The Brandt Line: Two Different Realities
Everybody has already heard the word "inequality," which means difference. I would like to write an essay about global inequality. People briefly define Third World Countries as those which have an underdeveloped economy. It is a known fact that underdeveloped countries are predominantly located in the southern hemisphere. There is an imaginary line called the Brandt Line that divides the world, separating developed from underdeveloped countries (reference. com). The northern part of the world includes countries with the most industrialized economies that have access to plentiful resources, such as the United Kingdom or France. This can be contrasted to the South, excluding Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, in which its population is growing at a much faster rate than the resources they have acquired. Their economies are usually based on subsistence agriculture and the export of raw materials (nationmaster. com). The division between the Northern and Southern hemispheres has a relationship of subordination, which has its roots in colonialism and the new problems posed by globalization. The main cause of these differences was colonialism. Countries like Africa that had previously been conquered and colonized by different empires had a very disrupted economy which left them in a state of underdevelopment. Following these countries' independence, which was obtained by most countries, especially in the twentieth century, they failed to take the straightest path to development because the ruling class abruptly left those countries, causing huge delays in the socio-economic field (encyclopedia. com). In addition, the mother country that conquered the colony exploited it, transforming raw materials into finished products and selling them to other countries globally for mass profit at the expense of these countries. For example, British and French people had developed mining activity towards third-world underdeveloped countries. This meant that there was a lack of money circulating in those underdeveloped economies. Because of the past, these countries are still paying a high price: it prevents their citizens from having a good life, decreasing their social conditions, and therefore leads them to a life of poverty. Developed and underdeveloped countries have corruption in common. At the same time, because of poverty, they differ in many aspects.
First of all, there are political and structural features that make it difficult to deliver effective help to underdeveloped countries. Very often, those countries are ruled by authoritarian corrupted elites. For instance, almost without exception, these governments are very far from what we would call a democracy. Lack of a free opposition and the media's being unable to speak freely make it possible for the people in power to use the available resources, primarily money, for personal purposes. This in turn, boosts corruption that reaches levels unthinka...
