Wednesday, January 24, 2007

"Third World" a Racist Term?

From Britain:

"Will Hutton, the author and left-leaning polemicist, is at the centre of a race row after describing a respected Asian professor of economics as a "Third World intellectual".

The head of the Work Foundation and former editor of The Observer made the comment about Lord Desai, the Labour peer, in an exchange of letters in Prospect magazine over the economic prospects of China....

Mr Hutton's comment has angered academics. Professor David Dabydeen, of Warwick University, said that it was racist. "Hutton has made a sad and dreadful attempt to ghettoise ideas that are different from his because they are voiced by a person of colour."

Source

I guess Third World and Western countries are really the same in all respects -- or if they are not the same we must not mention it. I was very supportive of Indian academics and their work during my research career but I did notice some characteristic differences -- some desirable, some not. But I guess I am not allowed to mentions instances of that.

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