Software for Learning | Games and Simulations | Introduction |

Hidden Agenda
Note from the author of Hidden Agenda: This software is no longer published, however, author Jim Gasperini (jimg@well.com) will send you a copy of either the Macintosh or DOS version of "Hidden Agenda" (please specify version type in your message) in return for answering question and giving a promise.
Question: who are you, and why are you interested in "Hidden Agenda?"

Promise: after I have spent some time with "Hidden Agenda" I will:

  1. send email comments to jimg@well.com on my experience with the game, and

  2. make a donation of some sort to one of the following Non-Governmental Organizations working in Central America:

    1. Maryknoll Sisters
      http://www.maryknoll.org/WORLD/LATIN/welcom_latin.htm
    2. Unitarian Universalist Service Committee
      http://www.uusc.org
    3. Madre
      http://www.madre.org/member.html
    4. Food First
      http://www.foodfirst.org/
    5. Cultural Survival
      http://www.cs.org/index.html
    6. Rainforest Alliance
      http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/programs/allies/index.html
    7. Care:
      https://ssl.charityweb.net/care/
    8. CISPES (Committee In Solidarity with the People of El Salvador)
      http://www.cispes.org/
    9. American Red Cross, International Response Fund
      http://www.redcross.org/donate/donate-now.html
    10. Oxfam:
      http://www.oxfamamerica.org/donate/index.html


    Or see the excellent list of non-profits "supporting the cause of indigenous peoples" in the region:
    http://www.nativeplanet.org/ngo1.htm

The images of Central America in our Newspapers and TV are mostly of conflict--warfare, assassinations, strikes, revolutions, disputed elections, military coups. What keeps this region in endless turmoil? Why can't Central America settle down?

Now, with Hidden Agenda, your students can try their hands at governing a simulated country, Chimerica, and see for themselves. By taking a turn as president of Chimerica, students experience first-hand pressure facing a third-world country. They make decisions, make events happen, make headlines. As they become invested in the game, students will suspend their North American viewpoint and learn to empathize with the plight of a developing nation.

Evaluations by..

  1. Stan Murray, Phoenix College
  2. C. Leon Button, Scottsdale Community College
  3. Alan Z. Gaugert, Estrella Mountain Community College
  4. Jesse Chanley, Jr., Mesa Community College
  5. Larry Woodward, Paradise Valley Community College
  6. Roy Silver, University of Kentucky

Learning Activities

Each reviewer describes a learning activity that uses Hidden Agenda.