Angry Birds

I was introduced to Angry Birds last Christmas when I found my friend Adam playing the game on his android.  Last week, I rediscovered it on facebook! But today, discussing how one needs to approach policy influence with colleagues at the Centre for Poverty Analysis (CEPA), I used angry birds as an analogy.  

First, let me explain the phenomenon.   Angry Birds is a physics-based puzzle game in which you must launch a series of birds at structures in order to dispatch the evil green pigs hiding within.  The swine have stolen the birds' eggs and it's up to you to get them back.  The game is highly addictive, and you strive for the highest score and the most efficient way  of completing  each level.  There are different birds to use, each with its own speciality and each with its own limitations.

Assume the green pigs are not evil, but just those who CEPA is targeting for policy influence.  There are different structures that surround them, and it's up to CEPA to use different tactics (in the game, different birds) to breakdown these structures and reach our target. The skill is in being able to direct the bird at key elements of the structure.   Or, to use the analogy differently, CEPA can consider itself one of the birds, but as one of the birds, it will only have a set of capabilities - to break glass (if it's a tiny bird) to destroy wood (if it is slightly bigger) or to blow everything up (if it's large and black and resembling a bomb!).  How does it leverage its capacity?

 HEALTH WARNING: it is recommended that readers take my word for it, rather than try it out for themselves as the addictive properties of the game can cause high levels of procrastination.


Comments

  1. Russ23 April 2012 at 20:09

    1) The Anders Breivik example should have put an end to all these games of destruction - no matter how innocuous they appear!
    2) Pigs do not ordinarily covet eggs (as lizards do - for example). They are therefore selfish (if not evil). And their selfishness stems from self-interest and a lack of empathy for the less fortunate. Since it is they who make policy one needs to get rid of them - either through the ballot box (if the system is transparent), or with the use of the 'black bird' (when not).
    4) Notice how all things destructive are BLACK. It is the subtle brainwashing that has been taking place throughout history - and why those in the non-industrial world (aka 'developing') have had a 'Jesus complex'.
    5) Do not procastinate interacting with those around you - unleash the Black Bird on your computer!!

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