The correspondence between the fictional nation of Sheylan and the real-life situation following the Indian Ocean tsunami is hard to miss. In this case, a full five months after the disaster, we can see the inability of governmental organizations to adapt and fulfill their stated aims of reconstruction.
Just recently the official in charge of governmental relief funds in Indonesia stated he was “shocked” at the lack of reconstruction progress in the Aceh province.
Kuntoro Mangkusubroto primarily blames bureaucratic wrangling for the delays. “There is no sense of urgency,” he said. Meanwhile private funding continues to flow freely as NGOs effectively implement their relief efforts.
Food Force skirts these thorny issues by setting up the situation in Sheylan in which crises in the local governments prohibit cooperation between the WFP and other aid groups.
Overall, Food Force serves its purpose well. It is primarily a tool for raising the issue of hunger in the minds of those in the developed world, and it should be relatively successful in doing so.
Larger structural issues about the WFP and the UN remain outside the scope of the game, but nevertheless are reflected in the game’s guiding ethos and makeup. We can only hope that the WFP’s stated commitment to the independence of those it helps is manifested by policies that actually give those in need economic freedom and the hope of development. Addressing the root causes of poverty can be the only real long-term solution to poverty, hunger, and the devastation brought about by natural disasters.
No word yet on the release of the UN Oil-for-Food program simulation or the much-touted first-person shooter, “Peacekeeper.”
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