[I'm re-freshing this post, as this series on development seems to be something people are looking for]
Here’s a question that needs to be addressed – why are some countries poor? Often our answers seem to fall into one of two camps. We either believe the rich countries exploit the poorer ones and it’s the fault of the west, or we believe the poor countries are corrupt and pretty much deserve what they get. So we end up thinking of the third world as either helpless victims or money-grabbing scroungers. Neither of these extremes does justice to the third world and the predicament it is in.
In our modern world, wealth depends on trade, in goods or services. Trade depends on infrastructure, and infrastructure in turn depends on investment. This is the essence of development. The more ‘developed’ a country is, the more money it is capable of making. So in talking about poor countries, we are talking about Less Economically Developed Countries (LEDCs – This is a better term than ‘the developing world’, as many poor countries aren’t actually developing – some African economies are shrinking every year.) In asking ourselves why some countries are poor, what we need to work out is why they are not developing. And there are several reasons for this, with geographical, political, and cultural factors all coming in to play. I was going to do one entry here, but that would be huge, so I’m going to let this serve as an introduction and you can click on each of these sections to find out more.
why does foreign aid did not help developing countries
WOW! there is so much information! so helpful! thnx.x
why are landlocked countries are difficulties in developing?
Landlocked countries strugle to develop because they don’t have access to ports. If they want to export anything, they have to ship it through neighbouring countries. That adds all the costs of trucking goods to the port, and then the fees to use the port facilities. This all makes exporting an expensive business.
What’s even worse is if you’re a landlocked country with neighbours who are at war, as then you have to way to export at all, unless you fly things out at great expense. Ethiopia, for example, borders on two unstable states in Eritrea and Somalia – not places you want to trust with your goods.
I speak the real truth,and would appreciate getting peoples paranoid heads out of thier fearfull asses. There are poor Countries because it is part of the subliminal plan of taxation ! All countries and thier people have resources.Until all is stolen from all people and countries regarding resources and taxes it will continue.Apparently part of the NWO ‘s plan for culling and cleansing is to leave everyone beggingly broke. Every country on the planet has resources,they just haven’t found them.Even if it it’s people that are being stolen as migrant workers.They must utilize what they have,think deep.
Tax becomes government spending and re-circulates into the economy, so I don’t see how it’s possible for taxation to make a country poor. I think you’re tripping on one with the NWO explanation there.
Omg thank you so much! You have help me with my Geography homework…xx
Jeremy, Uganda does not border Eritrea or Somalia. Many landlocked nations are wealthy, i.e. Austria, Switzerland.
The article was a good attempt but broadly inaccurate and misleading. Generally, countries are poor for a wide variety of different reasons. While in Africa many nations can closely attribute their dire situations with colonialism, South American nations which exist in poverty are poor as a result of political instability and mismanagement. Europe is rich for a wide variety of reasons and the same goes for east Asia and north America.
Generally a good effort but I am assuming this was written by a young student.
Did you read the whole series? This is the introduction, you realise, and the whole four posts give multiple reasons why countries are poor, including colonialism and political instability. Geography is one minor aspect, and the series reflects that. Please read the whole thing before dismissing it as misleading.
thanks for pointing out the typo, that should of course be Ethopia and not Uganda. Corrected accordingly.