? "He came from a gravelled boating country."
  10. HEALTHY, SICK or DEAD country
    What's the predominant health condition of people age 60-80? "He came from a sick country."
    It could also be presented in sickness age (at what age does 90% of the population have perpetual illness?) and average age of death. "He came from a sick 60 dead 75 country."
    It could also be expressed with the predominant illness. "He came from a flu country."
  11. MORTALITY TYPE
    What's the predominant type of death in a country? "He came from a heart attack country."
So with this fresh in mind, it is time for someone to sit down and define the world all over again. Good luck!

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