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The Third WorldThe term Third World applies to developing nations in Asia (except China), Africa, and Latin America that cannot maintain self-sustaining economies. Third World nations produce only a few primary materials and are dependent upon the industrialized nations for finished goods (especially highly technical and heavy industrial equipment) which they purchase with the money they make from raw materials they sell to the industrialized powers. This unbalanced economic arrangement leaves these nations with a very high debt load, which is often more than the amount of money the nation makes each year. Citizens of Third World nations, four billion people (77 percent of the world's population), usually suffer from high rates of illiteracy, disease, political instability, and population growth. According to Oxfam,
In 1955, Third World nations organized to form the Nonaligned
Movement at the Bandung Conference. The Third World forms
the majority of the membership of the United
Nations, but its cultural and economic diversity (the
oil rich nations of the Middle East and the desperate poor
of Haiti and Afghanistan) prevents it from voting as a block. Sources:"Why a Third World: Oxfam Community Aid Abroad." Oxfam Community Aid Abroad. Internet on-line. Available From http://www.caa.org.au/publications/iid/WATW/. Reitsam, H.A. and J. M. Kleinpenning. The Third
World in Perspective. Assen, Netherlands: Van Gorcum,
1985. For more information see the following Web sites:
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