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It first struck me when we were watching a news program
after the Bay Area earthquake last fall. The mayor of a
smaller city complained that his electrical power blinked
on and off at odd times, telephone calls frequently failed,
the water often wasn't fit to drink, medical services
remained substandard, transportation was haphazard, etc.
San Francisco may be functioning, but we're still living
under Third World conditions here,
he concluded.
He's got a lot of nerve to be whining,
Martha
commented. Things are that way here every day, and we
haven't even had an earthquake. Is that all it takes to
have Third World conditions?
Perhaps it takes more, but rural Colorado should still qualify. Just consider what else is normally required for Third World membership:
Low life expectancy. Where are young people most likely to die a violent death by suicide, murder or accident? If you said Lennox Avenue in Harlem or Mack Avenue in Detroit, you're wrong. According to a study published in the spring 1987 issue of The Public Interest, Main Street is the most probable spot for premature violent death, providing that Main Street runs through a small town in the West.
Plummeting wages. We all joke about countries where the wage drops from 30 cents an hour to 25. It isn't quite that bad in our own Third World. But in constant 1988 dollars 1988, the average full-time rural employee made $18,429 in 1979 and $17,279 in 1986. That's a decline of $1,150; during the same period, metro wages rose by $1,062.
Disparity between rich and poor. In school we were taught to admire America for having a middle class. This wasn't like those other countries where a few people lived in palaces and the great masses in hovels. That America isn't like the back country of our own state, either, where some Aspenites dwell in mansions and have nothing better to do than argue about fur, while the people who wait on them live in caves.
American invasions. Third-World nations frequently undergo armed invasions by outside powers. Often the U.S. sends the troops, as with Panama, Granada, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, or, a little less than a year ago, the town of San Luis, Colorado.
Tourism. Most Third-World nations struggle to bring in tourists, in the hope that some money will trickle down. Guess what every chamber of commerce in rural Colorado wants to do?
Guns and drugs. Aside from tourism, the major economic
activities in Third World nations involve guns and drugs.
Just where do they find all the skinhead and survivalist
munition caches? Could anybody really be surprised by the
headlines in the Sunday paper: Rural areas haven for
drug dealers, users
?
Getting from civilized America to the Third World used to involve a long trip. Now the Third World starts at the city limits, and you don't even need a passport.
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