Some Comparisons
Top ten way to tell when you are in a first world
country (or city)
1. A majority of the people look
"good". (they have time and money to tend to appearances).
2. People form orderly queues (wherever a
queue is necessary), rather than mobbing and shoving.
3. You see people on the street exercising
(running, walking etc for health).
4. Sleeping in a park (train station, etc)
with the bums is a viable lodging option.
5. If toilet paper is used, it
is provided where there are toilets.
6. There is a six items or less line at
the grocery store (or, there is a grocery store at all).
7. There are shopping malls.
8. You have the ability to be shadier than the people
are (as opposed to the people being guaranteed shadier than you).
9. The bus (minibus, truck, etc) only stops at
scheduled times or places (rather than stopping for anyone that flags it down,
even if it is packed already, and even if the person only needs to ride one
mile and the bus is going 20 hours).
10. You hear Brittney Spears being played.
Top
ten ways to tell when you are in a third world/developing country
1. Women perform significantly different functions and
act quite differently than men.
2. Shopping tends towards of buying items from
individual merchants (vs. some type of store).
3. Police or military on the street are armed with
weapons like you have only seen in movies.
4. Most people over age 20 are missing at least some
of their teeth.
5. There are a significant number of stray dogs (or
other animal) populating the streets.
6. Relief of human waste occurs many places besides
toilets, often even in ancient national monuments.
7. Major streets, sometimes even highways, are
unpaved. Also, there is a lack of curbs.
8. The local currency has recently been
devalued, has an exchange rate with the U.S. Dollar greater than 1,000, is
pegged to the U.S. Dollar (or the German DM etc), or the U.S. Dollar (or some
other currency) is explicitly or implicitly used everywhere.
9. There is rebar sticking out of many buildings.
10. There are open sewers, or sewers which have recently been covered (with concrete pieces) in the last few years.
Top things you find in any country in the world
1. You see McDonalds, Coca Cola, Esso/Exxon,
and Pringles. Note that if you arrive in a country and can not figure out the
exchange rate, you can get a good idea by dividing the price of a can of
Pringles by about two (see related
article).
2. U.S. Dollars are the most widely accepted form of currency (only second to the local currency, and sometimes even moreso than that).
3.
People are religious (although religious fervor is inversely proportional to
state of development).
4. There is some tourist roaming the country using a
Lonely Planet guidebook.
5.
6. Babies act the same everywhere (as do dogs).
7. The people are "the greatest people in the
world".
8. There is a spectrum ranging from (say on the left) a lifelong resident to (on the right) someone who has never heard of the place (tourists fitting in between)... and those further to the left always believe that someone to the right of them has not spent enough time in that country.