Creativity: MUN
WooHoo! First step to change...
After the fact that our resolution was chosen, that was an obvious step to my first success in MUN. In addition our resolution was debated on and we were separated in two groups where Saaj and Dhruv were our judge and everyone now had an opportunity to debate against or for this resolution. It was extremely difficult initiating this first step in debating for the resolution. As I previously mentioned, I find it very difficult to speak in front of a huge crowd especially where public speaking is extremely important in order to convince people that this resolution is the "best" resolution in order to tackle this issue. Furthermore, I get the creeps when the discussion becomes even more formal where personal pronouns cannot be used and only third person is applicable in this context. This is probably the first time I was brave enough to go up in front and talk. I also posed questions on other country's stance on this resolution which was less difficult and was something I am more comfortable with. Some of the things I definitely need to improve on is the eye contact with the audience and the confidence level that needs to rise when I talk in front of everyone.
Glad with this new start!
Glad with this new start!
Introduction to MUN (First 3 Sessions)
MUN has certainly become quite overwhelming throughout the 3 sessions we have had in a couple of weeks. It is quite difficult when the whole process is not what you expect and is certainly a challenge managing the workload for school and the MUN work. Not only that but when we had activities where we were told to improvise on a topic and my heart drops. I am personally a very shy person and articulating my thoughts and presenting it in such a confident manner is extremely difficult, and this is why I am here. I will be trying to step out of my comfort zone in these couple of weeks and try and be as open and try to raise my volume and have a confident body posture. My goal is to be able to speak confidently by not making a lot of "ummss" and "yeah" and thinking up the ceiling of what I should talk about. Steps of achieving this: - Ask my friend/sibling to write a random topic - Improvise and convince people about the topic - Try and be AS CONFIDENT AND CLEAR in my speech In the last sessions we have also been trying to understand the whole purpose of MUN by researching the country that we have been delegated for (Uganda), the policy statement where we write on the country's stance of the issue and the resolution bit that we have been trying to understand. At this point we have been working on operative clauses and what actions to take for the issue of "The use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights". It is quite difficult to bring such solutions to the table especially if they have already began implementing them. A way in which I found it very beneficial was looking at the current news and how mercenaries are being used. From this, I was diverged into the number of solutions that could be taken in place. In the current MUN session, we were taught the merging/lobbying process where the country meets with their allies and proposes solutions on the issue and one becomes the main submitter. This really benefitted me in learning and knowing more about how to write a good resolution and how important it is to specify your resolution. |
Something Completely Unexpected...
I got selected into THIMUN!!!!! Wow, the amount of excitement and joy I have to go on this trip is absolutely surreal. First off, it was completely unexpected by the number of people who rarely get accepted because of the number of delegates who sign up to be on this trip. I have tried my hardest to be on top of all the tasks when it came to debating for the THIMUN trip and of course doing all the tasks that the leaders assign to us. It has been a great time for me, where I have improved drastically when it comes to public speaking as well as knowing so much about global issues. I have been constantly watching the news to enrich my knowledge and it surely enriches my personality as I get to know of all these issues.
The task was then to sign up for a commission or committee for our country which was Lithuania and we were supposed to sign up for a first and second choice. My first choice was the human rights commission and the 2nd committee. We were all asked to give a one-minute speech to say why we were so passionate of this topic and we were then going to be voted upon based on this speech. At that point had not prepared a speech whatsoever and the anxiety was starting to build up. However, when I went up to say my speech, I was shocked as to how confident I was. The words had more clarity and flow than the usual speeches. I was given the most votes and as a delegate in MUN people usually tend to look at the confidence and background knowledge that the person has. This really empowered me and gave me the extra boost to really be a confident speaker and get rid of that fear of confronting people by assuming that I am not good enough.
The task was then to sign up for a commission or committee for our country which was Lithuania and we were supposed to sign up for a first and second choice. My first choice was the human rights commission and the 2nd committee. We were all asked to give a one-minute speech to say why we were so passionate of this topic and we were then going to be voted upon based on this speech. At that point had not prepared a speech whatsoever and the anxiety was starting to build up. However, when I went up to say my speech, I was shocked as to how confident I was. The words had more clarity and flow than the usual speeches. I was given the most votes and as a delegate in MUN people usually tend to look at the confidence and background knowledge that the person has. This really empowered me and gave me the extra boost to really be a confident speaker and get rid of that fear of confronting people by assuming that I am not good enough.
Preparations
The workload has slowly started to pile up as the days to the conference are slowly coming. We were asked to complete the country research for Lithuania in order to get cracking with the resolution.
We have also began to write up our policy statements and resolution. These issues really capture my interests as because of geography and my increased interests in watching how women are now at a stance almost head at head with men. The resolution thus have become way easier to write particularly because I have a desire to make a change in this realm.
--Work in Progress--
Lately in MUN we have been doing the resolutions which is the core of the entire conference. We have been peer editing each others resolutions to get an idea of what we need to improve on. Most of the resolutions including mine lacked the detail that needs to be mentioned in the resolution for it to be strong and less likely to be voted out. Furthermore, we had many ideas, however we weren't able to translate it into the words. This process is extremely difficult because for a resolution to be strong there needs to be massive detail like the organization that may fund this project and restricting yourself to not say "why" this is significant which is quite difficult sometimes for me as I am a geography student and we require to do a lot of explaining. The peer editing was certainly a great start to understanding what a strong resolution should look like and this will be implemented on my resolution to make it better.
THIMUN CONFERENCE RECAP:
1/02/2016
It has been an amazing week to the Hague!
What surprised me the most was the fact that when we were merging and lobbying I surprisingly really took the lead. I had a specific way in which I strategized how I could be the main submitter in the conference. I first off chose the smallest group as it would have allowed me to easily become the main submitter. When we all gathered and saw each other, everyone thought that they should be clumped in one group, however I took some people that I thought weren't very comfortable and merged my resolution with theirs. I remained confident to show that I am capable of being the main submitter and that it would have been without a doubt that I greatly contributed during the merging and lobbying.
During the debates, it was a range of participants from people who spoke incredibly well, to people in which were in the middle like me and others who were extremely nervous. It was nice to see that because then it made me feel so much better about myself and it empowered me to remain confident throughout the week. I spoke with points of information and I raised my placard many times to speak however the chair didn't pick me when I wanted to say my speech. During my debate, when I gave my main submitter speech it was a shift to who I was in school and what I did in the conference. I confidently spoke and said "all points of information" and still was afraid inside thinking of the possible questions that would arise. In the first question, I was quite confused as to what the delegate asked me, so I gave a wierd response that possibly showed that I was nervous. However, in the other questions, I answered well. It was difficult, but I made it happen and that is what mattered the most for me.
Look for Blog Reflections at: http://istthimun.weebly.com/
It has been an amazing week to the Hague!
What surprised me the most was the fact that when we were merging and lobbying I surprisingly really took the lead. I had a specific way in which I strategized how I could be the main submitter in the conference. I first off chose the smallest group as it would have allowed me to easily become the main submitter. When we all gathered and saw each other, everyone thought that they should be clumped in one group, however I took some people that I thought weren't very comfortable and merged my resolution with theirs. I remained confident to show that I am capable of being the main submitter and that it would have been without a doubt that I greatly contributed during the merging and lobbying.
During the debates, it was a range of participants from people who spoke incredibly well, to people in which were in the middle like me and others who were extremely nervous. It was nice to see that because then it made me feel so much better about myself and it empowered me to remain confident throughout the week. I spoke with points of information and I raised my placard many times to speak however the chair didn't pick me when I wanted to say my speech. During my debate, when I gave my main submitter speech it was a shift to who I was in school and what I did in the conference. I confidently spoke and said "all points of information" and still was afraid inside thinking of the possible questions that would arise. In the first question, I was quite confused as to what the delegate asked me, so I gave a wierd response that possibly showed that I was nervous. However, in the other questions, I answered well. It was difficult, but I made it happen and that is what mattered the most for me.
Look for Blog Reflections at: http://istthimun.weebly.com/
DARMUN Coming SOON!
16/03/16
Recently, it has been very exciting to see something new in the MUN activity which is the DARMUN event that is coming very soon in April with the other schools. I am quite intimidated for this event as I had my first mock debate before the ESP and it was amazing by the confidence spoke with during the debate which was phenomenal to see as opposed to the THIMUN conference where there was a good range of participants.
When I was in the debate, some people were asked to forcefully ask a question or stand to debate for the resolution which was extremely terrifying and I was chosen to speak at one point which was frightening. Frankly, the question of the debate was one that was not very known to me with the Syrian Golan conflict and it took me a while to understand the exact issue and try and debate on them based on their current policies and how they operate. After a while, I finally spoke and regained my confidence, however it was a little challenging because the question that was being discussed on was something that I was not particularly interested in. But, this is what MUN prepares you for, discussing and challenging yourself on the events that you are not aware of and instantly thinking about what people are talking about and being attentive on what is being said. This really challenged me as a person and allowed me to expand my thinking on other events and thinking about the things that I have learnt through the current subjects and providing a further insight on the solutions that are proposed in order for them to be more effective. This is when I realized why ECONOMICS is so important in improving the issues at hand. Economics really elevates the solution and allows it to be more effective, as it proposes realistic solutions that can be used to improve the situation as opposed to the arbitrary laws and solutions which make it less effective for progress to occur.
Recently, it has been very exciting to see something new in the MUN activity which is the DARMUN event that is coming very soon in April with the other schools. I am quite intimidated for this event as I had my first mock debate before the ESP and it was amazing by the confidence spoke with during the debate which was phenomenal to see as opposed to the THIMUN conference where there was a good range of participants.
When I was in the debate, some people were asked to forcefully ask a question or stand to debate for the resolution which was extremely terrifying and I was chosen to speak at one point which was frightening. Frankly, the question of the debate was one that was not very known to me with the Syrian Golan conflict and it took me a while to understand the exact issue and try and debate on them based on their current policies and how they operate. After a while, I finally spoke and regained my confidence, however it was a little challenging because the question that was being discussed on was something that I was not particularly interested in. But, this is what MUN prepares you for, discussing and challenging yourself on the events that you are not aware of and instantly thinking about what people are talking about and being attentive on what is being said. This really challenged me as a person and allowed me to expand my thinking on other events and thinking about the things that I have learnt through the current subjects and providing a further insight on the solutions that are proposed in order for them to be more effective. This is when I realized why ECONOMICS is so important in improving the issues at hand. Economics really elevates the solution and allows it to be more effective, as it proposes realistic solutions that can be used to improve the situation as opposed to the arbitrary laws and solutions which make it less effective for progress to occur.
My role in the conference:
Human rights commission
Canada
This time I am very excited again to take part in the human rights commission as I am extremely passionate about it and really excited to represent Canada. Canada has recently aided people from the Syrian refugee crisis and have created a great policy in their government allowing all ethnicities to be involved and equally both genders to play a role in the country's decision. Thus, this makes it exceptionally exciting for me to represent the country.
Canada
This time I am very excited again to take part in the human rights commission as I am extremely passionate about it and really excited to represent Canada. Canada has recently aided people from the Syrian refugee crisis and have created a great policy in their government allowing all ethnicities to be involved and equally both genders to play a role in the country's decision. Thus, this makes it exceptionally exciting for me to represent the country.
The DARMUN conference! 29/04/16
In the DARMUN conference, it was quite intimidating in the beginning however I was not able to be be the main submitter. Although, I was quite happy to be able to speak once and improve my speaking skills. It was great to see how different DARMUN was to THIMUN. DARMUN I believe was less competitive than THIMUN as students did not reject the entire resolution due to clauses, however they strengthened them through amendments which was nice as resolutions that were good but somewhat flawed still counted and benefited the issue. I strongly believe that MUN is a great way for students to come up with realistic sustainable goals with global significance and develop goals through subjects like Geography and Economics. However, the only issue I see in MUN are that students are often taught to disagree with the resolution despite its strengths and it reflects the UN in general and why they were not able to gain so many achievements with veto powers who often dictate where money can be invested from selfish aims. I think these limitations often result in less results over the globe with such veto powers.
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MUN 2016!
22nd August 2016
Coming back in school and most importantly MUN was incredibly scary but surprisingly fun as well. The first session started off using our main skills; public speaking of course of the QUESTION OF DONALD TRUMP. It was incredibly intimidating at first where everyone just had a relatively blank face. But as everyone started raising their country cards and began speaking, the atmosphere did actually become better.
I was extremely shy and thought that everyone was being so literal about Donald Trump's policies and what he was doing in the campaigns regarding the "wall between Mexico" and surprisingly there were many people who made it interesting by favoring Trump and his policies and finally reminded me of what MUN is really like. It is to provide the opinion of your country and what is going to be best for them. While, I really like that it makes you look at other perspectives, I still believe as I said previously in the previous years that MUN does not really look for "improving" the current conditions of the world but it rather is a platform of improving your public skills and being able to convince people in what you and you country believe in. Hence why I still come to this activity because it is a great way in which I can improve my weakness and be more confident in my opinions.
When I went up to speak about the question of Donald Trump, it was extremely difficult for me to quickly think about what I wanted to say and that is one of the things I want to improve on. Similar to MUN, the subject of literature forces you to do the same thing which is to think on the spot. Hence, this year my goal will be to improve my oral and thinking skills to effectively convince people of what I believe in.
Coming back in school and most importantly MUN was incredibly scary but surprisingly fun as well. The first session started off using our main skills; public speaking of course of the QUESTION OF DONALD TRUMP. It was incredibly intimidating at first where everyone just had a relatively blank face. But as everyone started raising their country cards and began speaking, the atmosphere did actually become better.
I was extremely shy and thought that everyone was being so literal about Donald Trump's policies and what he was doing in the campaigns regarding the "wall between Mexico" and surprisingly there were many people who made it interesting by favoring Trump and his policies and finally reminded me of what MUN is really like. It is to provide the opinion of your country and what is going to be best for them. While, I really like that it makes you look at other perspectives, I still believe as I said previously in the previous years that MUN does not really look for "improving" the current conditions of the world but it rather is a platform of improving your public skills and being able to convince people in what you and you country believe in. Hence why I still come to this activity because it is a great way in which I can improve my weakness and be more confident in my opinions.
When I went up to speak about the question of Donald Trump, it was extremely difficult for me to quickly think about what I wanted to say and that is one of the things I want to improve on. Similar to MUN, the subject of literature forces you to do the same thing which is to think on the spot. Hence, this year my goal will be to improve my oral and thinking skills to effectively convince people of what I believe in.
Policy Statements and Resolutions:
19th September 2016
MUN is back with its completion of policy statements and resolutions which is essentially the essence of MUN. Policy statements can provide research on the issue and the country's stance. It can be important during debating when providing statistics to the fellow delegates and can greatly strengthen the argument during speeches. This is important to consider because it can improve the message of convincement since facts and figures can make the issue seen as alarming and important to people to favor the resolution. On the other hand, resolutions can really allow me to extract information online and create valid solutions that can aid with improving the issue at hand. Other subjects such as Economic and Geography have really helped me accomplish solutions that are detailed and are realistic and can be done through governments, NGOs or UN organizations. Economics is a subject that aims to look at the causality of government laws that can impact the public. This can be essential when suggesting solutions for an issue because they are realistic and are things that already exist in the world, e.g carbon taxes.
So for instance in this particular issue of addressing the effect of climate of change on biodiversity, some of the solutions that were added in my resolution included;
REQUESTS that IUCN collaboratively supports leadership in sharing information and knowledge on appropriate means of ensuring that agricultural practices have minimal adverse impacts on the environment and human health;
The knowledge from geography for this pre-ambulatory clause helped me to construct this as I used prior knowledge from case studies and allowed me to create an effective resolution.
In addition, researching impacts has allowed me to gain a lot more information about climate change as newer technologies are being developed and are having adverse effects on the environment. Therefore it has enhanced my understanding of global issues from social, economical, political to environmental changes. In turn, MUN also helps me in my subjects, since it requires you to know recent information or news. Therefore, having this understanding of global issues has strengthened my arguments in essays as well.
MUN is back with its completion of policy statements and resolutions which is essentially the essence of MUN. Policy statements can provide research on the issue and the country's stance. It can be important during debating when providing statistics to the fellow delegates and can greatly strengthen the argument during speeches. This is important to consider because it can improve the message of convincement since facts and figures can make the issue seen as alarming and important to people to favor the resolution. On the other hand, resolutions can really allow me to extract information online and create valid solutions that can aid with improving the issue at hand. Other subjects such as Economic and Geography have really helped me accomplish solutions that are detailed and are realistic and can be done through governments, NGOs or UN organizations. Economics is a subject that aims to look at the causality of government laws that can impact the public. This can be essential when suggesting solutions for an issue because they are realistic and are things that already exist in the world, e.g carbon taxes.
So for instance in this particular issue of addressing the effect of climate of change on biodiversity, some of the solutions that were added in my resolution included;
REQUESTS that IUCN collaboratively supports leadership in sharing information and knowledge on appropriate means of ensuring that agricultural practices have minimal adverse impacts on the environment and human health;
The knowledge from geography for this pre-ambulatory clause helped me to construct this as I used prior knowledge from case studies and allowed me to create an effective resolution.
In addition, researching impacts has allowed me to gain a lot more information about climate change as newer technologies are being developed and are having adverse effects on the environment. Therefore it has enhanced my understanding of global issues from social, economical, political to environmental changes. In turn, MUN also helps me in my subjects, since it requires you to know recent information or news. Therefore, having this understanding of global issues has strengthened my arguments in essays as well.
Practicing Debating (much more exciting)
3rd October 2016
This week, the debate was extremely interesting on the issue of the Tanzanian President John Pombe Magufuli. I am extremely passionate when it comes to Tanzanian politics, especially with the new laws that the President had imposed. Then, I realized that I can be a good speaker when I have the knowledge and especially the interest of the topic of discussion. This drive suddenly came and I voluntarily asked points of information which is usually quite unlike me but this showed that I was progressing as a speaker and the confidence that initially wasn't there at the beginning of MUN.
-A great thing that I find about MUN is that it requires you to think on the spot and immediately argue against the person who asked that question. Additionally, points that you had outlined may completely be lost due to nervousness, therefore it also allows me to create a logical argument on the spot.
I think that this year's MUN is different in terms of their selection of debates. It is something that is fun, but yet can allow people to improve their speaking and listening skills.
This week, the debate was extremely interesting on the issue of the Tanzanian President John Pombe Magufuli. I am extremely passionate when it comes to Tanzanian politics, especially with the new laws that the President had imposed. Then, I realized that I can be a good speaker when I have the knowledge and especially the interest of the topic of discussion. This drive suddenly came and I voluntarily asked points of information which is usually quite unlike me but this showed that I was progressing as a speaker and the confidence that initially wasn't there at the beginning of MUN.
-A great thing that I find about MUN is that it requires you to think on the spot and immediately argue against the person who asked that question. Additionally, points that you had outlined may completely be lost due to nervousness, therefore it also allows me to create a logical argument on the spot.
I think that this year's MUN is different in terms of their selection of debates. It is something that is fun, but yet can allow people to improve their speaking and listening skills.
Feedback sessions during formal debates:
4/11/2016
In MUN, we have strongly focused on speaking as an area of improvement as in the conferences, it is mainly focused on it that allows an effective message of convincement to the rest of the attendants in the debate room.
In the session, the activity was to debate on the topic of ACs and how they are harmful or beneficial to the environment (open to interpretation). Each participant would provide a 2 min speech on their view and as a group we would provide constructive feedback to what the person did well and did not do well. This personally helped me in many ways by not undermining myself as a participant of a debate and at the same time provide criticism based on the evidence of the speech.
Personal feedback recieved by people:
Constructive Feedback:
In MUN, we have strongly focused on speaking as an area of improvement as in the conferences, it is mainly focused on it that allows an effective message of convincement to the rest of the attendants in the debate room.
In the session, the activity was to debate on the topic of ACs and how they are harmful or beneficial to the environment (open to interpretation). Each participant would provide a 2 min speech on their view and as a group we would provide constructive feedback to what the person did well and did not do well. This personally helped me in many ways by not undermining myself as a participant of a debate and at the same time provide criticism based on the evidence of the speech.
Personal feedback recieved by people:
Constructive Feedback:
- Some of the positive comments I got from the participants was the fact that I had a good amount of facts and statistics that can make it easier in understanding the urgency of the issue and affriming the audience that this issue is true and therefore is a great way in convincing the audience of what you are saying.
- It can be nice to use any daily life example or jokes that can engage the audience and force them to take your point more seriously compared to the other peope (E.g "this resolution has a even bigger hole than a donut").
- While this can be quite unrealistic for people like me who find it really difficult to "hook" the audience, I tend to use my tone in order to engage the audience. By changing the tone or making a pause in the middle can make people look up again and remain engaged in what you say.
- Be more confident and try not to stammer (taking pauses is okay, but while making a pause it is important that the posture or the expressions of the face do not show that you ran out of words)--> can be weak if any of it changes
- This tip from people really help me particularly because conveying my thoughts instantly is challenging for me and I usually require a bit more time to gather my thoughts to counter-argue or to come up with strong points and examples. The IOC (Individual Oral Commentary) practices in this sense has also helped me in improving the ability of how I speak and convey my thoughts across by showing your confidence but at the same time with the relevant content. This is also necessary in MUN when talking about important worldwide issue. There must be evidence to back up your point and therefore provide a further level of convincement from the audience.
- In addition, I always realize that for me, I stammer a lot and that can be very negative particularly when you want to convince someone that what you are saying actually is true. It is important that I continue to retain my confidence and not use many gap fillers such as "ummm" that show to the audience of a weak speaker. While the content may be relevant or strong, I need to ensure that there is a greater confidence in myself when speaking or else it can go against you during debates especially when people vote for your resoultion.
Putting the feedback to a Test and seeing how much I have improved in my speaking skills:
28/11/16
Looking at how much I grew over the two weeks was important to see in order to examine the progress and how useful it was to me when recieving feedback from the participants. Luckily, apart from MUN, I have been getting additional practice for speaking when practicing on my IOCs which is essentially the same criteria as an MUN speaker. The beneficial thing of recieving additional practice is great as the teacher provides you with additional guidance that tailor towards improving the speaking aspect of your IOC.
Through the additional aid, in the next debate the we have this week, I ensured that I would use all these comments and put them towards my practice of MUN speeches.
This time we had a debate on Magufuli's anti-foreign policy. The great thing about this is that it is something I am very interested about and therefore it allows me to even further reveal confidence particularly because I hear of this from almost everyone in my household or my communities.
Looking at how much I grew over the two weeks was important to see in order to examine the progress and how useful it was to me when recieving feedback from the participants. Luckily, apart from MUN, I have been getting additional practice for speaking when practicing on my IOCs which is essentially the same criteria as an MUN speaker. The beneficial thing of recieving additional practice is great as the teacher provides you with additional guidance that tailor towards improving the speaking aspect of your IOC.
- I usually got more feedback on CONFIDENCE and using fewer gap fillers.
- Sometimes speaking slower and anuciatiating each word very carefully helps with the delivery of the speech
- Take pauses if there are additional thoughts running and commence speaking instead of seeking towards gap fillers.
Through the additional aid, in the next debate the we have this week, I ensured that I would use all these comments and put them towards my practice of MUN speeches.
This time we had a debate on Magufuli's anti-foreign policy. The great thing about this is that it is something I am very interested about and therefore it allows me to even further reveal confidence particularly because I hear of this from almost everyone in my household or my communities.
- I had a few statistics regarding the prices of the permits ($2000)
- I also took a few pauses when I saw that the audience partly engaged; this allowed them to look up and refocus to pay attention
- The great thing of this time was that even though I used some gap fillers, I slowed down and talked slowly of each point which allows the audience to have the time for the intake of information however it even helped me to further think in advance and talm of additional points that will strengthen my argument.
- This is different particularly because of nervousness. It tends to make me speak faster and therefore using more of the gap fillers to help me make additional points.
- This is both useful as an MUN speaker and a person who is practicing the IOC.
- Furthermore, using my knowledge from both economics and geography, explained the costs the government will have to take ownership of ranging from job losses, loss in revenue for firms and having a low skill set in the country
- This aided towards the strengthening of my arguments and it made it easier for everyone to get convinced by the points made.
THOUGHTS ON MUN (Ethics, its goals etc.)
14/12/17
Recently, we've been debating on several resolutions that everyone has been writing while merging with other groups. While merging with other people and their ideas on the resolution, my confidence has increased tremendously from when I was in the Hague and in school. Through MUN I've seen major changes in the way in which I portray myself as more confident and in control. Whereas, prior to this experience, I usually shied away from such things because it was out of my comfort zone. Hence, this week truly made me see my progression in this activity and the achievements I've received throughout this experience. Additionally, I believe that other factors have played a big role in my progress. The IB system in general I feel makes everyone step out of their comfort and makes them see newer and unfamiliar things whether it may be new friends and newer perspectives.
Going back to the merging process with other people, I showed immense confidence in my ideas and the ways in which I tied several clauses with other people's clauses because the ideas related. Additionally, I tied in my knowledge with geography and economics to think of ideas that are effective works of action to combat the issue of the refugee crisis. I think the most important thing in MUN is being able to think of effective solutions to help make a resolution more appealing. Despite the fact that ideas may be better, the question that often arises in my mind is, it it truly ethical to use countries as a means of debating whether certain resolutions can be applicable in their country? Furthermore, the ways in which MUN runs at often finding mistakes in a resolution in order to negatively put a resolution down, it stops and limits significant steps of action that may be important in taking place and might show some effectiveness. As a result of the things that are taught in MUN in relation to the global issues, this is a major flaw in its organization which limits the progress that we are able to see in the world. Hence, while finding effective and creative solutions that may be good at specific parts of a paper are not considered and are entirely removed. This can be truly lost to our society as an effective means of helping certain countries and alleviating them from the spiral of poverty into industrialization. While, MUN trains people to find counterarguments in order to write better resolutions, they are often times not helping but instead worsening the whole aspect and mission of the United Nations which is to help countries develop, create global interdependence etc. However, without changing the notions of how people middle school and high school people perceive MUN and its missions, important and significant resolutions that call for strict and effective actions may come to halt if these perspective of MUN and its goals are not changed.
Coming to realization with this has truly changed the ways in which I perceive resolutions and hence instead of bashing the resolution, I have now began to send in amendments in order to improve the clauses rather then completely eradicating an effective resolution itself.
Recently, we've been debating on several resolutions that everyone has been writing while merging with other groups. While merging with other people and their ideas on the resolution, my confidence has increased tremendously from when I was in the Hague and in school. Through MUN I've seen major changes in the way in which I portray myself as more confident and in control. Whereas, prior to this experience, I usually shied away from such things because it was out of my comfort zone. Hence, this week truly made me see my progression in this activity and the achievements I've received throughout this experience. Additionally, I believe that other factors have played a big role in my progress. The IB system in general I feel makes everyone step out of their comfort and makes them see newer and unfamiliar things whether it may be new friends and newer perspectives.
Going back to the merging process with other people, I showed immense confidence in my ideas and the ways in which I tied several clauses with other people's clauses because the ideas related. Additionally, I tied in my knowledge with geography and economics to think of ideas that are effective works of action to combat the issue of the refugee crisis. I think the most important thing in MUN is being able to think of effective solutions to help make a resolution more appealing. Despite the fact that ideas may be better, the question that often arises in my mind is, it it truly ethical to use countries as a means of debating whether certain resolutions can be applicable in their country? Furthermore, the ways in which MUN runs at often finding mistakes in a resolution in order to negatively put a resolution down, it stops and limits significant steps of action that may be important in taking place and might show some effectiveness. As a result of the things that are taught in MUN in relation to the global issues, this is a major flaw in its organization which limits the progress that we are able to see in the world. Hence, while finding effective and creative solutions that may be good at specific parts of a paper are not considered and are entirely removed. This can be truly lost to our society as an effective means of helping certain countries and alleviating them from the spiral of poverty into industrialization. While, MUN trains people to find counterarguments in order to write better resolutions, they are often times not helping but instead worsening the whole aspect and mission of the United Nations which is to help countries develop, create global interdependence etc. However, without changing the notions of how people middle school and high school people perceive MUN and its missions, important and significant resolutions that call for strict and effective actions may come to halt if these perspective of MUN and its goals are not changed.
Coming to realization with this has truly changed the ways in which I perceive resolutions and hence instead of bashing the resolution, I have now began to send in amendments in order to improve the clauses rather then completely eradicating an effective resolution itself.
HOW TO IMPROVISE? (Activity)
6/02/17
This week, it was a test to see my personal progress in MUN and how far I have come in my confidence in terms of speaking to an unfamiliar audience. This week the activity was more fun and unique and it truly was a challenge to improvise on the spot is the certain issue was unfamiliar. Basically, this activity was where everyone was asked to write any issue on a piece of paper, whether this may be specific or global. After this, everyone was asked to pick up a paper and talk about the issue for about 2 minutes. It was a really interesting talk and would truly help me see how well my confidence and speaking skills have improved over these 2 years.
I was given the issue of Trump's presidency impacting women's rights and national security of the country. I have been reading a lot of news on Trump specifically on women's rights (his profane language with how he describes women and their intellect) and I heard about the issues of national security where he has been going against the conduct of presidency and disrespecting several rules. Additionally, he plans to include adversaries like Russia who have been a major threat to the US. Lastly, I knew a lot on the economic consequences of Trump's policies ranging from his trade policies to means of getting back manufacturing jobs in the US. Hence, by using all these examples I was able to greatly appeal the audience and persuading them on why such an issue is important to combat. However, while speaking I did go through a couple of pauses and some umms, but overall they were significantly lower than what they had used to be which was a nice trend to see overall. Additionally, I spoke for a longer amount of time that was unusual which truly showed how comfortable I was getting at talking to a larger audience. At the moment, I began to see a huge progress when I first started MUN which was an incredible change in my personality.
This week, it was a test to see my personal progress in MUN and how far I have come in my confidence in terms of speaking to an unfamiliar audience. This week the activity was more fun and unique and it truly was a challenge to improvise on the spot is the certain issue was unfamiliar. Basically, this activity was where everyone was asked to write any issue on a piece of paper, whether this may be specific or global. After this, everyone was asked to pick up a paper and talk about the issue for about 2 minutes. It was a really interesting talk and would truly help me see how well my confidence and speaking skills have improved over these 2 years.
I was given the issue of Trump's presidency impacting women's rights and national security of the country. I have been reading a lot of news on Trump specifically on women's rights (his profane language with how he describes women and their intellect) and I heard about the issues of national security where he has been going against the conduct of presidency and disrespecting several rules. Additionally, he plans to include adversaries like Russia who have been a major threat to the US. Lastly, I knew a lot on the economic consequences of Trump's policies ranging from his trade policies to means of getting back manufacturing jobs in the US. Hence, by using all these examples I was able to greatly appeal the audience and persuading them on why such an issue is important to combat. However, while speaking I did go through a couple of pauses and some umms, but overall they were significantly lower than what they had used to be which was a nice trend to see overall. Additionally, I spoke for a longer amount of time that was unusual which truly showed how comfortable I was getting at talking to a larger audience. At the moment, I began to see a huge progress when I first started MUN which was an incredible change in my personality.
DARMUN Preparations
17/02/17
In the DARMUN involvement this year, I was asked to be part of the Approval panel which formats resolutions and gets them ready for printing. Hence, being part of the last DARMUN is interesting to see how far I've come in my confidence and involvement in MUN. In the beginning from being a normal delegate and then being part of the THIMUN delegation and being the main submitter of a resolution. I was incredibly pleased this time to be involved into another aspect of MUN which is approval panel.
In the DARMUN involvement this year, I was asked to be part of the Approval panel which formats resolutions and gets them ready for printing. Hence, being part of the last DARMUN is interesting to see how far I've come in my confidence and involvement in MUN. In the beginning from being a normal delegate and then being part of the THIMUN delegation and being the main submitter of a resolution. I was incredibly pleased this time to be involved into another aspect of MUN which is approval panel.