SIMUN09
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Basically, SIMUN is a conference aligned to the mechanisms of the UN. In order of events, first delegates do their research on issues provided that year from various councils. These include the Security Council, the Human Rights Council, ECOSOC I and II and the Political Council. Sufficient research is followed by a completed, personally done resolution. Next comes the actual conference, whereupon being split into different councils, we are expected to merge resolutions with other delgates who did the same resolutions or have the same foreign policies that allow them to support it. Once the resolution is debated within that council and passed, it goes on to the General Assembly where every country votes on whether it will pass or not.
Overheard in a complain from Republic of Korea (RoK) to a securitary:
I've been hearing from the delegates of Norway that they are sending a lot of notes to us, but for some reason or other, none of them seem to be getting to us! Can you refer me to the head securitary? I am dumbfounded as to why these notes aren't being sent to us!
(about 10 minutes later, interrupting a speech) Assistant Secretary General to the assembly:
We've been hearing complains that Korea is not getting their notes. I would please like to remind you people that unless you specify to which Korea you are sending your notes to, we will crush the notes.
This resolution is like Pamela Anderson’s
bra, it’s good but it doesn’t cover much”
–Anonymous.
“The Holy See answers only to God and thus will not answer
any points of information”, the ambassador of the
Holy See after being asked if he was open to any PoIs.
These were just three of the numerous funny incidents throughout the conference, amongst threats of nuc(u)lear war, New Zealand hurling sheep at China, China retaliating with flinging child labourers and the like. They can all be found at issues 1, 2 and 3 of SIMUN says, the official newsletter of the conference, with chair editor Nicole, the very same Chief editor and student of MJC's magazine.
While the first day was overall and uneventful, boring one, It was only because I had failed to do sufficient research on the other topics discussed, so I didn't really have much of an opinion to voice.
I happened to pick an unpopular issue to discuss, and only had France's delegate to merge with, while another issue, human trafficking, had 54 of the council's 70 delegates doing it. Numbers do not necessarily dictate success though, and I amazingly managed to get Best Resolution as co-sponsor to the issue of Reconciling Obligations under the UDHR with cultural Practices.
The conference demanded a lot of diplomatic language. take for example the hilarious quote,
[Human Rights]
Chair: Please speak from
third person.
Delegate: I will.
While there is some form of common sense based in the funny quote, being a delegate opens up much more room for understanding in it. Delegates have to always refer to themselves in third person. For example, if I wish to say that I wholeheartedly agree with the comments of the delgate of Indonesia, I have to say, "this delegate wholeheartedly..."
The diplomatic language stretches far beyond that, it being just one example. Yet while all these quirks may seem superfluous to a newcomer like me, after just three days of SIMUN, it becomes much less of a hassle and much more of something that's just rythm and motion.
Anyway, the most eye-opening part was the demographic present in the conference. While Singaporeans were present in some number, they were a minority to what was largely a caucasian, western dominated conference. It didn't help either that most of them looked more mature and larger than us Singaporeans. There were a lot of hot delegates there, both male and female* (the former was a comment by my friend... yeah.) I'd have to note though, that far be it being my own observation, all of us MJC delegates noticed a gratituous amount of cleavage from the participants :P My friend said that it was preposterous to now put up with what we are treated to back at school, but he got whacked for that by Eloise who was just nearby...
Anyhow, the conference surely sapped up a lot of time from my block test prepping, (though my mood isn't there to study for it anyway... :/) but I'm glad I got picked for it, because it seriously is a rare opportunity to go for something so... international, so diplomatic and so eventful :) Its nice to wear long pants, dress shoes and blazers for a change too!
*regarding that statement, I've long had this sentiment that while the angmoh looking bunch can be really really good looking, its of not much use harping over them, since there's this psychological barrier that I tend to have over them that won't make me dream of being anything more than mutual friends. Fazall wasn't so held back for sure, and I guess maybe it has something to do with the fact that I posess this mild feeling of them not really thinking of Asians on the same level. Huh. Anyway, Singaporean partners are good enough, no?
The pictures of the the Council that I was in are below.
[damn. I just accidentally exited this page. Thank god for the auto-saving function.]
posted by joseph at 9:32 AM
Sunday, March 22, 2009
The SIMUN (Singapore Model United Nations) officially ended yesterday at around 5:45, and I must say, all in all, and as cliche as it may sound, it's been a really eye-opening and interesting experience for me.
Basically, SIMUN is a conference aligned to the mechanisms of the UN. In order of events, first delegates do their research on issues provided that year from various councils. These include the Security Council, the Human Rights Council, ECOSOC I and II and the Political Council. Sufficient research is followed by a completed, personally done resolution. Next comes the actual conference, whereupon being split into different councils, we are expected to merge resolutions with other delgates who did the same resolutions or have the same foreign policies that allow them to support it. Once the resolution is debated within that council and passed, it goes on to the General Assembly where every country votes on whether it will pass or not.
Overheard in a complain from Republic of Korea (RoK) to a securitary:
I've been hearing from the delegates of Norway that they are sending a lot of notes to us, but for some reason or other, none of them seem to be getting to us! Can you refer me to the head securitary? I am dumbfounded as to why these notes aren't being sent to us!
(about 10 minutes later, interrupting a speech) Assistant Secretary General to the assembly:
We've been hearing complains that Korea is not getting their notes. I would please like to remind you people that unless you specify to which Korea you are sending your notes to, we will crush the notes.
This resolution is like Pamela Anderson’s
bra, it’s good but it doesn’t cover much”
–Anonymous.
“The Holy See answers only to God and thus will not answer
any points of information”, the ambassador of the
Holy See after being asked if he was open to any PoIs.
These were just three of the numerous funny incidents throughout the conference, amongst threats of nuc(u)lear war, New Zealand hurling sheep at China, China retaliating with flinging child labourers and the like. They can all be found at issues 1, 2 and 3 of SIMUN says, the official newsletter of the conference, with chair editor Nicole, the very same Chief editor and student of MJC's magazine.
While the first day was overall and uneventful, boring one, It was only because I had failed to do sufficient research on the other topics discussed, so I didn't really have much of an opinion to voice.
I happened to pick an unpopular issue to discuss, and only had France's delegate to merge with, while another issue, human trafficking, had 54 of the council's 70 delegates doing it. Numbers do not necessarily dictate success though, and I amazingly managed to get Best Resolution as co-sponsor to the issue of Reconciling Obligations under the UDHR with cultural Practices.
The conference demanded a lot of diplomatic language. take for example the hilarious quote,
[Human Rights]
Chair: Please speak from
third person.
Delegate: I will.
While there is some form of common sense based in the funny quote, being a delegate opens up much more room for understanding in it. Delegates have to always refer to themselves in third person. For example, if I wish to say that I wholeheartedly agree with the comments of the delgate of Indonesia, I have to say, "this delegate wholeheartedly..."
The diplomatic language stretches far beyond that, it being just one example. Yet while all these quirks may seem superfluous to a newcomer like me, after just three days of SIMUN, it becomes much less of a hassle and much more of something that's just rythm and motion.
Anyway, the most eye-opening part was the demographic present in the conference. While Singaporeans were present in some number, they were a minority to what was largely a caucasian, western dominated conference. It didn't help either that most of them looked more mature and larger than us Singaporeans. There were a lot of hot delegates there, both male and female* (the former was a comment by my friend... yeah.) I'd have to note though, that far be it being my own observation, all of us MJC delegates noticed a gratituous amount of cleavage from the participants :P My friend said that it was preposterous to now put up with what we are treated to back at school, but he got whacked for that by Eloise who was just nearby...
Anyhow, the conference surely sapped up a lot of time from my block test prepping, (though my mood isn't there to study for it anyway... :/) but I'm glad I got picked for it, because it seriously is a rare opportunity to go for something so... international, so diplomatic and so eventful :) Its nice to wear long pants, dress shoes and blazers for a change too!
*regarding that statement, I've long had this sentiment that while the angmoh looking bunch can be really really good looking, its of not much use harping over them, since there's this psychological barrier that I tend to have over them that won't make me dream of being anything more than mutual friends. Fazall wasn't so held back for sure, and I guess maybe it has something to do with the fact that I posess this mild feeling of them not really thinking of Asians on the same level. Huh. Anyway, Singaporean partners are good enough, no?
The pictures of the the Council that I was in are below.
[damn. I just accidentally exited this page. Thank god for the auto-saving function.]
posted by joseph at 9:32 AM