Chris Perrin writes about this on the portal "Antimedia".
Before George Manuel published his book The Fourth World: An Indian Reality (The Fourth World: An Indian Reality), the very ideas about any real differences between groups of people in developed countries were taboo. At that time, the rights of indigenous peoples were not yet identified as a political problem, as a stain on the relatively blank leaflet of statistics that the “first world” countries presented to the planet as a model.
However, after the book was published (it appeared in 1974 - O. Ch.), More and more scholars seek to study the differences between social groups - more precisely, between the inhabitants of the “fourth world” existing within the countries of the “first world”.
The fourth world is basically those groups of the population who live in this state, but in no way or almost no way represented by the government of this state. These groups of the population from the point of view of the category of the first world, as a rule, are poor and do not meet the criteria of the country of the “first world”. They are literally depressed. In fact, we see the same openly in the third world when we look at Africa and South America. Unfortunately, the fourth world is growing, the author notes.
According to Anthony J. Hall on page 283 of his book “The American Empire and the Fourth World” (“The American Empire and the Fourth World”), indigenous peoples are not the only ones who feel marginalized within the North American “fourth world”.
For African Americans and Latinos, the “fourth world” is the same old reality under a new name. After the economic collapse of 2008, the black and Hispanic population turned into even more marginal than before. As the government once spoke of indigenous populations, now it must speak of other racial and ethnic groups.
Black Americans feel “increasingly limited in urban ghettos”, where the possibilities of the “first world” simply do not exist.
It is necessary to take into account the difference in income. The “Occupy” movement, the analyst notes, clearly indicates that the working poor no longer feel that the “first world” state observes their interests. And if we consider that the working but poor population of the United States is an ethnically diverse group already clearly similar to the marginal, we must assume that the American population of the “fourth world” is at least comparable to the population of the “first world” of America. But look: the US government continues (at least nominally) to deliver assistance to third world countries, and the fourth world inside the US is slowly but surely forgotten.
While the “first world” criticizes various governments in the “traditional” countries of the “third world” as unjust and corrupt, talking about continuing human rights violations, the same violations committed against the “fourth world” are constantly ignored.
If such a "view" has the government an increasing number of people in the United States, then the very concepts of the "first" and "fourth" worlds should be revised. More importantly, the place in the “first world” of the United States should be rechecked.
The truth about the poor "fourth world" in the West, we add, is not at all a figment of the author's imagination. The gap between the rich and the poor in the “first world” began to grow after the 2008 crisis of the year, and the number of poor began to grow - and not only in the USA.
According to the open data of the US Census Bureau, the number of poor in the country estimated in 46,180 million (2010), which is 15,1% of the total population (the poverty line for that year was considered income in 22314 dollars per year for a family of four).
In that year, the number of poor people in the United States was at the highest level ever observed (since 1959). Their share in the total population has become maximum since 1984. It was reported that the number of poor people in the country has been increasing for the fourth year in a row.
A similar picture is in Germany - almost a seventh of the population (11,5 million people) lives there at or below the poverty line. The number of poor people has increased by one third over the past ten years.
Both Germany and the United States, we recall, attribute themselves to the “First World”.
Russia also boasts a large number of beggars.
At the end of February TASS cited data on the number of Russians who have incomes below the subsistence minimum. This was announced by Minister of Labor and Social Protection of the Russian Federation Maxim Topilin in an interview with "NTV".
“Over the year, this figure increased in absolute terms by 3 million, that is, 16, 19 became millions of people who are below the subsistence minimum. 60%, and even 70% of these poor are families with children, ”the agency quotes the minister.
The subsistence minimum in general in Russia is established by a government decree on a quarterly basis for the main socio-demographic groups: for the working-age population, pensioners, children, and separately for per capita. The subsistence minimum per capita in the third quarter of 2015 was set at 9673 rubles.
19 million from 146,5 million people in Russia, we add, is almost 13%.
True, Russia does not classify itself to the “First World” and certainly does not declare it “exclusive”.
Observed and commented on Oleg Chuvakin
- especially for topwar.ru
- especially for topwar.ru