WORKSHOP: MAKING THE WORLD WORK

PHILADELPHIA, Penn. In the World Game Workshop, students spend about 3 hours trying to solve the world's problems. No guns are allowed.

"It was designed as a creative alternative to war games," says Nancy Bell, a workshop facilitator.

About 180 Southeast Missouri State University students will begin playing the game at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in the University Center Ballroom. The playing board is a world map the size of a basketball court.

Buckminster Fuller, the futurist inventor and engineer, created the game for Expo 67 in Montreal. He hoped world leaders, sheltered by one of his geodesic domes, would learn some peaceable strategies for settling international disputes. They wouldn't play.

When he died in 1983, Fuller willed the game to his student, Medard Gabel. Gabel since has become the executive director of the World Game Institute, a nonprofit organization based in Philadelphia.

In the World Game Workshop, participants representing different regions of the globe face situations based on real world statistics and problems such as illiteracy and hunger.

The student leaders embody a microcosm of the world. For instance, five students will represent North America because the continent has 5 percent of the world's population.

Solving the problems requires attention to such issues as resource distribution, and energy and food production.

"We're here to create a win-win situation where everyone's human needs are being met," Bell said.

Students representing the United Nations, the World Health Organization, the World Bank and environmental groups also are part of the mix.

"A lot of people said it looks like the New York Stock Exchange," Bell said.

The participants are evaluated after each of three different rounds of play. Their goal is to win awards. Two awards earns the player a well-being card.

The institute conducts about 140 workshops a year for everyone from high school students to adults. The U.N. hosted a workshop last year.

Bell said informing people about the world is one of the game's purposes. "It's also to inspire them to want to make a difference in the world, and to participate in their community."