to ask all of us prone to sneering about 'first world problems' to read this?

[bigmouthstrikesagain]

third world problems

Thought provoking read.

[bigmouthstrikesagain]

gawd tablet fail sorry posted this thread twice!

[RichManPoorManBeggarmanThief]

"Like"

[jennybeadle]

I'd don't. But that's a nice piece, well put. Good find!

[OnwardBound]

Sorry, I don't get twitter AT ALL.

All I could see was a stream of admittedly interesting thoughts but no 'well put piece' or debate or argument?

How do you make sense of that?

[newNN]

I don't get twitter either. All the people I thought were going to be interesting are boring as fuck and just witter on about football etc and I don't know how to stumble across interesting people that I have never heard of irl.

I thought those tweets were interesting. Of course people in 3rd world countries experience problems not necessarily connected to the fact that they live in a 3rd world country.

It does piss me off when people post 'first world problem' at an OP, as if they have no right to think about/be upset by anything less major than massive catastrophe.

[Patchouli]

I don't get twitter either and don't really know what I'm looking at there.
(that'll be a first world problem then will it?)

[valiumredhead]

What?

[bigmouthstrikesagain]

For those of you that don't do twitter this link puts the tweets in an article format.

It is thoughts about the way people patronise the inhabitants of the 'third world' by assuming minor irritations about technology etc. don't effect the poor. I found it refreshing to read.

[ChazsBrilliantAttitude]

Is that really what the expression first world problem means? I always assumed it meant that you get bogged down with trivial issues because most of your major needs get met.

DH's family live in North Africa and yes they do have issues with their mobile phone reception sometimes and have to fiddle with the satellite dish etc. But they are more focussed on the fact that it is currently quite dangerous in their country, the democracy is a complete sham, the lights regularly go off for hours at a time and they don't have running water everyday.

I don't assume that they don't have minor irritations but rather that they would be quite glad that the minor irritations were all they had to worry about.

[bigmouthstrikesagain]

I think the point is that it is easy to forget that while the 'big important stuff' wars, famine, poor infrastructure etc etc is ever present in the lives of people in Africa (for e.g.), the minor irritations of life also continue and remembering this helps to humanise the way we in the 'developed' world think about the developing world.

I am sure that is not an issue if you already have a personal connection with family/ friends in Africa, but it is a useful perspective, imo.

It is also true that there is an occasional tendency on mn for an op to be dismissed as having a fwp when they are complaining about something minor. Which may be true but is not always a helpful opinion for someone genuinely upset about something. Being told there ' are starving people in Africa' did not persuade me to eat swede when I was a child! Though it perhaps should have.

[ChazsBrilliantAttitude]

bigmouth
I see your point.

As you say I probably have a different perspective because I know the people as individuals.

[NoTeaForMe]

I don't understand this at all. Agree with Chaz surely the point is that the silly phone connectivity problems etc may happen in the third world but it's hardly a worry for them when they're worried for their life/getting food etc. Also the true first world problems like 'shall I get the 16gb or iPhone 5' is hardly Likely to happen in the slums of Africa etc.

Or am I missing the point entirely?

[MrsHelsBels74]

I don't get it. Surely third world problems are the 'have I got enough food/water/medicine' kind. I'm sure given a choice between food to feed your family & a mobile signal, no-one would choose mobile signal.

To me, first world problems are a non life threatening inconveniences rather than true problems but maybe I'm interpreting it wrong

[BridgetBidet]

That's kind of irritated me. I went to boarding school in the 90s with lots of girls who came from Africa and I'm still in touch with them. These girls were usually sent there by their parents employers, usually the IMF or World Bank or policitians - so these weren't poor girls by any means.

I'm in contact with them all on facebook and pretty much invariably they only use the site once every six months or so because they don't have reliable internet access. They are the African middle class but they don't have blackberries or laptops etc. There concerns are much more what you would expect - in particular I know several of them are effected by the fear of violence based on gender, religion or tribal faction in a way that is far, far removed from anything we experience in the west.

I get the feeling this is someone who is very, very privileged just assuming that everybody else has just as privileged lifestyle as him.

[grovel]

Tweeting is a first world problem.

[bigmouthstrikesagain]

I am not sure what there is to 'get' to be honest the last tweet was what summed it up for me in a way 'even slaves told fart jokes'!

The link is a stream of thoughts/ consciousness on the idea of the first world problems, how people in the 'third world' still have trivial problems, frustrations with technology, there are people with mobile phones and phone masts in townships. Life goes on even in troubled times not every single person is battling for their existence every moment. I don't think it is meant to be trivializing poverty but giving a different perspective.

[Greythorne]

My understanding is that, often, on MN, someone will post, "My MIL is getting on my nerves because she keeps feeding my DC proscuitto when we are vegetarian" and someone will retort: "first world problem" with the subtext that, "your DC are being looked after by a loving relative and fed decent, even luxurious food and here you are, whinging! think about children in Africa who are starving".

But that "FWP" retort serves only to reinforce the stereotype that people in the developing world are:

a) all starving
b) don't have the usual worries about MILs and DC and what they will and won't eat and all the rest of the minutiae.

Yes, if you are living in the Democratic Republic of Congo, then of course, infant mortality and adequate nutrition for your children is likely to be high on your list of fears. But that's not to say you don't get pissed off when small things go wrong or your MIL does something annoying, because people in the developing world are first human beings with all the complex emotional inner life we all have and people living in a struggling nation.

It reminds me of the story of the concentration camp survivor who emerged from the camps feeling he would never complain about the mundane ever again, just be grateful for ever day, every minute. But within a few months he was grumbling about poor plumbing in his flat and being given a table by the loos in a café. That's because he was a normal man with irritations and desires and needs, even though he had been in a camp.

This chap on Twitter is trying to highlight that people in Africa (and elsewhere) experience the same range of emotions and get upset about the same crap people in Europe do, even when facing more dramatic situations in the big picture. It's a way of reminding us Africans are not all noble, sad, pitiful creatures, starving and wasting away.

[notsofrownieface]

What Greythorne said.

[Greythorne]

Also the true first world problems like 'shall I get the 16gb or iPhone 5' is hardly Likely to happen in the slums of Africa etc.

TBH, I think the stuff about technology and internet connections are slightly wide of the mark. Yes, in developing countries, being food insecure is much more important than having a swanky phone.

But, even in developing countries, people have spats with their MILs and their neighbours and worry about their children and their friendship circles and endure petty jealousies and have affairs and all the rest.

[ChazsBrilliantAttitude]

But, even in developing countries, people have spats with their MILs and their neighbours and worry about their children and their friendship circles and endure petty jealousies and have affairs and all the rest.

Yes, I wholeheartedly agree with this. These are not people who are simply defined by the catalogue of larger problems they face, they are normal families who experience many of the same dynamics as families around the world.

DH's culture is still based around the extended family so I would say family issues, niggles etc are probably felt even more strongly. If we are hosting a family event the only way to escape the politics is either to limit it to siblings or invite everyone remotely connected with the family. Its rather like some of the birthday /wedding threads you get on here.

[DoJo]

I have always seen 'first world problems' used in the context of a joking acknowledgement that things could be worse - generally either self-mocking in a way that demonstrates that the poster knows they are complaining about a problem that most people would love to have, or a humorous reminder that a little perspective is a wonderful thing. I see it as a modern shorthand for the age-old 'there's always someone worse off than yourself' which is often annoying, but not particularly offensive to anyone in particular.

[BegoniaBampot]

This is slightly off topic, but this thread reminded me of an article I read a while back which really moved me, it will also start you off in a good mood today.
truly inspirational

[hackmum]

I thought bigmouth puts it very nicely with "I think the point is that it is easy to forget that while the 'big important stuff' wars, famine, poor infrastructure etc etc is ever present in the lives of people in Africa (for e.g.), the minor irritations of life also continue and remembering this helps to humanise the way we in the 'developed' world think about the developing world" as does Greythorne with "This chap on Twitter is trying to highlight that people in Africa (and elsewhere) experience the same range of emotions and get upset about the same crap people in Europe do, even when facing more dramatic situations in the big picture. It's a way of reminding us Africans are not all noble, sad, pitiful creatures, starving and wasting away."

One of the ironies with mobile phones is that they are often more crucial to Africans than they are to us - OK, they may not be worrying about whether to get the Samsung Galaxy or the iPhone 5, but they do mean, for example, that one person can walk to the well and then phone back to the village to let them know whether it's dry or full instead of loads of people having to do the walk. There's also a famous example of how mobile phones transformed the lives of Kerala fishermen by letting them know in advance whether there was a market for their goods: www.economist.com/node/9149142

[SolomanDaisy]

Some of these posts illustrate exactly what the tweets were describing as patronising.

[Greythorne]

Which ones, SolomanDaisy?