Sometimes we end up doing things that we never expected. In the month of July 2021, I did end up doing a few things which seemed impossible to me till the last moment.
Model United Nations i.e. MUN was an extremely complicated thing to me till the month of June. However, I still decided to give it a try. I tried out my first MUN in the end of June, but I remained confused about some facts. I decided not to give up until I learnt everything about MUN’s.
I took part in my second MUN which was the CISMUN organized by the Calcutta International School, Kolkata. I was a part of the IPC Committee and represented American television program host, Rachel Maddow. I felt that it was one of the most cooperative committee with minimal arguments and disputes. Although we had to cover committees of the conference and submit our reviews by 9pm, it did become a bit tiring, but I enjoyed it to the fullest. While covering various committees in the three-day MUN, I learnt in depth about the issues that they were covering. I got to know about the South China Sea issue and the various roles played by the countries in the dispute, the treatment of refugees in various countries and the responses of the other countries. The IPC Committee also conducted a press conference where the delegates of the IPC committee had to ask questions to the delegates of the committee that they had covered. Questions had to be asked based on the delegates speech in the moderated caucus or GSL (General Speaker’s List). We then had to submit a feature, and 2 opinion-based articles and while writing it gave me a new insight about a lot of things . Our IPC Committee also had a debate on the agenda “Freedom Of Press” , I personally loved being a part of it and really enjoyed the heated discussion that took place between all the delegates. After a three-day tedious and fun committee, I bagged a special mention in my committee and that sure motivated me to continue MUN’S for rest of the month.
Next, I represented my school , Modern High School For Girls at the JACO MUN organised by the St James School , Kolkata. I had a slight disadvantage in this MUN as I did not get allotted to the committee I preferred and got a short span of time to prepare. However, that was not really a problem as I aimed to give my best. I was allotted to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) as the representative of Croatia. We discussed the trade routes facilitating drugs, the drug cartels, dark web, etc. It was a 9 hour long and competitive committee which also included paperwork 😊 . I gave my best in the committee but some of the other representatives could perform better and thus they placed. I was a bit disappointed but at the same time I also learnt a lot of new things about drugs and its distribution.
After not winning in the JACO MUN , I was a bit disappointed as I mentioned earlier but I decided to fill that up by participating in one last MUN of the month. I came across Team Credencia which is based in Delhi. They organised there first edition MUN in which I participated in the United Nations Commission For Women Committee as the representative of Germany. We discussed on the agenda of Objectification Of Women. For this MUN I had only forty-eight hours to prepare for the agenda as I faced a committee change. However, the topic was very compatible, and I managed to come up with a good amount of research. This committee also had a good number of competitive delegates but I also did not leave any stone unturned this time and rectified quite a lot of previous mistakes that I made in the last MUN. I know I might be sounding like a person who is filled with vanity now but I really thought that I gave my best performance in this MUN. I could notice a distinct change in my paperwork skills, debate , lobbying and last but not the least POI’s. We had an intense session about the economic and psychological impact of the objectification of women, the trivialisation of workplace objectification and its role in the entertainment industry and the personal health impact of objectification. All the topics gave me a new outlook to the agenda and I enjoyed every bit of it. After a 10-hour long session finally, I won the third best delegate award in the committee. Although , I was delighted on receiving the award but I learnt a lot from this committee as it provided me a new perspective and solutions of the problems we as women face almost regularly.
Thus, I conclude that the month of July was very useful and insightful and it was a total “ MUN” craze month! I look forward to such months again where I am a part of such resourceful and nerve breaking discussions which require more importance.
