The Brandt Line, also known as the North-South divide, it is a divisionary line which simply separates the rich countries in the North from the poor countries in the South. It encircles the world at latitude of 30°N. It crosses North and Central America, North of Africa and India, and then it goes down towards the South, placing Australia and New Zealand above the line. The Brandt line does take into account different development factors such as health care facilities, gross domestic product, education levels etc.
How was the Brandt Line formed?
Over thirty years ago, a commissioned chaired by Willy Brandt, former chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, published a report “North-South; A programme for survival” in 1980. The whole point of the report was to create a boundary line between the North and the South.
Not all countries have developed at the same rate and globally there is an unequal distribution of wealth. Most economically developed countries (MEDCs) cover only 20% of the world’s population but have 80% of the world’s wealth, and are located in the northern hemisphere and include countries like USA, Canada, Britain, Germany, Japan etc. the southern hemisphere with African countries, for example.
There are a lot of arguments put forward regarding the location of the Brandt Line. The line portrayed the lack of industrial development in South America and Africa, firstly because of their demographics and secondly, due to their exploitation as colonies by Europe’s countries from the 16th to 19th centuries.
It is critical to understand that the status of some countries is static and that the pattern is likely to distort due to the fast development of some of the Southern countries, many of them newly indu...
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...ne countries at a fixed position, as was shown in the Brandt Line in 1981 by Will Brandt. The line should include China, Brazil, South Korea, Argentina, India, Saudi Arabia and South Africa above the line along with the rich north as their economies have developed at a faster rate over the period of time, who knows other economies around the world also change over the course of time and then again the Brandt Line could become invalid.
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http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Is_the_brandt_line_still_relevant_today
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Development_geography
http://www.slideshare.net/geographyalltheway/ib-geography-development-brandt-line
...conomically beneficial trade and technology development. In this regard the Epilogue uses sound logic to plausibly answer the wealth question. On the other hand, Mr. Diamond uses the same "national competition" thesis to purport that Asia's large, centralized governments were conspicuously growth-inhibitive. This argument would not seem to pass muster given what we have learned about the role of governments. Professor Wright's slides state that "Centralization may limit predation and even allow for growth" as "centralized predation = incentives to maximize the haul " This clearly refutes Mr. Diamond's argument that centralized, monopolistic Asian governments impaired societal advances. Thus, Guns, Germs, and Steel can scantly explain why China and the Middle East remain emerging markets while Western and Northern Europe enjoy significantly larger national wealth.
Unlike the North – a term in vogue today, among others, for highlighting the difference between the rich, industrialised nations of mostly Western Europe, North America, Australasia, and the rudimentary economies of Latin America, Asia and Africa – underdevelopment, characterised by low income levels, poverty, low living standards and other socio-economic ills seem to be a defining feature of countries in these regions, collectively described as the Global South. Thomas (2003), Hershberg and Moreno-Brid(2003), and, Solimano(2005) suggest, for instance, that the socio - economic structure of most Latin American countries remains defined by vast inequalities in income and wealth distribution, poverty, volatile growth, high mortality rate and a high level of economic vulnerability. In Asia, a number of countries including the large economies of India and China have made improvements in the 21st century in terms of reducing poverty. Yet, 22% of the developing countries in Asia live on a dollar a day . The situation is bleaker in the South and Southeast Asia region where 38% leave on less than a dollar a day and over 48% of the population living below the regions individual country poverty line . Likewise, absolute poverty is on the rise in Africa - generally recognised as the world’s richest continent in terms of natural resources - despite a recorded decline in global poverty rates (Bhattacharyya: 2005).
The Berlin Wall, built in August of 1961, was s physical symbol of the political and emotional divisions of Germany. The Wall was built because of a long lasting suspicion between the Soviet Union on one side and Western Europe and the United States on the other. For 28 years the Berlin Wall separated friends, families, and a nation. After WWII was over Germany was divided into four parts. The United States, Great Britain, and France controlled the three divisions that were formed in the Western half and the Eastern half was controlled by the Soviet Republic. The Western sections eventually united to make a federal republic, while the Eastern half became communist.
Between 1961 and today, the Berlin Wall saw many changes, and so did the people that it entrapped. Prior to the construction of the Berlin Wall, borders between East and West Germany were closed in 1952 because of tension between Communists and Democratic superpowers and the only open crossing left in Berlin. West Germany was blockaded by the Soviets and only kept alive because of air drops made by the Western Allies (Time). The Soviets had to do something about the mass amount of people leaving Soviet East Berlin for West Berlin, and the non-communist world. The most visible aspect of the Cold War was the Berlin Wall. Before the wall was constructed, East and West Germans could travel freely between the two states.
Every year there is a ‘league table‘ published showing the level of economic growth achieved by each country. The comparison is made using each countries Gross Domestic Product, or GDP. An important factor to look at is the difference between actual and potential economic growth. Actual economic growth increases in real GDP. This increase can occur as result of using previously unemployed resources, or reallocating resources into more productive areas or improving existing resources. Whereas potential economic growth is the productive capacity of the economy. For example, it can be shown by the predicted ability of the country to produce goods and services. This changes when there is an increase in the quantity or quality of the resources. All countries have different ways of achieving this with the resources they have available to them. For this reason it party answers the question of why some countries are richer than others. It is widely thought that the productive capacity of an economy will increase each year largely due to improvements in education and technology. This will obviously differ from country to country. For example, in the UK the quality of fertilizer could be improved, hence forth increase the years fruit and vegetable output.
Landes, D., 1999. The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 38-59
Turner, Henry Ashby. Germany from Partition to Reunification. New Haven, CN: Yale University Press, 1992. Print.
Brazil, the world’s seventh largest economy by nominal GDP, the sixth largest by purchasing power parity (The World Bank. 2016.), one of the fastest-growing major economies in the world, with an average annual GDP growth rate of over 5% (Blankfeld. 2010.). On paper, evaluating based on GDP, Brazil has acquired status that of developed country, surpassing United Kingdom, Sweden, most European
1. Dateline-world region: The choices available were: North America (United States and Canada), Central America and the Caribbean, Latin America, Western Europe (including Turkey and Greece), Eastern Europe, Russia and former Soviet republics, China, the Middle East, North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa (including South Africa), developing Asia (mostly South and some Southeast Asia), developed Asia (mostly East and Southeast Asia), Oceania (Australia, New Zealand, and other Pacific Islands), global, the United Nations and other similar global organizations, and other/none.
Paul Collier’s book is about the future of the world. Most of the world is on the positive trajectory set by growth and prosperity. The 21st Century is the age of the middle class. For most of the world, things are looking up. However, Collier is concerned with a group of countries that are not part of this trajectory. Collier is concerned with approximately 58 countries that constitute about one billion people, or 20 percent of the earth’s population (Collier 7). This “bottom billion” group belongs to countries that are not progressing with the rest of the world’s pace; in fact, they seem to be diverging and falling apart when everyone else around them are growing. The purpose of the book is to show these countries are, in fact, diverging. He shows them caught in four different “traps.” After proving this, Collier has the challenge of making the case for reform and what can be done to fix these countries and put them on the course towards growth and prosperity. Finally, Collier has to show why the western world should care about supporting these countries and reversing their decline and how their current poor trajectory represents a drain on the global economy and security environment. The Bottom Billion is written for a broad audience; essentially all citizens of democratic countries. Collier encourages action by all levels but recommendations are made for policymakers in G8 countries that are responsible and interested in achieving improvement for impoverished countries.
In conclusion, Collier thoroughly explains his reasons behind why the bottom billion countries are poor. His arguments covered a variety of the course concepts like internationalism, failed state, Globalization, and economic forces. However, after critical evaluation, it is clear that Collier ignored and underestimated several of these concepts.
Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. "Apartheid (social Policy)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 11 Jan. 2014.
Marks, Shula, and Stanley Trapido. "South Africa Since 1976: A Historical Perspective." South Africa: No Turning Back (1988): 1-45. Print.
Poverty is often defined in absolute terms of low-income (World Bank, 2015). According to Dollar, David and Art Kraay (2014, p.372), the percentage of the poor in the world declined between 2013 and 2014 from approximately 26% to 20% using Word Bank figures, and the absolute number from an estimated 1.3 to 1.1 billion. Especially in India, the number of poor reduced more than 600 million. Not only India and China, the number of poor of the “globalizing” group include Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Malaysia, Mexico, The Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, and more recently in Uganda and Mozambique were also felt of effectively: less than 800 million from 2013 to 2014. The data of World Bank demonstrated clearly the aspect: one of benefit of globalization is poverty