Reflection 2

Writing the Resolution

This IIMUN experience was a very significant incident that has happened in the journey of my school life. It was the first time I experienced a formal debate and an actual committee session similar to those that take place at the United Nations. It was an honour to be a part of this debate and to get introduced to a whole new world. The learning outcomes of this experience are vast. Risk taking was one IB learner profile that i developed by attending this conference. Each time I refuted another delegate's point, I was taking a risk. It built my confidence and removed my stage fear. I believe, being able to talk confidently about something regardless of whether you know about it or not in front of people, is the key to success! IIMUN has helped make my first step towards destiny! Also, mingling with people I've never known anything about before, was something I was proud of myself for doing. Moreover, the knowledge i gained was beyond extents. I got to know more about how the government functions, ethical values towards a certain issue and how it can be looked upon from different points of views. I also became a better inquirer within. I began asking myself questions every time i collected information while preparing the answers for moderated caucuses. I was also open minded to share all my opinions in front of all delegates. That boosted up my confidence and made me a good speaker. Every time someone spoke from the opponent side, I began thinking of how I prove them wrong. That skill developed with time during the session, itself. Bottom line, I started analyzing every situation from various angles and evaluating them in my mind.

Journal 2.7 : And THIRD is the 'treasure chest!'

   After our unfinished argument yesterday, we went back to our resort and started collecting specific details and evidences to prove the opponent wrong. We wrote down short speeches for each moderated caucus topic given by the chairperson during the last committee session yesterday. Also, we went through the format of a resolution and the criteria so that it would be easy to write the resolution on spot today. We began motioning for moderated caucuses and of course a few unmoderated caucuses in between to discuss the important points with all of the delegates and make them agree with our point of views. At the end, we proved the opponent wrong by having a one-on-one debate. We asked them why they didn't place a court order to reopen their factory if they didn't feel guilty of committing such a disaster. They couldn't refute that one powerful statement, because of which we won the argument. But that wasn't the ultimate goal of the session. The aim was to create a resolution which would help the affected employees and people. So we all sat together and wrote the resolution with perfect criteria followed through out from start to end. Guess what?! Our chair said "Delegates, this is an insanely amazing resolution. Generally, passing a resolution would be extremely challenging, but you have done it brilliantly. This resolution, therefore, clearly passes!" The amount of excitement in me was greater than the power of infinity. Our chair then gave all of us individual remarks. And this is what he remarked for me " You were crucial through out the all committee sessions. You gave three very important points which i expected from the delegates, but nobody else gave. You had no inhibitions while speaking and were very confident. Also, you were active during the unmoderated causes. That is the strength you need to be a best delegate. Good job!" I have to say, I was amazed for a second! Finally, we had our closing ceremony at the same place we had our opening ceremony at. All chairpersons came up to the stage and talked about their experiences with their committees, and how exhilarating it was to be chair for the first time. They also received awards for chairing the committees. Then, each chairperson announced the awards for their committees. The last chair to go on stage was ours. He came up and said that it was so hard to choose the winners as they all had a very healthy argument. He then announced, "The verbal mention award goes to Delegate number 1(me!)". I immediately stood up and tried shaking off the shock for a moment while everybody around me applauded. I didn't get the Best Delegate award, but i am proud of myself for what I achieved. Many of my friends in the other committees got different awards as well. After giving away the awards, the vice president came up to the stage and announced the winner of the Best Delegation award. We (TIPS) were the winners as most of us got awards and performed the best overall! He called us all up onto the stage and handed over that glorious trophy! After enjoying the moment of pride, we thanked the management for their limitless effort to make this IIMUN a success and hugged everybody a bye! After clicking a lot of pictures, we went to the Kodaikanal lake, walked around together and then ate pizza for dinner at Papa Jones before we headed back to our resort. At the resort, to celebrate our victory, we had a camp fire and enjoyed insanely... 

Duration : 8 hours

Journal 2.6 : Second is the BEST!

All trendy!

Presidential..

Waking up today, was so hard! After having so much fun dancing last evening, we had a good sleep, but for a very short time. And we had to dress up in traditional wear! So we woke up quite early and started dressing up. At the same time, we were also practicing our opening speeches since we were slowly sinking under fear. After we reached the venue ( Kodaikanal International Business School), we had breakfast and assembled in our respective committee rooms. My friend and I met only some of our committee mates last night during dinner. But we met all of them in the committee room. I was actually astonished to see most of them chilled out and quite relaxed, while I was shivering in nervousness. Shortly, our chairperson came in and summarized all the rules and told us to be chill. He said that it was completely alright to make mistakes because they are the only stepping stones to success! Guess what?! I was the first delegate to give the opening speech on the floor. Well, 'floor' is how they refer to the dais in MUN. The chair would say “ Delegate number 1, the floor is yours”, and I would have to go up in front of everyone to give my speech. We discussed a lot of moderate caucus topics today and also had a few unmoderated caucuses in between. We definitely had a very healthy debate. Every delegate put their views into such a sequence, that I was inspired by each one of them. Their uniqueness in the way of presenting their point of views was simple fascinating!

Our chairperson 

Thinking hard..

Also, I should tell you that the delegate who represented the company which must be convicted of causing the mercury crime, defended himself beautifully by giving simple counters to anything put forward from our side (the side which was is for the people). Though we didnt come to a stable conclusion today, we had a very balanced debate!

Duration : 7 hours 

Journal 2.5 : The first day!

At the dining..

The opening ceremony

Today we went to the kodaikanal international business school for the opening ceremony. Honestly, the opening ceremony was extremely inspiring. We first saw this video which summarized all the chapters of IIMUN in 5 minutes. After that, the vice president came up to the stage and shared his experience ever since he started MUNing. The way he talked and told us how nervous he was in his MUN was really motivating. All my anxiety and fear just dropped down to the level of zero. Then, the principal of Kodai- International came and gave a short speech. Also, few other people talked about how we should debate and how important listening to others, while debating is. Honestly, those words are still in my mind. “Don't just hear, but listen!”

FUN!

 Finally, the vice president came to the stage and officially called the conference open.

After which, we had a disco dance! They played music, and we went insane, dancing wildly!

That was the best disco I have ever been to. What is still so impressive is that, all of us were dancing together even with people we knew nothing about. That kind of socializing and having fun was a crazy, yet tremendous experience! After dancing, we went out to the field and clicked loads of pictures...

Duration : 4 hours 

Journal 2.4 : Winding up!

We will be leaving to Kodaikanal tomorrow morning, which means today is our last day of preparation! The best part is that we're finally done finding the answers for the listed questions. Now we're filing all our printouts of information and preparing for our opening speech which we will be giving during the General speakers list. The general speakers list is the third part of the committee session which usually happens at the beginning of the conference, but could also happen at any other time according to the number of delegates who vote for it. Every delegate gives their own views generally for a minute in a form of a speech on the floor. We took help of other opening speeches online to form the basic outline of our speeches and then we timed them. Take a look at my opening speech!

"  Honorable chairs and fellow delegates,

The former secretary general believes that the Kodaikanal mercury contamination case has been a tragic incident in the early 2000s, and yet has significant effects in today's world. This official feels that the problem of children being born with severe physical and mental abnormalities, is one that requires immediate attention, because these effects stand a very high chance of being inherited to the further generations if kept untreated.

Statistically, 45 people including 12 children have lost their lives, and over 600 people have been heavily exposed in this incident, which is believed to have taken place in consequence to the carelessness of HUL. The CRC (Convention on the Rights of the Child) formed by the UN in 1989,

claims that Children's rights include their right to association with basic needs such as health care and criminal laws appropriate for the development of the child. Hence, the former secretary general presumes that this committee would work cooperatively, in order to obey to this law.

This official strongly encourages Hindustan Unilever to expiate, for the devastating mess it caused, in Kodaikanal. Also, the implementation of an appropriate pollution limit which must be followed by all industries, would be appreciated.

On that note, the former secretary general hopes for an effective and constructive debate in order to achieve justice and bring this unresolved issue to a favorable end at the earliest today.

Thank you "

Well, now we're ready to rock the dais! 

Duration : 7 hours

Journal 2.3 : Touching the core of it...

With all the basic information, we actually began thinking of unmoderated caucus topics too. Unmoderated caucus, one of the three parts of the committee sessions is a session where you are free to talk to any of the delegates about any topic informally. Its in MUN terms, called 'lobbying'. Basically, it's an opportunity you get, to communicate with other delegates in order to understand their views on certain issues. Moreover, you could play smart and make them sign your resolution as a signatory. Now coming to the pinnacle of the conference, the resolution! A resolution is a single sentence which you write for any number of pages. It contains the pre-ambulatory clauses and the operative clauses. The pre-ambulatory clauses are an introduction to the resolution and often refer to past resolutions, citations of speeches made and references to the UN charter. The operative clauses are the clauses which contain the actual solution to the agenda or crisis. This is written by a group of people called the authors and sub-authors, towards the end of the conference. Signatories are delegates who sign the resolution agreeing that they would like this resolution to be taken up for voting. Only if the resolution is taken up for voting, it can be passed, which is the ultimate goal of the conference. So we also started thinking of ideas to put in our resolution. Later, we continued researching on our mod-cauc questions.

Duration : 4 hours  

Journal 2.2 : Digging deeper

I actually compartmentalized all the details I had at hand, and started working on my research binder. The research binder is just a collection of all the necessary information and evidences we would be making frequent use of, during the committee sessions. Fortunately, one of my best friends is in the same committee as well, so we began working together. We are the only two people in this committee from our school, hence it is just us researching about the mercury poisoning disaster. We worked in tune with the guide provided by the IIMUN for our committee, by which I mean, we started finding answers for the questions listed as topics to be discussed in the moderated caucuses. A moderated caucus is one of the three parts of the committee session in which all the delegates would present their views on a particular topic. I will get to the other two parts in the future journals, just so that you readers experience the actual IIMUN at mind! While i started right from square one of this issue, my friend began researching the effects and and the company's views. Hence, both of our research material are already supporting each other. Working in such coordination is extremely fascinating...

Duration : 3 hours 

Journal 2.1 : THE first step

   
   The Indian International Model United Nations (IIMUN) is Asia's first and largest youth organization in which high school students are given the opportunity to debate on problems that the entire world is concerned of, and come down to resolutions.
      IIMUN - Kodaikanal chapter 16 is the conference we will be attending at the Kodaikanal International Business school on the 29th, 30th and 31st of January.
      Today afternoon, the assistant director of IIMUN came all the way from Mumbai to our school to give us a detailed introduction. She told us what this conference is all about and how it will help us throughout life. From what she spoke about, I clearly understood that public speaking is the key to success. I learned that ingraining the skill to speak confidently in front of people, even about something you are not aware of, is what will help you survive in the competitive world out there.
     She first briefed us on all the committees and what the main topics are in each of them. The six committees include President's special committee, Commission on the status of women, Human rights council, Security council and North Atlantic treaty of organization. She also informed us all the rules that have to be followed in all the committee sessions.
    Until she told us about the committee I am assigned to participate in - The president's special committee, was one that nobody had a single clue about. I finally got to know that the committee has been formed to talk only about the Kodaikanal mercury poisoning case which has created a revolutionary, and in fact a devastating mess. I also got to know the profile I represent in the conference. I represent a former government official, which means my say at any cost, would always be against Hindustan Unilever ( the company which must be held responsible for leaking mercury into the surrounding).
   Now that I have adequate details, I shall begin my research...
    
Duration : 3 hours