Trading Game

Mood on the table : International trade dynamics and role of IMF and World Bank.

At this café opening, we played the ‘The Trading Game’ facilitated by Joe Spence. The idea was to explore the issue of international trade with thirty young people and volunteers. The game is a fun participatory simulation game that helps to show how trade actually works, who benefits and who loses. It aims to help players understand clearly how trade affects a country’s prosperity. It provides a simple outline of some very complex issues.

We formed six groups. Each group was a country. The facilitators played the role of the ‘World Bank’. The aim of the game was for the groups to make as much money as possible by making sized, measured from cut from pieces of paper. Each group was given an envelope with the necessary equipment needed to make ‘products’ such as paper, scissors, rulers, compasses, set squares and pencils. The paper represented natural resources and the other equipment represented the tools and infrastructure needed to make products from natural resources. However, there was a twist when the groups realized that the resources were distributed unequally and in order for them to make shapes they would have to trade with one another, just as in the real world.

The trading was frantic and a lot of fun but as the game panned out, we came to understand the importance of international trade and also how it favors the rich, developed nations. The emanating discussion went on long into the evening as volunteers debated on how we can create a fairer, more just world for all.