Last weekend, several Latin students spent time solving global crises using the art of international diplomacy at Northwestern University. Thankfully, it was only a Model United Nations conference, or China and Russia would’ve been obliterated by now.
After school on Thursday, a few of us hopped on the Purple Line and rode up to Evanston with Mr. Greer and Mr. Marshall. At the hotel, we had an impromptu birthday pizza party for Mr. Greer’s daughter before heading to opening ceremonies. It was an unusually energetic opening ceremony as Northwestern’s hybrid dance and percussion group, Boom Shaka, performed, and a Northwestern professor spoke about his experience working with former Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, and his role in the United Nations.The first committee session was that night. Most of the Latin students were representing the United Kingdom in their respective committees. Remy Dhingra and I were representing the UK in the Security Council, the United Nations’ most powerful committee, and we were excited and ready to use our veto power to crush Russia. If you don’t understand what Model United Nations is or how it works, just know this: most of the kids in the Security Council live and breathe Model UN. Remy and I could pick out the future of American politicians from the thirty people in our small room. We debated the finer points of the sovereignty of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, an issue that neither Remy nor I had known existed before this conference, and the legality and ethicality of drone strikes. It was exciting to simulate a United Nations committee session, and it was a lot of fun to get to know the talented students we were working with.
On Friday night, six of us, including Remy and I, were woken up for a midnight crisis. We had already known about it because we forced Mr. Greer to tell us when it was going to happen, so I went back to the hotel prepared to take a one-hour nap. Five minutes after I had turned off the lights and gotten into bed, someone knocked on the door and told us that it was crisis time. We trudged downstairs in slightly wrinkled western business attire with no coffee or Red Bull in our systems, and we bonded over silence and the game 2048. Crisis committee ran from 1:15 to 4:15 a.m. Donuts were provided for all the students, and I eagerly munched on a chocolate Munchkin, but to the dismay of nearly everyone, there was no coffee. With war about to break out between the Algerian-backed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic and Morocco, it was necessary for us to stay focused without the caffeine boost, a feat that was accomplished, but no one seemed to remember what we had talked about the next day.
On Saturday night, our MUN heads, Hedy, Chris, Jacob, and Maddy, drove up to Evanston to have a Latin family dinner with us at Lou Malnati’s. Afterwards, we snuck them into the delegate dance. Although the dance wasn’t too fun, it was great to bond with the other Latin students and our graduating heads.We had one final committee session on Sunday morning. It was characterized by goofiness from the seniors in our committee who analyzed the potential detriments of the word “banned” (“it has the word ‘and’ in it, but that’s a conjunction, so it’s ok; but, I’d like to ask who this ‘ned’ person is”) and recommended that we split one proposed resolution that read “recommends that drone usage be banned” into two different resolutions with one reading “recommends drone usage” and the other saying “that be banned.” Our weekend ended with closing ceremonies, and it was exciting for all of us when Bryce Tuttle (who was affectionately called “Bryce Bryce Baby” during the weekend) won Honorable Mention in his committee.
Although NUMUNXI was stressful at times, it was highlighted by intense debate, new Facebook friends, and bonding between Latin students. We never did find out who Ned was, though.
]]>
