Monday, February 4, 2013

G&D #2 - Ayiti Reflection

Describe your experience in the Ayiti game.  What have you learned from this activity?  What does it tell us about the state of globalization and development?

19 comments:

  1. My experience at playing the Ayiti game was interesting, but mentally challenging at times. Deciding which family member to assume which role in the family and what goal to keep in mind throughout the game added to the stress of the fast paced change occurring in the game. Globalization and development was very prevalent in the game as one would see items such as education requirements, work options, and growing necessities. Despite the inevitable poverty and disease riddled death that I experienced, the simulation game showed that globalization and the development of countries in excelling at ravenous paces as the world becomes more and more connected. More and more is required if not demanded from certain areas that cannot keep up with the "standards" and ultimately fall behind.

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  2. My experience at playing Ayiti was a difficult one. After a fantastic first year, everything went rapidly downhill. The family's health kept deteriorating and went into debt. Everybody then became too sick to work and had to stay on the family farm. This didn't yield much money. In the end, both parents and all but one of the children died from cholera. I learned that life in a developing country is rough. Also, not many people can afford an education, as the family became poor after I sent the kids to school. They even had to stop early because the family was in debt. This tells us that globalization and development negatively affects most people, therefore making it undesirable.

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    1. I'm not sure if we should generalize that globalization is negative. However, I think we could say that those living in developing countries have a more difficult time taking advantage of the benefits.

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  3. While playing Ayiti I discovered that surviving in a third world country is much more difficult than expected. Even during the first year an epidemic of disease wiped out my people, and the cost of living was far too much compared to what they made at work. Most occupations needed more education than each person had, and when they got the education they either were poor or became sick from the weather. Therefore, their survival was minimal and detah was practically inevitable. I learned that no matter what is going on in your life, you must power through and work onward.

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  4. My experience while playing the Ayiti game was unexpectedly difficult. I expected everything to come easily for the family when I first began playing, but as I progressed through I realized that everything that had to do with the characters was key for their survival. The first year of the game went along sufficiently until I started to run out of money. When I started to run out of money, I thought that it would be best to put every person in the family to work which ultimately led to the family's demise. Because each member was working so hard, they were all getting sick, then an epidemic came through and caused them to lose even more health. When I would send them to the hospital, they would lose even more money and soon I couldn't send any of them for care and one by one they died off. For this activity, I have learned that it is very difficult to live in a developing country and that every aspect of life accounts for some part of survival. This tells us that the state of globalization and development is increasing because people need more and more things for survival. Based on the education and work options I saw in the game, one can tell that even the developing countries are more developed than ever before.

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    1. ...access to the benefits of Development are harder to access for the poor, weak, & disenfranchised.

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  5. My experience in the Ayiti simulation game was difficult, but I managed to complete the game with no deaths and about 2,000 goud. I found that the key to success in the game was disregarding education and focusing on work. My initial goal was to send all of my family members to work and volunteer. Volunteering for UNICEF was a great action because it provided my town with a community center that improved my family's happiness and health. In order to complete the game, I sent all of my family members to work, but also closely monitored their health, as remaining healthy was the key to success. However, my family gained little education throughout the four years. I have learned that health is a major concern in many developing countries, and the entire family needs to work in order to maintain a steady flow of cash. Also, I have learned that global organizations, such as UNICEF, can be a massive support to developing countries. This organization helped to massively improve the health of my family. It appears as though globalization is the key to development in these poor countries, as my family would not have survived without the support of UNICEF and the knowledge the organization brought to my country. With the help of foreign aid, families in developing countries can grow and prosper, so globalization is very important to help countries develop.

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  6. My experience with “Ayiti” was one for the record books. I say this because it how difficult the game actually was and it dawned on me earlier in the game that it was going to be difficult to survive. If I went to work, I got sicker, but if I did not go to work than I ran out of money, so some brutal decisions had to be made. At the beginning of the game I made a sufficient amount of money and was able to send the kids to school, but after celebrations and hurricanes I came to the revelation that I was deep in debt. By the time the game was over the only person still living was the father and everyone else died due of cholera. I was able to save the fathers miserable life by having him rest throughout each season, which caused him to become broke, but he was still alive. This game taught me that there is much more to survival than health, if you don’t have education than you cant do certain jobs, which might decide whether you can afford the medicine to survive, or you can’t and die.

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  7. During the simulation, I discovered the reality of trying to survive in a developing country. Disease runs rampant, trying to get an education costs money that is not available if you can't work, and working too hard makes one sick. I started off strong, educating the children and achieving the highest paying jobs as possible for the adults. The family was in top-notch condition health wise and if plagued by a common cold, my family was living decently, therefore could afford a visit to the hospital in order to replenish their health. However, things got more difficult as the game progressed. Due to diarrhea, the two young ones died off. The health of the adults rapidly digressed, but taking a season off brought in no income, making hospital treatments impossible. Unfortunately, their health and happiness reached a low of zero and they resorted to working on the farm every season instead of attending school or advancing in the workforce. The family suffered many seasons of debt, but somehow continued to prevail. All in all, three-fifths of the family survived the four years, beginning with decent living and ending up living in poverty.

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  8. While playing the game the first thing that popped up is that my family can go and celebrate at a festival, so I clicked on yes to keep their happiness up. After though it said that I put the family in 300 dollars indebt. From the increased debt it was even harder for my family to grab an education. The women actually got sick first with fainting and then diarrhea. Within the second year both women died and the family was in 1000 dollar debt. I also realized that working in a factory or farm decreased happiness and health very fast comparatively speaking to farming. In addition I sent the son to school, however he got depressed during his studies and ultimately failed his classes. In addition my family had very little money therefore sending them to school was pointless because they didnt have enough money. One huge problem with the depletion of money was that no matter how many times I sent them to the hospital they always had to go home because of the lack of money. By my third year both sons died and only the father was left. The father went back and forth from farming to the hospital. In the end the father was the only one to survive but was severley depressed and in debt. I realized throughout the game that its hard to support a family with an education when money is scarce and that the health of a human can greatly effect whether or not their excepted for a job.

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  9. Throughout the game, i made the the decisions to continue schooling as much as possible. With a better education the children could get high pay jobs in the summer and help with the financial aspects as much as possible. Although i did send one child to tutoring over the summer to even further advance his academics. Throughout the summer the children and the mother would help on the farmer while the father worked the hardest job he could to provide for the family. Although the family worked hard, sickness came upon the family and the debt increased as i chose to keep the father and children home. Quickly the debt grew and sickness got out of control and the parents died thus ending the game. This experience shows that no matter what, good health is always a necessity but in some places there is no care to help. This tells us that part of the world need help with the basic necessities and without them many die.

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  10. So I just played this cool game on the internet.
    It was pretty much a simulation of this family living in Haiti and I kind of got to control their destinies, which made me feel kind of powerful.
    But anyway so at the beginning of the game you have to choose a goal: health, happiness, education, or money. I chose happiness, of course.
    So you control this Haitian family over a course of 4 years, or 16 seasons. At the beginning of each season, you get to decide how each family member spends his/her time. Each activity either costs or gains you money, health, education, and happiness.
    I didn't have a goal, really. The parents were normally working and I rotated the kids between school and helping on the farm.
    Things started to go downhill at about the second year. I guess I worked everyone too hard. We went into debt...it was rough.
    I sent everyone to the hospital...but I forgot we didn't have enough money for that...
    We just went into even more debt...
    We were cold
    Starving
    Hopeless
    So I kind of just worked everyone really hard to try and squeeze out whatever money I could to save the kids (who had a bit of education so I figured they could eventually go on and make lives for themselves)
    But then...Jean and Marie...the parents...
    They got really sick...
    Started coughing...
    And they got Tuberculosis and died.
    And then the internet told me that all of my kids were taken from me and sent to foster homes, so I guess I was done the game.
    I ended about 650 gouds in debt.
    But with their education, I can only hope my children will make lives for themselves.
    Rest in peace, Jean and Marie. Rest in peace.

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    1. Very creative response. Make sure to answer question,too, though. What s the relationship between development & globalization.

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  11. Throughout Ayiti, I experienced through the characters of Jean, Marie and there three childern what it was like to be on a tight budget while trying to send three kids to school to obtain an education happiness and health. This game got very challenging at points. With the changing seasons, working parents and sending the children to school you had to maintain money, health and happiness. It is important that Jean and Marie sent their children to school because the higher education the higher paid job the would earn. But with sending them to school came a hefty price they could know longer pay. As the seasons went by the children in the summer began to work and help contribute to the family income. But with hard labor comes poor health. The family got sick very easily from hard labor and either ended up with a harmless cold or a disease that would end up killing them. Debt also had a contributing factor to the families death by not being able to pay for medical treatement.

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    1. What is the relationship between development & globalization?

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  12. In the beginning of Ayiti, I was asked about my game strategy, and even though education and happiness were important, I chose health as the key to winning because without a healthy family, there is no family. I began the game assuming it would be simple; send the kids to school and the parents to work, and if one of the members got sick, I would send them to the hospital. As it turned out, the game was not as easy as I expected, and all of the family members died during the summer of the second year. The first season went well, no one got sick and the kids got an education while the parents worked. When the next season began, the parents did not make enough to send the kids to school. At this point, I sent some of the members to the hospital and others to continue to work to pay for the hospital. I went back and forth with this pattern until all the family members died. I have learned that education and health are not a given, and that both cost more money than most jobs provide. I have also learned that good education and health are the keys to surviving. This tells us that not all countries are as globally connected as the others, and the development in countries in Ayiti is no where near what it is in more familiar countries, like the United States.

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  13. My experience with Ayiti surprisingly arduous. My game strategy was health because I figured if my family and I stayed healthy we would be able to survive through the challenges. Unfortunately, since I ran out of money, the food went down, I could not afford a doctor and consequently my family's health went down. I thought it would be a simple game that I would breeze through. Although we got money from a cousin in the United States and had a great harvesting season the first year, by the end of the game all of the family members died as a result of lack of resources. From this game I learned that money and environment directly correlate with health. Without these, the resources are simply not available and deaths occur. This game represents the fact that the state of globalization and development are different in locations around the world.

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  14. My starting strategy for Ayiti was money. To commence with, I sent both of the parents to work and I sent my children to school. I spent the most amount of money on education for the children. To my surprise, before the end of the season, I ended up bankrupt and all of my children had to leave school as I struggled to survive. Following that, I sent all of the family to work and soon they started getting bloody diarrhea. This disease slowly but surely caused death to my family and I could not move on. From this game, I learned that life in developing countries is extremely difficult. You could either work hard and not receive any education, or get education but only have a slim chance of survival.

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  15. When I chose what to focus on in the game, I chose health for my family. I assumed I could get the father of the family some education and work and easily supply the family with simple medical equipment. However, I began by sending too many family members to different places resulting in an immediate drop into debt. I learned that sending everyone all over the place to places that cost a lot of money really was not a good plan. To survive in a country such as this, education cannot come before work. I should have sent my family members to work straightaway and focused on getting an education after I had enough money to support the incredible cost of living. In my opinion, this shows me that globalization has reached out everywhere since even those in third world countries have chances to get an education and career. However, this shows me globalization and development are two completely different things. Just because advanced civilizations are globalizing the world does not mean the rest of the world is advancing as well. With this developed globalization, more countries are facing problems trying to keep up with nations far superior to them.

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