I was thinking of ways in which one can spread awareness of humanitarian disasters to the general public through the web and one idea kept stabbing at me: online games. Of course, this avenue has been explored by many people. In this post, I want to inform you of the games I came across that made the headlines.
First off, the popular 'game' on http://www.freerice.com in which 20 grains of rice are donated through the UN World Food Program for every time a word's synonym is chosen correctly. I am not here to discuss the logistics behind this or to argue as to whether the game IS helping solve world hunger. In an idealistic situation, this game hits two birds with one stone: gives food to the starving, and improves the vocabulary of the more privileged masses.
Who made this site? John Breen, a computer programmer from Indiana. He has also created three other websites : www.thehungersite.com, www.therainforestsite.com, and www.poverty.com.
Also, check out this website - http://www.3rdworldfarmer.com/ . Here, you can play an online game that simulates the daily hardships of a farmer in third-world countries. It is definitely educational as it gives the player an idea of the difficult situations these farmers have to face.
Finally, there is FOOD-FORCE : http://www.food-force.com/. This game makes the player plan against natural disaster situations for a village/community.
Hope this was interesting. More later.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Food scarcity? Really?
There are tons of articles out there that highlight the problem of food scarcity in the world. Well, there are some who would refute that. Has the human population grown so humongous, that the world's food resources are not enough for us? Or does the problem lie in the unequal distribution of these valuable grains of life?
But, why would rational beings like us make a decision to leave millions starving? Such is the influence of market forces in our present day society. There is food abundance, waste of agricultural resources and less concentration on the areas that need basic foods. The reason is : monetary gain from the food industry does not tie in with societal gain.
Go ahead and take a look at these webpages :
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Global_Secrets_Lies/Myth_FoodScarcity.html
http://www.psrast.org/nowohu.htm
http://www.foodfirst.org/node/239
These pages contain almost the same content. I think it would be foolish to assume that those who are living in developed countries, and even the richer section of developing countries, do not indulge in gluttony and over-consumption. The imbalance in developing countries is evident in the following article by the Food and Agriculture Organization: http://www.fao.org/FOCUS/E/obesity/obes1.htm
What we can do is to look at ways of improving food distribution in our local area, and also figure out means to make this process marketable.
More later. All posts are welcome!
But, why would rational beings like us make a decision to leave millions starving? Such is the influence of market forces in our present day society. There is food abundance, waste of agricultural resources and less concentration on the areas that need basic foods. The reason is : monetary gain from the food industry does not tie in with societal gain.
Go ahead and take a look at these webpages :
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Global_Secrets_Lies/Myth_FoodScarcity.html
http://www.psrast.org/nowohu.htm
http://www.foodfirst.org/node/239
These pages contain almost the same content. I think it would be foolish to assume that those who are living in developed countries, and even the richer section of developing countries, do not indulge in gluttony and over-consumption. The imbalance in developing countries is evident in the following article by the Food and Agriculture Organization: http://www.fao.org/FOCUS/E/obesity/obes1.htm
What we can do is to look at ways of improving food distribution in our local area, and also figure out means to make this process marketable.
More later. All posts are welcome!
Saturday, January 5, 2008
The purpose of this blog
Hello,
This blog has been set up in order to exchange thoughts and ideas on topics that would help the community. Yes, this is pretty vague and there are several directions this could take. It could be on curriculum for schools or even innovate ideas for biomedical applications. To make it just a bit more specific, I would like to concentrate on the following areas: children in need, education of the masses, health and hygiene, food for the starving.
Many of us are trying to figure out what to do with our lives, and more importantly, are not yet DOING anything to help the community. Therefore, there are three steps to go through :
1) Acquire knowledge on the area you want to contribute in
2) Come up with innovative ideas on how to make YOUR contribution to society
3) Figure out how to implement your idea
This is, of course, just a general template on how to go about it. If there are other ways, enlighten me!
I am really eager to talk to those who have similar motives as I do, and also to those who already are acting on their ideas. So, please put forward any thoughts to help those who read this blog help themselves.
This blog has been set up in order to exchange thoughts and ideas on topics that would help the community. Yes, this is pretty vague and there are several directions this could take. It could be on curriculum for schools or even innovate ideas for biomedical applications. To make it just a bit more specific, I would like to concentrate on the following areas: children in need, education of the masses, health and hygiene, food for the starving.
Many of us are trying to figure out what to do with our lives, and more importantly, are not yet DOING anything to help the community. Therefore, there are three steps to go through :
1) Acquire knowledge on the area you want to contribute in
2) Come up with innovative ideas on how to make YOUR contribution to society
3) Figure out how to implement your idea
This is, of course, just a general template on how to go about it. If there are other ways, enlighten me!
I am really eager to talk to those who have similar motives as I do, and also to those who already are acting on their ideas. So, please put forward any thoughts to help those who read this blog help themselves.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)