# The World Is Complex. ‘Global South’ Isn’t. Stop saying it.

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Podcast: [WanderLearn: Travel to Transform Your Mind & Life](https://stenobird.com/podcast/wanderlearn-travel-to-transform-your-mind-life-1034312)
Published: 2026-05-08T17:03:58+00:00
Episode link: https://ftapon.substack.com/p/the-world-is-complex-global-south
Audio file: https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/196920657/45295bbf09f8e737ce1b972577711a69.mp3
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Duration seconds: 124

## Resource

The term “Global South” is doing a lot of heavy lifting for a geographically illiterate phrase. Australia is in the Global South. So is New Zealand. Both are fabulously wealthy, stable democracies with excellent dental care. Meanwhile, Afghanistan is in the Global North. The “Global South” term was invented by diplomats who needed something that sounded neutral but meant “the countries that got colonized and are still annoyed about it,” which is fair, but the compass metaphor fell apart immediately upon contact with a map. “Developing countries” is perhaps the most optimistic euphemism in the history of language. It implies that Sudan is in some kind of chrysalis phase, about to emerge as a butterfly of prosperity any day now — any decade now — just give it time. Sudan has been “developing” since the term was coined. At some point, you have to admit the butterfly is not coming. “Developed countries” have other problems. It implies completion. South Korea is developed. South Korea is finished. South Korea has arrived. South Korea shouldn’t be considered a “developed” country because it’s still developing . . . at a ferocious pace.” “Third World” is Cold War archaeology. It was coined in 1952 by French demographer Alfred Sauvy to describe countries aligned with neither NATO nor the Soviet bloc — the First and Second Worlds, respectively. The First World was the US alliance. The Second World was the communist bloc. The Third World was everyone else, which included India, Yugoslavia, and Egypt — all countries with ancient civilizations that found it slightly condescending to be ranked third. Then the Soviet Union dissolved, the Second World vanished, and suddenly we had a ranking system with a missing middle tier. Nobody uses “Second World” anymore, so “Third World” just f…

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