After Thursday night came to a close and delegates, advisors, and staff awoke a little too early for their liking, MUNUM XXXVI came together on Friday to share hours of political deliberations. Despite being the notoriously special and unlucky Friday the 13th, the committees were bustling with excited delegates who worked together with staff to have smooth, efficient committees. International Press Corps reporters scattered across these excellent committees to find out the inside scoop on how each one has been running so far:
Beginning with ADHOC, a committee in which the delegates are not made aware of the topic until just before conference begins, we see a unique variety of crisis drops and plot twists. ADHOC, this year, is the 1905 Beareu of Corporation. The committee started in 1903 and has progressed one year in every session, consequently, they were currently in 1905. Upon entering the meeting room of the Bureau of Corporations, correspondents representing The Working Paper were met with a multitude of directives being debated on. Most notably was the press release “Dirty Money, Not Funny” and investigative directive titled “Mocka Fella, Rockefella”. One of the directives, by Edward Peckman, was titled “Carnegie More Like Car-Naughty.”* Apart from that, houses were broken into, and lives were threatened.
However, the latest crisis for this hardworking committee is that the prosecutor, Charles Morrison, has been threatened to get his kneecaps cut off if he continues prosecuting. The crisis was dropped via conspicuous phone call fifteen minutes before IPC walked in.
“It was a threat to break my kneecaps and had a strong Chicago accent,” said Morrison. This wasn’t the first threatening act of the day, so the committee had unexpected reactions to the menace. “The room was split between taking the threat seriously and ignoring the call,” said Dias. The directly impacted, Prosecutor Morrison chose to ignore the call. Confidently, he said that he felt “great that [he was] threatening enough to the trusts.” For him, it was a job done right.
“Use the haters to fuel you,” advised Morrison.
With little context, reporters sought out various sources for information on why the Bureau was intent on enacting audits on J.D. Rockefeller’s personal finances. “Although we are public officials, we have never consented to [our] homes being broken into,” James R. Garfield said as she explained how every member in the committee had their homes broken into. The Bureau raises suspicions toward Rockefeller due to a recently published news article accusing committee members of “taking bribes”, which they view as a slanderous action. The nail in the coffin for Garfield was seeing that a note left at the scene of the break-in was signed “R”, leading the Bureau to attribute this action to Rockefeller.
Though this event was highly traumatic for many individuals, Garfield wishes to keep the public knowledgeable on the Bureau’s proceedings. The press release “Dirty Money, Not Funny” intends to invite members of the press to “insensitive meetings” regarding business procedure, but bars them from meetings regarding law and investigative action.
Reported on by IPC Delegates Tanvi Kulkarni and Maco Jeleniewski.
The African Union has faced several upcoming violent crises in the committee. The delegates are putting in their utmost effort to solve these issues with their working papers. The delegate from the Arab Republic of Egypt supplied information on their working paper “B.O.B.A” or Bringing Objective Order Alleviation. They want to focus on bringing peace to Africa and restoring ethnic groups. They have recognized that parts of Europe had “cut off African ethnic groups without regard” (Delegate from Egypt). They plan to put this plan into action using the many African natural resources and encouraging more tourism. They also have plans to regulate currency, goods, and flow to solve these solutions.
However, while these delegates want to help rebuild Africa another resolution proposed by delegations like Ghana and Burkina Faso was to implement and raise tariffs. These delegates stated that by doing this a war over resources becomes economically inefficient.
Similarly, to the topic of wars the delegation of Libya has decided to bomb Chad based on the fact that Christians have been oppressive towards specific Muslim cultures in Chad. On the other side of the committee the delegation of the United Republic of Tanzania spoke on a working paper named Peace Tea. The working paper includes implementing peace keepers into the African nations. These peace keepers would be in charge of border patrol or nearby conflicts. 2000 people would be selected from each participating country and would be screened regularly by a virtual connection. They want the peace keepers to help people stay in line with the values of family life, future goals, and peaceful resolutions.
Reported on by IPC Delegate Megan Koontz.
In the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ,) resolution was the order of business in committee as they brought up the Effective Legislation resolution. The resolution aimed to criminalize human-trafficking for all reasons by developing a trans-national coalition to quash child labor.
“In this committee we are discussing forced labor and how to solve this issue,” said Serbia. “We have many different opinions and are dealing with several different resolutions. We have introduced two new working papers and are planning to vote on them soon.”
The resolution would include cooperation between nations to create a joint task force to investigate payment above minimum wage to address global sustainability. The resolution would extend documentation of victims of human trafficking and build shelters along the borders of nations. Through the collaborations, the nations would build shelters for human-trafficking victims and overall increase tracking of traffickers and criminals.
In other news, there appears to be a traitorous block in the CCPCJ named “Slay the System”. In the words of Nigeria “they took a lot of inspiration from everyone else’s resolution, and it feels very congested”. It appears that they have taken the best parts of other resolutions and stolen them to make what can be known as a “super resolution” without these other block’s consent. This has left many delegates in a state of distress as they must now work to find a way around this block.
Reported on by IPC Delegates Megan Koontz and Nicholas Alumkal.
The Food and Agriculture Organization had talented delegates discussing the first topic of committee: Maintaining Food Security During Global Disruptions. All delegates were dedicatedly working towards alleviating the impacts of global disruptions like the pandemic on their nations. The committee as a whole had about five working papers. But, here’s the catch- they all focused on extremely similar things.
The blocks formed in the committee have these common goals in mind: short term and long term solutions, protection from supply chain disruption, and prevention of food shortages in case of the next crisis. Something that is even more astounding is that these goals also have common approaches. For example, the enhancement of agriculture equipment and infrastructure seemed to be a repetitive focus of several papers. An international food network seems to be a popular idea, and the involvement of Non Profit Organizations, like Red Cross, is the backbone of every block. With different names like IFR, SWEPT, FAST, and FALAFEL, like the delegation of Honduras said, “everyone is working on the same paper.”
With more than 4 working papers out of the floor including “Swept” and “Fallafel” ideas were not in short supply. One of the biggest criticisms being that there were just too many papers. One delegate stated that the papers should be merged and then passed by the whole committee. To spite the work that this committee takes and the overlapping ideas the delegate from Poland stated: “Of the 3 agricultural GA’s I’ve been in this has been my favorite. While the large committee size makes for a challenging environment, that challenge also makes it fun”. This quote embodies the amount of drive this committee is illustrating. On the issue itself Sri Lanka made an impactful speech, and with more than 6.3 million people in Sri Lanka who are facing moderate to severe food insecurity, their voice was a needed perspective. Sri Lanka called upon larger and richer nations to help those nations who are smaller and lacking in financial support. Sri Lanka put an emphasis on helping developing nations reach self sustainability. Sri Lanka supports movement away from reliance on food supply chains which are not always reliable.
Even though blocks had some unique ideas, none of them seemed to be contradicting each other. For instance, Panama wanted to focus on “uplifiting indigenous farmers” and preserve the communal sense that agriculture provides the country. It is expected that there would be upcoming mergers later in the committee session. But the question remains: why do delegations want to create separate resolutions when they are all working with similar ideas? Are political alliances made for reasons other than similarities in approach? Stay tuned to find out.
Reported on by IPC Delegates Tanvi Kulkarni and Anna Crum.
A tense 3rd hour of committee has begun, as protesters sit outside the Capitol Building, demanding action against the hysteric Red Scare. Delegates in the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) grapple with the rise of McCarthyism and the effects of the Red Scare in the 1940-50s as American citizens become increasingly paranoid over the possibility that their neighbor or representative could indeed be a communist.
As it stands, the American people are frustrated and have taken to the streets of Washington D.C., demanding action from their government to put their fears to rest. Already, delegates have come up with a myriad of directives to address the various facets of McCarthyism. The plan “QTPIE”* involved a merging of various directives into one to tackle issues of transparency, communication with the public, and governmental accountability. The “QTPIE” directive was sponsored by Clyde Doyle (D-CA),. John S. Wood (D-GA), 7. J. Hardin Peterson (D-FL), and Everett Dirksen (R-IL). “QTPIE” contained the overarching theme of the directive which was transparency and accountability. It set up a standard for transparency by making it so the findings from the trial would be published to the public, having a minimum of 20 days for classification, and even more. Their second directive, “Goldie Locks” sponsored by Harold F. Youngblood (R-MI), Burr P. Harrison (D-VA), and John McClellan (D-AR), established rules for investigation and created an address to the Americans about the committee. “Goldie Locks” created a sub-committee where a diverse group of representatives and senators who will investigate accusations of communism, as well as having a line open for government officials to call in their suspicions, and having it so people will not be brought to trial unless substantial evidence is presented. In Joseph R. McCarthy's (R-W) words, “the government needs to be loyal” and this directive is helping to ensure that. The final directive they passed (“Investment of the Government”) was sponsored by Kit Clardy (R-MI) and Bernard W. "Pat" Kearney (R-NY). In this directive, they lay out what someone has to do to be put on trial including; failing order 9835, being incriminated by others on the stand for communists, treason, or espionage, having done actions that have incriminated themselves of the crimes of espionage or treason, or demonstrates a connection to a known enemy nation that the United States is fighting in a war. Above all “this committee is here to support the American people, not our agendas” Harold F. Youngblood says. They are working tirelessly to ease the American people's worries and keep communism at bay. Yet a source inside the committee has reviewed the time to come “that it is going to be hectic. McCarthy is going to go wild”
*QTPIE could also be spelled as QDPIE— it was not clearly stated.
Reported on by IPC Delegates Patrick Laudolff and Maya Smith.
This morning the IMF (International Monetary Fund) started the committee session by recapping and adding to the topic of the allocation of special drawing rights (SDR), a form of reserve currency given by the IMF. After the speaker's list, we took notes on what countries were sharing during the first moderated caucus and a trend we saw was that countries like Ireland and Turkey expressed concern for smaller, developing countries and are fighting to get them more power when it comes to decision making about where the money goes and how much.
To add, when an unmoderated caucus got passed, we interviewed Bangladesh and asked what their response was to Chad who, during the speaker's list, shared that they want to give more power to higher-income countries. Bangladesh responded by saying that developing countries deserve a voice no matter what country it is. They also said that every country should have access to funds and help decide where they are going. Another big issue they brought up was corruption and terrorists in many third-world countries and how they want to be a part of the decision-making to insure that the money doesn't go into the wrong hands. Costa Rica also shared this concern.
Furthermore, France told us that they had a solution which entailed creating a new body within the IMF that includes more transparency and equality for third world countries. We hope to go back and get some more information about this idea and see what happens and if it becomes a resolution. On the other hand, Slovenia talked to us about the opposite. They proposed the idea that if you give bigger countries more power, and they use it for good, countries like the USA and China can afford more loss in the sense that they have the resources to deal with high-end problems unlike developing countries. Slovenia then said that this will lead to multiple countries benefiting from their wins.
To conclude, the IMF is torn between keeping the power in the hands of larger, more economically stable countries when it comes to SDR but also allowing developing countries to have a say as well. We hope to visit the IMF committee in later times to see how this topic played out.
Reported on By IPC Delegate Fiona Fortin.
When asked the best way to gain intelligence, Ibrahim al-Hamdi told a reporter, “You need to get smarter.” However, when asked who the best source would be for the Yemeni Republicans to gain intelligence from the Royalists, he said, “we should not be offering concessions to Americans...we should work to convert Yemeni’s to the Republican side.” On the Republican side of the North Yemen Civil War there seemed to be a consensus amongst the body that they needed a consistent inside source from within the ranks of the Royalists. However, there was much deliberation as to how they should obtain this source. Ahmed Numan, the founder of the Free Yemeni Movement, talked of establishing an intelligence branch of the new government to train spies and expressed interest in leading such an agency. When the topic of appointments was brought up Abdul Rahman Iryani emphasized the need for elections to be held as soon as possible. Iryani’s background as a trained judge seemed to inform his strong belief in sticking to the Republicans’ new constitution and holding elections instead of just appointing . Abdul Rahman al-Baydhani suggested kidnapping a Royalist in order to gain intel, suggesting that they use the necessary tactics to convince them to reveal compromising information for the Republicans to use. This suggestion was met with little success. Moshin Ahmad al-Aini brought up his correspondence with Bruce Conde, mentioning his affinity for stamps and willingness to exchange classified information. While the deliberation had no definite conclusion it displayed the potential for disloyalty within the Royalists, or perhaps even the opportunity to be double-crossed.
Reported on by IPC Delegate Maggie de la Fuente
Just a few days ago, Archduke Ferdinand was killed in a politically motivated assassination. According to official police reports, Gavrilo Princip’s gun fired two times before it was seized by a person who tackled him–information on whether or not this was a member of the public or not is not yet known. He was found chewing on a cyanide pill after this, attempting to kill himself. 25 Bosnian-Serbs have been detained and convicted in relation to the incident, under the cause of the liberation of Southern Slavs. Today, the Austro-Hungarian cabinet–composed of government members such as the Foreign Minister and Hungarian Prime Minister–questioned Princip during a heated trial. Among these questions included how the man sourced the firearm, possible motive, and cognizance of the repercussions. The man did not confirm much, as he had “forgotten” key pieces of information such as the origin of his weapon. However, he told the committee that a primary motive in this assassination was to act in support of Bosnian Serbs and Southern Slavs. The Press had the opportunity to ask Princip a handful of questions about his perspective, specifically on whether or not he had the intention of this event evolving into a worldwide battle. Princip told reporters that he “hoped the smooth-brained emperor would leave” territories that Austria has recently encroached upon as a result of the Archduke’s death, but this message was not received. In Princip’s words, “Austria started [this] war.” Following the conclusion of the trial, cabinet members engaged in a controversial debate, during which the operator of Austro-Hungarian Press Headquarters–Maximilian von Hoen–referred to Princip as a murderer and advocated for his execution. Hungarian Prime Minister Tisza opposed this notion, citing the fact that the execution of any person in Austria under the age of 20 would directly contradict official law. Another delegate proposed giving Princip the choice between death or assimilating into the Austrian military. The opinions at the table are very split, as most deeply seek justice for the Archduke–but the question arises: are they willing to forgo the law to do so?
Reported on (and cartoon drawn) by IPC Delegate Maco Jeleniewski.
“Patria Libre o Morir” Famous war cry that originates in Nicaragua, The phrase directly translates into “Free Homeland or die”, The members of this cabinet definitely live up to this. While expecting this debate we noticed all directives and working paper failed or did not have enough votes to go into voting procedure. Right away we noticed how determined and committed the members of the cabinet were toward their goals. Later on, A working Paper was introduced by Vilma Nunez, The vice president to the supreme court. The working paper was called “usamos el tribunal internacional”, the working paper would’ve tackled the United States involvement in Nicaragua and would’ve sent the case to the international courts. After a short UN-moderated caucus, Nunes realized that the paper would not get the support from several members of the cabinet such as Herberto Ortega and Gonzalo Carrion. Both members restated their opinion of how this working paper would only make the war go on for longer, since the international court takes a long time to process cases. After seeing the amount of votes the working paper would get, Nunez decided to not vote on it. A smart decision, Since she has the opportunity to over time convince people to vote for it.
Later on, a directive was finally passed! What felt like ages of disagreement came to an end. The directive is called Economic support of Nicaragua. It will expand Nicaragua's economic output and open it to international investors. After this directive was approved by an overwhelming majority, Another directive passed as well! The latin american allies, a directive whose job is to Build trade and Build relationships with latin american countries by sending delegations to their countries. The directives also look to remove United states involvement from Latin America But still keep trade and business relationships. The relationship with the United states was a recurrent theme in the committee session. Some delegates were preoccupied about how the expulsion of the United States out of Latin America was going to affect their economies, since a lot of Latin American countries rely on the USA's trade for food and profit.
Finally a crisis break arrived, It started with a very unique piece of information. “Nuns are moving,” said the journalist. Yes, Nuns. We do not have any other information on this topic, as there isn't much known about the nuns. What we do know is that there are new Catholic united churches being built in Nicaragua, these churches teach about culture and religion. There is not much information on this topic since most of Nicaragua's funding has gone to the military, therefore the respective agencies cannot investigate. One of the most controversial pieces of news that we were given was that Daniel Ortega left his wife for Doris Tijerino, a member of his cabinet. When we asked Humberto Ortega to comment on the topic he said “I'm very disappointed in my brother’s actions, but for now...No comment”. Lastly there’s some kind of white substance going around in Nicaragua, there is no information on what it is, what it does or where it comes from. While we try to get more information about unanswered questions, keep reading the working paper for the latest news on Ortega’s cabinet.
Reported on by IPC Delegate Clarissa Ramirez
Unity is key for the Greeks as the Persians arrive at the walls of Thebes. “It’s a sad thing how the Persian have invaded Thebes without the Spartans and Athenians actively helping,” Leontiades, a military commander in Thebes, told reporters when asked about their response to the invasion. Telesinius of Elis urged his fellow city states to come together, “as brothers and sisters in this battle.” The members of the committee discussed how they could evacuate Athens as well as where their forces could most effectively be allocated. Just as Xanthipus commented, “staging a small battle may be in our benefit,” in reference to how Greek forces could become familiar with the tactics of the Persian Army, a skirmish broke out between the Greeks and Persians. Two hundred Greek troops prepared to face off against three hundred Medeans as well as fifty archers. However, the Greeks hoped they could overcome what they lacked in numbers with the tenacity of their warriors. Their troops consisted of the Athenians known for zealous fighting as well as the Spartans who have historically never surrendered. The troops chose to take on a bottleneck formation, luring the Persians forward. The Spartans took a position on the front lines allowing the Athenians to sneak behind the Persians and forcing them to fight on two fronts.
Reported on by IPC Delegate Maggie de la Fuente
There was history in the making today at Model United Nations third committee, SOCHUM. In short, SOCHUM deals with humanitarian issues, human rights, as well as cultural issues. Today we asked delegate Hayat from Lesotho about the human rights issue of the night: prison rights. Delegate Hayat detailed how they were discussing possible solutions to overcrowding in prison. Although they may not seem as complicated of a topic as others, it is an immense issue that needs a solution. “We believe that this issue can be solved by making the accused, potential criminals wait for their trial outside of prison,” Delegate Hayat explained. She was working on writing her committee's Working Paper when I pulled her aside for an interview. She also claimed that this would save room for those that are completely guilty, rather than filling the prison cells with those who are potential criminals, or who have not had their full trial.
While Delage Hayat was working on her paper, we interviewed the delegate of Colombia, who was working on her own Working Paper. She believes that her solution will work because “It is an issue that impacts the states, is solvable, and our solution will most definitely work,” this delegate explains. After discussing her paper, we concluded that her solution was very similar to the Delegate of Lesotho's solution. While many people were working on finding direct solutions to the overcrowding of prisons, other Delegates decided that the best solution was to create programs that help get prisoners out of prison sooner than their release date. This included prison alternatives such as: healthcare programs as well as mental health programs. Not only did they come up with prison alternatives, they also came up with fundraiser ideas to fund these prison alternatives. They decided that these programs would be funded by the Model United Nations since it is a collective effort of many countries. There were many Working Papers being written with different solutions to the same overwhelming problem.
Stay tuned to see which working papers get passed on MUNUM’s own Working Paper...
Reported on by IPC Delegate Asmaa Issa
The UN-Habitat has dived into Topic A, discussing crucial aspects of countries transitioning to “Renewable Energy and Sustainable Green Cities.” Countries were mainly concerned about fulfilling the individual needs of every nation, transitioning from a fuel-based economy, and the lack of resources to establish ways to incorporate sustainability in developing countries. Despite committee session consisting of “mostly moderated caucuses,” according to Dias, Luke Byrne, there were some “pretty visible blocks” among the countries, as well. The said blocks were divided in the timeline of the action, the type of action, and most importantly approaches to monetary and equipment funding.
Countries like Uganda, Bangladesh, Chile, and Paraguay wanted to focus on every countries viable energy resource and use it to build sustainability in the country. “Every nation has some form of abundant renewable energy source, like solar or hydro power, we want to use it to advantage,” said Paraguay. The delegate also added that the block’s proposition to fund the project was to ask each country to contribute a part of their nation’s GDP towards the cause. “We want every country to contribute,” said Paraguay. The idea of including every country, however, looked very different for a different block. Consisting of major fuel dependent economies like Russia and Lybia, the block wanted to take smaller steps in the direction of green energy, and prioritize “leaving no one behind.”. Although the block was “not at all reluctant” for moving towards renewable resources, according to Russia, the goal was for a “slow but efficient transition.” The reason behind this was to lower the blow for countries that rely almost entirely on oil and gas exports to maintain their economies. Their solution to the lack of funding? Involving the private sector into the picture. Though block was against reliance of developing countries on the developed ones, curiously enough, it involved countries like Belarus that are already dependent on Russia for fuel. The question of how to monetarily help the underdeveloped countries become sustainable was so integral to the committee that there was a block dedicated entirely to funding. The block consisted of mostly underdeveloped countries like Jamaica and Haiti along a with a few developed ones like Switzerland. Their main goal was to get more developed nations to help out the underdeveloped ones with both monetary means and equipment. “We have a couple of developed nations who are willing to help out,” said Haiti. The delegate was right. In fact Monaco declared that the country was very able and willing to provide resources in all forms to the countries in need. Although there have been no submitted working papers so far, Dias Bryne expects some cohesive “working papers by tonight.” So far there has been no conclusion as to what the resolution for this crucial topic would look like. Moreover, according to Bryne, Topic A is also supposed to be focused on “sustainable urban planning” and currently there has been almost no mention of it. Stay tuned to read more about Russia’s reaction Haiti’s developed nation dependance, and USA’s reaction to Bangladesh’s request for GDP contribution.
Reported on by IPC Delegate Tanvi Kulkarni
An intense game of Rock, Paper, Scissors occurred between Brazil and Argentina, with Russia keeping score, in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). A triumphant blend of Brazil and Argentina’s respective national anthems filled the room as delegates anticipated the results of the competition. With 11 consecutive rounds of the game, Brazil came out victorious for the country who raised the most money for Congo’s refugee crisis. After the spectacle of the century, members of the Security Council began discussing their desire to de-escalate conflict and to stabilize Congo’s surrounding nations. Malaysia suggested the Dominican Republic of Congo move away from their gold and diamond resource-based economy in the future. Congo’s economy, originally built on colonization, hopes to have educators help transform their country’s financial situation. France added on to these goals, urging their fellow delegates to focus on the issue of child soldiers and preventing a Civil War. Canada’s ultimate objective was for Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda to find peace with one another. Some delegates had different priorities on what topic required the most focus, however. After China gave orders to Rwanda, a diplomat from the Congo was kidnapped, which is the event Gambia wanted the committee to commit its efforts to. As Russia put it so eloquently, “There is an imposter among us.” Moments before the International Press Corps left the room, a newly published New York Times article prompted yet another crisis... stay tuned to see what happens next in the UNSC.
Reported by IPC Delegate Sydney Lount
That’s all for Friday of MUNUM XXXVI! Stay tuned for more on The Working Paper.