In many poor, Third World, countries, tenant farmers are tied to the land not so much by law but by debts they can never, for all practical purposes, repay. The landlords not only own the land, but also most everything else. The "serf" has to buy seed and other farm supplies from the landlord's store. Even consumer goods are bought only from the landlord's store, because any other source is so far away or because the landlord "insists." To complete this Medieval picture, these landlords are also, for all practical purposes, the law. Armed men are in the pay of the landlord, as are many of the local government officials. Many of these places have no electricity and, save for the guns and battery powered radios, there is something very Medieval about it all.