Free Republic

people are familiar with the common construct of “the third world.” they are also familiar with the idea of “the first world.” what’s interesting to me is the idea of how one becomes the other and the presumption of the causality and the pathways by which that occurs. it’s worth some exploration. worryingly, this is a topic on which i think most people’s intuitions and utopian hopes are hopelessly wrong to the point of being outright dangerous. in an attempt to clarify and circumvent such, i’d like to add a new construct to the list, that of “the second world”...

It only took seven months after my family and I moved to Baltimore in January for us to move out. We’re hardly the only ones leaving — in 2020, Baltimore lost more residents than did any other major U.S. city. At one point, my Brazilian husband remarked, “I thought America was a developed country.”His observation is particularly telling because, before coming to Baltimore, we spent five years living abroad in two of the most dangerous places in the world – Brazil and South Africa. In many ways, life in those countries was easier than life in Charm City.The residents of...

The Obama administration on Sunday worked to isolate Russia on the world stage even as its president, Vladimir Putin, showed no signs of rolling back his military intervention in Ukraine. President Obama spoke by phone with leaders from Great Britain, Germany and Poland, and he dispatched Secretary of State to Kiev on Tuesday for a show of solidarity with the new Ukrainian government. After suspending preparations for an upcoming Group of 8 summit in Sochi, the administration began canceling lower-level diplomatic and economic meetings with Russian counterparts. And senior administration officials warned that Russia could be booted from the...

"Overview: Students will learn about how the world's resources are distributed among the world's people. Teachers might want to do this activity before viewing the video. "Materials: TV/VCR, popcorn with butter and salt, plain popcorn, some half-burned kernels, unpopped popcorn, soda pop, iced tea (decaffeinated recommended), water, cups and napkins. A video of people eating (Babette's Feast? Like Water for Chocolate?) "The gap between rich and poor Americans is now the widest of any industrial nation. "One-fifth of the world's population lives in dire poverty, slowly dying of hunger and disease. Millions of others desperately need more material goods. Yet,...