“Last” ALSA Day 3

Rada-rada telat, tapi akhirnya ada waktu buat posting juga

Today, we’re having our first and second sessions of the UNEP MUN Conference, and it is really fun and exciting that I was pretty amazed how the committee can turn on the heat even more in the second session (as I thought the first session is good enough).

Nonetheless, it’s thanks to the delegation of China from SMAK 1 BPK Penabur Jakarta that’s really persistent and had played his role very well. He’s just like the real China delegate, you know? He’s very good that he even successfully persuaded Indian, Bangladeshi, Pakistani, and Vietnamese delegates to support the controversial dam project during the break! Something I haven’t been able to do yet –a he’s also very confident with his words and you really need to be careful and analytical when he’s around or when you’re talking with him.

As for me, I don’t really know about it because I don’t know really well the foreign policies of Philippines that stuck onto the human rights first. I am also supposed to be USA’s oldest ally in the Southeast Asia, yet I haven’t even got a good communication with her. Of course I have contacted her, but I don’t really know whether I should take her side or not because I don’t see the decisiveness on the post notes.

So, basically, the council was split into two blocs, the Asian Bloc and the African-Pacific Bloc. The Asian Bloc (clearly, as the name suggests) consists of the Indian, Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Chinese, and Vietnamese delegates (all Asian nations present but the Philippines), that still sticking around the China-India-Bangladesh dam conflict, while the African-Pacific Bloc (which actual name perhaps only African Bloc, but I’m planning to get nations around Pacific Ocean into this bloc, so I added the word “Pacific” after the word “African” – of course, I would also like to get all the developed nations into this bloc and later change its name into a more general one) consists of the Nigerian, Ethiopian, Zimbabwean, Kenyan, Australian, Sudanese, Finesse, Dutch, and Filipino delegates (all African nations present with additional Finland, Netherlands, and Philippines), that persisted on creating a new section under UNEP and optimizes UNEP’s regional offices to comprehend each continent’s major problems (i.e.: the need of a good sewage system in Philippines, etc.) and later distribute the helps and aids from the developed countries (Finland, Netherlands, and we’re trying to lobby American, Brazilian, and Canadian delegates to sponsor this Bloc).

Some trivias, the Finesse delegate is the “shadow delegate” (previously mentioned as “ghost delegate”) in my council (UNEP) and he’s the speaker from the first seminar in the first day (Andrew Sadero) that also joined Harvard National Model United Nation in 2009. I really want to be in a council with him, so I just smiled to myself when the Chair introduced the shadow delegate. I hope he showed up again in the third and last sessions because he really helped us on making the solutions more detailed and precise, continuously pointing to the mechanisms and it really reminds me of the Mechanical Debates Another less important thing, the Vietnamese delegation from SMA Santa Ursula really reminds me of Salsabila Panji Arum in SMA N 1 Bogor the way she talked and her nervousness when she spoke in the Moderated Caucuses is just like Salsa You should look for it yourselves, I believe.

In the end of the sessions, we finally got three working papers (WP). WP 1.1 is the Asian Bloc’s WP, WP 1.2 is the African-Pacific’s, and WP 1.3 is the Developed Nations’ that I don’t really consider as a solid bloc because WP 1.3 only elaborates some points of WP 1.2 so the African-Pacific Bloc is planning to merge it by the next day. Just pray for our success to lobby them and perhaps the other Asian nations because I really feel like a betrayer that when I saw the Asian nations rounding up in a table in the Unmoderated Caucus while I stand among the developed nations or the African nations. I even have a dispute with some Asian nations like India and – but, of course – China that persisted on their dam programs. I also found out that the Netherlands are the “perfect” country in the council because she doesn’t have any significant problem with water and will even voluntarily build reservoirs in Bangladesh to sustain the flood coming from Tipaimukh Dam in India.

Last things, E-MUN is really interesting, so you better sign for one because it got all the other competitions in one less complicated way. You have debate, speech, paper presentation, [a kind of] battle of brains, [a kind of] news casting, and even [though it's not a real one, but it's still] spelling bee, all in one competition! So, next year, I believe it’d be best to send 2 teams instead of one

“Last” ALSA Day 2

Yup, it’s today, Friday, April 16th 2010! The second day of ALSA E-Comp 2010, the last ALSA I’m attending ) =))

ok, let’s skip the emots

Today I went to school like my usual day, and wearing the same attire (Western Business Attire) as I wore yesterday. Although it’s kinda disturbing to have people staring at me when they passed me, but I believe that’s what diplomats are, so no bother. I waited for Ami until 8 and we went off to UI by Mus *yea, snap the emots already*

Arrived, we re-registered ourselves and got into the room where there are 3 small groups based on the councils (UNODC, DISEC, and UNEP) consisiting of each delegates that already came to the room. I quickly got into the UNEP group and when Kenya’s delegate saw my badge (which is Philippines), he quickly assigned me to know the Vietnam’s delegate and told me that she’s supposed to be on the same bloc as I do coz we are in the same region. Ok, never mind that, coz actually, there are only two existing blocs in UNEP; it’s not based on the water crisis background types or anything, but on gender.

Ok, just kidding. Let’s move on *stomped*

Later delegates from other countries appeared. USA, then China (who was very persuasive that I can’t trust him when he’s talking about his Three Gorges Dam project), and last, India. FYI, I dunno if this is true or false, but the Indian delegate looks like Tina Toon. You know? That little girl with the whole “bolo-bolo” thingie? I don’t really know, but when I asked for her number she named herself “Tina” in my contact. I didn’t suspect her at all until Ami asked me whether she’s that Tina Toon or not. Actually, it’s just an FYI coz I don’t really care about it *kicked*

Then another seminar starts, this time about “How to Make A Resolution”, delivered by a man woman named Sangeh (yea, don’t erase the “h”) whose real name is Kristina Desi. Then, as yesterday, we have a long break (but this time due the Sholat Jum’at) that easily bored me to drowsiness. Fortunately, the next seminar came from two figures that worked as Indonesia’s Representatives in UN and ASEAN. It’s a good seminar – coz it came directly from the sources – and it really makes me think twice of joining UN. You know, it’s way complicated and it’s harder than I thought! Yea, it’s UN anyway, but we’re not gonna talk about that because the most interesting part today is on!

The simulation!

Yup, there’s a MUN simulation that have to be watched by us, the delegates, performed by UI’s FH, FISIP, FE, and FT scholars that attended Harvard National Model United Nation last year. It was great, and although I didn’t see the Secretary-General’s performance as a diplomat (one of the committee said that the Sec-Gen’s skills are the best among the HNMUN participants from UI) I found myself marvelled at other delegates’ performances, mostly from Libyan delegates, coz she’s just… yea, like Erwina Salsabila but in a more more diplomatic terms. Cunning and intelligent, she also dared another bloc in an Unmoderated Caucus about Working Papers and her draft resolution passed into a resolution – that ended the simulation. Another delegate is the South African delegate that sponsored the opposing bloc, and although his draft resolution failed, he’s still a formidable delegate. I also found D.R. Kongo, Nigeria, and Uganda’s delegates were interesting to see as well, but it doesn’t reduce my respect on other delegates You’re all great, guys, and I really hope that some of you can join my council – UNEP as ghost countries XD XD XD

After that, we went home and after we bought the post notes I got home. It’s been another great day, and I can’t wait for tomorrow coz the conferences start tomorrow!

So, delegates, let’s roll~! XD

“Last” ALSA Day 1

Ok, I know it’s kinda late, but just lemme post about ALSA 14th National English Competition that is held in 2010 that of course I’m attending to

This year’s ALSA is quite different. Why? Because the SMAN 1 Bogor didn’t send the Exquisite, but only Ayip Fahmi Faturochman (Ami), Tanita Dhiyaan Rahmani (Tita, which later dropped out of the competition due typhoid fever), Arvina Utami (a tenth grader), and me. Don’t ask me why, coz you gotta figure it out by yourself *slapped* so, I’ll just head straight to another point that makes this year’s ALSA different.

Now, the second thing is, there are no debaters here. Arvina is joining the Spelling Bee competition, while Ami and me joined the E-MUN. Ok, this brings us to the third point, which is there is a new competition in ALSA! It’s E-Comp Model United Nation (E-MUN, for short) and it is a competition that simulates the United Nation conferences to solve an issue through a resolution. At first, I was kinda excited with this kind of competition. I dunno why other members of XQS just think that this competition is too complicated because I believe they all have great minds and they’re just to “conservative”. If they embrace it, I believe they’ll love this competition.

Moving on, so here I am on the first day of my last ALSA (coz next year I’ll be a 12th grader and I can’t attend this event ). I woke up so early, and arrived at school wearing white long sleeved shirt, gray tie, black trousers, and black “pantofel” shoes, with a black oversized suit on my backpack. It was so early, around 5, and I witnessed every single students coming into the school. Yea, it’s not kinda important unless the waiting part that’s pretty boring, so let’s skip until I get to UI.

In UI, I registered and followed by Ami that came minutes later, and we waited for… I dunno, for a long time, of course, and we got ourselves engaged with series of seminars. For me, the seminars are quite good. I’ve read the VMUN’s (Vancouver MUN) Battlefield Earth handbook for MUN beginners and the committee told us that they had all attended HNMUN (Harvard National Model United Nation) in 2009, and they shared their experience to us, and it actually sounded like a rehearsal for me because I got more info and recognized others yet lost another (because there are some points of MUN that don’t exist in the E-MUN). But it’s fine, it also has a short simulation in the end of the day and I really like it

There’s also an announcement that there will be ghost countries. It’s like swing teams in debate, but I really hope one of those ghost countries are one of the countries that I expected to show up or I’m gonna be a dead fish But, it’s a good day, and I appreciate it very much. Thank you, E-MUN Committees, for providing a good day and sorry if I typed this so late and forgot some things