oh CRAP! this will be the 2.5th post about politics, the status of the country, development, growth etc etc...OMFGWTFBBQSAUZE! damn sien...if you're already bored please feel free to skim this post. i promise i shall resume posting camwhor-ish pictures and sordid tales of drunken escapades right after this.

anyway, i had a very interesting chat with someone tonight. which was totally unexpected because each time we talked the topics would revolve around alcohol, boys, why being single sucks, uni stress, more boys, clothes, even more boys...you get the picture...average bimbotic stuff. not that we're bimbotic...it's just *shrugs*..

so, she thinks Malaysia is a "freaking Third World country la" (kenny, you got another supporter). her logic behind it is that it's a dichotomy; either you're developed or you're third world. and because we're 'developing' and not 'developed', thus and only thus, we are third world...ta-daa!

so i said.."fuck off la". no actually i didn't. hahaha..

i asked her what's Africa and she says, Third World.

So, Africa = Third World = Malaysia, therefore,

Africa = Malaysia...?

and then things got interesting.

but what's even more interesting is how this whole classification of a nation goes about. according to Wikipedia (not the most reliable source around, Kids, don't use it as a reference in your reports), the development of a country is measured with statistical indexes such as income per capita (GDP), life expectancy, rate of literacy, technological advances etc. from a nation's SIs, it can be determined whether it's a First, Second or Third World country.

ok..here's a very boring list, you've been warned:

1. Malaysia total GDP (2005 estimate) = $290.7 billion which places us in 33rd position.
2. Life expectancy as of 2006 for males = 71.8 years and for females = 76.3 years (haha..pwn, girls > boys).
3. The literacy rate among citizens aged 10-64, in 1991 = 88.6% and in 2000 = 93.5%.

ok...keboring-an to the max. you can choose to take the stats at its face value and assume that it has not been tweaked or you can raise hell and clang the shackles and say "Screw you Department of Statistics of Malaysia!"cos that's where i got them from.

i dare say..we're doing pretty alright. does it warrant us being labelled as a Third World nation? i can't say i'm a voice of authority when it comes to economics and some such (because i'm a science student, not an arts student) but i can ask my mom, and i have friends who might have a better opinion or point of view. so lemme know what you think. or even if you're not doing econs but want to vent your spleen...please, do.

but back to the issue:

i said, Malaysia is NOT Third World else'd you wouldn't be sipping on your Long Island in Luna Bar flanked by the Twin Towers and KL Tower and neither would you be able to go shopping in Midvalley. she said, alalalala and sent me a link of pictures of South Africa with shopping malls. fair enough. (..law students, pfft)

and then she said, you're riled up about us being lumped up with poorer countries.

jeng jeng. is this the point where i've become elitist myself? admittedly, we're not First World. we're FAR from First World...like...a gap of thousands and thousands of still-unfelled rainforests (haha...cheap joke). but we DO have an adequate education system (no matter how fucked up you think it is, it got you into pre-u and then uni so STFU); we DO have quite advanced technology: broadband internet (which is also fucked up, according to some sources), electric trains, ASTRO (life-saver) and G3 cellphones; we DO have quite a sophisticated approach to culture: The Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, numerous art galleries, a strong and thriving performance and dramatic arts community and of course our own interpretations of all things culturally malay, chinese, indian etc.

and...we DO have quite a status-symbol thing going on there...check out the number of BMWs and Mercs on the road...and the occasional flashy sports car, the shops on the Ground Level of KLCC, the Bangsar/Hartamas district and the number of fine-dine restaurants. although these are only catered for a minute fraction of the Malaysian population, the fact of the matter is: it's there.

AND...we DO have our own car...we've even got 2 in fact, Proton and Perodua. you say it's crap, but it's serving me well, and i'm pretty sure it's serving a lot of other people well too; we DO have our own airlines system...MAS...which is pretty much up-there with the other big guns, and AirAsia.

so...do all these qualifications still warrant us as being Third World?

personally, i don't think so. i think it's unfair to call us a Third World nation after all we've worked to become today. calling us Third World would, imho, put all your parents and grandparents efforts to waste...because their years of hardship/labour/work to improve our country's situation, well...didn't really make an impact after all, if we're still to be considered Third World.

so how now?