Third world country. That’s a term I hear quite often. And it’s a term I am not fond of. Not one bit.
(Before we get started, let me clarify that in this post I’m not talking about the history of the term or its exact definitions. Rather, I’m discussing, and deploring, the general use of the term in every-day conversations.)
Now, let’s begin.
So I understand that sometimes it’s easier or makes more sense to designate labels or to classify certain things into groups. I also know that the majority of people who use this term have only the purest of intentions.
But the term is just crap.
As someone who has grown up in and has visited many “third world countries”, hearing this term makes me cringe. Even though it doesn’t mean that a country’s history, culture, or people are less valuable than a first world country’s history, culture, or people, it comes across like it does.
It suggest that someone is superior and therefore the other, inferior. That term stands up on a chair and looks down its nose.
At least, I think it does.
Maybe I’m overreacting. Maybe me being a TCK makes me hyper sensitive to the term. Maybe I shouldn’t be writing this late at night.
But, I still stand where I stand. Fellow TCKs and non-TCKs, what do you think of the use of this awful term?
🙂
smiling in syria 