In the USA for a UN Model

This academic year has been rich in travels with a purpose. After my trip to Hong Kong to work on content for the Sparks Festival sponsored by the British Council in their former colony, I flew to New York to represent Lesotho in a double delegation at a simulation of the United Nations.

To be honest, when I was preparing for it I was a little bit terrified because I did not know much about global affairs and such things. I am not a political sciences student, neither an international relations one. All I know about the world I studied it on my own or I learned it from others. But I was really excited to go back to New York City. My first time in the Big Apple was four years ago and I honestly missed it a lot!

In order to get ready for the simulation, I had to follow two courses online. One was on global affairs and the second was the delegate course, which purpose was to teach me the rules of procedures of the simulation.

The organisation that organised the UN model paired me with another student to form a double delegation and, as I said earlier, we were assigned to the country of Lesotho. I must say I knew little to nothing about this country, so I had to research a lot about it and its position on certain topics. Each delegation had to write a position paper that highlighted the views of the country on the topics their committee was assigned to. I was in the World Health Organisation and as University students, we had three topics to discuss:

• Non-communicable diseases;
• Effects of global warming on health;
• The legalisation of marijuana.

The writing of the paper was one of the most stressful things to do prior to the simulation. I did not feel prepared about the country I had to represent, but it was also hard to work remotely with someone I did not know in person. Everything eventually was done and submitted by the deadline so then we just focused on completing the courses and participating in webinars during which the organizers would explain travel details and such things.

I flew out of Milan Malpensa and landed in London Gatwick where I had an overnight layover at a really nice Travelodge. I was trying to review everything but also to get some rest before my morning flight. I was literally the first person to arrive at the gate, which is something that never happened to me, that was the level of excitement I felt! There, I actually met another girl who was going to New York to participate in the same event, and she was also in the same committee. That was really nice because we texted throughout the flight and then travelled together to our hotels. We waited a couple of hours at passport control, meanwhile, all the other students landing in different terminals would go straight through waiting no longer than thirty minutes. We were a bit frustrated and warm in there but we finally made it through as well and then met with another girl who was also headed to the hotel.

The following day we had the first day of the simulation, which started with a roll-call that is carried out every time a new session is opened to verify which countries are present and which are not. Then one of the present countries moves for the opening of the session, which means that they initiate it. Then, the chair opens the voting procedures to set the agenda, which is basically the order in which topics are debated. In other words, the first topic on the paper is the one related to non-communicable diseases, but that does not mean in fact that it has to be the first one to be discussed.

Countries can move for different motions, such as:

• Speakers List;
• Moderate caucus;
• Unmoderated caucus;
• Different kind of points.

Speakers List

The Speakers List is the first motion that countries should move for the first day. They have to set the duration of each speech and the one of the entirety of the discussion. The purpose is to give countries the opportunity to present themselves and their views on the topics. Language is very important and it is normally very formal, as follows:

“Honorable Chair, Fellow Delegates, the delegation of Lesotho would like to open the Speakers List for 30 minutes, one minute each”.

Unmoderated caucus

The unmoderated caucus is an informal session during which delegates can actually leave their place and start a conversation with other delegates they may want to be allied with. When a country moves for such motion, they have to mention the topic that they want to discuss upon and how long they wish the session to last.

Moderated caucus

The moderated caucus is a formal session that gives countries the possibility of being heard immediately by the committee during their speeches on specific topics.

Point of order

A delegate moves for a point of order when he believes that there was a mistake and one of the rules of procedures were not followed correctly.

Point of personal privilege

A point of personal privilege is the one that is mentioned by a delegate when there is a technical issue, like a microphone not working correctly, or when there is a problem within the environment, like the temperature being too warm or too cold in the room.

Point of inquiry

A delegate moves for this type of point when he or she does not understand one or more rules of procedure.

I will stop here with all of the specifics regarding the programme because it is really hard to explain to them if the audience does not have basic knowledge of what the United Nations does and what happens during meetings.

I am grateful and happy that I participated because I learned a lot by actually doing things rather than reading and studying them on books and courses. I was able to meet a lot of people that became good friends of mine and that visited the city with me the days after the simulation.

New York played a big part in the experience. Being able to seat in the headquarters of the UN is definitely an emotional experience that not a lot of people did.

During this week in the United States of America, I visited many parts of the Big Apple that I did not know yet. One of the things that I was super excited about was seeing the Friends apartment. The exteriors of the main building of the series are one of the few things that are left of the series in New York. Luckily enough, the set in Burbank California is still alive and well.

What was funny is that I actually met a lot of famous people in only two days. I even met a celebrity from my own country, Alessandro Cattelan, who was invited over to Jimmy Fallon. Then I met Michiel Huisman who was also in Game of Thrones but to be honest with you he was not exactly the representation of nice. And last but not least I met Thomas Lennon, who was a guest actor in both How I Met Your Mother and Friends. He was super nice and took a picture with me and my friends. Apparently, the new series that they were filming in the heart of Central Park will air on Netflix soon.

To wrap it up, New York is always amazing and I am happy I had the opportunity to discover more of it with new friends and well, celebrities.

- Cristian

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