as broad and imposing as Asia will be well nigh impossible. Nonetheless, an overall understanding of Asia's economic geography as well as its physical geography will remain crucial as the individual nations comprising this great continent pursue higher living standards and better trade agreements in the larger quest for development.
The governments present at the World Food Summit in 1996 established a goal: to halve extreme hunger and poverty numbers by 2015 (Smith). If this is to be done, the 2 billion people in the world currently suffering from nutrient-deficiency diseases (Vidal), many of which live in Asia, will need to be attended to. Indeed, indexes concerning poverty, disease and nutrition will be helpful regarding Asia, perhaps more so than will more traditionalùand misleadingùmeasurements such as per capita income numbers that "do not provide information on the buying power of a currency" (Weightman 80), or properly reflect the rich-poor gap that exists.
It is therefore important that Western conceptions of progress, development and achievement not be allowed to dominate an analysis of the Asian continent. The idea that all Third World nations will proceed along similar paths toward "economic advancement according to progressive stages already experienced in the West" has not been verified by experience (Weightman 82). In actuality, Asia has struck out on its own unique development trajectory. In Dragons and Tigers: A Geography of South, East and Southeast Asia, author Barbara A. Weightman insists that "Asians are attempting to define their own culturally appropriate means and modes of development"; beset on all sides by the challenges of an ever-globalizing world, Asia must deal with foreign investment, pressure from NGOs, and international banking trends, all of which are forces that can greatly affect Asia's economic evolution.
The fact of the matter is that today, the most startling trends concerni...