Could you elaborate on this?
I think Taiwan is 3rd world no? But with all the technology here, people upgrading their cellphones every year etc…it seems more like a 1st world. And all the cars and scooters here look brand new…I usually stare at older bikes like there is something wrong with it.
Is that what you mean?
Zhujialum: Meaning Taiwan is mostly considered a second world country
[quote=“PoSTMoDeRNFuNK”]Zhujialum: Meaning Taiwan is mostly considered a second world country
You asked for it!!
I’ve been informed this way from many sources, pretty much most of my life. I thought it common knowledge that countries are often ranked - though potentially with bias, or depending on what the criteria is effective of the ranking. I have seen relatively current maps outlining Taiwan as a 3rd world nation and have seen other maps outlining it as a 2nd world nation. It depends on who is looking and what they are looking for. Most all facts are subject to interpretation.
I am aware that Taiwan is probably the second richest economy in Asia (following Japan), making it one of the richest in the world; simply because of its immense recent economical (and political) achievements. That is also common knowledge, and the key word being
You want a developing country…go to Vietnam.
Want a third world country? Go to …hmm, just about any country in Africa.
Taiwan a third world country?
Ar you outeryer fargin head?
sheeesh
Hey I agree. I didn’t say I considered it third world.
Have you not read ANY of my posts?
Sheesh
[quote=“PoSTMoDeRNFuNK”]Have you not read ANY of my posts?
Sheesh[/quote]
Is your name “YOU?”
My bad then. Thought Battery9 was thinking of Taiwan as more 2nd world, since Battery9 mentioned ‘1st world behaviour’ (ie cellphone usage) amidst conceptions of third world.
Yes. I am a complete IDIOT for believing research. I am a piece of navelfluff because I have seen many maps that state this.
Yes, I should rather listen to a complete stranger on Forumosa.
Just because people have money and cars and cellphones doesn’t mean they are advanced.
:wanker:
[quote=“Battery9”]Yes. I am a complete IDIOT for believing research. I am a piece of navelfluff because I have seen many maps that state this.
Yes, I should rather listen to a complete stranger on Forumosa.
Just because people have money and cars and cellphones doesn’t mean they are advanced.
:wanker:[/quote]
Yes, I hear ya. When I go back to New York I feel the same way about obese women who buy 25 TV dinners for their family meals.
Get a clue. And BTW, how’s the view up on your horse?
Sorry. I really don’t think I am cool. I have better ways to mount a horse than defending myself on here.
You are calling me an idiot for believing A LOT of research that I have studied and seen. I don’t think it’s that stupid of me.
I love Taiwan. I really do, but when I drive around on my scooter I see the grossest shacks and people living in TERRIBLE conditions. But they have cellphones…and cable TV. Its the same as walking around in Cape Town and seeing a sangoma with a bladder on his head and a Nokia on his belt.
I cant avoid seeing the phallic cockroach leg ribbed condom Taipei 101 wherever I go, but I almost die trying to avoid the potholes in the wonderful road full of palm trees that leads to it. I can’t drink the water in the taps, I can write my name in the soot on my face after a day on my scooter.
This is NOT a first world country. You can’t give Nikes to a hungry Ethiopian.
Would love to chat, but my horse needs to be de-roached. I left it on the sidewalk too long. 
Whether Taiwan is or isn’t first or third world I can’t say and don’t care. But I can tell you for an absolute certainty that it’s not second world. Second world refers to either the Soviet bloc or communist regimes.
I think this is a very interesting thread in a long time.
On one hand I agree with PoSTMoDeRNFuNK to a point. Personally, I don’t think Taiwan is a developed country. I think it’s a developing country where the gap between the rich and poor is extremely wide. The mentality is money first, life second.
Mahatma Gandhi wrote: [quote]One can measure the greatness and the moral progress of a nation by looking at how it treats its animals.[/quote]
There is the Animal Protection Law in Taiwan, but who enforces it?! All six officers?
On the other hand I agree with Mucha Man that you need to discover the beauty of Taiwan on your own. Her beauty doesn’t jump out at you like a map of Vancouver or Switzerland but it’s there. You just have to do a lot of pruning, but it’s sure worth the time to find.
Indeed. Again, 3rd world seems a bit too much (IMO - I have been to 3rd world countries), but as for 1st world I would easily say NO. So where does that leave it? Perhaps a newly defined ‘Second World’ term.
And indeed, 914 and Mucha Man, like any place, Taiwan has its beauties if you make the time to find them; and they are never far to reach! But then again, I may be strange in that I find beauty in the oddest places…
Actually, I’ve never really found any place to be ugly until I came here, and I have been to some UGLY places because I make it a bit of a hobby to explore less desired areas. (I like how one poster on another thread compared Taiwan to Cernobyl-which is similiar to the way I’ve felt it since initial arrival - that for the most human part of it, it is a factory island, made for instant production with cheap and multi purpose tins, horrible environmental ‘disasters’ in some areas, and often a diet that consists of flavourless and easily gulped, quickly digested don’t-even-have-to-chew food, etc… IN other words; Pure functionality.)
In the end, I have seen far more stunning places in the world than what I have ventured out to see in Taiwan (and I do make frequent mountain trips, coast line trips, or even around Taiwan train trips); but none the less, when I contrast it to the bloody war like massacres I encounter and battle my way through in every day city driving and working life, those natural phenomenons I manage to see that aren’t engulfed with exessive pollution, DO seem like a beam from the heavens in those moments.
Oh my god. If Taiwan is still a developing country, then where the heck is China? 10th world country? That’s quite depressing.
Excellent! :bravo:
A sense of humor will make anyplace a 1st class place. 
bravo.
Taiwan is part of the new-new world…it’s a tweener country.
When I go back to where I came from, way upstate NY, very poor, very rural, very backwards…I often ask myself whether or not it is a 1st world community too.
Great civil thoughtful comeback. Anything from me after 1AM is 50/50.
peace
Bu lai en and Tetsuo…it is kind of useless to discuss whether Taiwan is first, second or whatever world, because those terms are not really used in their original context anymore. I think during one of the world wars people started talking about America and some of its allies as first world, the Soviet bloc (like Tetsuo said) was second world, and Asia, Africa, etc. were all third world. I think the connotation with third world as poor countries came later. I always thought it wasn’t kosher to use those terms anymore, and that they had been replaced with developed and developing.
I think Taiwan is usually defined as a developed nation, if you look at its GDP, etc. However, in today’s postmodern world ( 
) where boundaries, facts and perspectives keep shifting, people who don’t value economic growth that much might well look at the shacks, pollution and roaches and think wtf.
Re the original topic: I usually don’t respond well to generalizations. If somebody rants for an hour about how unfair his boss treated him I’ll listen and not get defensive, even though our setting is Taiwan and the boss is Taiwanese. However, if somebody starts any rant with “Taiwan is…” or “The Taiwanese are…” I tend to become unsympathetic to their arguments. In the latter case I could definitely get slotted into the category of morons who get defensive about Taiwan. 
I don’t get it. Ok, it wasn’t my original question…but I’m interested in this whole 1st vs 3rd world scuffle.
I have seen many maps where Taiwan is shown as a 3rd world. AND YES…I come from a 3rd world.
So , can anyone show me PROOF that it is a 1st world country? Any link to a map that shows it’s not 3rd world?
Thanking you in advance for your time searching online:)
People always ask for PROOF…and even if I give it, they still question it. Like someone the other day actually questioning my experience. Seems to happen a lot here…
"I have a friend with Aids’’
complete stranger : ’ I doubt it.’
How can people just question things that happen in my life if they don’t even know me? I dooooon’t get it.