Model UN reflection

Having never done anything like the model UN simulation before, I thought it was particularly interesting. Especially as prior to it, I knew absolutely nothing about the country of Kuwait. I also feel that my knowledge about the relations of the Middle East has increased substantially. I mostly enjoyed the parts of the simulation where we had a major crisis to solve because it was fun to be able to exercise so much pretend power and also to have your voice heard on potentially real life situations. It was also a good way to hear about everyone else’s area of interest in Kuwait (for example, the economy, defense or education). It was fun to be able to experience what goes into the decision making process, and how many things come into play when making decisions that effect an entire nation of people, or even multiple countries.

I think I was sufficiently prepared; I knew lots of details about my ministry and knew basic facts and foreign policy about Kuwait. However, I could have improved my knowledge by reading everyone else’s blog entries about Kuwait as to have a slightly more rounded perception of the country.

I was most proud of how our group handled our crises very realistically on the first day of the simulation. We were not too generous to the people or too lenient on the workers. We were firm, but not uncooperative. I think we were very good at acting as Kuwait might really have acted, taking the views of our population into consideration with the reorganization of the government and with the workers crisis, and not just giving into our power hungry, foreign policy minded inner desires to dominate the Middle East.

Also, I thought our group was very good at not allowing just one person to dominate all decision making. Almost everyone spoke out on the first day and most people got to talk about their particular ministry and were useful in decision making not only if it applied to their ministry, but everything in general. Many people voiced opinions and showed knowledge in areas that they didn’t focus on.

Our group also made sure to look at news releases not concerning our own country, because you never know when something could come along that could mean great profit for our nation. For example, the Iranian post about oil found off the coast of their country which allowed us to join forces with Iraq and the USA was a very handy one. It would not have been good if we had ignored that piece of information especially as Kuwait’s rich economy almost runs singlehandedly on oil supply. Also we gave out aid on a few occasions, which was my area of expertise, when news releases came out about the spread of disease or of famine in Iraq. This helped to keep ourselves alive in the simulation and to ensure our survival in the core part of the events.

I think the simulation could have gone much better if the organizers had more people on staff because then news could have been approved and posted faster and therefore there would be more things we might be able to react/respond to. On the second day we weren’t given any crises therefore we were forced to try to play off of other country’s situations in order to get ourselves back into the center of the simulation. Towards the end, in a desperate plea for recognition, we planned a celebratory boat party where we planned to assassinate the prime minister of China. Overall the people in charge could definitely have been more organized, or had some potential crises ready to give out in case of a countries lack of things to deal with, particularly countries like Kuwait who are not an especially large player in the international system.

Aiding Ourselves?

When I type ‘aid’ into the BBC news search, I find it interesting that it comes up with a number of stories about aiding companies or aiding sports teams. We are spending hundred of millions in order to keep up our precious capitalism (do not worry, I am not a socialist). We are giving aid to ourselves.

Imagine if we got rid of just one multimillion dollar corporation, and used the money to aid the rest of the world. Yes, thousands of people would lose their jobs, but we may be saving the lives of a thousand others. Imagine just getting rid of one huge corporation, one manufacturer who make things unbreakable in order for us to break them and have to buy new things (or a company that is already exploiting its employees), can change a lot.

This article from the BBC, talks about money that is being funded so that lil’ ol’ Darlington Football Club can be reestablished, which is 5 million pounds in debt. The article talks about how when each person buys a ticket, the money will go towards the club and its establishment. We in the west so eagerly feed our local communities because then they feed us with entertainment. We feed ourselves when we could feed the impoverished world.

That article came out this month, within the very same week that this article came out, addressing starvation issues in the prisons of Zimbabwe.

“Dozens of inmates in Zimbabwe die every day of starvation and disease.”

We could possibly help them in their plea for humanitarian aid needed for ‘food and clothing’, however we would all appear (including myself) to be too busy aiding ourselves with entertainment and additional merchandise.

A documentary was made about the conditions of the prisons in Zimbabwe. In the documentary prisoners describe how the sick and the healthy sleep side-by-side in unhygienic and overcrowded cells. These conditions seem to arguably reflect the conditions that the people were held in at a school during the Cambodian genocide, in which hardly anyone who went in survived. Things like this are happening all over the world. We give money to aid football teams, to help attention deprived sports stars, when other people are life threateningly food deprived.

I know that it is hard to truly feel the effects of what we are doing; it is hard for everyone to feel for the rest of the world because it simply doesn’t affect us, doesn’t apply to us. The western world (again, including me) finds it hard to deplete even the smallest bit of self consumption. After all, we are a consuming nation. We aim to fill our wants, when less developed nations merely seek fulfillment of their needs.

On the CNN website, when I type in ‘aid’, I find a number of different things. But what I found that was most alarming was that a story entitled ‘what you eat can improve your health, mind and appearance’ was sitting right next to a story entitled ‘Quake survivors: what about our future?’. This is the part where we ignore the question and say well, what about my hair?!