Fourth World

The term “fourth world” was used to define people, generally in third world countries, who have absolutely no ties to any kind of outside world. Commonly slave laborers and slum dwellers, these fourth world inhabitants have no access to the vast amount of information that we luckily do. An example of this can be found in Lagos; although Nigeria is a third world country, the outskirts of Lagos would be considered fourth world because of the condition of the people living there. This is ironic because inner Lagos may be considered a semi-periphery country…very confusing.

Today I stumbled upon the term “fourth world” as used to define countries that have no voice, and are rendered invisible. The article “Fourth World: Invisible Countries” by John Moynihan ( http://www.tiraspoltimes.com/node/826 ) discusses how there are many countries in the world that are not recognized; they have no representative at the United Nations and a desire to become a free state.

These countries are similar in that “they all have in common is a burning desire for independence. They are peoples with common cultures, or histories, or languages, who seek to rule themselves entirely, to govern and legislate and tax and trade independently, to define their own borders and exercise power over who may cross those lines. This is the Fourth World: the stateless and the unrecognized.”

These fourth world countries have a lot in common with fourth world people it seems…