Essay/Term paper: Third world countries

Essay, term paper, research paper:  History

What are some of the major problems faced by "Third

World" Countries today? Who should be held responsible

for these problems? Why? What has Canada done to help

"Third World Countries"? There has always been a dominant

country in the world that sets the economic standard

throughout powerful countries. Canada has always been a

top rated economic country, usually behind the United States

and other large Commonwealth countries. Starting back in

the early to mid 60's, Prime Minister of Canada, Pierre

Trudeau decided to use Canadian revenue as foreign aid.

These included "Third World". Some of the major problems

faced by "Third World" countries today include poor towns

which have had a lack of food sources due to the serious

poverty, lack of clean drinking water, lack of good sanitation

systems, lack of good living conditions, lack of jobs and

there is no industry, therefore no import or export revenue.

The governments of the "Third World" countries have done

horrible jobs of creating good living conditions for their

people and in all have not tried to bring their country out of

their economic slump. As Canada entered it second century,

Prime Minister Trudeau called for a complete review of

Canada's foreign policy. Starting in 1968 interested

Canadians including politicians, journalists, professors,

business leaders, financial experts, as well as church and

labour leaders were invited to offer opinions and advice in

what was called the Trudeau Review. The ending of this

meeting brought about six foreign policy booklets which

outlined the benefits of Canadian foreign aid. Some of these

benefits included to help the Canadian economy grow

stronger, to keep Canada independent, to work for peace

and security, to promote fairness and equality for everyone

and to improve living conditions for all people throughout the

world. The Canadian foreign policy review suggested that

Canada strengthened it's ties with Latin America. Trudeau

visited Mexico, Cuba and Venezuela in 1976. Canada's

trade with Latin America increased from $1099 million in

1970 to $3418 million in 1976. Also Canada gave an

increasing amount of development funds to a number of

Latin American countries. Canada, in 1973 had a major

concern about the middle east and made an effort to bring

about a lasting peace to the Arab-Israeli conflict. 1050

Canadian military specialists became part of the United

Nations emergency force where they tried to maintain a

cease fire by providing supplies, transportation and

communication during the 1973 peacekeeping role. The

Trudeau foreign policy review recommended that Canada

was to work hard to support the United Nations and make it

an effective organization for international co-operation.

Canada contributed heavily, and still does so, to all the U.N

organizations that are striving to help poor nations and are

working toward the disarmament of nuclear weapons and

human rights. Canada contributed the ninth largest share of

the regular annual budget to the United Nations. Another

issue that faced Canada was the fact that China's

membership in the United Nations brought Canada into

conflict with some other U.N members, especially the United

States. Since 1966 Canada had said that it was becoming

increasingly more important that China be represented at the

U.N. At the time, the U.N only recognized the former

government of China which was established on the island of

Taiwan. The Canadian government prides itself on sending

foreign aid to developing countries. In the 1970's there was

an estimated 4.2 billion people on the earth, more then 2.5

billion of them were starving. It was also estimated that by

the year 2000 the starving population could double. Canada

tried very hard to provide these needy "Third World"

countries with the best possible aid. Without the help of

Canada as well as other "First World" countries such as the

United States and Australia the "Third World" countries

would not be around for this long and would have absolutely

no hope of survival.