[Grontor]

Hello, after understanding civilization is harmful and must be avoided, I seek a small village in an undeveloped land. I wish to avoid electricity and consumerism...instead relying on tradition and my own hands.

What are the least developed countries in each continent (N/S America, Asia, Europe, Africa)?

[Grontor]

Asia: Rural Myanmar/Laos/Vietnam/Cambodia
These Asian places sound very interesting...time to learn the language and buy farmland.

Africa: I hear good things about the peaceful country of Ghana. Also, Eastern Africa. Very good farmland/fishing and traditional cultures.

Euro: Mostly developed, but Rural Moldova/Ukraine may be ok.

N/S America: mostly developed, but central America has ok rural zones.


Anyone ever been to these areas? Especially undeveloped Asia/Africa?


Below are those 15,000 or less PPP/capita. Obviously the lower, the better.

Rank. Country. GDP ppp/capita. Year.

59 Mexico15,2702011
60 Uruguay15,1812011
61 Romania15,1632011
62 Saint Kitts and Nevis15,1542011
63 Belarus15,0402011
64 Palau15,0232011
65 Botswana14,7532011
66 Lebanon14,7092011
67 Bulgaria14,6032011
68 Mauritius14,5232011
69 Montenegro13,6122011
70 Kazakhstan13,1892011
71 Venezuela12,8362011
72 Dominica12,6782011
73 Costa Rica12,2362011
74 Serbia11,9192011
75 Brazil11,7192011
76 Macedonia11,6662011
— World11,6402011
77 Iran11,4792009
78 Grenada11,1802011
79 South Africa11,0352011
80 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines10,8122011
81 Peru10,3182011
82 Azerbaijan10,1362011
83 Colombia10,1032011
84 Dominican Republic9,8632011
85 Tunisia9,4152011
86 Saint Lucia9,3852011
87 Turkmenistan9,1842011
88 Bosnia and Herzegovina9,0892011
89 Albania8,9442011
90 Maldives8,9322011
91 Algeria8,7152011
92 Thailand8,7032011
93 Ecuador8,4862011
94 China8,4662011
95 Jamaica8,0652011
96 Suriname7,8912010
97 Ukraine7,2512011
98 El Salvador6,8772011
99 Namibia6,8262011
100 Belize6,7222011
101 Egypt6,3242011
102 Swaziland6,0992011
103 Jordan6,0072011
104 Angola5,9302011
105 Armenia5,8292011
106 Bhutan5,8102011
107 Sri Lanka5,6202011
108 Georgia5,5032011
109 Paraguay5,4192011
110 Syria5,2622010
111 Bolivia5,1302011
112 Morocco4,9862011
113 Guatemala4,9612011
114 Fiji4,7872011
115 Mongolia4,7642011
116 Indonesia4,6682011
117 Tonga4,6662011
118 Vanuatu4,6312011
119 Samoa4,5702011
120 Congo, Rep.4,4292011
121 Philippines4,1402011
122 Cape Verde4,1232011
123 Honduras4,0662011
124 Iraq3,8902011
125 India3,6522011
126 Guyana3,4452010
127 Micronesia, Fed. Sts.3,4402011
128 Vietnam3,4352011
129 Moldova3,3922011
130 Uzbekistan3,3102011
131 Solomon Islands2,9432011
132 Nicaragua2,9412011
133 Laos2,8092011
134 Pakistan2,7632011
135 Papua New Guinea2,6952011
136 Mauritania2,5712011
137 Nigeria2,5322011
138 Kiribati2,5312011
— West Bank and Gaza2,4652005
139 Kyrgyzstan2,4242011
140 Cameroon2,3832011
141 Cambodia2,3722011
142 Yemen2,3492011
143 Tajikistan2,3402011
144 Djibouti2,2902009
145 Sudan &  South Sudan2,1412011
146 Gambia, The2,1352011
147 São Tomé and Príncipe2,0582011
148 Senegal1,9812011
149 Ghana1,8842011
150 Côte d'Ivoire1,8032011
151 Bangladesh1,7882011
152 Kenya1,7182011
153 Lesotho1,7152011
154 Benin1,6282011
155 Zambia1,6232011
156 East Timor1,5882011
157 Chad1,5312011
158 Tanzania1,5212011
159 Uganda1,3542011
160 Burkina Faso1,3102011
161 Nepal1,2562011
162 Guinea-Bissau1,2512011
163 Rwanda1,2512011
164 Afghanistan1,2022010
165 Haiti1,1792011
166 Guinea1,1282011
167 Comoros1,1172011
168 Ethiopia1,1162011
169 Mali1,0992011
170 Togo1,0422011
171 Mozambique9822011
172 Madagascar9722011
173 Malawi9182011
174 Sierra Leone8772011
175 Central African Republic8162011
176 Niger7322011
177 Burundi6082011
178 Eritrea5892011
179 Liberia5772011
180 Congo, Dem. Rep.3752011

[Cincinnatus]

I'm not sure you're a good fit for RVF. We're players and travelers, not exactly the type to settle down and become self-reliant.

[RichieP]

You can't avoid civilization dude. Unless you find one of the few remaining pockets of hunter-gatherer tribes, untouched by agricultural societies, then you'll be in "civilization". The question is, what kind of civilization you want to be in. Some of the poorest ones are often the most unstable/dangerous as you have to content with war, disease, political instability, etc.

But anyway, I get your intention. And yeah, you can find peaceful, undeveloped farming/fishing cultures for sure. Here's a list of the most poor countries by Purchasing Power Parity Per Capita (i.e. an accepted measure of standard of living).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cou...per_capita

Just looking at that, Kenya, Ghana, Laos jump out. I just got back from Vietnam too, which struck me as absolutely delightful (although I just stayed in Saigon and didn't go rural)

Just watch out for the dark side of wherever you're at. It's all fun and games until you break an arm, get a simple infection or spider bite, or say/do the wrong thing that makes a local flip out and go and fetch his machete. You'll quickly find a renewed love for "Civilization" and the hospitals, travel insurance, cellular phones and consular assistance that come with it. There's a reason poor people are often very religious - it's often an emotional buffer against the extremely harsh and unstable realities of daily life.

[Grontor]

Yes, I agree that it can be dangerous, but I would rather die free and happy than live a sterile life.
If we were not taking risks, we would all just stay in our hometown and work in an office, get fat and watch TV. Too me, thats also a form of death.

I'm not so green...I have lived in big cities, rural areas, woods, and I have travelled several countries. I've got university degrees but prefer the purity of physical labor- digging the earth, searching for mushrooms, hiking dense forest. I was happiest in those places without tech and civ. I can see my goal.

Sometimes you need to take a risk and really live.

[RichieP]

Sure, I hear ya. I totally get the yearning for getting back to "our natural freedom". I just got back to Bangkok, and even compared to Saigon, it seems gross. There's something fucked up about being squashed into a concrete jungle, surrounded by high-rises and elevated highways. And then, imagine the life of a local - stuck working long hours in an office 6 days a week, or cooking chicken on the polluted, stiflingly hot roadside for 10 hours breathing exhaust fumes. It's really wrong, on a biological level.

Out of interest, what are you planning to do for survival? farm, fish etc? Are you planning to earn money or trade, or purely live off the land?

[Grontor]

(12-05-2012 04:25 AM)RichieP Wrote:  

Sure, I hear ya. I totally get the yearning for getting back to "our natural freedom". I just got back to Bangkok, and even compared to Saigon, it seems gross. There's something fucked up about being squashed into a concrete jungle, surrounded by high-rises and elevated highways - it's really wrong, on a biological level.

Out of interest, what are you going to do for survival? farm, fish etc? Are you planning to earn money or trade, or purely live off the land?

I see this as a long term investment.

I am developing a profession that can help the local villagers. This along with hunting/fishing will support me and my future family.

Its a challenge, but I seek it.

Debes, Ergo Potes
(You Must, so you Can)

[The Fantasist]

Get yourself to Georgia. No visa hassles on property ownership hassles. A mild climate with fertile soil and welcoming populace. You could buy a house in the rural areas very cheaply I'd guess and then find work on the local collective farm. Would be a unique way to spend a few years and might make for an interesting book at the end of it.

Make sure you read Walden if you haven't already. A lot of his conclusions and experiences would no doubt chime with you.

[Belgrano]

Ok, so you want the real deal?

Travel to the Andaman islands. It´s a small island chain just west of Sumatra, but it belongs to India. There you could try to join the Jarawa or the Sentinelese.

Quote:

The Jarawa (also Järawa, Jarwa) are one of the adivasi indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands in India. Their present numbers are estimated at between 250-400 individuals. Since they have largely shunned interactions with outsiders, many particulars of their society, culture and traditions are poorly understood. Their name means "foreigners" or "hostile people" in Aka-Bea.

Along with other indigenous Andamanese peoples, they have inhabited the islands for at least several thousand years, and most likely a great deal longer. The Andaman Islands have been known to outsiders since antiquity; however, until quite recent times they were infrequently visited, and such contacts were predominantly sporadic and temporary. For the greater portion of their history their only significant contact has been with other Andamanese groups; the experience of such a lengthy period of isolation almost completely lacking in external cultural influences is equaled by few other groups in the world, if at all.

Quote:

The Sentinelese (also Sentineli, Senteneli, Sentenelese, North Sentinel Islanders) are one of the Andamanese indigenous peoples and one of the most uncontacted peoples of the Andaman Islands, located in India in the Bay of Bengal. They inhabit North Sentinel Island which lies westward off the southern tip of the Great Andaman archipelago. They are noted for vigorously resisting attempts at contact by outsiders. The Sentinelese maintain an essentially hunter-gatherer society subsisting through hunting, fishing, and collecting wild plants; there is no evidence of either agricultural practices or methods of producing fire.

(...)

Their island is nominally part of and administered by the Indian Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. In practice, however, the Sentinelese exercise complete autonomy over their affairs and the involvement of the Indian authorities is restricted to occasional monitoring, even more infrequent and brief visits, and generally discouraging any access or approaches to the island. It is therefore de facto autonomous.

From 1967 onwards, the Indian authorities in Port Blair embarked on a limited program of attempts at contacting the Sentinelese, under the management of the Director of Tribal Welfare and anthropologist T. N. Pandit. These "Contact Expeditions" consisted of a series of planned visits which would progressively leave "gifts", such as coconuts, on the shores, in an attempt to coax the Sentinelese from their hostile reception of outsiders. For a while, these seemed to have some limited success; however, the program was discontinued in the late 1990s following a series of hostile encounters resulting in several deaths in a similar program practised with the Jarawa people of South and Middle Andaman Islands and because of the danger of introducing diseases.

In 2006, Sentinelese archers killed two fishermen who were fishing illegally within range of the island. The archers later drove off, with a hail of arrows, the helicopter that was sent to retrieve the bodies. To this date, the bodies remain unrecovered, although the downdraught from the helicopter's rotors at the time exposed the two fishermen's corpses, which had been buried in shallow graves by the Sentinelese.

That´s the most undeveloped you can possibly get. If those paleolithic people don´t kill you on first sight and you manage to become a tolerated curiosity amongst them you may very well be able to live the life you desire. No civilization, just survival of the fittest. Sometimes you just gotta take the risk.

[MountainLion]

(12-05-2012 03:56 AM)MSW2007 Wrote:  

I'm not sure you're a good fit for RVF. We're players and travelers, not exactly the type to settle down and become self-reliant.

Who says chasing pristine jungle poosy isn't his true goal?

[The Fantasist]

Here you go,buy a village for $12 in Europe: http://telegraf.by/en/2012/04/belarus-pr...2-dollarov

I saw empty villages and houses for sale in Belarus for $500 all the time. Nobody wants to live in the villages and hence when Dedushka and Babushka dies their urbane grandchildren don't want the hassle of owning the house. You just have to think of what to do with the village,maybe just become a despotic ruler of your own little land and erect a statue to yourself.

[elabayarde]

(12-05-2012 02:03 AM)Grontor Wrote:  

Hello, after understanding civilization is harmful and must be avoided, I seek a small village in an undeveloped land. I wish to avoid electricity and consumerism...instead relying on tradition and my own hands.

What are the least developed countries in each continent (N/S America, Asia, Europe, Africa)?

I am suprised noone said!!!