3rd world countries

Ok so today in class we had a somewhat heated discussion on 3rd world countries. Who are they? What makes them 3rd world countries and such. I was born and lived in India for 7.5 years of my life, and even when I go back now I'm not scared to walk around the market places, where you will see many homeless people lying down on the streets or beggars stalking people asking for money. However, when I drive through Wyandanch in Long Island I lock all my doors, roll up my windows and try to go as fast as I can. Even when I am with my brother or dad I'm still nervous about what can happen.

So at the end of the day I decided that its all a matter of perspective. Why are there so many people that think India is a 3rd World Country? It's because when you look in magazines, movies, and such they only show the poor India. Even Slumdog Millionare, they didnt show how the wealthy people lived. Gauranteed that's not what the movie was about, but I'm just giving one example. A lot of people also consider India a 3rd world country because, there is a far greater population than say USA so obviously relatively there will be more people that are poor, and homeless. Also in India, there are local slums where all the people live, unlike the USA where they are hidden from the people's eye.


Some pictures I would like to share about the beautiful construction of India.
http://www.gurgaonsite.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/sahara-mall.jpg

http://www.beginningwithi.com/images/india/IMG_1887.jpg

http://www.terragalleria.com/images/india/indi39147.jpeg

http://images01.olx.in/ui/2/93/78/21178578_1.jpg