Cringe Factor: Things Ben Wrote When He Was Twelve Or Thirteen
Part One: The World Feast Game
from Bray School Project Newsletter, 1997
The World Feast Game is a class game in which people are split up into different
sections (seven in total). Each section represents a different country / continent in
the world and each group has to trade or buy items off other groups in order to get all
the equipment they need to make their produce for the world feast.
The seven groups were: Asia, Russia, North America, South / Latin America, China,
Africa, and Europe. I was in the Latin America group. There were only two people in
my group due to the relatively small population of Latin America: myself and my
friend Jacob. Our task was to make eight cardboard cows, stick them on the World
Feast Board, make two arrows to lead them to the centre of the board, and to colour
in our area on the World Map. It was a hard task because we had little money to start
with (ten million dollars), and people kept stealing from us.
At the very end, just in the nick of time we got our task finished. We would not have,
however, if China had not been so kind as to give us one million dollars and a
scissors for free. Oh! And also, don’t tell anyone, but we cheated by making some of
our cows slightly smaller than they should have been so that we could fit more on
one page and sell the extra paper! When the game was over, we had no money left
and were looking forward to the “feast”.
At the feast we got little. It was more than some people but it still was not much: a
bowl of rice and a bowl of dry cereal. Thankfully our rich friends in North America
took pity on us and gave us each a cup of tea, plus a drop of milk for the cereal.
When the feast was over it made you think to yourself about the unfair balance of the
world’s food. I said to myself: ‘Thank God I don’t have to live on this all the time!’ But
what about those people who do? How do they feel? How can they live on such little
nourishment? Africa, the poorest group, only got one bowl of cereal between three of
them! To think that this actually happens in real life is disgraceful! Even more
disgraceful is the fact that on the other side of the world people are dying from being
too fat!
The human race has only been on this planet for a little over three million years, and
we have already created enough environmental and human catastrophes to last ten
times as long! If we are to remain on this planet we are going to have to right some
wrongs! Governments of rich countries can help fight the hunger crisis by donating
money and farming equipment to poor countries. Donating equipment to grow food is
better than donating food itself because three fish might feed a family for a short time
but a fishing rod will feed them for the rest of their lives. Ordinary people like you and
me can donate money or used things to poor countries through a local charity! It’s up
to all of us to make a difference for a greener, cleaner, safer, happier, fairer, better
tomorrow! The power is ours!!
(Sixth Class played the World Feast Game on November 13, 1996)