How and why luxury and destitution lies in third world countries side by side?

AbstractThe essay investigates about existing two extremes in third world countries, focusing on how a number of factors jointly make the

situation appalling. Some research papers written give convincing evidences that the world is objectively working for few, particular

inequality is created and one world is virtually divided into two “Rich” and “Poor”. The fi rst set is the one about which everyone

is spellbound, every development occurring in the world revolves around them, famous architects construct marvels for them, soft-

ware engineers design resourceful apps for their use, politicians work to get their obligations, fashion designers design expensive

jewels for that class, but the second set, which fundamentally craves for attention is overlooked in terms of their development.

However this defi nite set is overly elaborated in social media. Social media is the one which gives hype to the extreme pover-ty prevailing in third world countries. The same channel will show really negative image of third world country and then that same

channel will show extravagant lifestyle existing in that country . Every so often media just interprets one sided story showing the world that third world countries are croaking without displaying

that a ray of optimism also exists ,this one sided story certainly just draws a picture of destitution in commons mind. Additionally the

essay also explores lifestyles of citizens of third world countries, which depicts that in a same country there are people living on the border line, working really hard to meet the ends, struggling

for basic necessities such as food, clothing and shelter and some eventually give up not surviving the hardships. Contrary to that in the same country there is class which talks about world class cui-

sine, about over rated designer bags, and living in lavishing interi-ors. Furthermore do designers play their part in fading the discrim-

ination line or they design keeping in mind one class which can help them gaining fame and can afford there expensive designs ?. Both in terms of interior and fashion design are designers forget-ting their ethical responsibility or there are some which aim keenly on what are the design needs of third world countries? How they

can design in a fashion which services the people of specifi c society and make them feel that they are also part of the world?

Designing with the environment, thinking about the obtainable resources and effective use of them should be pivotal concerns of

designers designing for third world. Wise designs in third world not merely gratify needs of all but also aids economy of the country.

Table of Content1. Two extremes – HOW? 1 1.1 Working for the few 22. Social Media Overstating the two extremes 3 2.1 One sided story 3 2.2 BBC broadcasts and articles about Pakistan 5 2.3 Putting in print 2 extremes 63. Interpretation of Pakistani lifestyle 84. Role of Design on modeling third world 10 4.1 Need for Change 10 4.2 Current designers work for sustainability in third world or it’s just a fabrication? 10 4.3 What people of third world ponders about design & designers 135. Conclusion 14

1. Two extremes-HOW?“It’s not the space that we are short on, its balance” – (National geographic year-long series on Global population -2011, cited in Bottom Billion Fund)

Many facts presented globally show that inequality is there and should be taken as major threat to mankind. “Bot-tom billion” is a term coined by Paul Col-lier in his book the “The bottom billion” (2007). According to him bottom billion are 1.4 billion people on the earth living in extreme poverty. In his book, he ex-plicates that in the “developing world” majority of 5 billion people are getting richer day by day at exceptional lev-el; however the group of countries are still mystifi ed and needs developmental support, as also poor of the country are getting poorer day by day. The major reasons of it according to him are Civ-il War, Landlocked, Bad Governance and Use of natural resources. (Paul Col-lier cited in TED talks 2008)

1.1 Working for the few

The Oxfam brief paper (2014) Working for few by Ricardo Fuentes-Nieva and Nick Galasso presents the major concern, which is that the world is literally working for very few and the other half is just left behind; drawing ones at-tention to extreme statistics that almost half of the world’s wealth is used by 1% riches of the world and the other half is used by 99% of world population. The paper mentions that “world economic forum” in November 2013 released its Global agenda 2014 according to which ex-panding income gap is second largest risk in coming 12 to 18 months and is greater threat to human advancement around the globe. Nieva and Galasso coined major terms of “Opportuni-ty Capture” and “political capture” being ma-jor cause and effect of inequality, one can say that they exist because of inequality and vice versa, which makes rich –richer and poor –poor-er. Opportunity capture relates to the fact that all the good available facilities are acquired by rich, although they also take opportunity of not giving tax at all or full tax by using political recommendations and this cycle continues for generations, in which rich people of the world keeps on occupying best of everything leaving behind nothing. In addition to that the paper gives an example that this capture is worsen-ing the situation of inequality in Pakistan, where nations’ elites are occupying major positions in parliament, working for their confi ned benefi ts. However in an article “The other half“ author Claire Melamed raises a very profound point that does it will even help the poor if that 1% start giving suitable tax , as we usually evaluate that as government will change tax revenues and inheritance rules, the money earned from taxation will be used to help the poor or to end extreme poverty but what if the money is even-tually used on things which poor people really don’t need such missiles etc. This point brings up many questions that can be resolved by not spotting what makes people rich but by analys-ing what keeps people poor.

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Working for few 1

The other term “Political capture” defi nes that all the government policies and concerns of poli-ticians revolves around the riches of the coun-try. Very effi ciently policy makers bend in favour of the rich, making laws which can help them in every aspect, personal and narrow interests are found to be the major reason behind this bend. Politicians don’t want to risk their future benefi ts which could possibly be gained by moulding laws, policies and tax revenues as per the will and de-mands of elites. Oxfam conducted a polling sur-vey to get peoples opinion around six countries (Spain, Brazil, India, US, UK, South Africa) about this concern. The data collected showed that the substantial majority thinks that laws and regula-tions are made in favour of rich people and even-tually grows into one of the chief motives of ine-quality. Political capture can be considered as a drawback of inequality, it is inequality which gives rise to unfair political schemes on national level. Oxfam’s workers in their 70 year battle against poverty have examined that wealthiest groups captures political institutions for their own ben-efi t letting rest of the society paying the price of what is not credited to them. This further leads to corrupt practices, unfair political demonstration

and imbalanced collection of tax. Further-more the paper discusses that income ine-quality cannot be taken and solved in con-fi nement, several other factors linking with it makes the condition worse or better. Gender inequality is one among them, which cannot be solely considered as the consequence of income equality, but it can give rise to gen-der inequality .For instance, a family with low income will prefer to arrange education for their male child over a female child. Similarly gender equality can be a cause of income equality, for example male and female both working from a family will increase family’s income. This inequality also differs among regions, while the rate of gender inequality will be potentially high in rural areas than that of urban areas, which in turn will also disturb the income equality of defi nite area. This link-ing of factors shows that income inequality should always be catered on a platform to-gether with its direct or indirect dependants rather than treated singularly.

Working for few 2

2. Social Media overstating the extremes2.1 One sided story

We see what is being fi lmed in front of us; barely people furthermore investigate about what is being showed to them, unless and until it bring about any difference in their lives. Illogical, bias & immoral mattes start making sense and compel one to believe on them, if repeated frequently. This igno-rance restricts people just to media to gain information about the outer world instead of digging out facts themselves to know both sides of the story, they make image of any other country by just seeing about it on dif-ferent TV channels .For instance some British-ers will just have an outlook that war is going on in Syria, and social settings are potential-ly unstable there, without knowing that the country once had better conditions too and still optimism is there. This factor puts substan-tial responsibility on media to interpret reality and not just screening what is of their inter-est and what will generate money for them, as media plays a role of connecting bond among people around the globe , they rely on mass communication to be aware of world affairs.

As pointed out by Angela and Stella (2011) in their academic paper , “A comparative analysis of channels TV and CNN’s cover-age of World News” that although com-munication has been made easier in this technological world , but still there is gap between north(fi rst world) and south(third world), which is referred as “Information di-vide or gap’’. The reason behind this gap is media which is not giving totally bias reports but exaggerating realities and focusing on them more than anything else. The study in academic paper compares Channels TV (third world country’s channel) and CNN’s (First world country’s channel) in terms of

world news coverage, the paper explains the fact by surveying that news channels illustrates more of negative news then positive ones in general, because it gives them strong ground for debates and talk shows. Study in the paper showed that 67.4% news broadcasted on CNN is negative and leaves on destructive impact on people about the country demonstrated negatively. First world channels don’t portray third world in good opin-ions and vice versa, they focus on the darker side of it like converging on Political crises, poverty, natural disasters, social instability etc. and utterly overlooking the good part, which is rapid econom-ic growth, science and technology in third world countries, even if good factors are in news, will not be given much signifi cance as headlines. In other words bad elements of third world are highlighted more and frequently then good elements. Which draws a sketch in peoples mind that third world countries are just on one extreme, with no trace of hope, which is not always the case , every story has two sides .According to the research of An-gela and Stella this is what the general public of third world complain about that they are not what is being taped about them, they also create mar-vels , they also do inventions, they are also mov-ing ahead, even if not , they are trying to do so , which should be valued among fi rst world instead of just showing the duskier side. The above discus-sion reveals that both category of countries are mortifi ed for giving out prejudice interpretation in news and makes it clear that electronic media plays pivotal role in signifying the very extreme of poverty and violence in third world counties with-out considering its responsibility to broadcast ra-tionally and realistically.

3Working for few 2

Begging in Pakistan

Malala Yousafzai

2.2 BBC broadcasts and articles about Pakistan

BBC – British broadcasting commission, as posted on Television Post, October (2014), according to Ipsos Affl uent Survey 2013-1014, BBC is the next positioned news brand after CNN in India and Asia Pacifi c. Consumed by 24% of regions wealthy audience, which compels one that the channel might shows fair and reasonable news about the region. However on analysing deeply the chan-nel’s broadcasts one may change the vi-sion, which doesn’t mean that the channel shows bias news but place more emphasis on one side forming skew of the seesaw. Pa-kistan being part of Asia Pacifi c also comes under the major target audience of BBC, but instead of highlighting their fi ne facts, worse conditions are bought more into limelight, may be because this grips more attention of the audience.

The channel’s program “Mice, Mullahs and the begging mafi a” which came on aired on 1st of June 2013, shows how the tradition of giving out money to poor’s on shrines is rais-ing begging mafi a. Especially children are being used for this drive and kidnapping of young children is also becoming prevalent in Pakistan because of this reason, as they use young children for begging to gain more sympathy. The show also focuses on how well off people give money to poor’s on shrines without questioning. But isn’t it the channels prime responsibility to bring forward the rea-sons behind it that why this started? Is this tradition is generated by Pakistanis or they adapted it from any other culture during the time of slavery? Along with it, is it not moral to praise the generosity of Pakistani rich people at the same time? Moreover the article pub-lished on BBC’s website on 3rd of July 2010 “The Ultimate tragedy of poverty in Pakistan” highlights that Pakistan is brought into news every few days because of disastrous bomb-ing , battles against Taliban troops and natu-

ral disasters, so at the moment leaving it all behind debate the issue of Poverty in Pakistan. The article narrates story of Pakistani girl, who was poisoned by his father along with her other two sisters be-cause of extreme poverty. Is it not the channels responsibility to show alongside the stories of those fathers in Pakistan who even with extreme poverty tries their level best to provide all basics to their children, who work day and night to make their children responsible citizens, on whom the coun-try can be proud of? The story of Malala Yosufzai (BBC Blogger) is narrated in a panorama by Mishal Hussain broadcasted on 7 October 2013 called as “Malala : Shot for going to school”. The story narrates how the young girl was shot in Pakistan under extreme tragic circumstances because she use to speak about the rights of girls in Pakistan by means of writing blogs on BBC Urdu and how she was then helped by US and UK’s government to escape from the country and to be provided by best medical aid possible. The question is why the girl was never bought into Public eye by the channel before she was shot, when she was writ-ing impressive blogs as a positive Pakistani girl for Past few years? Why this is not depicted that Paki-stan is the country which crafted her skills, Pakistan is the country where she got her basic education and became a confi dent blogger? The above discussion extracts to an opinion that BBC is putting in light all the authentic news, but it’s always important to show the full picture, to recite the story with all its contents, cause and ef-fects, which helps delivering clear and insightful information.

5

Begging in Pakistan

Malala Yousafzai

2.3 Putting in printing 2 extremes

Print media on the other hand is also show cas-ing two extremes of third world countries which is evident from some publications. As featured in an article “Hello! Showcases the glamorous face of Pakistan” by BBC in April 2012 , Hello magazine launched in Karachi, Pakistan with a four day long fashion show exclusively arranged for the launch. The magazine intents to pen about Pakistan’s rich and famous, publishing about dynamic cricket players, glitz and glamour of fashion industry and capacity of famous musicians. As written in an ar-ticle that the magazine will cost $5.50 (500 Paki-stani rupees) which is the twice the sum, most of poor Pakistanis make each day.CEO of hello magazine Zahraa Assad Saifullah said in a press conference:

“We will highlight the fashionable and the athlet-ic, the intellectual and the aesthetic,” (Saifullah, April 2014 cited in BBC news)

She also articulates in the press conference that constructive activities are also taken place in Pa-kistan that are always remained unsaid but launch of Hello will make sure that glamorous side of Paki-stan is exhibited , as it is not wrong presenting the cheerful aura of the country.Contrary to that that the cover stories of Time magazines reveals completely different story. The cover story of May, 2012 illustrated that the most wanted terrorist by the US government took cover in a town in Pakistan in his last days, where he was eventually killed by the military troops, which de-picts the meaning to the world that Pakistan might tends to provide shelter for terrorists. Another issue of Jan, 2008 covers the story of a famous Pakistani politician Benazir Bhotto, that how she was shot dead in Pakistan in December 2007, which cre-ates an image that Pakistan, is not at all a safe place to live for wealthy and famed people.The above debate does not signifi es that news should not be portrayed realistically about third world but the factor of good balance should al-ways be there.

The last days of Osama bin Laden

Benazir Bhutto

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Benazir Bhutto

Hello Pakistan Magazine Cover

3. Interpretation of Pakistani lifestyle To show in more profoundly that how these two extremes actually exists in Pakistan, lifestyle of Pa-kistani people will be reviewed below to make the argument more strong that how one class con-cerns about getting food twice a day, to have a shelter protection to avoid extremes of the weath-er, who struggles for years to get admission in free government schools. Contrary to that the other class discusses joyfully about the confectionery boutique in town which vends best macrons, to decorate their aristocratic houses with Italian mar-bles and to polish skills of their children by sending them to Swiss fi nishing schools. Starting off with the story of Afghan refuge girl “Sharbat Gula”.Who was fi rst emerged on Na-tional Geographic issue of June, 1985, living in a refugee camp in Peshawar, Pakistan. Afterwards Steve McCURRY, photographer at National Geo-graphic searched for her again, and the story was once again on covers after 17 years on April 2002.As narrated in the story by Cathy Newman (Senior writer at National Geographic) that Gula left Pe-shawar and went back to her village years back, but she was traced back as her husband works in a bakery in Peshawar, due to lack of job opportu-nities in Afghanistan earning $1/day. Gula cannot live with him, because her asthma doesn’t allow staying in heat and pollution of Peshawar, which just assigns few months of winters to live with her husband. She lives in a village with her 3 daughters without basic facilities such as schools, roads and not even sanitation systems; the village is 6hours drive way from Peshawar. Harsh time took away Gula’s youth, but her intense green coloured eyes because of which she was captured by McCURRY lens, still have that intensity. The eyes which inter-rogate, that glare, that fi erceness which refl ects that 23 years of war had snatched away there everything, Gula herself have seen blood shed of her parents at the age of 6 when they died in Sovi-et bombing. Furthermore McCurry states that:

“She’s had a hard life” (McCURRY, 2002)

The above story reveals the very fact that earning $1/day, which is the only source of income Gula’s family of fi ve is even below the line of poverty, and that’s not just the sto-ry of one woman, many more follows same pattern of life in the country while few miles away from them exists a standard of living which is completely alien to them. The arti-cle “The Other Pakistan” published in Reuters in July, 2014 by Zohra Bensemra exposes a completely diverse Pakistan, as Bensemra af-fi rms that:

“Welcome to Pakistan, a country of 180 bil-lion people whose residents are as varied as they come. Among them are millionaires and beggars, child brides & female execu-tives, the Taliban and an ultra- chic interna-tional jet-set” (Zohra-2014)

Man working in bakery

Sharbat Gula with family

Bensemra reports lifestyle of Pakistani execu-tive women, who have all acquired educa-tion from world top educational institutions. Talking about Ansa Hasan, who drives a Por-sche and got her master’s degree from Istitu-to Marangoni, Fashion School in London and is currently working as a marketing manager at Porsche Pakistan. Moving on to another girl Aleena Raza , who attended fi nishing school in Switzerland and now looks after her moth-er’s textile business named as “So Kamal”. Pictures on the right fl aunts her sitting in her dazzling bedroom reading a book with ex-quisite serving of tea and snacks and getting ready for a party in her dressing room with all the fascination of high end fashion. Like-wise interpreting a girl Fatima Kasuri, who is a Model, educationist and CEO of Pakistan’s leading private educational System, Bea-conhouse. The pictures on the right evidenc-es her luxurious life style showing her passing by swimming pool in her house and working on a phone in her living room, dressed up splendidly while Filipino maid stands on her side holding a glass of water.As Bensemra says:

“Off course these opportunities are available to a very few” (Zohra, 2014)

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Man working in bakery

Ansa Hasan

Aleena Raza 1

Aleena Raza 2

Fatima Kasuri 1

Fatima Kasuri 2

4. Role of Design in modelling third world4.1 Need for change

As stated by Victor Papanek, Pioneer of sustain-able design mentioned in the article ‘Sustainabil-ity is the ultimate design brief’ published in ‘The Guardian September 2012’

“There are professions more harmful than de-sign, but only a few”.(Papanek ,1972 cited in The Guardian,2012)

Papanek was the one who fi rst identifi ed the link between design and environment and introduced the notion that design should include the under-standing of historical, social and environmental perspectives. He was of thinking that designers create wasteful and unsafe designs which pro-mote materialistic lifestyle (The Guardian,2012). But that dates back in 197o’s but since past few years designers are essentially working for sustain-ability, however as concerned about in a report “Borders through design” by Carlo Vezzoli (2009-2010) that we can just anticipate that this trend is not only an ephemeral approach and not for time being but designers are eventually becom-ing responsive of their responsibilities particularly in developing countries, as developing countries are more in need of it ,due to vanishing resources and increasing poverty . Furthermore the report pointed out some worthy facts that how design-ers play their fundamental role in shaping third world-”Bridge Profession” is the term used for de-sign profession, uttering that design could play role of a bridge between nations and cultures, providing people with an opportunity to confront their lifestyle and to live with an aim of sustaina-ble lifestyle, if used wisely and according to the needs. Additionally designers should now switch from problem-side to solution side, proving Pap-anek’s above mentioned statement wrong that designers now can work for betterment of society, by using sustainability in broader spectrum such

as working for digital divides, ethics, human rights, energy exploitation and relations be-tween western and southern countries.

4.2 Current designers work for sus-tainability in third world or it’s just a fabrication?

“Need-architecture in developing coun-tries” by Salvatore Spataro, 2nd Edition (2013) is a book which broadcasts work of many architects working in third world countries which satisfy their needs. A pro-ject of Centre for Children in Gaza strip by by ARCo’ and Mario Cucinella Architects (p.13) was an answer to demand of Bed-ouins of that area. Keeping in mind the very factor of sustainability and ideologies of passive building, architects worked using bamboo and tires, yet making the structure strong enough to withstand extreme weath-er conditions. Use of thick walls of sand bags which work as thermal mass, photovoltaic system and system of phytodepuration. The design focused on use of civilization of tent and the horizontal lines in patterns of typical Bedouin tent fabric, this was accomplished by using wooden brise soleil that protects from sunlight intensity. The best part of the construction is that they involved the lo-cal communities and gave knowledge to them for such skills, so that local communi-ties should be trained for what is the need in their countries and can help themselves making designs which match the context. The other architectural genius which is fea-tured in the book, built in third world country according to its setting is a school in Herat, Afghanistan by 2A + P/A, IaN+, Mao ar-chitects (p.17). The aim of the project was chiefl y to create a space which doesn’t refl ect post war emergency construction and to make best use of locally available technologies and building materials. The in-itial challenge the architects faced was to form a layout which fulfi ls purpose, which

was achieved by having connected boxes and allocating two fl oors just for library. The library act as a landmark for the village depicting that even in post war conditions education is mandatory. The building is made of reinforced concrete with bricks painted with tones and tints of blue, be-cause blue is usually used in Afghanistan and the colour will make it visible in its surrounding which is brown and dry landscape. The structure has a boundary wall because it’s the need due to se-curity reasons but the boundary wall does not give the sense of closeness as have series of voids and volume in the wall. Every initiative is taken to make the space interesting for educational envi-ronment, for instance providing small courtyards and vegetable gardens with all the classrooms to give sense of freedom and playfulness.Another architectural project is a Farm warehouse in Bolm Village ,Bandiagara, Mali by Asf Espana Architects (p.103). The major issue of the town is land erosion, shortage of seasonal rain, which results in migration of youth towards progressive areas. The Bolm village where building is located inhabits 1,000 people, mainly having a profession of farming. Farm Warehouse is used by these fram-ers for storing their crops in a proper manner. The construction is a fusion which makes good use of locally available stone that also solves the prob-lem of water resistance. The orientation of the building was considered crucial while designing, making the east side (which receives inclination angle of the rain) almost sightless, without any ma-jor opening, while the west side has the main en-trance and all the larger opening, keeping south and north sides for good ventilation using locally offered ceramic elements. All of the above mentioned projects were intend-ed to provide a feeling of security to the people living in extreme poverty or under unwanted con-ditions in third world countries. Giving them an opportunity to play their role in progress of their countries and experience to be part of the nation rather than mourning about their depraved cir-cumstances.

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Centre for Children

School in Herat

Farm warehouse

But still some famous designers use the word sus-tainability just as a fabrication and design being ignorant of the surroundings and settings of that area. Heyder Aliyev Center in Baku, Azerbaijan designed by world famous architect Zaha Hadid is the prime example of this kind of design. Azerbai-jan being newly independent country, still faces some diffi culties in developmental sector. As pub-lished on Kiva in an article “The role of microfi -nance in Azerbaijan” by Iizva, even after decades of independence 700,000 (10% of country’s pop-ulation) IDP’s are still living in temporary shelters coping with extreme weather conditions, whereas the government is putting all its energies in tack-ling countries Oil resources and in constructing ar-chitectural marvels as one of Hadid’s .Also statis-tics reveals that 49% of the country’s population is living under the poverty line while the rest enjoys Baku’s oil castles (Iizva,2007)Heyder Aliyev Center won the best design of the year 2014 award by London’s design museum, as published in The Guardian in June 2014 by Oliver Wainwright. The newspaper article also revealed some other facts about the design and its con-struction phase. The government crushed people by stopping the supply of electricity, water and

gas during construction to fulfi l massive pow-er requirement of extravagant construction. Almost 250 homes were demolished for the construction of the centre as they required more space to design lavishly. At some in-stances residents found on coming back that their houses were just smashed , without getting any prior permission or even notice .Another crucial fact discussed in an article is that in 2010, during the construction of the centre, global construction workers union (BWI) reported that this construction upheld the maximum cases of human trading in Eu-rope, migrating labourers from Serbia and Bosnia ,forcing them through psychological violence to work in Baku under poor and un-safe work conditions. This leads to a question that it is the way in which world famous de-signers should work in developing countries and is it a responsible behaviour of world class organizations to declare these kind of designs as best design of the year, without considering the scenarios under which the design was made, that is compromising on ethical values of design and human rights.

Heyder Aliyev Centre Poverty in Azerbaijan

4.3 What people of third world pon-ders about design and designers?

To evaluate what the general public of third world thinks about design needs there and literal role designer there. A survey was con-ducted among the people of Pakistan be-longing from different fi elds of life and from varying social statuses. Higher Majority of people agreed on the phenomena that design either fashion or architecture plays a very pivotal role in building and destroy-ing the economy of the country. So we can construct an answer that design has a power to generate valuable money for the nation which can further help in development but conversely same design if misused can be a burden on developing economy. 66.68 % people said that they are unsure if the de-signers are playing a positive or negative part in third world, but 40.74% also said that yes designers are playing positive role, which is a good sign and a ray of hope .While on the other hand 98.30% people said that design-ers in third world don’t design keeping in mind the socio-economic status of their countries. Concluding that majority of people are un-able to decide the role of designers but al-most all of them agreed that designers don’t design with the context, which is a worrying fact because third world countries need de-signs , which are sensibly made considering their limited available resources and lifestyle of majority of the mediocre public. Higher majority of people believe that making extravagant design using massive amount resources in a country with already limited resources is not ethical, but a minority of 14.8% said that its moral, giving out some rational reason such as Participant number 16 quoted that:

“1. Extravagant designs give freshness to people even if poor 2. While constructing such designs the owner helps in running eco-nomic circle as more labour and material will

be utilized from local market. 3. Also such build-ings increase the market value of that area and people benefi t from it” (Participant no 16, 2014)

Others also gave a reason that extravagant de-sign earns jobs for people as involve more people and also that not all third world countries are lim-ited in resources for instance Pakistan is quiet rich in natural resources but due to wrong use of re-sources, we are losing them, but if designers use them properly in making extravagant designs, that might help the economy. Asking people’s opinion about Heyder Aliyev Centre, Azerbai-jan, higher majority said that this kind of design doesn’t suit the setting neither build economy but a very few said that it might support economy by promoting tourism and offering job opportunities , also give a positive impact about the country , as stated by Participant no 19 :

“A country does need something that its people can be proud of. It gives them motivation and a sense of pride. You do need some kind of a land-mark building” (Participant no 19, 2014)

Higher majority agreed to an idea that existence of luxurious designs is means of escape from stress-ful day to day life of third world citizens represent-ing that people of third world want to see beauti-ful designs which can give relieve to the eye from seeing extreme poverty, unwanted incidents and worries of life but not on the expense of limited resources as clarifi ed from above answers. When asked about the design needs, majority of them favoured economical design and fusion of sus-tainable and luxurious design, which gives out an idea that people there want luxurious design to be part of their country but alternatively they are also really keen about the economic crises which will directly disturb their lives in long run. The gen-eral comments of participants about the whole topic gathered interesting facts that what are the priorities of general public there. The General feedback from people were that fi rst of all ma-jor issues such as poverty, scarcity of resources should be solved before thinking of design and designers should consider per capita income of

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Poverty in Azerbaijan

the citizens. Contrary to that some participants seem a bit annoyed from the whole scenario of third world and its destitution, as said by Partici-pant no 19:

“Stay Stupid... Think Big” (Participant no 19, 2014)

This depicts that some of them really want to see their country progressing like fi rst world with-out concerning what happens in the slums of the country. Since also said by Participant number 16, which is the usual thought of elites in third world that:

“Off course an extravagant design in slums would never suit but third world countries have posh are-as too so these structures to be constructed there” (Participant no 16, 2014)

5. Conclusion:The above shown fi ndings , evidences , surveys and cause and effect about inequality concludes that luxury and destitution do exist in third world, but certain elements collectively play their parts in sketching the discrimination line by making underprivileged feel that they are unserviceable ,performing no part in society. Social media be-ing major driver of people assessments and per-spectives makes the point of two extremes more predominant, which generate negative vibes about third world which in turn is damaging for so-cio-economic growth of the country as people will be alarmed of doing investments there. It’s also clinched that well off people in third world con-tinue their immoderate lifestyle, no matter what is happening to the poor just miles away from them. Stimulating fact is generated from people opinion that designers can play very positive character in waning these two extremes if they wish to. De-sign being a key driver of social status can pro-vide a virtuous platform for growth and develop-ment in third world if resources are acutely used

and designed with the context. Moreover this did not determines that only sustainable and basic designs should be made in third world over-the-top and splendid designs are pleasing to the eye and may work really well in third world countries by attaining tourism, increasing job opportunities for people out there and gaining a sense of superiority for the nation, nevertheless the factor of sustain-ability and prudent use of resources should always be a crucial matter.

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List of Illustrations