Is Taiwan a Third-World country? (1)

The answer is simple: No. Taiwan isn't a third-world country. A first-world country is a liberal, developed country, where individuals can vote and have rights, like most European countries and North-American countries, for example. A second-world country is a communist country, where people have rights only as long as they respect the leading political party, like Russia, China and North-Korea. A third-world country is a country which is poor, under-developed, and which doesn't fit it any of the first two categories. Countries in this broad category are all the others, namely most African countries, most South-American countries, most Middle-Eastern countries, India and some other Asian countries.

Taiwan is not communist. Taiwan became so populated when the Chinese people who were not communist decided to leave the mainland. They didn't all go to Taiwan. Thousands of them went to Thailand, to Malaysia, to Indonesia, and to Western countries, such as America and Australia. But those who left went to Taiwan for that particular reason: they were not communist. Therefore, Taiwan can't be placed in the second category. Let us examine the third.

I have been living in Kinshasa, the capital of the Congo, a Central African country, often somewhat poetically called 'the broken heart of Africa,' for a full year. And I plan to stay here for one more year. I teach French and English in a European school. So how is it? This is a third-world country. People who have electricity only have it for about five hours per day. The running water is so polluted that if you swallowed even a little bit you would get sick and if by mistake, while taking a shower, you poured some in your ears, you would get an otitis or some kind of ear infection. You can't walk in the street because dozens of people will ask you money and follow you, sometimes for several miles. If a policeman meets you, he will ask all your papers (up to your birth certificate). Since it's almost impossible that you have all the papers he wants to check, he will ask you for money. If you don't give him, you will be arrested.

Life is as expensive as in London. I pay 1,500 USD per month for a three-room apartment without much view. A night at a decent hotel costs about 120 USD. A meal for two costs at least 70 USD. The minimum rate of a taxi is 5 USD. And you can't go anywhere without a taxi because you can't walk, for aforementioned reasons, you can't ride a bicycle because car drivers don't pay attention to cyclists, you can't take the bus because there are very, very few, and because they wouldn't stop for a white person, and you can't take the train because there is only one per week and it only works on weekends. Supermarkets are very expensive. Most items cost twice more than in Europe. More than 50% of the people who could work are unemployed, but those who work rarely earn more 100 USD per month. Did you get that? This is a third-world country.