This document discusses modern challenges faced by developed and developing countries. Developed countries tend to have strong economies, educated populations with good healthcare access, and consume a large share of global resources. Developing countries have weaker economies with widespread poverty, lower education levels, and less healthcare access. Population growth and environmental degradation also present challenges. Other issues include immigration, technology gaps, ethnic/religious conflicts, and poverty. However, some argue that free market economies can help developing countries increase wealth and political freedoms, as seen in Asian Tiger economies like Taiwan and South Korea.

1. Modern Day Challenges

2. Developed vs. Developing countries
• When we look at the present
day world, we see that not all
countries share the same
amount of success. Obviously,
people in different parts of
the world do not share the
same standard of living.
• Recently countries in the
world have been divided into
two categories:
– Developed Countries (wealthy,
successful)
– Developing Countries (not so
successful)

3. The Human Development Index rates countries on a number of factors
including poverty, literacy, education, health, and equality.

4. Developed Nations
Developed Nations tend to share some
important characteristics.
• Economic Success. They are industrialized
countries with modern infrastructures.
They tend to have a fair distribution of
wealth and lack widespread poverty
• Social Conditions. Almost all its people
are literate and education is available to
everyone. People in developed countries
have easy access to health care so that
common illnesses and epidemics do not
cause serious health risks.

5. Developed Nations (continued)
• Developed Nations as a
whole, have less
population than
Developing Nations but
still consume large
percentages of the
world’s resources.
• Population in developed
countries also grows at a
much slower rate than in
developing countries.
• Developed Nations are
mainly located north of
the developing countries
of the world.

6. Developing Countries
Developing Countries share characteristics that are
opposite of the developed countries.
• Their economies are not as successful, wealth is
concentrated in a few people’s hands and there is
widespread poverty
• Education opportunities are not as great, and large
percentages of the population are often illiterate.
• Health care is not easily accessible making disease
and epidemics serious problems.

7. Developing Countries (Continued)
• Developing countries make
up the majority of the
world’s population and they
have seen their population
grow at a much faster rate.
• Geographically, developing
countries tend be in the
southern parts of the world.
Developing countries
have young people make
up a larger percentage of
their population

8. Environmental Challenges
Economic development and
the rapid growth of
population are having an
impact on the environment.
• Deforestation: from
irresponsible development
• Loss of habitat
• Global climate change
• Pollution – air and water
These problems have made
health problems worse in
developing countries.

9. Social Challenges
• Poverty
• Poor health
• Illiteracy
• Famine
• Migration

10. More Problems: Immigration
• Movement of different groups of people have presented
another challenge for the present day world.
• Refugees have been forced to leave their country due to wars
or disasters. They are not always welcomed in foreign
countries.
• European countries have slowed their natural birth rate and
would see their population decrease if it were not for
immigration. The loss of population has created a labor
shortage for some jobs.
• European and US cities have seen an influx of “guest workers”
who typically perform low paying jobs that Europeans or
Americans refuse to do. The influx of these people though
has caused tension and racism in different parts of Europe.

12. Other Challenges: Technology
• The development of computer technology and the internet
has made it easier for parts the world to connect with each
other.
• However, this technology is not equally accessible by all
people in the world, which has created a technology gap that
leaves poorer people and part of the world lagging behind.
• Other technology challenges deal with possibly having too
much technology. Genetic engineering and issues such as
cloning allow us to possibly create perfect forms of life. This
raises the issues of bioethics and how involved we should get
in controlling nature.

13. World IP Address Locations

14. Ethnic and Religious Conflicts
• Ethnic and religious conflicts have taken place
or are currently taking place in the following
regions:
– Middle East
– Northern Ireland
– Balkans
– Horn of Africa
– South Asia

15. The Middle East: Arab-Israeli Conflict
• Muslim Arabs resent the creation of
the Jewish State of Israel. This country
was formed with land previously held
by Britain but populated by Arabs
(British Palestine).
• Jews believe that Israel is their proper
homeland and the only way they can
be safe from oppression.
• Muslim Arabs view Israel as land taken
from Arabs.
• Israel has received support from the US
and become a dominant military power
in the region.
• This has led a number of Muslim Arabs
to resent the US as well.

16. Northern Ireland
• Northern Ireland is a part of the
United Kingdom that has religious
tension between Irish Catholics who
want to be independent and
Protestants (unionists) who want to
remain part of the UK.
• The Irish Republican Army is a
paramilitary group that has often
attacked British buildings and
establishments to try and gain
freedom. Although they have
recently renounced violence, peace
in the area is very unstable.

17. The Balkans
• With the collapse of
communism in E. Europe
several ethnic groups in the
Balkan Peninsula have fought
wars to increase their power
and influence in the area.
• Serbs – Eastern Orthodox
• Croats and Slovenians –
Catholic
• Bosnia and Herzegovina –
Muslims
• Atrocities committed in
these wars make peace very
unstable.
• Example - Bosnian Serbs
used ethnic cleansing to get
rid of the Muslims in the area

18. African Conflicts
• Sudan/Darfur: Divisions in the
country between Arab and African
Muslims in the North versus
traditional and Christian Africans in
the South has led to a long civil war
that has left thousands massacred or
dying of starvation.
• Sierra Leone: Brutal civil war has left
the country in a horrible state of
poverty even though it contains
some of the richest diamond mines
in the world.
• Somalia: Warlords compete for
control of area. Desperate situation
has led many to resort to criminal
acts such as piracy.

19. Asian Conflicts
• Several ongoing conflicts in Asia also threaten
world peace.
– North Korea v. South Korea: stemming from end
of WWII continuing from Cold War
– Pakistan v. India: mainly over the area of Kashmir
– China v. Taiwan: stemming from the Chinese Civil
War

20. Hope for the Future
• With all of the problems
facing people of the world,
many have sought the key
to success that can help
struggling countries
overcome.
• A common argument
suggests that a free-
market economy creates a
large middle class and
generates wealth. As
countries become
wealthier they tend to see
more political freedoms
and rights granted to their
people.
Free Market Economies are seen as
the way to help people of the world
gain wealth and political rights

21. Success Stories: The “Asian Tigers”
• Taiwan and South Korea serve
as examples that support this
argument.
• Over the last 50 years these
countries have grown into
regional economic powers and
are now often referred to as
the “Asian Tigers.”
• Political rights for the people
in these countries have also
increased.