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When William Wallace, portrayed by Mel Gibson in the film ‘Braveheart,’ screamed “Freedom!” moments before he was decapitated, one can’t help but notice that the cause which the national hero of Scotland fought for is no different from the freedom causes that others likewise died fighting for, and still some are fighting for to this day.
Wallace was executed for treason after a trial on 23 August 1305. He was meted with what in England was a penalty once ordained for the crime of high treason. Wallace was ‘hanged, drawn and quartered.’ He was strangled by hanging ‘while he was still alive, emasculated, eviscerated and his bowels burnt before him.’ He was ‘beheaded, and then cut into four parts. His preserved head was placed on a pike atop London Bridge. His limbs were displayed, separately, in Newcastle upon Tyne, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Stirling, and Aberdeen.’ His crime of ‘high treason’ was uniting the Scots to overthrow English rule.
This is not a digression as much as Scotland is neither a Third World country. This is just another story of resistance and independence, two buzzwords that still buzz to this day so long as there is reason to resist foreign domination and demand national independence.
Politics
Many experts, as well as hangers-on to a semblance of expertise, have been wont to use the term Third World when referring to unrecognized freedom. What they actually mean is the state of political repression and poor recognition of political rights and civil liberties.
In other words, they have strung together the oft-abused term of ‘Third World’ with the concept of ‘freedom.’
The result is a stereotype.
The term Third World is actually and originally a Cold War nomenclature. The Cold War harbingers didn’t know what to do with those countries that neither aligned with the capitalist West (NATO bloc) nor with the Communist Soviet bloc of the East. From day one, Third World already figured out as a stereotype - amidst the other classification stereotypes of ‘West’ (free world) and ‘East’ (Communist bloc).
Other less imaginative but pretentiously creative things happened along the way, and so, Third World, today, is used to describe those developing countries of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Oceania – which means that those who did not align themselves with the classification categories of the Cold War became known as Third World.
And because ‘West’ and ‘East’ have also become economic classifications, many poorer nations started to use the term Third World to describe themselves.
Today, the ‘Third World’ stereotype has come to mean a land of starving children and savage tribes.
Economics
Third World also means economically underdeveloped or still developing countries. That, we hear a lot about. The benchmark for comparison is the OECD or the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, an international organization of some 30 countries that practice the principles of representative democracy and free-market economy. This group has christened itself as ‘developed countries’ because of their high-income economies.
Thus, ‘Third World’ countries are former imperialist colonies that didn’t know how to fend for themselves and build their own nation-building and institution-building.
The term ‘Third World’ should not be based on any political or economic criteria. Whose arbitrary criteria are those, anyway? But there may be common characteristics today, post-Cold War, among so-called ‘Third World’ countries.
The aggregate term ‘Third World’ has come to mean:
1. The demand and receipt of foreign aid (more aptly called Western aid). Some countries such as Myanmar (after Cyclone Nigris) and Sudan (in the wake of the Darfur war) are just some examples of countries that have repelled Western aid. In the process, they have become tagged as more repressive than ever.
2. The seemingly legalized dumping of toxic waste in exchange for bilateral trade relations and bilateral aid. An example of repelling this hidden and unspoken arrangement is the Philippines that is not too receptive in accepting Japan’s offer for bilateral aid under the already signed Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA).
Next time that you encounter the term ‘Third World’ or are even tempted to use it, think of it beyond those lands of starving children and savage tribes. Stretch your imagination a little bit more. Think of it as:
1. Those countries that are seduced to borrow from the IMF and ultimately languish in debt servicing hell
2. Countries whose agricultural livelihood is eradicated because of their forced ties to the World Bank, again through aid that isn’t really for free, comes by the name Official Development Assistance or ODA which is actually a loan package that they have to pay for in terms of being a dumping ground for foreign surplus agricultural products
3. Countries whose migrant labor runs the agricultural and industrial machinery of rich countries
4. Countries whose citizens are used as human guinea pigs for the latest multinational big pharma’s latest vaccine testing
5. Countries whose populations reeling under the devastating effects of malaria and dysentery are pronounced dying with AIDS and thus administered antiretrovirals which are actually chemotherapy that lays their bodies wasted, but whose production means huge funding
Next time, please ask yourself the question: who holds the appropriate definition for the term ‘repression?’
And while you’re at it, also ask the question: who holds the franchise for the correct definition of ‘freedom?’
