Minulý týždeň sa žiaci našej školy zúčastnili konferencie LEMUN v holandskom meste Leiden. MUN je modelové zasadanie OSN, kde žiaci stredných škôl z celého sveta zastupujú krajiny v rôznych výboroch. Vo svojich výboroch lobujú a vyjednávajú rezolúcie na aktuálnes vetové problémy a samozrejme obhajujú záujmy krajiny, ktorú reprezentujú. Na LEMUNe boli žiaci z Nemecka, Poľska, Maďarska, Holandska, Francúzska, Libabonu, Nórska, Luxemburgu, Ghany, Grécka a Portugalska. Naša škola bola jediná zo Slovenska. Tento rok to bola pre našu školu jubilejná dvadsiata účasť na LEMUNe. LEMUN má rovnaké výbory a komisie ako reálne OSN a zároveň aj náročnejšie špeciálne výbory, ktoré reagujú na aktuálne problémy a krízy. Spoznali veľa ľudí z iných krajín a kultúr, naučili sa efektívne komunikovať a viesť formálne debaty. LEMUN je jedinečná skúsenosť pre žiakov, ktorí majú všeobecný prehľad o dianí vo svete a neboja sa verejne vystupovať a debatovať.
Honourable readers,
I would like to talk about my experience at LEMUN a bit. My committee was HRC (Human Rights) and I was the delegate of Myanmar. We discussed themes surrounding basic human rights. For example, one of our discussions was about LGBTQ rights. In these discussions you must represent the opinions of your given country, not your own. At first there is lobbying time where you have a set amount of time to find countries with similar opinions to form a sort of coalition. My first thought was to always stick with China and Russia, as I figured they were the closest to my country’s opinions. We managed to “win” all of our discussions because of our speeches, which I think were the most convincing. And generally speaking, at first, I was really afraid of speaking in front of so many people, but the amazing people who surrounded me, including the chairs made me feel welcome and by no time I was already in front of the class also giving a speech. After the LEMUN I feel more confident about my English skills and I feel prepared for English maturita speaking. I yield the floor back to my fellow delegates.
(Samuel)
Lemun, Leiden, The Netherlands. I had already been to Lemun once before and I had as much of a blast this year around as before. The first day started with us arriving to the city and meeting our host families. The family I was housed with was a 4 person one, my host was called Mika and his younger brother was Flynn. The parents were a pleasure to be around as well and were very welcoming. The first day of the Lemun, was a… well to call it a bit of a shock is an understatement. All of the different people from different corners of the world, also representing countries on the other side of the globe, such a blend of cultures and opinions, it was not only eye opening but also a weird international culture shock. As Myanmar I found allies within the representatives of China, Morrocco, Hungary and the UK. Together we were tasked with putting forward a resolution to solve an issue, in this case, the conflicts between Taiwan and China. After heavy discussion, and a few choice words from the delegate of China, we were able to put together a paper that would solve the problem quickly and easily, removing the entirety of Taiwan from the face of the Earth. No Taiwan, no problem! For some reason this did not pass the approval panel though so we had to start again… But after even more discussion we reached a conclusion that was approved at last. After debating however, we stood no chance, the rest of the nations of the world immediately rejected it due to some ̈Geneva Convention ̈ thing. Still, even with this failing we were able to put together a revised resolution that passed, much to the disappointment of China. I loved Lemun from start to finish and will definitely sign up to go one last time next year. (Marek)
Lemun – UNICEF
In my committee we were discussing transport of Ukrainian children to Russia and how to help countries from Horn of Africa to get clear water. I represented as a delegate country of Myanmar. After the resolutions that were written on the first day of debating, I was invited by Sudan to a secret group of countries like Russia, Saudi Arabia and so on. As a group we formed a really strong resolution with opinions of our countries that were pretty similar. All of our amendments passed because of our strong speeches. Every question on our resolution was answered, we were perfectly prepared for any kind of question. Other experiences from staying with a family from the Netherlands: It was a good way of pushing myself to speak English. I was in situations where I spoke English words that I thought I didn’t even know. It really helped me find my confidence in speaking English. I will use all my knowledge from this in Maturita exams. (Anna)
LEMUN – UNODC (United Nation Office on Drug and Crime)
In my committee we debated about social stigma of drug users and how to help them.The point of view of my assigned country Myanmar, which is now at war regime, was very extremist and as a part of east Asia countries we went hand in hand with China, Bangladesh, Philippines, D.P.R.K., Indonesia and India. Of course the only topic of our 3 days long meeting wasn ́t only this question, but the debate in this one was the most heated. The resolution resonated with many amendments about death penalties or infliction of heavy sentences or even propositions to add the amendment about “work-camps” which we obviously named in a much prettier way as “RCEH which stands for Rehabilitations Centres of Economic Help”. The whole point of these camps was clear: to bring drug addicts here and let them sober from any illegal substances and later they can work for our profit as “economic help”. But this amendment was refuted, of course, by a majority of votes against in the final voting procedure. This was one of many amendments which occurred in our resolution, many were added, but even more were deleted. These debates gave us the resolution which took regard of human rights, and hope
that these people could be helped and they only needed a little help from the government. The resolution was approved of 40 countries which wanted to find a compromise between each other, and we did. We found the right compromise about another two hard questions. And this is the magic of politics, when countries with extremely opposite values and political statuses find the compromise about hard life questions as these. (Kristína)
