Hello all, I find this discussion fascinating as I have spent the bulk of my life under shifting definitions of my race, ethnicity, and economic status (as opposed to class). As a New Yorker of Puerto Rican and West Indian descent (Dominica, not the DR), I started out as Negro which shifted to to Black, which morphed into Black Puerto Rican, which transitioned Afro-Rican, then Nuyorican and now Boriqua. Concurrently Negro went out of fashion while Black gained ascendency, Black changed to African-American and Caribbean-American and everyone else shifted to other hyphenate-American nomenclature. Economically, I was born what we called working class living in the "projects" striving for middle class, or upper middle class. Those aspirations and distinctions have become far more amorphous as times progress. What I find interesting is how David's description of the vast chasm that has developed in India could easily describe what is devleoping in microcosm in my hometown where the "haves", and the "have-mores" are rapidly displacing not only the the "have nots" but even some of what were once known as the working and middle class. This pertains to the Digital Divide on a number of levels because education and access are tied together with the amount of $$ in ones life on so many levels. Education is still the key to climbing the economic ladder because you acquire skills and the ability to learn. You also find out about the options that you may be able to avail yourself of and the Internet can turbo-charge you ability to mobilize your resources IF you are well taught and motivated to do so. Paul Mondesire Thirteen/WNET Dave A. Chakrabarti" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I agree, but this often leaves open the question of defining new and appropriate terminologies for what we're trying to express. I'll use India as an example, since I'm very familiar with it (I grew up there, for the latter part of my childhood). India is extremely, ridiculously, industrialized, as a nation. India is also the world's largest democracy. India also sports a middle class with ridiculous amounts of purchasing power and a standard of living that, in many ways, far surpasses that of Western Europe or the US (do middle class Americans have chauffeurs and servants to clean their houses? Indians do, and couldn't live without them...upper middle class Indians rarely interact with the poverty you saw on National Geographic). And this brings me to the catch...India has a yawning chasm between the "middle" and the "lower" economic classes. And the "lower" economic classes comprise a very large percentage of the population. Which, given the size of the population, is a very large number of people indeed. It is easy to lose sight of this population if you are a member of a middle class that is trying to insulate itself as quickly as possible, or lose sight of the development in India if you are focusing on the poverty...but India is both, as much as it is anything. India is, in many ways, a better-than-first-world and a ridiculously-third-world nation at the same time. This dichotomy makes it very difficult to label India, and other nations like India (India is by no means alone) in terms of a category heading. This is the dilemma in finding a vocabulary for thought processes on these nations. Suggestions? D. --- Dave A. Chakrabarti Projects Coordinator CTCNet Chicago [EMAIL PROTECTED] Andrew Pleasant wrote: > For what it is worth, when a collective term is unavoidable I use > > high income, low income .. and less often, economies in transition. > > Most often these seem simply more accurate as the reference isn't really to > a state of 'development' or an alternative, and unfortunately too often > implied lesser, 'world'. > > ap > > > > On 11/7/05, Dr. Steve Eskow wrote: > >>Since I know that "Third World" was chosen by the partisans of those >>countries themselves, and many continue to favor it, I've been using >>"Third >>World" regularly. I think, however, that Don Osborn is right, and that the >>term has grown into negativity. >> >>... >>_______________________________________________ >>DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list >>DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org >>http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide >>To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] the word UNSUBSCRIBE in >>the body of the message. >> > > _______________________________________________ > DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list > DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org > http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide > To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE > in the body of the message. > > . > _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
