CREATIVITY, ACTION, SERVICE

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Model United Nations

WATER RESOLUTION

A resolution we (chairs) helped all the delegates to write together.

Sponsors: Israel Topic: Water resources

The General Assembly,

Recognizing that some international water disputes have been long-running and are highly complex,

Alarmed by the level of water pollution in certain areas,

Approving the usage of water treatment facilities globally,

1.       Calls upon nations who rely on desalination as a major water source to submit to the UN a report detailing the environmental effects of said desalination, with regards to the following criteria:

a.       The report shall be written by those qualified in the field of environmental surveys (the UN would recommend Environmental Impact Test professionals);

b.       The report shall be written by professionals impartial to the country of which they are surveying (they may not bear citizenship or permanent residency, or equivalent), in order to ensure a fair survey;

2.       Encourages nations to re-evaluate, in a similar format to the above, the effects on other nations any dams, canals or other water-bearing structures may have had, with respect to:

a.       Potential conflicts, e.g. the event of one country’s dam cutting off another’s water supply;

b.       Environmental impacts of said structures;

c.       Conflicts of ownership with regards to international water disputes;

3.       Urges nations to fund more heavily into water management, particularly in the education sector, in forms including but not limited to:

a.       Secondary/tertiary education;

b.       Further promote awareness through ways such as:

i.                     Advertisements on television and radios

ii.                   Public seminars in rural areas

c.       Further research;

4.       Recommends nations to consider more environmentally-friendly water-based energy sources such as hydroelectric power, but only under the conditions:

a.       The usage of water would not cause any international conflict – using water from a specific source would not infringe on another nation’s sovereignty;

b.       These sources are thoroughly researched, and the risk of unforeseen pollution is minimized;

5.       Recommends any parties involved in fresh water conflicts to meet at a neutral location, monitored by an impartial nation to discuss any disagreements,

6.       Encourages the establishment of an international fresh water committee, consisting of members from states of the United Nations to monitor the depletion of fresh water, particularly in relation to groundwater with rapidly depleting and/or depleted freshwater resources;

7.       Requests all member nations of the UN with little or no water scarcity to commit to an unspecified fee designated to aid other countries with water scarcity,

8.       Discourages farming in arid, low precipitation regions through decreasing subsidies and implementing quotas on the uptake of water for irrigation,

9.       Encourages the use of technology which can measure soil saturation levels and other essential indicators in order to prevent wasteful use of water supplies for irrigation,

10.   Calls upon the UN and member states to improve sanitation in rural areas to decrease human waste in bodies of water by providing sanitary products such as but not limited to:

a. Toilets with legitimate flush supply to gutters;

b. Clean water supply using renewable resources such as rainwater harvesting;

c. Establish regulatory laws preventing industrial factories from releasing wastes into watercourses;

11.   Resolves to remain actively seized on the matter.

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Model United Nations

YEAR 13, TERM 1

MUN has been pretty hectic this term. It has mostly focused on preparing for THIMUN, and we took turns chairing. It was enriching to see other chairs in action - critiquing other people is a good way to improve your own method in this field.

Due to an injury (I fell down the stairs and broke my foot) I haven’t been able to attend MUN for about a month, because I could not get there. I prepared for the conference at home instead, which worked just fine, but I don’t think that I got the same out of it as I would’ve if I had been able to go.

I’m helping to plan the sessions for the next few weeks leading up to the holidays, where I will (probably) chair our sessions. I learn something new, about people and about our delegates in particular, every time I chair. It’s a massively rewarding experience and I look forward to continuing in term 2.

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The Borneo Project

YEAR 13, TERM 1

The Borneo Project has been a really interesting thing for me to do. I’d wanted to join it last year but hadn’t been able to, on account of already having too many activities. The idea with the Borneo Project is to raise money and then to go to poorer villages in Sabah (a short flight from JIS) and help out. The money raised buys books for local children (in their own native language) and building materials - last year students built a kindergarten where children could go to school.

I don’t plan to go on the trip at the end of the year, because it is in June and I will have left Brunei by then. I do help out with the fundraisers we do at school. Our school is 1,700 students so there is a lot of money to go around. We split up into groups to work on different things, and I help sell drinks at House sports events, which are usually every week.

I didn’t sign up for a leadership role, because I wanted to do fewer activities this year and really focus on my upcoming IB exams. I did a lot of stuff after-school last year, and I wanted to spend more time on work for Year 13. 

This has really helped me develop my Malay language skills. Because JIS is an international school Malay language classes are not stipulated and most foreign students don’t speak it at all. I lived in Indonesia previously and was required to learn Bahasa Indonesia, which is very similar to Bahasa Melayu, so I did speak some Malay already. However, as part of the preparation for going to Sabah and helping out the local students have been doing a quick Malay class in each Borneo Project session to teach us some basic terms. Speaking another language is a useful skill and it was a good one to brush up on.

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The Hague International Model United Nations Conference

16 - 20 NOVEMBER 2015 - YEAR 13 TERM 1

THIMUN Singapore was a really great conference. Although I didn’t chair, it was still the most challenging one I’ve been to and it had the highest caliber of debate I’ve ever experienced.

This made it interesting to be a part of, as the standard had suddenly been raised, and it does take some adjustment to go from Russia in our MUN activity of 40 people to the Central African Republic in a group of 130. It was very competitive, so everyone had to fight to be heard - it wasn’t easy. It was especially difficult to represent the CAR, because it is a relatively small country and a lot of people weren’t remotely interested in what I had to say - not in the bad way, just diplomatically speaking. Most people had never even heard of the CAR before (myself included).

I found out that the best way to go was to relate to fellow LEDC countries - poorer countries - and sort of ally myself with them, like Lesotho. I helped to write a resolution on the issue of financial services for human development, and I contributed with a few clauses. I got up and made a speech, and I was unusually nervous. Speaking at our school MUN, and even at THAIMUN and BGIC, didn’t prepare me for this. I just wasn’t used to it. 

I was really nervous but I tried to keep calm and give the speech. It went well, I think, and I received a ton of notes afterwards from people telling me I’d won them over, which was flattering - but when it came to the questions I really had to think on my feet. I was being quizzed on the ins and outs of corporate economics (not my strong point) and it was new to have to try and talk myself out of them. It was a useful skill to develop, I think, and all around the conference was very rewarding.

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BORNEO GLOBAL ISSUES CONFERENCE

6 - 9 MARCH 2015 - YEAR 12, TERM 2

The Borneo Global Issues Conference was interesting for me. The actual debate wasn’t that challenging, but it was odd to represent a ‘small’ country again - I was Myanmar, after months of chairing and representing Russia. There’s a lot more research involved with being smaller countries, and it’s generally not as much fun (you can’t declare war on anyone, for example).

The part where I most got to practice my skills was in the run-up to the conference. As chair of our school committee, it was our job to prepare everyone as much as possible so I delivered a presentation on ‘How to MUN’ for a lot of new people at school who wanted to try going to a conference. It was interesting to take a step back and help people prepare.

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THAIMUN II Conference

4 - 6 APRIL 2015 - YEAR 12, TERM 3

The Thailand MUN Conference took place on the 4th to the 6th of April in 2015, and provided a ton of new experiences for me. I chaired in the Human Rights Committee and practiced a number of skills.

I did some work in advance to help plan the conference; my co-chair Holly and I wrote three research papers to give to the delegates, in order to get the debate at a high standard. Informed debate is good debate in the MUN. For me this really underlined the service aspect to being a chair; it isn’t about you, it’s about helping everyone else get the best out of it they can. Especially for new people MUN is about learning about yourself and making yourself better, and how good or bad your chair is really makes a lot of difference. It’s a lot of responsibility but ultimately, it’s fun.

I worked closely with Holly to make sure everyone got the best out of the conference. We had set ourselves a goal that everyone would speak at least once. We encouraged the delegates to speak, but we weren’t aware that for some, this was their first conference. We spoke to them during the lobbying time and helped them formulate their speeches. Working with Holly was especially important at this point because we had to really persevere in order for everyone to learn something, but we did it in the end. Everyone spoke and two delegates approached us and thanked us for our efforts, saying that they were grateful we had helped them to speak in public, which was very rewarding to hear.

The biggest challenge I had to face was how to deal with delegates who don’t behave properly. We had a slight issue with one delegate being inappropriate (really creepy) to the female delegates and we also found out he was telling other, less experienced delegates what to say in their speeches. We received a signed note from some delegates detailing how irritating he was being and how he was ruining the debate. This was difficult to deal with because I’m not a teacher and I don’t generally feel like telling people off is my job - but as a chair, I found out that it was, so I dealt with the problem. Ultimately, it’s a very difficult social dynamic, because we’re both students, but my job is to help other delegates get as much out of the conference as possible and to do that I had to have a private word with someone and revoke speaking rights. It’s easy to overcomplicate it and feel intimidated but I learned that in this situation the way to handle it is to just deal with it.

Chairing at an international conference was new to me but I learned a huge amount both about the activity and about myself. On the last day, I represented Iraq in the General Assembly. This presented a new challenge as I was only informed that I would be changing the day before the debate, and as we were discussing ISIL, Iraq was a very central country and had to be kept in the loop.

All in all, it helped me practice old skills and develop new ones, so was a very rewarding experience!

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Postcards to Africa

YEAR 12, TERM 2

We finished all our ‘postcards’! We have 250 completed articles, and each person receives 2, so all in all we are sending sanitary pads to around 100 girls. I realize it’s not a huge thing, but it’s definitely great. Because periods are kind of a ‘gross’ taboo, this issue doesn’t get nearly as much discussion as it should. We’ve raised awareness of this, too, and I think that has real value.

Because all the materials were donated, and they’re all used up, we can’t really continue the activity. However, it was definitely great while it lasted. We helped people, and we had a lot of fun doing it. I learned a lot about the girls in Africa – apparently those who don’t have any access to the kind of hygienic articles we made use leaves.

I think that girls missing school simply because they’re girls is a serious issue, and it needs more attention. Not only did we help people, by conducting the activity at school and being open about it (there are posters up, there have been emails sent out, etc.), we’ve raised a lot of awareness, which is an integral part of the problem.

Because Postcards to Africa doesn’t continue next term, I won’t be doing it.

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Fencing

YEAR 12, TERM 2

Fencing in term 2 was all about trying new things. We got to fence with different weapons, and it turned out that epee fencing is really my thing. I did a fair bit of practicing with a boy from ISB. It was difficult in the beginning, as the rules are completely different to the sabre fencing we learned. Sabre fencing has right-of-way and a ton of rules, but epee fencing is more spontaneous.

Learning a new style wasn’t easy, but it was a lot of fun. I learned a lot, too; because I’m the only one in our group who took to epee, I did get a reasonable all-around view of the different weapons.

Next term I’ll be focusing on exams and the Service component, so I won’t be attending fencing. However, I do intend to keep up sports.

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Model United Nations

YEAR 12, TERM 2 

MUN got much more interesting in term 2. We had many more people join, around 50 delegates all in all, which enhanced debate quite a lot. I was accepted to chair at a conference in Bangkok, THAIMUN, in late March/early April, which is really great, because I haven’t chaired at an international conference before. This should be a really useful experience, but I am a bit nervous.

I also attended the Borneo Global Issues Conference, representing Myanmar in the Political committee. It was lots of fun to be a delegate again. I helped write a resolution, which passed both in the Political and in the General Assembly. I received lots of compliments on my debating, which is always nice.

It was a real learning experience to be a delegate again. In the run-up to THAIMUN, I’ve been pretty much constantly chairing, and I think we forget what it’s like to be all nervous. It was definitely different, and allowing me to see other chairs in action gave me a better idea of how to chair at THAIMUN. I think, no matter how excellent you are, everyone will always be a little nervous when speaking in front of a room full of people, and it’s important to be compassionate and understanding as a chair.

MUN won’t continue next term, so I will be focusing my time on exams and on the Service component.

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Postcards to Africa

YEAR 12, TERM 1

I was a little iffy about the whole Postcards to Africa activity, because I wasn’t sure how it worked, and these things, but it was hugely enjoyable. We sewed sanitary pads for underpriveleged girls in Kenya, which are reusable and environmentally-friendly. We also provided material for them to learn to make their own.

It turned out I was the only one in our little group with any experience with a sewing machine, and I found the activity extremely fun as well as actually helping people. It was a great way to unwind at the end of the day, and it is a cause I feel strongly about. The fact is that many girls miss days of school every month, because they don’t have proper sanitation and the facilities to deal with their periods, and I really do believe that education is the key to ending poverty. This is something we’ve further explored in Geography. Education is really very powerful and girls in Kenya are much less likely to be able to go to school than boys anyway, because families will often favour boys’ education. The odds are stacked against them and though this may not have been the most efficient way of helping, we did something good.

All the materials we made the pads out of were donated, including sewing machines and thread, and they were waterproofed by, of all things, a layer of shower curtain between layers of felt. I thought it was very interesting to see the resourcefulness behind the design – necessity really is the mother of invention. Different people did different things - design, sewing, cutting things out etc. I mostly helped with the sewing because I was the best at it - but it was fun to help teach the others how to use the machines. 

I plan to continue with this next term, for sure.

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Fencing

YEAR 12, TERM 1

At the start of this term I thought it would be fun to try a new sport. At my previous school I was involved with basketball and football, but I decided to try fencing here at JIS.

I was a bit worried in the beginning. Almost everyone else in the class had had some experience with it before. I was moved to a different class for older students, where I was the least experienced person there. This presented a challenge.

It has pushed me past certain limits. I was not aware it was possible to sit in a cat stance for half an hour, but it is, as I found out. Also socially – being social is not one of my strengths and it is definitely something I need to work on. There were three of us from JIS and two students from ISB, and a new teacher, so in the beginning it was quite awkward. I wasn’t sure it would ever get easier, but I found out that I just need to work on being more social. That will be my big aim for the next few months. I also plan to undertake some form of fitness training, which will help my fencing, too.

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Model United Nations

YEAR 12, TERM 1

It has been a very busy term, but a hugely enjoyable one. I ran for Secretary General in MUN, along with three others, and I was made deputy, back in Week 3 (15th September ‘14). I have chaired some of our sessions, and alongside another deputy-SG we planned out the meetings for three weeks, as some people were going on a THIMUN trip to Singapore. On those days I didn’t chair I represented the Russian Federation, which was very interesting.

We did this collaboratively – we thought of a topic, and then content for our sessions. The first session we planned was on water management. There were only around 8 of us there that session (Nov 17th), so we had some fun with it, and decided we’d try to write a resolution. We split the delegates up into random groups of three, and each wrote two clauses for our resolution. James D (who I chaired with) went and made sure everyone was on the right track, and I wrote some clauses for it. I will upload it when I find it.

We spent the next session, when everyone was back from the Singapore trip, debate the resolution we wrote. There were some amendments made, but it passed by a majority.

We thought that the splitting-people-up thing had gone so well that we’d try it again, so in our next session we did a little research on climate change and then wrote a resolution for it in that manner. We debated it, too, and it passed. (1 Dec.)

We also planned the superlatives, which I ended up in charge of. Superlatives are funny titles we give to each other, affectionately, and they are awarded with a certificate. We (Lemuel, James D and I) came up with 16 titles – including “Most Likely To Start World War III” and “Most Controversial Delegate”. I take care of the voting – everyone who was present at our last meeting voted, and I sent round an email with the titles in for people to vote for. I count the votes. I created the News Quiz, and presented it.

Next week we’ll be presenting our superlatives, and having a small party, with food and the like.

Some of the things we discussed were quite controversial topics – like Russia’s involvement in the Ukraine. It was strange for me to represent Russia in this issue, especially as I very much disagreed with Russia’s actions in the Ukraine. It was a challenge to represent Russia, morally speaking; I am used to representing countries I disagree with, but going up there and defending the shooting of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was something I felt wasn’t right. It was very strange, and I did a lot of thinking on whether it was morally OK for me to argue so strongly for something quite so horrible. I concluded that it was, because if we don’t look at things from new perspectives, we don’t learn.

I learned some things about planning activites – you can’t plan out everything too strictly, or it just won’t work. You have to be adaptable when you’re chairing – a topic that you might find extremely interesting and useful might not be good for everyone else. Chairing was a new challenge – I’d had a little experience with it previously, but not much, and I felt it turned out well. It was confusing in the beginning, because JIS uses a slightly different system to the one I’m used to, but it worked out just fine. I attended every MUN session and I have the register to prove it. It was fun to plan the sessions and I will post the superlatives, which are still ongoing, when they’re finished. We discussed a huge variety of issues – from gender inequality to ex-Soviet states.