<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Guy Betsy:
In Asia, please note that people:
5) Is not a Third World country
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Actually, many of them are. The term came up during the cold war to describe the countries who were not (strongly) aligned with either the "west" (e.g., N.A.T.O. members and allies) or the "east" (Warsaw Pact + China?).
Too many people confuse or synonymise "third world" with the term "underdeveloped", although many third world countries were very much underdeveloped economically.