Eagles’ Eyrie By Tim Edstein
THIMUN-Singapore: No Durians
Chair Patrick Lo booms “Will the took AST’s delegation to the SALT house come to order!” He welcomes the Centre at Hwa Chong Institute and all 106 member committee and encourages the delegates went to their assigned all the delegates to work collaboratively committees, ranging from the Security to produce the best resolutions possible. Council to the press room. “Delegates, we have a lot of work to do All General Assembly delegates in the next four had an entire days.” And true day to lobby to his words, with other delit was a very, egates, while in the Security very busy week in Singapore. Council, Kevin The weeks Chen and Tim leading up to Edstein began debate on the THIMUN SinSituation in gapore were also very busy, Haiti immeas delegates diately after wrote and lunch. “The polished po- Karen fights vigorously to sell the most Munity- committee had East newspapers sition papers a lot of conflict and resolutions, practiced their open- during the first day, especially on the ing speeches, and reviewed procedure. use of veto power from the permanent And, of course, made sure they had the members,” said Kevin Chen, commentappropriate suits and shoes for the sim- ing on the debate in the Security Counulation - and the dance. cil. China was vetoing clauses it did not After arriving late Monday night, the candidates had a chance on Tuesday to visit the buzzing shopping district on Orchard Road, only a five minute walk from the hotel. Delegates began to find their wallets a lot lighter after spending hours of shopping. “Although the food in Singapore is quite expensive, it was definitely worth the money,” said Jason Hsieh after eating a $20 (400NT) burger at the Hard Rock Café. Chair Patrick Lo and the five members of the Michelle, Michelle, and Winnie enjoy the press delegation, though, had meetings THIMUN-Singapore Dinner Dance. scheduled the day before the conferagree with. Tensions grew as destrucence officially began. Tuesday night saw candidates ner- tive debates overwhelmed constructive vously practicing their speeches and debate in the first day of the Security reviewing their notes and resolutions. Council. Then, Wednesday morning, the bus As the day ended, delegates changed
Volume 6, Issue 1
from their formal attire to more casual clothing of jeans and shirts. Students spent their nights shopping, eating and playing cards in their hotel rooms. Most delegates went to sleep quite early as everyone was exhausted by the end of the day. Chair Patrick Lo suffered from sleep deprivation, spending his evenings organizing resolutions that needed to be debated the next day. For the next three days, all of our delegates worked hard, using diplomacy to find solutions to create a cleaner, safer and more peaceful world. Michelle McNeill and Emilie Jespersen, the delegates of Iran, proposed measures to incorporate cleaner energy solutions and non-motorized vehicles in the Committee on Sustainable Development (CSD). During the plenary session on the final day, Katja Putzke delivered a powerful, articulate speech on the issue of sexual violence in conflict zones. Katja’s resolution passed with a resounding majority. The resolution was the only resolution passed in the plenary session, and will be sent to the United Nations. Senior Vincent Huang, in GA 2, was selected “Best Speaker,” “Best Diplomat,” and “Most Eloquent Speaker” in his committee. After the closing ceremony of THIMUN, delegates met up with friends they had made, saying farewell and promising to keep in contact with each other. This year’s THIMUN trip was a great success. Although we were a smaller delegation than previous years, with 23 students and two teachers, this year’s THIMUN delegation was better prepared and participated at all levels of the MUN experience. The AST delegation wishes to thank Mr. and Mrs. Parker for their support in making THIMUN Singapore 2009 a reality.
9