The Peanut Butter Sandwich Dilemma
Adapted from Peace Begins With You and Me
(and taken from a post to wagggs-l)
A World Fairness / Trading Game for largish groups of girls - minimum 16, maximum about 40
Each of eight patrols or groups represents a country. Smaller units can assign as few as two girls to a country. Within each country, girls are asked to elect or appoint a leader, naming her President, Queen, Prime Minister or even Dictator, as they see fit. They then choose a decision-making process to use during the course of the game, from majority rule to absolute dictatorship. Finally, each country chooses a name. (In some cases, even deciding on a ruler(s), a type of government and a name can prove a challenge to domestic peace! See how long it takes your girls to make these decisions.)
Each country is then given a sheet of card folded like a place card so it stands on its own. On one side, are written the size, population and financial status of their country. (The cards are given out randomly.) They add the name of their country. On the other side, for their information only, is a list of their resources and what they need to provide for their population.
To represent resources use the ingredients for a peanut butter and jam sandwich lunch, possibly including an apple (depending on the country).
The lunch consists of:
one peanut butter
one jam
one butter
one knife
one napkin
one plate
two bread slices
Apples are extras, but may be "needed to survive".
These resources can be real or represented by small pieces of construction paper in appropriate colours and shapes. When resources are traded between countries, the ingredients or papers help keep track of the gains and losses.
The aim of the game is to use the resources available in your country to provide, through trade on the world market, what your country needs to survive while maintaining peace in the world.
Allergy Alert: Guiders should ask if any of their girls are allergic to peanuts, before doing this activity. If peanut allergy is a problem, substitute something for peanut butter, use paper cutouts to
represent the ingredients for a peanut butter and jam sandwich, or use a different sort of sandwich (cheese & tomato or whatever).
Total World Resources
Available (needed)
13 peanut butter (11)
13 napkins (11)
10 knives (11)
10 jam (11)
28 bread slices (22)
10 butter (11)
6 apples (14)
10 plates (11)
Resources Distributed Among Countries
Country #1: a large, wealthy country with a large population; labour costs are high.
Resources Available:
12 bread
2 knives
6 plates
2 apples
Needed to Survive:
2 peanut butter sandwiches
6 apples
Country # 2: a large, wealthy country with a large population; labour costs are low.
Resources Available:
5 knives
5 jam
7 napkins
5 butter
Needed to survive:
2 peanut butter sandwiches
2 apples
Country # 3: a small country, poor, with low labour costs.
Resources Available:
2 jam
2 butter
3 napkins
Needed to survive:
1 peanut butter sandwich
Country # 4: a medium sized country with adequate resources to be self-sufficient.
Resources Available:
6 bread
3 knives
3 plates
Needed to Survive:
1 peanut butter sandwich
1 apple
Country # 5: a medium sized country with an evenly distributed
population; plenty of resources, but not a lot in excess of need.
Resources Available:
3 apples
3 jam
3 butter
Needed to Survive:
1 peanut butter sandwich
1 apple
Country # 6: a fair-sized country with a large population working for
reasonable wages; some good natural resources.
Resources Available:
3 peanut butter
3 napkins
6 bread
Needed to Survive:
1 peanut butter sandwich
1 apple
Country # 7: a small poor country, heavily populated, lots of cheap
labour.
Resources Available:
4 bread
1 plate
Needed to Survive:
1 peanut butter sandwich
3 apples
Country # 8: very large and very poor, small population and few
Developed resources.
Resources Available:
10 peanut butter
1 apple
Needed to survive:
2 peanut butter sandwiches
Each country also has the option to trade or pick a "Luck of the Draw" card. These cards will either offer a life-saving miracle or inflict a major disaster. Write (or photocopy, cut and paste) these on a square of card.
Double your largest resource.
2 Your country has been hit by an earthquake. Your largest resource has been wiped out
3 You've made peace with an old enemy. Add 3 units of jam to your country's supply.
4 Disaster strikes! Spring flooding cuts your peanut butter harvest in half.
5 Your country develops a new fertilizer that doubles your apple exports. Congratulations!
6 Early frost hits the strawberry fields and wipes out everything. Cancel your jam exports.
7 The wheat crop is twice what you expected! Double your bread supplies.
8 Drought hits. The cows stop giving milk. Your butter supply dries up completely.
9 Your new factory turns out plates in half the time. Double your plate supply.
10 Torrential winds and rains shut down all production. Your knife supply is wiped out altogether.
12 A new technique lets you produce knives at twice the speed. Double your knife supply.
13 Unused land has proved to be perfect for peanuts. Your peanut butter supply triples.
14 An enemy has bombed your capital city. Your second largest resource has been wiped out.
15 JACKPOT!
Fortune smiles. Double all your resources.
16 JACKPOT!
Fortune smiles. Double all your resources.
17 Fire wipes out two of your largest factories. Your napkin and bread supplies are gone.
18 You can make "bitter butter better". You bought big batches of bitter butter and made it better. Double your butter supplies.
19 Hailstorms have wiped out your apple crop. All your apple supplies are gone.
20 A neighbouring country shares surplus napkins with you. Add three to your napkin supply.
Although world resources are limited, have available some extra resources to cover the bonuses granted in good "Luck of the Draw" cards.
This game takes at least an hour to set up, explain and play. Guiders will find it interesting to see how differently each group makes its decisions, accepts failures and adjusts to success. Some will bicker; some will get cocky with success; some will take risks and lose everything. Others drive such hard bargains, no one will trade with them. All in all, this is a terrific (and fun) way for girls to learn a little about world politics and the economics of keeping the PEACE!