Quoting flarewearer from 22:21, 7th Sep 2005
If the "first world" can't sort itself out, what hope is there for it sorting out the "third world"...
...whatever happened to the second world?
It's my understanding from A-Level colouring in, that the 'First world' referred to western style countries that allied with the US in the Cold War, and that the term "second world" referred to communist eastern bloc countries. "third world" being everyone else, including neutral countries, but has come to mean poor countries. So, as the second world has mostly vanished it's not longer used as a term (not that it was much used anyway) It's a bit of an outdated phrase anyway. I think there might even be a 'fourth world', for the super-crap countries.
Happy to be told that I'm wrong.
I'm not sure what the fashionable term is at the moment?
LDCs - Less Developed Countries?
TPLC - Tin Pot Little Countries?
