Global Studies

Most of the delegation got to sleep in thursday morning, however the GA Plenary (Michael and Ilce) had to head to the UN building in order to vote on the resolutions of the other GA bodies. They sat in Conference Room 2 which had the official voting board and the voting buttons.

Much of the delegation decided to do some shopping and sight-seeing before heading to the UN for the closing ceremony. At the UN, we sat in the GA hall once again, behind the Finland placard. While waiting for the ceremony to begin, a Finn from a different delegation asked to have a picture taken with the Finland placard and the Finland delegation. Being the diplomatic delegation we are, we gladly said yes.

The closing ceremony was soon underway and we heard speeches from the organizers of the conference. During this part of the conference, the awards are handed out. Our amazing delegation won Honorable Mention for the Delegation and Outstanding Position Papers. These awards are very prestigious and we were very proud of our amazing delegation for all the hard work they had done over the week.

After the ceremony was called to an end for this year, the delegates made their way back to the hotel to eat and enjoy NYC for one last night. Many of the delegates decided to enjoy the delegate dance held in the hotel and danced the night away with many of the friends they had made throughout the week.

Then it was to bed for a couple of hours before leaving on the bus at 8:30 Friday morning for a sleep-filled ride back to Randolph College.

Wednesday began bright and early again for the head delegates with another 7:30 meeting. Being the diplomats that we are, Ashley and I gave nothing but compliments to the chairs of the conference. After our meeting, we went to check on the rest of our delegation whose meetings began at 8:30am. Always in character, Finland was in the middle of their major caucus blocks writing and negotiating resolutions.

After lunch, the delegates continued to put last minute touches on resolutions and reports. The committees soon moved into voting procedure, deciding which resolutions would or would not be passed. While the committees were all in voting procedure, the head delegates had their own important task: find a nice cheap restaurant for the delegation to eat that night. We decided upon Djerdan, a bosnian restaurant on 38th street between 7th and broadway.

After the delegation ate together, we spent the rest of the night exploring NYC some more.

Tuesday’s are Tuesday’s, even here at the UN Conference in NYC. The delegates spent over nine hours in committee sessions on this long day.

The day started with the head delegates meeting at 7:30am which Kelly and I attended. At this meeting we are able to express our comments and/or concerns with how the conference is running. Delightfully, the conference is very professional and organized so there was not a lot of criticism at the meeting. One thing I did bring up though, is that the committee rooms were running out of water, now we can’t go depriving our delegates of food and water! This problem was solved immediately, as I saw staff refilling the water multiple times throughout the day.

Committee sessions began at 8:30am and the delegates were once again, working diligently side-by-side with other member states. Finland was great at forming caucusing blocs with their regional partners such as Russia, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and other European Nations. We could not be more proud of how Finland is remaining in in character and exercising their diplomacy skills. Our two delegates sitting on the General Assembly Plenary were so much in character, of being peacekeepers, they were able to get North Korea to sign a Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, one that South Korea had already signed! What a resolution!

After a the morning and afternoon committee sessions we broke for an hour to attend a variation of informative speakers who had been asked to attend by the faculty. We could chose where to go, a few of us attended the Disarmament Panel with speakers including Henry Lague, who is the Disarmament Coordinator at the World Federation of UN Associates, Daniel Prins, the Chief of the Conventional Arms Branch of the UN Office for Disarmament Affiars, and Rhianna Tyson, the Senior Officer for the Global Security Institute. Others attended a speech given by Hina Shamsi, a Staff Attorny in the ACLU who was speaking on Human Rights and International Law.

I, myself along with four others attended a speech on Nuclear Weapons, a survivor story of Hiroshima. Mrs. Hideko Tamura Snider was a child when the atomic bomb went off in Hiroshima. She had a great story to tell. I left the room with tears in my eyes and courage around my heart. She really motivated us delegates to get out there and advocate peace all around the world.

That is a reason why this program is so necessary. If available, every student should participate as a model UN delegate. This conference brings together students from all over the world, students who will soon be the future. We practice diplomacy early with one another and learn the key of success is cooperation. Hopefully it will be all of us delegates filling up the seats of the UN in the years to come. Maybe then we really can start achieving world peace.

The day ended with another yet another committee session, and more progress made by the delgation from Finland. :o)

Monday was an extremely busy day for us. We started out the day at the Finland Mission to the United Nations where we heard from an Advisor to the Permanent Representative of Finland. He filled our brains with useful knowledge about Finland, like how they are able to maintain their label as the worlds super peacekeeper, and how they manage their stance in European Union and United Nations conferences. Many of the delegates asked him insightful questions pertaining to concrete measures Finland has taken in regards to education, security, climate change and more. The mission even provided us with soda pop and cookies! We managed to get in a quick photo before we were hustled out of the door at 1:15.

From there, the delegates stood in the rain waiting for taxi’s to rush them back to the hotel for their second committee session. With the committees starting at 2:oo there was no time for lunch, so everyone worked on empty bellies. Finland made a lot of progress on Monday. Many more delegates spoke in front of their committees, and many began drafting their resolutions with other member states.

The committee sessions ended at 4:00pm, only to have thousands of delegates rushing to the United Nations for the opening ceremony. Dr. Abbassi, Kelly and I headed to the UN around 3:00 in order to get in, get through security, and save close seats for the delegates. We ended up being able to sit behind the real Finland placard in the real UN General Assembly Hall. It was so great, we got a ton of pictures. All of the delegates, especially the ones that have never been involved in Model UN before really enjoyed themselves and were taken back at the fact that they were sitting in the real General Assembly hall, where diplomats and ambassadors sit!

The opening ceremony was very nice. We heard two speakers, one was the Under-Secretary General for Communications and Public information, H.E. Kiyotaka Akasaka. He even had a personalized message to give us from the Secretary General, Ban Ki -Moon who could not be there because he was out of the country. The next speaker we heard was a retired U.S. ambassador, H.E. Lynn Pascoe, who is currently serving as the Under-Secretary General of Political Affairs. They both had very kind and encouraging words for all of the delegates. Mr. Pascoe was especially comforting considering he was laid back in his speech and even joked about diplomacy. He said “Diplomacy is the art of telling someone where to go in such a way that they look forward to their journey.”

When opening ceremonies concluded, the at-this-time STARVING delegates were rushed back to the hotel for the their committee session at 8pm. Mind you, they had not eaten all day. Us being the smart delegation we are, had Dr. Abbassi sneak out of the ceremonies a few minutes early to pick up pizza for all of the delegates so they could scarf down a slice before committee. I have never in my life seen students dressed in business atire eat like mad animals. (I got some of it on film).

Committee sessions did not end until 12am. Most of the delegates got out of committee and went straight to bed. They knew the next day would be an even longer one.

So we woke up this morning and seeing as we had a little free time, the delegates decided to do some sight seeing. A group of us decided to have a picnic in Central Park and feed the ducks. While the ducks were disappointing, the people watching was fantastic. 

 After the sight seeing, we came back to the hotel to change for the Alumni formal gathering. The amazing R-MWC women of the New York Alumni Chapter organized the occasion at Kathy Brown’s apartment, an alum of 1976. The gathering was fantastic, with delicious finger foods and great conversation. A special thank you to the New York Alumni Chapter.  

After the reception, we had our first committee sessions and Finland made themselves known. All of the committees set their agenda topic order for the week, as well as the speaker’s time limit. Many committees already started discussing their first topic. The delegates put themselves on the speaker’s list and three of our delegates gave great speeches. Everything went exceptionally well and the Head Delegates are VERY proud! In fact, we felt like mums at a kid’s sports’ game; running around trying to capture every speech and delegate in action. This really is going to be an exciting conference!

The title sums it up. The RC UN delegation arrived in NYC yesterday and last night we hit the town. About 16 of us went out to dinner at Cancun, a tries-to-be, but not really, authentic Mexican restuarant on 53rd and 8th. It was great food, and a nice way to settle in. We then headed to HA! Comedy Club where we laughed our Finnish tushies off for a couple hours. In fact, we were so much in character, that when asked where we were from we replied with cheers “FINLAND!!” and led people to believe we were in fact Finnish.

At the comedy club we cheered on a few crude comedians and learned exactly what NOT to do in Committee sessions. At one point, a comedian came on stage and was talking about the importance of diversity, which is nice, and during his joke when he was rambling about races and different people, instead of saying diversity is important, or I like diversity he simply said “I am diversity.” This wasn’t even the punch line, but for reasons soon-to-be explained, the entire UN delegation started cracking up. We were the only ones laughing, everyone else was confused at why were were laughing. The comedian actually stopped his joke, looked at us and said “Now why in the hell are you laughing? That wasn’t funny, that wasn’t even the punchline.” Now me, being the outgoing personality that I am, I yelled to him “you said, I am diversity” at this point, bellies are being held and tears are streaming from our faces. “Yeah, so, what’s the big deal” he said. “That is not funny, you’re stupid.”… He didn’t get it.

That’s when we are looked around at each other and realized no one else was laughing. That’s when it hit us–we’re a bunch of nerds. Even on a night out in NYC, at a comedy club of all places, our biggest laugh will come from someone using incorrect grammer and no one else realizing it. Oh well, using our words carefully and being diplomatic is our job–apparently it now comes naturally.

 We finished the night hanging out in the head delegates room and talking about cars. One delegate, whose name will remain confidential, drives a motorcycle and parks it in the front parking spots of bell all the time. If you see them, tell them they should either A) Move their motorcycle, or B) get a sidecar and take us to Wal-Mart.

2009 RC UN Delegation consists of:

Kelly Smitham

Ashley Thomas

Paul DeMesa

Janice Williams

Illiana Carraquillo

Sequoyah Healylouer

Amenah Alsrogy

Meica Green

Michael Kenyon

Wenjiao Liu

Washma Furmuli

Khandarmaa Enkhbold

Danielle Robinson

Ilcie Garcia

Anneka Freeman

Claudette Jones

Phanwin Yokying

Samantha Schaffstall

Sanchia Holder

Ankeeta Shrestha

Today we took the trip up to NYC for the Model UN conference.  All the students gathered bright and early at 8:40 AM in front of Smith Hall ready to hop on the bus. Without much delay the bus came. Not only was the trip up to New York flawless, but our driver, Jerry executed a perfect 360 with the bus. The delegates cheered on his mad driving skills. The bus was fairly quiet for the first part of the trip as the sleep deprived delegates grabbed much needed Zzzs. The Lynchburg College delegate broke the silence eventually, playing their endless collection of movies. Soon the bus was abuzz with noise. Delegates played with their stuffed animals (yes they did), did work, talked, etc.

We eventually arrived in New York City. One way streets were not our friend as we passed our hotel. He eventually pulled up to the hotel. HOORAY! WE WERE FINNISH-EDDDD with the trip.