HOW TO BECOME "THIRD WORLD"
Sometimes it is hard to identify with those who live in "Third World" countries. Here are ten things you can do to make it easier to imagine what it is like to live as they do:
First, take out all your furniture: leave a few old blankets, a kitchen table, maybe a wooden chair. You've never had a bed, remember?
Second, throw out your clothes. Each person in the family may keep their oldest suit or dress, a shirt or blouse. The head of the family has the only pair of shoes.
Third, all kitchen appliances have vanished. Keep a small box of matches, a small bag of flour, some sugar and salt, a handful of onions, a dish of dried beans. Rescue the moldy potatoes from the garbage can. Those are tonight's meal.
Fourth, dismantle the bathroom, shut off the running water, take out the wiring and lights and everything that runs by electricity.
Fifth, take away the house and move the family into the tool shed.
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Sixth, no more postmen, firemen, or government services. The two-room school is three miles away, but only two of your seven children attend anyway, and they walk.
Seventh, throw out your bankbooks, stock certificates, pension plans, insurance policies. You now have a cash board of $5.
Eighth, get out and start cultivating your three acres. Try hard to raise $300 in cash crops because your landlord wants one third and your moneylenders want ten percent.
Ninth, find some way for your children to bring in a little extra income so you have something to eat most days. It still won't be enough to keep bodies healthy, so lop off 25 or 30 years of your life.
finally, there is one more thing you can do. Come with us to some of the neediest places on earth. There are teams leaving for India, Ukraine, Haiti, or somewhere else. Won't you join us so you personally make and impact on someone in need.
Taken from Adbusters (Winter 1998) (Poverty, Third World)
