ABSTRACT
In retrospect, the 20th century offered people the advantage of dealing with a two-dimensional world simplistically divided into two opposites: West and East, industrialized and developing countries, rich and poor societies, and so on. The World Bank estimates that the middle class in low- and middle-income countries will rise from 5 percent in 2005 to 25 percent in 2030. The open-market movement that made "globalization" a household word was slowed by an increasing preference for isolation and protectionism. Agreed, geography has never really been alive, but it served a purpose at a time when life was more easily defined. Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is often depicted by a pyramid with five levels within, progressively moving up from satisfying physiological needs to achieving self-actualization. Citizens in industrialized countries usually enjoy a high standard of living that satisfies all their basic needs.
