“A small change may not seem to make an impact, but like a small drop in the ocean, every drop counts. Through this MUN platform, let us be that drop” Seojin Park, Co-Secretary General of CHEMUN.
This conference centered around the topic of Stagnation and Innovation, the idea being that without Stagnation, Innovation is baseless, and vice versa. At present, stagnation in this world’s progress is dominant through pertinent issues such as the Rohingya Crisis, the American school bombings, and the immigrant crisis. I had the honor of co-chairing Historical Security Council (HSC), set in 1962. HSC is a metaphor that to solve our problems in the present, we must look into our past and reflect, and important part of innovating.
Through this conference, I learned the skill of self-confidence, as I had to moderate the Committee, a big responsibility for the efficiency of a committee. I also learned to be communicative with my fellow Chairs, from matters of logistics to serious matters like debating the validity of a certain clause or resolution. I learnt to be understanding and patient, as Chairing can be tiring and listening to the delegates continually can be taxing. All these skills I cultivated are ones that I will treasure and utilize in practical life.
Some of the challenges I faced were pertaining to fulfilling my role in the P5 caucus {meetings for P5 countries in cases of veto threats to a certain clause} where I was supposed to talk to the delegates to choose the right way to proceed. The delegates were short-tempered and by the end of the day were tired and irritable, which made it difficult to convince them not to resort to drastic solutions. I overcame this challenge by talking to them one-on-one while sending positive and encouraging notes to them. This taught me that it is important to face situation with a calm mindset.
One skill I hope to improve is my knowledge of THIMUN procedure {i.e. work towards the learner profile of being Knowledgeable}, as I feel this will deepen my current understanding and help me perform better as a student officer in future MUNs. Additionally, through interacting with delegates from all over Asia, and understanding their stance on their respective topics, I saw the passion with which they delivered the same. By debating these topics today, we can understand the urgency of these potentially detrimental issues and bring about awareness for the same and take small steps to create new innovation that removes the stagnating in the world. Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Be the change you wish in the world” and CHEMUN was a platform for us all to make that one small change, contributing our one drop in this big, big ocean.
- Shreya Margale MYP 5 – HSC Co- Chair
This was my third Model United Nations (MUN) conference, but I still managed to learn lot of new things from my own experiences, others’ performances and the suggestions I was given. We had gone to Chennai to attend and participate in my first Chemun conference, where I was to discuss and debate in General Assembly 4: Special Political (SPECPOL) and Decolonization. This committee ended up being especially helpful for my personal development and really helped facilitate my growth.
During the course of the conference, I managed to acquire and develop three skills which really helped me do well as the conference progressed. They were being caring towards other delegates and their views, being knowledgeable and improvement of my critical thinking skills. I was the delegate of Ethiopia and I was rather irrelevant because the my topics were based on regional conflicts in different parts of the world (Israel-Palestine conflict, Catalan independence movement) and the uses of extraterrestrial resources. In order to make sure I would be able to seal on equal terms with the other delegates I started to be caring and managed to understand them and their stance well. I used critical thinking skills in order to find possibilities for exploitation in the delegates’ resolution and find reasons to further affirm my point. Finally, being knowledgeable was perhaps the most important skill, it helped me understand context, delegates’ stance and the reasons behind various decisions.
But it wasn’t all happy, I also had to overcome multiple challenges in order to succeed. One of them was speaking in front of the committee with the highest number of delegations in attendance. When we had to go up to the podium in order to deliver a speech, I felt so nervous and thought I would probably make a mistake with so many eyes looking at me as I spoke. I overcame this by making one word bullet-points and delivering speeches with just that as reference so I would be forced to address the committee directly. The second challenge I faced was compromising, in order to pass a resolution all member states had to compromise to some extent and not achieve their true goal entirely, this was the only way to be constructive in debate. I overcame this realizing what resolutions were really meant to do and how sometimes proposed solutions do not always go as planned.
As a result of this conference I identified one major weakness of mine that I really believe I need to improve. That weakness is taking initiative because I realized I would always be ready to help if someone else wanted to start or do something but I never mustered up the courage to do it myself.
Finally, something specific about the theme of the conference “Stagnation and Innovation” stayed with me, it was when one of the Deputy Secretary Generals, Prahalad Giridhar talked about how stagnation was important for innovation. I realized as he spoke that though we hate mistakes, mistakes are what we learn from and in turn, are exactly what spurs us towards future progress.
– Miheer Potdar MYP 4 GA4
