3rd World Farmer Reflection

Rachel McKinley
Global Issues P. 3

Global Issues Portfolio Reflection
3rd World Farmer Reflection

In the game Third World Farmer, it was life perspective game. You could see life from the point of view from a third world farmer. You start with a family of four, and 50$. Then, you can begin farming. So while you’re farming, you’re faced with problems that people will have if they are in extreme poverty. You are also faced with shock factors, such as war, and corrupt government.

My strategy is that when I start out I with one crop, it was usually the cheapest, such as corn. I read that it was the steadiest crop so I used it. Then after I sold everything hoping that the corn would not have a problem. That would usually get me about 100$ after that I would spend around 10$ on medicine for my family to keep them healthy. Then I would spend more on a variety of crops and hope that nothing bad would happen.

A short term decision is a decision that will affect your basic needs. Such as where to get food, water and shelter. When to get water and food. Things like that.

It’s often not a good thing, because if your daughter(s) are walking 6 hours to get water because of the short term decision, then they won’t get an education, and they won’t be able to afford a well because they’re walking a long way and then they’ll be tired after they walk so long, and they can’t help out on the farm and then you can’t have a surplus of food, meaning not enough money, then you can’t buy a well for water, and then it’s back to the beginning.

People in poverty never have enough choices. If a rich first world farmer were to move, he’d have a huge choice in where to go and farm and make a lot of money because he already has the money to build a farm in a great place with rich soil and he’d also have the money for technology such as a tractor, which cuts down the work. However, a third world farmer would never have a choice on where he wants to have his farm. He also doesn’t have the choice of having to work less or more because of tools. The fact that the third world farmer doesn’t have a choice in where he can get his food unlike the the first world farmer does, is one of the reasons why the third world farmer is stuck unlike the first world farmer who has the time and money to things like that.

Things that could help them make money, such as a cow if you’re a farmer, or something to sell if you’re not. If they had the money then they could obtain there basic needs, and then they could get their kids an education, if they had any, and that would get the family out of poverty.

A long term decision is when your faced with a choice that will either bring you into poverty, further into poverty, or out of poverty. Such as education. If you spend too much money on education, and more then you can afford, then you’ll be too poor to afford anything else, if you spend money on education and you couldn’t afford to do that, then you’ll be in trouble. But if you spend money on education and it gets you out, then it’ll be good because soon you’d be out of poverty with an educated person as head of family.
They are good because you have a chance of getting out of poverty.
It’s increased the standards of living by more educated people, higher standards.
I learned about things such as shock factors, I learned about how corrupt government really affects the poor people.
Live Ethically- because we need to understand other people and how they are living. If we understand each other we could help each other.
This is connected to the MDG Global Partnership. Because we need fair trade and we can get out of the cycle of poverty because some