> these bubbles only represent a small fraction of the totality of these places,
You are substantially under-estimating the size of the urban population of these countries if you think that the major cities only represent a "small fraction."
You are substantially under-estimating the size of the urban population of these countries if you think that the major cities only represent a "small fraction."
I partly speak from personal experience here too. The city I live in has a largish core urban zone that's fairly tourist-friendly, clean and highly, fashionably modernized and cultural (but with a charming colonial aspect).
Since the city in general has well over 15 million inhabitants, this "bubble" area itself contains well over a million people, easily, but it's just a small fraction of the rest of the city, which is very much what you'd call a dangerously third world place in terms of crime, corruption, administrative ineptitude and barely functional infrastructure.