[hidroto]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_North_and_Global_South

[alabhyajindal]

First time seeing this and it feels so offensive. I'm somewhat okay with the term developed and developing countries, though not too much [1]. But this just feels discriminatory.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factfulness

[YurgenJurgensen]

Don’t bother trying to learn the new shibboleths. By the time the majority has accepted them, they’ll be outdated and the progressives will have moved onto another set. Before ‘developed’ and ‘developing’ we had ‘first world’ and ‘third world’.

[incr_me]

Offensive how? "Developing" and "things aren't so bad" are offensive because they obfuscate imperialist relations. That's the position of the theorists who use "Global North"/"South", anyway. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_North_and_Global_South#...

What do you mean by discriminatory?

[micromacrofoot]

it is discriminatory, though that wasn't the original intention

[bregma]

What are "developing" countries developing into? Nice white western ones like the global north?

Nope. That one is the worst of the choices.

[koyote]

That is such an odd list.

I also love that Singapore is both 'developing' on this list and int the Small Island Developing States list, despite it easily being in the top 10 of most developed countries in the world.

[shirro]

Yep, living in a de-industrialised, undiversified economy, second most southern in the global north I can only wish by kids had access to a Singaporean education.

Regional politics is complicated. Australia needs to be in the ASEAN group. We have common interests in regional security and stability and have complementary capabilities and resources. But its convenient to label us as outsiders and characterise us as imperialists or American agents (which sadly we sort of are but give us some options). Doesn't matter that we are right here and 20% of our population originated from the asian countries to the north of us. For some reason we are on the imperialist side.

[thw_9a83c]

Such grouping is based on dubious theories. For example, China is classified as a "developing economy" (red), even though it is one of only three countries with the independent capability to send humans into Earth's orbit using its own launch systems and spacecraft.

[Legend2440]

China has had massive economic growth in recent years, but were undisputedly a developing country prior to that growth.

They may deserve to be reclassified now, although their GDP per capita is still much lower than the US.

[smsm42]

Sending humans to orbit while leaving millions of other humans starving on Earth is not a sign of great economy. China undoubtedly made a lot of progress in recent decades, but it also started from a very low point. Its GDP per capita has improved greatly but still way lower than most Western countries.

[gowld]

China (and India) are near the border, which is creeping downward as nations develop economically.

Australia is the funny one.

[tintor]

How is Australia part of Global North? :)

[decimalenough]

North is 0-127, South is 128-255. When you go south enough, the 8-bit counter overflows and that's how Australia becomes North.

Alternatively, "Global North" is just code for "white", with a few apartheid-style token "honorary whites" like Japan added.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honorary_whites