Is Spain part of the first world? Two persons die a week apart electrocuted by streetlights

Over two weeks in different parts of Spain two persons have died for touching streetlights post, the first an 18 y/o man died when he tried to hold the pole while urinating and this week a 14 y/o girl die in the act as she leaned on a street light in a public child park, both cases in complete different parts of Spain.


You take your kid to play in a place like this (actual photo of where she died) and never expect something bad could happen.

Spanish source

The investigation on the man death showed “technical failures” in the lamp as a safety fuse was missing a wire was exposed, the supplied voltage was also superior to the stipulated.

When a first world nation stops to belong to the first world? One of the things that makes a civilized country civilized is the rules and regulations that makes everything consumed have a minimum quality standard, so for example a road is expected to last for a period of time as is was build following an ISO rule that stipulate the thickness of the road, the preparation of the terrain and the properties of the material used.

Even as this is most likely true, no matter how well build something is, it will never last forever in a world that erodes and corrodes everything. The problem I see in all countries I been is at some point of their history there was conditions that allowed a big push towards development, for example most of infrastructure in US was built in a brief period post WWII, and this infrastructure allows the countries to thrive.

If its maintained it may last longer but at some point all this infrastructure must be completely replaced and as a big part of it was built in a push at the same time, it will collapse at the same time, just now the conditions that allowed to build it in the same place won’t be there.

So when a country stops being part of the first world and falls back to the third? Is your country rotting too?

Third is a big step may be second but not third.

After living in Spain now for a little over a year I can't say I am surprised at all.
I don't think Spain has quite reached first world status let alone reverted back and it doesn't help at all that the country is in a time of crisis, frankly it's surprising it can function at all.
Spain is a great country but it needs to get it's act together, this mañana attitude isn't funny at all.

Depends on what you concider to be "first world". All I can say is that they aren't, but themselves (politicians) claim they are and they are not slow on patting each other on the back for it.

If you ask me, my humble opinion is that they are not!

a reply to: Skittle

oh well i always heard the therm but only now i cared to search



They are first world as the term refer to countries aligned with US/NATO during the cold war, second world are communist and third world is the rest.

the correct therm is developed nation i guess

a reply to: ObjectZero

When a human stops digging in the dirt and trying to catch small animals for his food, when fire is not used in innumerable ways for comfort, when.... --You get the drift, as societies and civilizations grow increasingly complex, life get sticky. A thousand things not of your direct doing can cause you harm or inconvenience. So it is with two people of several billion dying within a week of a similar cause. Modern society GOT them! # happens!

A few decades ago, as I was a US postal carrier (mail deliverer) I came upon a city employee cursing in the street. He was blaming my employer for him having to do his job. It seems a post office maintenance crew had installed a corner mail storage box with the usual long anchors that literally screw the box to the ground for security purposes. One of the anchors had struck the underground cable that powered the street lights, caused an electrical short such that the lights were no longer powered. And the repair crew had been summoned to fix this modern convenience.

Now if you want to blame somebody be my guest. If you simply want to complain about our being typical humans caught in a fantastic web of our own design, you can do that too. But complaining about it rarely helps the matter.

a reply to: Aliensun

First of all you got your numbers wrong several billions people don't die a week, much less of the same cause, around 150k die a day in the world.

Second # don't happen, accidents happens, you cannot prevent that, what you can prevent is accidents by wear and deterioration, you see things are made and tested to know how much you can safely use it, for example a piece of a plane have to be replaced every x amount of time, if you don't replace it and keep using the plane when it crash its not an accident, its negligence.

My own experience, after living 4 years in Spain, is that it is pretty close to a third world country. I Can't even begin to go into why right now. But Spain really is backwards, dirty, and corrupt. Not to mention incredibly lazy. The only reason it is not fully third world is because of all the money the EU has put into it.

a reply to: Indigent

EU Austerity= massive infrastructure failure.

They don't give a hoot if people die of electrocution,starvation etc-as long as the banks are doing ok.

That is who our rulers are.

If you want coincidence the op post is nothing. Last weekend Saturday 2 separate people committed suicide near where I live, within 2 miles of each other on the same mainline railway. Bad thing. My thoughts go to the people left behind.

originally posted by: Silcone Synapse
a reply to: Indigent

EU Austerity= massive infrastructure failure.

They don't give a hoot if people die of electrocution,starvation etc-as long as the banks are doing ok.

That is who our rulers are.

Spain's problems go way beyond any EU influence and frankly they need to sort out in house before anyone can point the finger elsewhere.
Plus Spain has nobody else to blame for the situation it is in now aside from their own governments and financial institutions who orchestrated the collapse.

Corruption, greed and passing the buck is a way of life in Spain from the bottom up.
Hopefully as it is still a relatively young country democratically speaking the youth will slowly begin to change things.
Unfortunately before that can happen it has to get back on it's own two feet and that is going to be a long hard road.

Comparing Spain to a 3rld word country...is ridiculous. (Mind you, I lived in Germany, US and now in Spain).
Based on..what...there was a defective street lamp electrocuting someone?

It is some time ago I heard that someone in Las Vegas was electrocuted because of faulty wiring of a street lamp. Should I conclude now that the US is a 3rld world country?

As for "manana attitude"....my personal experiences are entirely different. I have not many stereotype we (in more northern Europe had) seen become true.

For example, when I moved here I had the impression it will take me many months to even get internet. Fact is, two days after I ordered internet I had it installed. In fact, the guy missed me two times because they were here so quick I didn't expect them.

I have them seen tear down and entirely re-built a bank building here around the corner within 5 or so months. I have the Spaniards seen tear up and entirely repair/replace all the sidewalks here in town, also within only a few months.

I have no problems with Spanish mail which I also assumed would take "forever". In fact, Spanish mail is so fast as German mail IMHO, and this means something.

As opposed to that I have seen giant street holes in the states which no-one bothered to repair...and when they started, in the midst in Illinois, not far from Chicago, it took them MONTHS for a frickin hole in the road. Seriously?

Yes, I will never understand SIESTA, and for sure not in "winter" or whatever you want to call this season here, for me it's just silly the entire country shuts down from 2pm to 5:30pm : )....but seriously...it's not a 3rld world country.

oh come on nobody seems to get my point of that soon most countries will get a catastrophic infrastructure failure that wont be replaced as the conditions that allowed in the first place is no longer there that's what happens when i try to make nice threads, back to 1 liners and youtube videos of cats

My first words are SHOCKING!

A couple of years ago Part of my vaca was in Spain.

If you judge by the drivers they don't even make it into third world status.

If you judge by the hookers at the roadside stands they are slightly better that the majority of first world hookers.
I don't read Spanish but their signs said either 'out for lunch' or was it 'out for a bunch' ?