The Second World War ended with a new geographical map of the world. The USA and USSR emerged as the two superpowers. Each superpower maintained its own sphere of influence. Direct colonial rule came to an end in most of the poor and under developed countries of Latin America, Asia and Africa from the “third world”. Third world countries are now overpopulated. The mass of its population live close to the margin of subsistence. Most of the third world countries are agricultural. But productivity on land is very low.  

They are not familiar with the up-to-date appliances that are used by the western countries in the cultivation of soil. Industrial growth is very slow. In science and technology, they are very backward. Their imports are more than exports. Their per capita national income is very low in comparison with other developed countries. All these facts go to suggest that their standard of living is very low and their economic resources are inadequate to sustain so large a population. Underdevelopment makes an unmistakable mark on the state of social organisation in a third world country. The rural and urban landscape, the modes of social life, the mental outlook and the moral values of the people of the third world have a degree of similarity. Poverty, ignorance and diseases walk hand in hand with the people. 

Political instability is another important feature of a third world country. There is no political awareness in the common man in a third world country. The ruling class takes no interest in the welfare of the people. They work as an agent of the western vested interests. Corruption is rampant. It is high time that countries of the third world must unite and act sensibly. A high degree of planning is required of the limited resources available to them were to be efficiently used. 

RABBIA WASI, 

Karachi, November 3.