UN Food Programme Releases Game

bobbis.u writes "The UN World Food Programme has launched a game (for Windows and Mac) to educate people about their work. Although aimed for children, I'm sure some Slashdotters will enjoy it. It includes six different missions and is a hefty download."

Comments

Great game!

[yotto]

I love the 3rd mission the best, where it is "implied" that you give the food to a local tyrant so they can sell it for guns.

Re:Great game!

[Anonymous Coward]

This is in contrast to the Army of the America's simulator, where you sell arms to terrorists and deluge the inner streets of your own country with addictive cheep drugs to fund the Nicaraguan contras.

Not only can you be a contra causing destruction to most of your country for the 'protection' for a dozen rich human rights violators, you can also be a member of the 316th Battalion commiting your own human rights violations. Better be careful with those electrodes!

I understand that the next version is going to have new missions where you can be John Negroponte defending American interests in Iraq, Elliot Abrams as director in the National Securty Council, Oliver North as a famed reporter for FOX news or Admiral Poindexter defending the rights of private institutions to use government resources to mine customer information.

Supposedly this picks up after a full pardon from President Bush and each character has certain strengths you can you use to your advantage.
For instance as Negroponte you have thief abilities to help in 'misplacing' 9 billion in taxpayer funds into secret accounts for personal use.

Re:Great game!

[superpulpsicle]

No way man. That bonus level where Bush challenges Al Qaida to see who can kill more middle-easterners was the best.

solution!

[Anonymous Coward]

they wouldnt be so hungry if they started eating the weaker children.

XXX Version Available Soon

[wolf-]

The upcoming "Congo Adventures" addon will be rated Mature. In the upcoming addon, not only will you be providing food to a distressed population, but you will also be able to open your "red light" district. In exchange for food, local girls will be able to offer "sexual favors" to you and your men.

Food-force website slashdotted.

[TripMaster Monkey]

Way to go, guys...the site is slashdotted, and now the children won't learn about hunger.

Won't someone think of the children???

marginalization

[mabu]

It's really sad to see all the pedantic jokes and offhand comments about the UN and these efforts; people making fun of the UN's use of technology as a diversion from the associated goal of feeding the hungry, but the reality is if there wasn't such an overwhelming amount of ignorance and misinformation being spread about by partisian groups on the UN's purpose and accomplishments, they wouldn't need to release software like this, but unfortunately, many of the sopmoric comments herein show exactly why they do.

Re:marginalization

[Elkboy]

Yes, one has to wonder why the members of the Security Council, and the US and the UK specifically, designed a program that handed money over to Saddam. The UN bureacracy that is wrongly blamed actually flagged many contracts under the program for potential overpricing, but the US and the UK approved most of them.

This might be the reason why Saddam scammed most of his money from smuggling, which the UN itself had no jurisdiction over or means to stop. That again falls on its member states, and in this case the US and the UK.

Also, the $21 billion figure reoported by media and quoted by politicians is wrong. Over $13 billion of that money has been shown to come from oil smuggling, and can't be said to be a failiure of the program.

Re:marginalization

[iridium_ionizer]

The sex abuse scandal in west Africa is NOT misinformation. Nor is the oil-for-food scandal. Yes the purpose of the U.N. is laudable, but in practice it has left something to be desired (watch Hotel Rwanda). You could probably say the same thing of U.S. foriegn policy. In regards to sopmoric comments, as long as the U.N. wants to be a player on the global stage they will be subject to the world's criticisms, jests, and sopmoric comments.

Re:marginalization

[mabu]

I'll admit that the UN is pretty damned ineffective, but this claim is totally incredible.

Ironically, the majority of the UN's problems are the DIRECT result of the United States making the organization completely incapable of accomplishing much or enforcing important humanitarian mandates.

It's funny how the U.S. criticizes the U.N. whenever the organization doesn't exclusively promote the US's agenda, and then two seconds later, after veto'ing numerous resolutions, they cite UN sanction violations as a means by which they can engage in preemptive war. And when the UN's members get upset, the U.S. calls the UN "useless" and ignores them.. until the next time the UN's agenda coincides with their own.

This would be all fine and dandy if this planet were one singular culture and nation, but it isn't. And the UN, while not perfect, is the best attempt thus far to provide a forum for the world's people to work together. It's pathetic for ignorant, small-minded people to marginalize the U.N. when they don't know much about it.

Because of so much propaganda and misinformation spreading about on the UN, educational programs like this are probably a good idea. They're no counter to the hundreds of hours of right-wing media lies being spread about the organization, but it's a start.

Re:marginalization

[Col. Blackwolf]

It certainly is a start, but it fails to address the root problem. The US, along with everyone else, ignores the UN because they can. The UN, while an organization with lofty, laudable goals and asperations, lacks the infrastructure and means to achieve those goals.

The real solution is to give the UN the means to actually enforce its mandates and impose its will on nations. And let's be honest, foreign policy is exactly that: imposing one nation's will on another. As it stands now, the UN must rely on the good will of its member nations to provide the means of enforcement, ie military forces.

And there is the solution. When it comes to the game of nations, force is the only thing that matters, be it military, economic or social. The UN has social force, but that is such a weak force that it hardly matters. And as it is not an actual territory, it is very difficult for it to have any real economic power. That leaves military force as the only viable option. The UN needs its own independant military. Then it will cease to be a national social club and will become the powerful arbitrator it was intended to be.

Of course, the idea of a UN military is about as likely SCO successfully proving that it owns Linux. But there you have it.

Very funny

[Elkboy]

The Oil For Food Program succeeded in its humanitarian mission.

"International aid efforts and the U.N. oil-for-food program helped reduce the ruinous impact of sanctions, and the rate of acute malnutrition among the youngest Iraqis gradually dropped from a peak of 11 percent in 1996 to 4 percent in 2002."

- The Washington Post, November 21

That's not the only aspect of the OFFP "scandal" that has been twisted.

With the risk of ruining the UN-bashing with a little US-bashing - the US can't even feed the dogs down there.

Interesting

[Stormcrow309]

So, we have a game that educates us on the UN Humanitarian efforts. So, options will be feed the populace, get kickbacks, or go home?

I would like the UN to live upto its charter and worry about Human Rights and Genocide. BTW, 'Ethnic Cleansing' is a term for Genocide that does not envoke the Genocide Resolution (Resolution 260 (III) A) in the UN Charter.

Re:hmmm...

[Meagermanx]

The UN got slashdotted?
Man, we, as a group, wield unbridled power we can barely begin to comprehend.
If someone could only figure out how to properly wield it...