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THE BOMUN CHRONICLES
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TABLE OF CONTENTS Letter from the Editors‐ Page 3 What is MUN? ‐ Page 4 Parliamentary Terms‐ Page 5 Interview of Secretary General‐ Page 6 Interview of President‐ Page 7 Interviews of Chair‐ Page 8 Lobbying and Merging‐ Page 9 Box of Dramatic Delegates‐ Page 10 Who’s Who‐ Page 11 Special Thanks‐ Page 15
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LETTER FROM THE EDITORS Dear Readers, With BOMUN 2013 around the corner, us, the editors find it exciting and challenging to have the prestigious opportunity to cover the event. It is a nerve‐ wrecking experience of each delegate’s high school career, and we are most grateful that we can capture these moments for you. When our future student delegates renumerate this event, they will be proud of the historical moment they are now a part of. All our delegates are capable of so much contribution to the BOMUN conference bringing out their own capabilities in different ways. We have put so much effort and time into this issue and tried to capture all the great moments during the preparation of the BOMUN 2013 Conference. Working on this issue, all the editors have realized how much time and dedication is really needed to make this issue perfect for our delegates, because they deserve nothing but the best for their hard work. Hopefully, most of the delegates will enjoy this issue and will look forward to many more exiting issues to be printed in future. Best of luck delegates! Sincerely, your editors, KT Sethi, Ruby Kaushal & Raveena Mehta 3
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WHAT IS MUN? MUN is an imitation of the actual UN that is designed by the school curriculums for the purpose of making the students aware of the responsibilities and actions of the UN and what makes the UN the most important peacemaking body in the world. However, there are some differences between the UN and MUN. The MUN board has student delegates that represent the problems faced by different countries through discussions based on debating. In this program the students learn the possible ways the UN can work to establish global peace. This however differs from how the actual UN works. The actual UN focuses on safeguarding human rights and maintaining international peace and security through appropriate means. It looks after the implementation of international law and promotion of social and economic progress. In the third world countries, the UN looks after improving the living standards and fighting diseases through organizations made by them. Through MUN, the students try to have the most realistic conferences to get a close view of the actual problems dealt worldwide. ‐ Raveena
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PARLIAMENTARY TERMS Not only are our delegates are chairs expected to dress and behave properly they are also supposed to use and array of specific phrases and words during their debates. Failing to do so results in them either, having to apologize to the chair or one of the delegates, give up their chance to speak or have to leave the debating forum for two minutes. Some of the terms below, in this article will give you a better understanding of how the delegates are speaking. A Point of information is a question directed to the speaker who would be a delegate of a certain country by another delegate and then chair would ask “is the delegate open to any points of information?” The delegate would then reply depending on whether he/she wants to answer a question or not they would say he/she would then say “any and all” or the delegate would say, “The delegate will not be taking any points of information.” The next term is a ‘follow up’, which is a clarifying question. After a point of information is asked and answered and the questioning delegate does not get the answer that they want or they do not have enough information this is when the questioning delegate through the chair requests a follow up. The questioning delegate would say “request for follow up.” and the chair would say, “follow up granted.” Another kind of point of information is a point of information to the chair. This would be when a delegate needs to ask a question about their question to the chair and the chair would tell them whether it would or would not be correct for them to ask that particular question. Not only are the delegates allowed to ask questions about another delegates speech but if a delegate feels they missed a small portion of the speech due to not being able to hear the delegate, see their clauses or they are feeling to hot/cold the delegated can ask for a point of personal privilege. This is the only time a delegate is allowed to interrupt another delegate’s speech. The delegate would stand up and say “point of personal privilege audibility.” And then the chair would say, “granted.” Now that I have explained what all the different kinds of questions are there are a few more terms to know. When a delegate seconds a statement that are agreeing to it and when they are objecting to the statement they are not agreeing with it. Not only are our delegates allowed to ask questions and answer them they are also allowed to bring forth an amendment. When a delegate wants to bring forth an amendment they would request the chair by saying “motion to introduce an amendment” and then the chair would say “granted.” This is when the delegate would introduce his/her amendment and then once points of information are asked and answered the voting process would being which is when the chair would request that the admin to secure the doors. When the admin is securing the doors this is so that anyone who has left the forum while the particular amendment was being discussed will not enter while the voting process is going on. Once a delegate is done with his/her speech the chair will ask him/her “will the delegate yield the floor back to the chair”? Which means: will the delegate please hand over speaking rights to the chair. This is when the delegate has to decide whether he/she wants to yield the floor back to chair or to another delegate of another country. - Ruby 5
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THE MOST LOVED SECRETARY GENERAL Ameera Patheria How does it feel to be the secretary general? I feel so privileged to be able to lead all my peers in experiencing something that is really important to me. MUN is something that I really enjoy and it has really helped me grow as a person and develop my confidence inside and outside of the classroom. I really hope that many of my peers will have the opportunity to experience the same. What do you do as secretary general? As Secretary General there is a lot to be done. I am basically in charge of organizing the whole conference, as BOMUN is a student run conference. There is a long to‐do list of stuff that needs to be done in the logistics aspect. Along with the help of the other officers will need to get done in order to run this conference successfully. Also, I am always available to help anyone who needs help to prepare for the debate and can answer anyone’s questions about the same. A final and in my opinion most exciting part of being Secretary General is that I get serve as a part of the approval panel. This basically means that I get to help choose/review the resolution that we will be debating. I am really excited to be able to do this and I look forward to seeing and hearing the great ideas of all delegates involved in BOMUN. What are some challenges you think will happen during the conference? I hope that we will not face any challenges during the conference, although in my past experience with being in MUN it is hard to always capture the ideas of each and every delegate. We have an extremely tight time period for debate during this conference and I hope that we will be able to give everyone a chance to contribute equally.
What do you think will go really well in the conference?
I look forward to the debate, as I can already see how well the preparation for all the delegates is going. I see so many delegates eager to learn and contribute to this conference that I have no doubt that every aspect of BOMUN 2013 is going to go well. Are there any additional details or comments you would like to say about your position or even the debate itself? I am really excited for BOMUN 2013 as the issue we are discussing is of extreme global importance, hahaha see my MUN lingo there and is a relevant issue that everyone should know about. I hope that a lot of people will come to witness the culmination of all the things that we have learnt in 10th grade and I know that it will be a great success. ‐ KT 6
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INTERVIEW WITH THE ONE AND ONLY PRESIDENT Shiv‐Louis Van de Ven How does it feel to be the president? Becoming the president of our charming BOMUN conference means a great deal to me. Last year, I was fortunate enough to participate in two MUN conferences: THIMUN Singapore, and our local DAIMUN conference at Dhirubhai Ambani. These conferences have developed into thrilling personal highlights of 2012 and will most likely be remembered as some of the best days of my high school expedition. The beauty about MUN is that it's a fruitful way to build your self‐confidence, public speaking skills, and awareness of current events. It makes you appear educated and gives you that updated edge over your peers in conversation, no matter what the topic. Being president will hopefully permit me to proliferate my love for MUN to my 10th grade peers and hopefully, if done successfully, it will yield a higher amount of MUNers for next year’s conferences. There's nothing nicer than the sight of MUN grasshoppers taking in all the good that MUN conferences have to offer. What do you do as president? As president, along with the ever so lovely Secretary‐General, my role is to make sure everything in the conference goes smoothly. I also have the role of opening and closing the ceremony with as much grace as I can (wish me luck). I will also be monitoring everybody to make sure that progress is being made and supervise the work of the committee chairs. In case there are any questions or requirements for help, I should always be available and should know the answers. What are some challenges you think will happen during the conference?
The challenge of a debate like this, where everybody is forced to participate, is that most people will be very hesitant to talk. The point of the General Assembly is to hear everybody's opinion on the topic and when certain nations, sometimes those that are crucial to the debate, refuse to stand up and speak, it poses a serious threat to the debate. It will be absolutely pivotal to make these people speak for the sake of debate, and they'll feel great once they get up there so I'll try and be as encouraging as I can be! What do you think will go really well in the conference? I'm astonished at all the preparation that delegates are doing at the moment! I can safely say I've never done this much preparation for any debate ever. It will be absolutely lovely to see how this research will come into play during the debate and I'm sure everybody will be well informed of all the events thereby making the debate a big success. Maybe even beyond the extent of real conferences! ‐ Ruby 7
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THE CHAIR’S INTERVIEW Parth Chug What do you think about your position as Chair of the BOMUN debate? I believe that I am privileged to have gotten this position as there were several other competitors in the run for it. This position is a valuable aspect of the debate and I am fortunate to have it. What type of work do you do as the Chair? The chair basically tells people when to stand up or sit down and when to talk, when not to talk it basically monitors people’s behavior during the debate. What do you think about the topic for this year’s debate: Nuclear proliferation? This topic is of utmost importance in the world right now as it basically decides what happens to mankind. If a nuclear bomb is deployed on any civilian population you can say goodbye to the world, that is why the delegates must bring out the best solutions they can or else we might have to act out nuclear fallout. Is there any additional details or comments you would like to say about your position or even the debate itself? I am looking forward to the fact that all delegates have full participation. That they go into the debate sharing their ideas and thoughts and come out with an outcome that suits all and learn from this. ‐ Raveena
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LOBBYING AND MERGING BOMUN 2013 was one of the most awaited events for the 10th graders. Preparations began on the first week of May. In the first week the students decided upon their delegation and became aware of their stance regarding the question at hand. This year’s topic of discussion is combating the spread of Nuclear weapons and reducing the threat of nuclear attack. The students went to Ms Allison’s room to battle out for their representation of their desired country. They thoroughly researched their perspective countries to strengthen their objectives for the debate. Further the students wrote their operative clauses to reinstate the matter of discussion and to decide the course of action. They also developed the solution as to how they should tackle the issue pertaining to the ideas put forth by different delegates. Soon after, students started establishing their allies and decided who they would like to merge their clauses to create a comprehensive resolution. Students are now finalizing their resolutions to be submitted to the approval panel who would then decide the resolution for BOMUN 2013. To create successful resolutions, before the actual debate begins is the main idea of Lobbying and merging. Through lobbying and merging successful resolutions are created, that already enjoy the support the majority of the delegates. The resolution that contains ideas and clauses for several authors is a merger, therefore, successful lobbying and merging gives the correct direction to the aim of the debate. To make this process easily available and applicable, social networks such as, Facebook was used by the delegates to come to conclusions on ideas presented forth by different delegates. This exemplifies the importance of media and technology within the debates and also unifying the BOMUN delegates into saving time and resources. Thus, accurate conclusions were made through virtual conferences and discussions. – Raveena
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THE BOX OF DRAMATIC DELEGATES (BDD) Over the years, the BOMUN Conference has changed rooms. The first BOMUN Conference was held in the MPH (Multi Purpose Hall), after which it was held in the Sweat Room renamed the Debateatarium, and finally on again this prestigious forum was held in the MPH. This year the BOMUN Conference will be held in the Black Box we struggled for days if not weeks trying to figure out a better name for it. We refused to reuse the name the Debateatarium this name had been used and just didn't seem appropriate for our vivacious and keen delegates, nor was it appropriate with the actual use of the location. The black box is used for everything to do with the arts, mainly drama. Therefore we decided upon the name, The Box of Dramatic Delegates (BDD). Not only is this name appropriate for our esteemed delegates but, also apt considering what the "black box" is actually used for. The BOMUN Conferences at the American School of Bombay have improved over the years and, will continue to do so even though there is a change in the location not only, are our delegates well read on their countries they are also very good at adapting to change. The delegates are very excited to have the BOMUN 2013 Conference held in the BDD. This will only reinforce the fact that our delegates are the best for their job! Why was changing the room, in which the conference is held, necessary? This year the room in which the conference is held has been changed because of scheduling reasons. It also was important for the delegates to keep an open mind as to where they will be debating with each other. ‐ Ruby
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WHO’S WHO 11
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SPECIAL THANKS TO The editors would like to give a special thanks to all the esteemed delegates and officers, for working so hard on preparing for this conference. Also, we would like to thank Ms. Allison and Mr. Aickin for making this conference possible, we appreciate your hard work immensely. We also know that it is Ms Allison’s last and final BOMUN conference, so we would like to thank her especially for all her time and effort that she has put into BOMUN over all the years. BOMUN has really come a long way with her guidance! We are all looking forward to Thursday, 30th May and will be addressing the special thanks in the second edition with some amazing pictures and entertaining articles, so get ready for the second issue and enjoy the conference!
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