By Hermoine So ||
On the first day of the Inter-school Model United Nations (ISMUN), on June 24, 2023, the delegates returned to their seats at 1:45 pm with bellies full. The Point of Inquiry (POI) of Japan's GSL speech, where the first council session concluded, was the topic of the subsequent council session.
The head chair of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization remarked, "Thank you to the delegate of Japan for the stimulating answers to the POIs," after the POIs for Japan's GSL had concluded.
Suddenly, a fire alarm blasts. The red ceiling light begins to flicker red. Delegates were asked whether they needed to leave by the deputy chair. The space falls quiet. The atmosphere was strained and tense. The delegates experience anxiety as they ponder if this is it. People may be seen scurrying across the hallway via the door's glass. The head chair swiftly leaves the room to speak with the executive committee members to clarify the situation.
"Everything is fine," they say, promptly catching their breath as they enter the room again. "Just a test, that's all."
"Don't worry," the deputy chair assures everyone to remain calm and seated. "We won't die."
The head chair heard and responded, "Did you just say we won't die?" Delegates, including the photographer in the room at the time, ruptured into fits of chuckles.
Afterwards, the council turned to the speech of the delegation from Myanmar. The fire alarm went off once more, albeit for a shorter duration. "又來…," the head chair says, translating to "again" in English. The alarm continued to sound again and again… The head chair rolls their eyes and shakes their head out of frustration and annoyance.
POIs were omitted due to time constraints when moving on to the speeches of the delegates of Nepal, Philippines, Russia,… More and more notes were being passed. Each speech begins with "Honorable chairs and fellow/distinguished delegates." At 2:28 pm, the speeches came to an end slowly but steadily. The unmoderated caucus was inaugurated by Malaysia and lasted 45 minutes. Due to the extensiveness of the opening remarks, the chairs limited the blocs to two to three. Delegates rose. They circled the room to discover those who had the same stance. Conversations begin among the delegates.
There were three established blocs; documents were shared amongst each bloc, and seats were swapped. Blocs had a modest imbalance, with two having 5 delegates and one having 13. Nevertheless, the chairs didn't seem to mind. At 3:15 pm, the delegation of Malaysia asked for the unmoderated caucus to continue until the break, which started at 3:30 pm. The chair gave their approval.
Resolutions were sent via the group chat on WhatsApp at 3:50, five minutes after the break. The deputy chair read the resolution from Bloc I, skimmed it, and said, "What's TITS?"
The head chair answered, "The Together International Treasury Services," glancing at the resolution.
For speeches and amendments in favor of or against, 5 minutes of reading time was allotted. The preambulatory clauses of the resolution were read at 4:01 pm by the delegation of Malaysia, who was the main submitter of Bloc I. After that, Malaysia made a 2-minute address to defend and clarify the resolution. The seated delegates began asking POIs to the delegate of Malaysia after two minutes. The delegate of Vietnamese challenges Malaysia, "Does this delegate not realize the naming of the associations are rather inappropriate as the "tee eye tee ess" (TITS) is kinda debatable?"
As a response, the delegate of Malaysia advised, "I highly suggest that these names are a coincidence and are an acronym for the organization's name." Vietnam granted authority to inquire more about the "es el ay why" (SLAY) organization. The debate was so acrimonious that the deputy chair looked up the definition of "slay" on Google and displayed it with the projector.
Aiming the delegate of Vietnam, Malaysia said, "Perhaps the delegate should be reading more books instead of commenting on the resolution's language." The chair and the entire committee laughed uncontrollably. As for amendments, the delegate of Vietnam had to, inevitably, strike a clause.
"STRIKE 1B!" signalled a solid opening to the speech of the delegation of Vietnam. They then moved on to debating love and how, contrary to the Bangladesh delegate's POI pointed out, love makes critical thinking superfluous.
When the delegate of Malaysia began to present their POI in opposition to Vietnam's amendment, they expressed, "In Hong Kong, people prefer different kinds of tea, boba tea, and black tea. In this case, the delegate prefers stupidity."
The council let out a collective "OOOOOO," stoking the atmosphere and igniting an argument about the value of critical thinking.
"The joke was probably made on ChatGPT. I have seen it… I saw it there," Vietnam responds without pausing to think.
"Don't open ChatGPT!" the head chair, infuriated, continues, with their hands on their head. "That was one of the sole regulations." The air was filled with bursts of laughter. Vietnam verified that they didn't open ChatGPT but that it likely generated the levity. The chair then informed the representative from Vietnam that the joke had been running since 2018. Since no speeches supported Vietnam, the note passer fearlessly played the role of the DPRK representative.
The delegate of DPRK implied, "Why think when you can feel? EQ is more important than IQ. It is ideal to think with your heart rather than your head. Therefore, critical thinking should be abolished."
"Feelings should not be included in thinking because there is bias, which will lead to unfairness. Why are you using feelings to make decisions?" the delegate of France reacts.
France comes up to the stage with an against speech to Vietnam. Though the delegation of Ukraine was not at the scene, the chair says, "Delegates of Vietnam, DPRK, and Ukraine in that order for POIs."
After Vietnam and DPRK's POI, the head chair rushed to Ukraine's seat with their laptop and confidently stood up, "… Following the second world war, France had ordered mass amounts of war integrations to be paid by Germany. However, there was also heavy use of forced labor, which is technically a war crime and a violation of human rights. As we have previously established in the Cambridge Dictionary, "critical thinking is the process of thinking carefully about a subject or idea without allowing feelings or opinions to affect you" (Cambridge Dictionary, 2019). Therefore, the delegate of Ukraine has to ask France whether including critical thinking in education is necessary when France has not necessarily applied critical thinking, for example, enslaving payroll soldiers into forced labor after World War II?"
The spotlight has shifted from Ukraine to France. The audience was dead silent, but as France thoughtfully utilized their time to consider their response critically, a guffaw arose. Friendly amendments were made around 5:15 pm, following the interval. The voting process occurred right after. 2 delegates opposed it, while 20 abstained. The resolution was approved as a result.
The council next turned its attention to bloc II, which comprises the United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Vietnam, Philippines, and Thailand. Readers were offered five minutes to read. The main submitter for the bloc, the delegate of Vietnam, read the clauses. After 3 delegates, GSLs were depleted, and the Bangladesh delegation moved on to modifications, "Motion to move onto amendments raised by the delegation of Bangladesh."
Speeches were delivered to justify the amendment while the amendment was scrutinized. Delegates held their plaque cards high in the air after the Malaysian representative declared, "Motion to move into the voting procedure," making it clear for the chairs to distinguish them. Three delegates voted in favour of the resolution, but an overwhelming majority were against it. Therefore, the resolution was not passed.
At 6:09 pm, six minutes before dismissal, the council finally turned its attention to bloc III. Turkey, the main submitter, took the platform and gave their speech. Thankfully, no POIs were raised. As a result, the council began voting on resolutions right away. It was unfortunate that the resolution was not passed despite being what was identified as the "best resolution" by the head chair.
From debating about TITS to the value of critical thinking, the council was on an adventure. Will more resolutions be adopted on day 2? The committee will make that decision.
References
Cambridge Dictionary. (2019). CRITICAL THINKING | meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary. Cambridge.org. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/critical-thinking
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