Test your UN general knowledge.
Do it like a rock star.
pages 8-9
TheClarion
Saturday 3 May 2008
The newspaper of the Catalonia Model United Nations
ISSUE THREE
Two Koreas fail to unite in
missed opportunity vote
GOOGLE
Disappointment in the Disarmament Committee after uniting clause removed
Kartal Okan
Bilkent University
The Catalonian Model
United Nations conference stages one of the
most interesting developments as North and
South Korea have decided to unite to sign the
resolution as one.
Yesterday
whilst
working on a Resolution
on the topic of Cluster
Bombs, the delegations
of North Korea and South
Korea presented a proposal: they desired to
sign the resolution as
one Korea: the “Republic
of Korea”. For the Koreans, signing this Resolution as one united Korea
was “an act of goodwill”.
After
the
Second
World War and with the
defeat of Japan, the Korean lands were divided
into two zones.
The
north zone was under the
administration of the Soviet Union and the south
zone was under the administration
of
the
United States. In 1950,
the northern part of
Korea invaded the south-
No change here - A South Korean soldier patrols close to the border with North Korea, a zone
which will still remain divided after today’s vote.
ern part; then a three
year war started.
An
armistice was signed on
27 July 1953.
After the discussions
of the permanent five
members of the Security
Council, there was a consensus on the support on
the good will and peace
efforts made by the Koreans.
However, they were
concerned
especially
about the regime and
other aspects of the state
that was going to be established. For it is a fact
that another failed state
would create distress
and negative repercussions in global politics.
Although, there were
high hopes for the unification of a greater Korean
Republic,
they
couldn’t unify due to
misperception and miscommunication.
Although the news
created much excitement
and prompted an emergency meeting of chairs,
the unification of Korea
remains a dream, and
the border stays closed.
More Disarmament news on
page four.
INSIDE: Spainish against Spain in Court of Justice pg5 | The merits of lobbying to get your way pg10
2
Thursday 1 May 2008
TheClarion
TheClarion
is the daily newspaper
for C’MUN 2008
TheClarion
welcomes
contributions from all
C’MUN delegates. These
will be published, space
permitting, the day after
receipt. The email address for submissions is
michael.daventry
@gmail.com
The Clarion reserves the
right to edit delegate
submissions to the
paper, but is unlikely to
do so.
Editor
Michael Daventry
Deputy Editor
Özlem Eskiocak
Reporters
Sandra Canadà
Lluís Infiesta
Laura Millan
Kartal Okan
Elsa Serna
Irina Tasias
Photographer
Pablo Rodríguez-Aguilera
Contributers
Luis Fernando Vàzquez Olivera
Işık Oğuzertem
Opinions expressed in
The Clarion are not necessarily those of the
newspaper, C’MUN 2008,
Associació per a les Nacions Unides or the
United Nations. They are
the sole work of the author credited in the byline.
A diplomat at C’MUN
Elsa Serna
Universitat Autònoma de
Barcelona
The Spainish delegate in
the Alliance of Civilizations Committee, Ivana
Nikolovski, is a very
young diplomat that
works at the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia, in the
department of The Council of Europe and OSCE.
Yesterday afternoon, she
spoke to The Clarion
about her involvement.
What do you think
about the Catalonia
Model United Nations,
that celebrates its third
edition this year?
I like a lot and I think
that this initiative will be
celebrate every year because it is very stimulant
for the young people.
Furthermore, the rules of
the C’MUN are very similar to the procedure of
United Nations, so I
think that it is very important for the people
that want to work as
diplomatic.
Do you think that the
Alliance of Civilizations
Group will propose realistic propositions?
I think that the different
chairs are doing a wonderful work because are
leading the debate very
well, trying to make sure
the delegates speaks
about concrete things.
For this reason, I think
that will be possible to
write an interesting final
resolution.
What is the Alliance of
Civilizations proposing
now?
We are debating about
general issues that the
First Alliance of Civilizations Forum discussed
last January in Madrid.
Some of the more important topics have been education,
the
media,
migration and the youth.
But I would like to see
Serbia participate in programs such as Erasmus,
because nowadays only
member states of the
Council of Europe are allowed to enrol students
in the program.
News from the conference in brief
• C’MUN in the news (not
only in ours this time!)
TV E and Barcelona TV
visited us yesterday to
cover the conference.
Barcelona TV also conducted an interview with
the Director of the Conference, Raul Jimenez.
C’MUN was in yesterday’s edition of the AVUI
Newspaper as well.
• There is much love in
the cheerful Alliance of
Civilizations Committee
(AOC)! AOC is having a
rather unusual procedure: if a delegate makes
it to the Speakers List,
they are awarded with
chocolate; if a shy delegate stands up to speak,
the committee applauds
to encourage them. The
AOC also strikes our attention due to their traditional attire.
• The Madam Chair of
the Environment Committee,
Naila
Obai,
warned the delegates
who kept sending notes
to the table of the Chairs:
in the notes they were
addressing both of the
Chairs as “Chairman.”
Naila made an announcement requesting
that in addressing her,
the
delegates
use:
“Madam Chair / Chairperson / Chairwoman/
Chairs”
• Don’t be surprised if
you hear songs coming
from
the
committee
rooms. So far the AOC is
obliging the delegates to
sing if they come in late;
the Disarmament Committee’s Chairman, Takin
Tadoyan, also requests
that the delegates sing
while they are waiting for
someone to bring the
copies of the resolution.
Yesterday, when the Disarmament
Committee
complained about the
noise coming from the
Security Council (SC),
the SC also started to
sing.
• This morning the Environment Committee welcomed a late-comer two
hours after the beginning
of the session: the delegate of Burkina Faso,
Rustan Arstanoo, explained that he was at a
meeting with the Ambassador of Burkina Faso.
Later, the press found
out that the honorable
delegate was actually
missing for two hours because he couldn’t wake
up!
Özlem Eskiocak
Saturday 3 May 2008
TheClarion
3
Laura Millan
Universitat Autònoma de
Barcelona
Things got hard at the
Human Rights Council
yesterday but finally the
resolution on the situation of human rights in
the Palestinian territories
came out including the
controversial
words
‘genocide’
and
‘apartheid’. Motions, proposals,
amendments,
moderated and informal
caucuses crossed the
floor as delegates discussed whether if they
would include the two
words on the final resolution.
The resolution represents a change of the direction of the Council,
which is something all
delegates wanted to do
since the first minute.
Ghana delegate Verena
Allert added that “there
have been too many soft
decisions; it’s time to
move further on”.
However, the resolution passed with a result
of 12 votes in favor and
10 against, which is too
tight a result in the opinion of most of delegates.
Indonesia warned that it
would be dangerous to
have such a division inside the Council.
Authors of the resolution, Cuba and Saudi
Arabia, supported by
Azerbaijan, South Africa,
Malaysia or Pakistan
proposed a strong and
provocative text that
obliges Israel to admit
acts of genocide against
the Palestinian people
PABLO RODRÍGUEZ-AGUILERA
Council demands Israel
accept Palestinian ‘genocide’
and acknowledges Israeli
politics as apartheid. The
text also forced Israel to
admit human right violations in the Gaza Strip,
stresses the state to recognize Palestine as a
state and suggests the
creation of an ad hoc tribunal to judge the perpetrators of crimes against
humanity.
Even
though
the
agreement between delegates was pretty clear on
Thursday,
yesterday
there was a turnaround
on almost half of the delegates’ opinions. A strong
movement against the
words ‘genocide’ and
‘apartheid’ led by the UK,
Italy, Indonesia and
France rose as the morning passed on.
The text also forced Israel to admit human
right violations in the
Gaza Strip and
stresses the state to
recognize Palestine as
a state
Even though everyone
wanted to pass a resolution that led to action in
the Palestinian territory,
things weren’t that easy
when looking at the details. The UK and its allies argued that by
including such words the
resolution would never
be approved in the Security Council. Instead,
they proposed not to include ‘apartheid’ and
‘genocide’ on the resolu-
Sophie Mirgaux, Cuba, spoke in defence of the text.
tion, which even without
these words would be a
really tough one. British
delegate Anita Gohdes
fought hard to pass the
resolution without ‘genocide’ and
‘apartheid’:
“We have a resolution
that sounds very powerful but that will never
pass out on the Security
Council, on the other
side we have a resolution
that will be powerful and
may pass.”
Finally, the Italian
delegate warned: “There’s
danger on a resolution
that passes on that little
advantage.”
4
Saturday 3 May 2008
TheClarion
Did you know?
• It costs just 25 US
cents a day for the World
Food Program to feed a
child at school. You can
donate 25 cents online at
www.wfp.org.
• Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud and Rudolf
Nureyev were all refugees
who, along with many
others, later became famous and left their individual marks on the
twentieth century.
KARTAL OKAN
The delegates of the Disarmament
Committee
started the session brilliantly by passing their
first Resolution on their
first topic: Anti-Missile
Shield System.
The Resolution passed
with 19 votes in favor, 13
against and one abstention, proving the quality
of the debate and level of
knowledge possessed by
the delegates.
After the long debates
of yesterday and the Quiz
at the Irish Pub, the delegates were sure what to
vote for. Actually, the
committee enjoyed itself
yesterday with the wonderful singing of the
Bosnian delegate. The
song sang by the BosniaHerzegovina delegation
was the famous “Hasta
Siempre Comandante”,
which of course was
cheered and applauded
by the Cuban delegation.
After adopting their
first Resolution, the committee moved on to their
second topic, which was
concerning
Cluster
Bombs.
Cluster Bombs are
small to medium sized
bombs that are dropped
off a bombardment plane
to terminate the presence
of belligerents. Yet, in
some case these bombs
can be dropped onto
wrong targets or some
bombs do not explode in
which it becomes lethal
for the civilians later on.
Since the issue of
Cluster Bombs is not
very different from that of
landmines, from the first
moment on, the passion
and the knowledge of the
delegates filled the committee. Like the fruitful
discussions in the AntiMissile Shield System,
delegates were performing their best in order to
put forward their ideas
and persuade other delegates.
Every
committee,
every chair and every delegate has a style of their
own. And for the Disarmament Committee, the
moderated caucus takes
place in a very different
and stylistic fashion.
The delegates line up to
take their turn and make
their speech of 30-45
seconds.
This scene seems as if
countries are lining up
one by one to disarm,
which of course would be
the most desired end;
but sadly this would not
cross the parameters of
utopia.
KARTAL OKAN
Bilkent University
KARTAL OKAN
Kartal Okan
KARTAL OKAN
Cluster bombs and singing in
the Disarmament Committee
Delegates queue up for the moderated caucus.
Saturday 3 May 2008
TheClarion
5
Spanish students against
Spain at Justice Court
ÖZLEM ESKİOCAK
Özlem Eskiocak
Deputy editor
“The excellent interventions of the agents of Jordan could be crucial for
the judgment of the
court” said the advisor of
the International Court
of Justice on Friday.
Iraq and Jordan bring
up the issue against the
United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Northern Ireland, the Kingdom of
Spain, and the Republic
of Poland at the fictional
ICJ case in 2011.
Yesterday, the ICJ
started debating the
issue: the Sovereignty of
Iraq and ius ad bellum
(laws for just war). All the
agents in the ICJ have
conducted extensive research and are carrying
out a remarkable debate.
But one delegation in
particular, Jordan, deserves the utmost attention. They are performing
an outstanding job representing Jordan…against
their own country.
Jordan is represented
by Amuitz Garmendia
and Daniel Toda. They
are Spanish students
studying law at the University Carlos III in
Madrid.
At C’MUN they have
chosen to participate in
the ICJ because they
think that the war in Iraq
is not just. They wanted
to investigate possible
justifications for the intervention; they think
that the delegates of the
accused countries are
doing a great job in their
Amuitz Garmendia and Daniel Toda, Jordanian delegates, smile for us in the main lobby.
intensive and high level
of discussion. Yet, they
remain unconvinced! Despite the good arguments
of the opposition, they
believe that most of their
defensive
arguments
were backed up by the
resolutions referred to in
1991. “The resolutions
are not current. There
are some restrictions to
implement these resolutions of the past,” says
Toda.
Spain was one of the
non-permanent
members of the UN Security
Council when the intervention started in 2003
by the United States and
the United Kingdom.
“Even though Spain was
not involved in the inter-
vention, it was supporting the intervention politically
as
a
non-permanent representative,” says Toda.
Although the intervention was not authorized by the Security
Council, no sanctions
were implemented. “After
the UN realized that the
situation in Iraq was severe, two resolutions authorized the cooperation
between the U.S. and the
U.K, and other states.
That is when Spain
joined the war,” continued Toda.
Garmendia
added
that it was not until the
third resolution of the
Security Council that the
multinational
peace
keeping
force
was
formed.
As can be seen from
their comments, the legality of the Spanish acts
in the war in Iraq is a
very controversial issue.
The outcomes of the
peacekeeping operations
remain debatable. Toda
and Garmendia think
that Spain is guilty of
their political decisions;
yet, they still believe that
Spain and Poland should
be distinguished from
the U.S. and the U.K., as
they were involved in the
war after the intervention
in March 2003.
The judges release
their verdict at the closing ceremonies this afternoon.
6
Saturday 3 May 2008
TheClarion
Elsa Serna
Universitat Autònoma de
Barcelona
The second day of the
session couldn’t start
better. The atmosphere
was nice, but not only by
the delegate’s attitude.
For instance, Burkina
Faso delegate wore a peculiar dress that represented the flag of their
country, Morocco delegates wore a brown
shawl in their head and
Cameron delegate wore
traditional African clothing. Furthermore, this
delegate sang a Kenyan
song to the rhythm of
Jambo and the rest of
delegates applauded.
After this nice beginning, Brazil delegate proposed an unmoderated
caucus of twenty minutes to prepare two
working papers. One was
resented by Australia,
Brazil and Burkina Faso
and the other subwritter
by Brazil too and for the
co-sponsors, which were
Australia, China, Jordan,
and Poland.
Firstly, Brazil delegate
explained his working
paper and emphasized
the importance to respect
each Culture and Religion in order to promote
a less divided world.
Some of their propositions are the creation of
an intercultural sports
event and an interregional youth convention
of different youth associations, or the creation of
local community projects
to emphasize the aspect
of cultural respect for
others with the important objective of “think
global and act local”.
By the other hand, the
delegate
representing
Australia stressed that
“the education is one of
the key solutions for the
challenges that we are
facing in the area of cultural and religious misunderstanding”.
They proposed two
main issues; the exchange program on highschool and university
level that should be supported by the member
states in cooperation
with the private sector,
and the funds has to be
made available by an Alliance of Civilizations
Youth Solidarity Fund.
Secondly, the country
proposed to promote cultural and religious education on primary school
level with the objective of
fostering the cultural and
religious tolerance and
understanding from the
very beginning of the educational path.
The two working papers passed; the first by
22 in votes favor and Morocco against and the
second by 17 votes in
favor and 3 against. Next
to the ballot, delegates
opened the List of Speakers and many delegates
expressed their opinions
about the working papers. Australia and Jordan, very convincingly,
offered money for these
initiatives, and United
Kingdom, with restrictions, too.
PABLO RODRÍGUEZ-AGUILERA
Alliance of Civilisations dresses
up for the occasion
Above - Adam James Peter Wolsteinholme, Burkina Faso.
Other delegates such
as Malaysia, Nicaragua,
Indonesia or China emphasized the necessity of
tolerance around the
world. China delegate
proposed the creation of
a Civilization’s Olympic
Games and stressed that
the “Olympic Games on
August will be a good opportunity to respect the
human rights between
the different cultures and
religious identities”.
To sum up, the Alliance of Civilizations
Group started to debate
about the two other important issues that are
very important for the
Committee; the role of
the media and the migration.
Saturday 3 May 2008
TheClarion
7
Everybody Loves Raul!
He’s the hub of this year’s Catalonia MUN, but how did he get here? The Clarion
went to speak to him and found out about his “master plan” in ANUE.
PABLO RODRÍGUEZ-AGUILERA
Özlem Eskiocak
Deputy editor
In command - Raül Jimenez outside the C’MUN Business Centre.
Model United Nations
took place in Barcelona.
This wasn’t an easy task
at all! It was the first –
and still remains the only
– International MUN
Conference in Spain.
Raül believes that the
Conference is giving a
great chance to Spanish
Youth who are doing this
simulation
through
C’MUN for the first time.
The Conference is giving
the youth a great chance
to broaden their vision
on international issues
and meet people from all
around the world.
This year we have the
great opportunity to participate in the Third
C’MUN Conference. Raül
says that he is incredibly
happy about the improvements throughout
the years: “The quality of
the conference has increased a lot. We are
more experienced now;
PABLO RODRÍGUEZ-AGUILERA
During my interviews
with the delegates, I was
asking them what they
thought about the organization; everyone seemed
very content about their
accommodation, the location of the conference
and the assistance provided by the chairs and
ANUE’s personnel. During these interviews one
name kept being repeated over and over
again as the delegates
were telling their appreciation for one man’s interest and sincere help:
Raül Jimenez.
Raül
joined
the
ANUE’s team in 2002 as
an intern right after he
took his undergraduate
degree in Political Science and Literature. He
had the privilege to be in
the first Spanish Youth
Delegation to the World
Federation of United Nations
Associations
(WFUNA). After WFUNA
Raül knew that he
wanted to do something
that would contribute to
the youth, and decided to
stay with ANUE who had
embraced him back then.
He is still one of the eight
people that work full time
at the office of ANUE.
In 2005 Raül went to
the THIMUN Youth Assembly Conference in
The Hague where he developed the idea of having a MUN simulation in
Barcelona.
He
was
speedy in implementing
his master plan; in May
2006, the first Catalonia
In demand - Being interviewed by Barcelona TV.
we are more capable of
responding the demands
of the participants.” Raül
is also very satisfied with
the profile of the participants as well as the
chairs: “This year there is
a great increase in the diversity of participants
from all different countries. We have very
knowledgeable and organized chairs.” Raül
pointed out that it was
actually the first time for
some chairs.
I believe this is what
makes Raül special: hav-
ing faith in the youth and
encouraging people to
take an important role
regardless of their experience. During the first
day, I met many people
who were a bit scared
about their first time at a
MUN Conference and
had question marks in
their head. On the second day, I saw them
comfortably and actively
engaging in debates. This
conference allowed many
to discover their own potential and everybody
loves Raül for that!
8
Saturday 3 May 2008
TheClarion
Victoria Beckham designed the
ÖZLEM ESKİOCAK
Michael Daventry
Editor
The appropriately-named
“Achievers” claimed first
prize in Thursday’s quiz
night of UN-related questions. They won 37
points at the event,
hosted by the Kennedy’s
Sailing Club on the
seafront. Second were
the perhaps less-appropriate “Saddam”, with 32
points, while “La Coruna”
was third with 29. The
self-styled star of the
night, however, was
without doubt The Clarion’s very own Lluis Infiesta, who read out the
questions in his unique
style, alternating between rapid-fire and
careful enunciation.
The
Clarion
was
granted exclusive access
to the answer sheets and
has uncovered some entertaining answers. As
the night progressed, so
did the entertainment
value of the answers. In
Round Three, Question
six – “What UN Secretary-General didn’t end
his mandate and why?” –
The winning team - Karla Paulina Aragon Galvan, Griselda Bereciartu, Yoko Umeoka, Daniel
Villegas, Ivan David Rodríguez and Aleksandra Semeriak.
produced some enlightened responses, including
“John
Smith”,
“Mandela” and “Robert F.
Kennedy”. Closer to the
mark was one paper that
attached a reason for the
end of mandate: “Love affair. A Swedish one.” The
correct answer was Dag
Hammarskjöld, and he
died in an airplane crash.
Other answers included “the Cleaning
man” to the question of
Asha-Rose Migiro’s current UN position (she is
Deputy Secretary-General),
while
another
paper claimed “Gaudi
and Victoria Beckham”
were the lead architects
of the UN building. And
The Clarion urges its
readers to remember that
the current UN High
Commissioner
on
Human Rights is not
Pope Benedict XVI. Well,
not yet.
Missed it? Test your friends this lunchtime with the full questions and answers
Round One
1. On what date was
the UN established?
2. Who donated the
land to build the UN?
3. Who was the chair
of the Human Rights
Commission during the
drafting of the Universal
Declaration of Human
Rights?.
4. What’s the name of
the GA president?
5. Which is the latest
country to become a
member of the UN?
6. How many Nobel
Peace Prizes have the UN
and its agencies been
given? (excluding the one
received by the UN
peacekeeping Forces): 3,
5, 7 or 9?
7. What does the
acronym ‘UNICEF’ stand
for?
8. What was the year
and the city of the first
UN Environment Conference?
9. The United Nations
System was originally
based on six active principal organs. One of
these suspended operations in 1994. Which
one?
10. Apart from USA,
who are the three largest
contributors to the regular budget of the UN?
Round Two
1. What are the official
languages of the UN?
2. Who was the lead
architect of the UN building?
3. Who was the first
Secretary-General of the
United Nations?
4. Who is the current
United Nations High
Commissioner
on
Human Rights?
5. How many original
member nations signed
the charter of the United
Nations back in 1945?
6. In which year did
the General Assembly
adopt its first resolution
and what was it about?
7. What does the
Saturday 3 May 2008
TheClarion
9
today?
2. Which is the first
film ever filmed inside
the UN?
3. What is the name of
the Secretary-General's
Special Representative in
Iraq who died in August
2003?
4. What is the current
position of name of
Asha-Rose Migiro at the
UN?
5. How many countries form the so called
group of 77 today: 77,
93, 110 or 130?
6. Which UN secretary-general did not end
his own mandate and
why?
7. What does the
acronym
of
CEDAW
stand for?
8. In 1956 the UN ap-
Kennedy Sailing Club - delegates in an Irish pub, in Barcelona.
proved the first peacekeeping mission. Which
international crisis was
responding to?
9. What two organisations were created after
UN reform summit in
2005?
10. Which three countries left UNESCO after
the publication, in 1980,
of the McBride report entitled “Many voices of the
world”?
Calculating the scores - Bernat Comes and Raul Jimenez.
Round One answers
1. October 24th 1945
2. Nelson Rockefeller /
John D. Rockefeller Jr.
(both correct)
3. Eleanor Roosevelt
4. Srgjan Kerim
5. Montenegro
6. Seven (UNEP, OIEA,
ONU,
ACNUR
(twice),
UNICEF, OIT)
7. United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund
8. 1972. Stockholm,
Sweden
9. Trusteeship Council
(about decolonization)
10. Japan, Germany,
United Kingdom
Round Two answers
1. Arabic, Chinese, English,
French, Russian and Spanish
2. Wallace Harrison (two
point answer); Based on the
design of Niemeyer / Le
Corbusier (one point)
3. Gladwyn Jebb (two
point answer, plus one);
Trygve Lie (two point answer)
4. Louise Arbour
5. Fifty (Fifty-one with
ÖZLEM ESKİOCAK
MICHAEL DAVENTRY
acronym of UNCTAD
stand for?
8. What year did the
Security Council increase the number of non
permanent
members:
1955, 1965, 1975 or
1985
9. What organism
says in the preamble to
its constitution: “since
wars begin in the minds
of men, it is in the minds
of men that the defences
of peace must be constructed”?
10. What is the Convention with the most
support in the UN history? Which two Countries have still not ratified
it?
Round Three
1. How many members do the UN have
MICHAEL DAVENTRY
UN building ...apparently
Our host - Lluis Infiesta kept the punters entertained.
Poland). Both correct.
6. 1946. Its main focus:
peaceful uses of atomic energy and the elimination of
atomic and other weapons
of mass destruction.
7. United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
8. 1965
9. UNESCO
10. Convention on the
Rights of the Child. Somalia
and the USA.
Round Three answers
1. 192
2. The interpreter
3. Sérgio Vieira de Mello
4. Deputy SecretaryGeneral
5. 130
6. Dag Hammarskjöld.
Airplane crash
7. Convention for the
Elimination of all forms of
Discrimination
Against
Women
8. The Suez Canal crisis.
9. The Human Rights
Council, and the Peacebuilding Commission
10.
United
States,
United Kingdom and Singapore.
10
Saturday 3 May 2008
TheClarion
Know your unknown allies
Luis Fernando Vàzquez Olivera
Observer
During the last couple of
days, I’ve had the opportunity to be around the
different sessions and
committees of the C’MUN
2008, observing and taking note of the interesting
and, in many times,
strong and witted debates that are taking
place within.
However, today it’s
not my intention to address subjects as relevant
as
military
disarming, the definition
of hunger refugees or the
international responsibility derived from the
events resulting since the
Iraq war.
Today, I prefer to
focus on a topic that,
most of the time is diminished, even as it must be
considered for all of us in
attending the activities of
the UN Model (and, if I
may add, to be remembered and carried on as it
is relevant to every international negotiation that
actually takes place in
our world).
I am referring to what
most people call “lobbying”: the art of negotiating on a non-official
basis, building alliances
to your cause even before
the discussion issue may
arise.
Some people wrongly
believe that lobbying just
reduces to sharing some
drinks and a few laughs
with the other attendants
or delegates. Not that I’m
saying that is not also
important, I’ll always emphasize that many of the
agreements
I
have
achieved in my profes-
sional career had resulted from the “between-sessions” cocktails
or at brunch.
(Besides, if you get the
opportunity to resolve a
complicated discussion
that could not be solved
before in the official
meetings, it is always
good to have something
to toast with!)
However, be sitting at
the same side of the bar
(not necessarily drinking
alcohol) or the table, even
as the conversation could
be lighted up and
sparkling, means nothing if we do not appreciate those moments as an
opportunity to know
more personal things
about our colleagues.
How do they think?
What is their background? That will help
you to establish your approach with your counterparts
and
your
communication strategy,
as well as a mean to
build strong relationships.
For example, are your
fellow delegates aware of
your country’s culture,
costumes or history? If
not, lobbying it’s a very
useful tool to show them,
not only in which values
relies your country`s position, but to help them
in the understanding of
it.
Remember: The other
delegates – even those
sustaining
positions,
votes or arguments opposite to yours – are not
your rivals. As long as we
are trying to achieve and
sustain the principles
contained in the UN
chart, every one has to be
considered as a colleague
and an ally, as we are
looking forward to the
same goals.
We only have to agree
in the methods and
paths to be followed to
reach that objective, and
we will never be able to
do that without knowing,
and therefore understanding, the other’s
point of view.
At the other side of the
hand, many of us commit the mistake of using
lobbying to get directly to
the point, forgetting the
personal
communication. I have observed this
many times: We approach some other delegates at lunch or at the
coffee break, simply “firing away” our proposal.
After that, we turn
around and go for seeking another alliance.
Allow me to remark
the evident: That way of
acting will not help a lot
in building strong alliances all over the years.
Surely, this round of negotiations will not be the
last that we will be attending, neither our colleagues.
And
the
common interests of
today may change according to the evolving
world`s situation.
However, as long as
we procure to establish
and maintain contacts
from a much more personal level (Even with
those delegates that are
participating in different
committees that ours) we
can be confident that, in
a near future, a communication channel will remain open.
There is a lot of literature about “lobbying”
these days, some of it is
very interesting and useful. I strongly recommend
that
those
interested in becoming
negotiators should review the theory and techniques developed for that
purpose…But,
before
that, I believe that all the
theories and literature
depart from a much more
simple principle:
It’s all about people.
Nations are composed
by individuals and we are
always
dealing
with
human relationships, no
matter how technical, serious or global the issue
may be. That means that
personal beliefs, emotions and feelings will be
at stage during any kind
of negotiation. Denying
that would be so unrealistic.
I would like to finish
this idea sharing with
you a personal memory:
during an international
forum, not a long time
ago, I had the opportunity to meet a very intelligent and attractive girl
from a country I’ve never
had visited in my life
(yes, I had a crush on
her, and yes… It didn’t go
well at the end). The
country name was…
mmh…that is not really
important. The curious
thing is that, nowadays, I
know that I`ll always give
a very special and very
positive attention to any
issue related to that
country.
Unprofessional? Not
really
Childish? Maybe…
Human? Definitely!
And is not that what the
global worries are all
about? Think about it
and enjoy your sessions.
Saturday 3 May 2008
TheClarion
11
What a wonderful world
Egypt
Ghada El Gharid
Ghada told us it’s complicated to chose one single part of Egypt as her
favourite, because there
are plenty of beautiful
historical monuments.
However, at last, she
chose the pyramids of
Cairo, because they are
one of the most beautiful
and identifying places of
Egypt.
Of the best dishes, the
cheaper one is the called
“fool and Taemya”, they
all
are
made
with
crashed beans, but the
second one the beans are
fried. It’s like falafel, but
tastier.
Ghada invited all of
the people to visit Egypt
because it is a very different country with lots of
history and it was the
begging of the modern
culture.
Hungary
Valéria Horvath
For her the most beautiful part of the country is
Budapest, the capital.
But if she should chose
one natural environment
she will recommend Hor-
LLUIS INFIESTA
Hungary - Valéria Horvath
LLUIS INFIESTA
Egypt - Ghada El Gharid
LLUIS INFIESTA
In the C’MUN are many
different
nationalities
who represents other
countries.
They
feel
proud about their own
nationalities, their culture and their monuments. Here, some of this
year’s delegates explain
the wonders of their
countries and why it is so
worthwhile for you to
visit them.
LLUIS INFIESTA
Lluís Infiesta sees trees of green, red roses too. He sees them bloom...
Peru - Jorge Luis Moya and Fiorella Salazar
tobagy national park, because it is a place with
many endangered animals like the typical
horse in Hungary and
cattle.
For her, the best and
the more representative
dish from Hungry is the
Gulays, it’s a soup made
by beef, potatoes, vegetable and red paprika.
Valeria thinks people
should visit Hungary because it’s a mix of lots of
amazing natural parks
with beautiful modern
cities for partying and
cultural events.
Peru
Fiorella Salazar, Jorge
Luis Moya
These two delegates from
Peru have different opin-
Uzbekistan - Irina Pak
ion, but they are agree in
one thing: Peru is an absolutely incredible country.
Fiorella thinks the
most beautiful part of
Peru is Lima, because
the architecture has the
influence of the occidental colons, while Jorge
Luis thinks Machu Pichu
is beautiful for the mysticism and the magnificence of the “Cusco”
zone.
The dishes of Peru are
gorgeous. They both
agree that the perfect
meal should have the
causa rellena, a dish
made with boiled potatoes, or papas, as they
say, mixed with salt, pepper, aji (a spicy spice)
and tuna. The second
dish, chosen by Jorge
Luis is fish marinado
with lemon.
Uzbekistan
Irina Pak
For this nice girl the
historical city of Bukhara
is the most beautiful part
of Uzbekistan, because
anyone could feel the
culture and the architecture from the sixteenth
century.
Irina chose one dish,
called plov, it’s similar to
paella, made with rice
and meet and joint with
the typical Uzbekistan
tea.
She thinks people
should visit her country
for cultural reasons, because used to be part of
the route of the great
silk.
12
Saturday 3 May 2008
TheClarion
Tens uns ulls molt macos
Irina Tasias
Pompeu Fabra
Catalan and Spanish are
the two official languages
in Catalonia. Both are
similar but if you speak
Spanish it doesn’t mean
that you can understand
Catalan.
If you want to meet
local people in the city
and know people who live
here you must learn our
language.
I will try to teach you
so that you can move in
the city like a fish in
water! (This phrase is
typical of Catalonia!).
And during the day we
worked with the C’MUN
members to watch the
level in the different
countries. Are you ready
to learn a lot?
There are many sentences that every one
wants to learn in our language, and these are the
C’MUN members preferences.
How much does it
cost?: Quant val això?
(Our city isn’t very expensive but in the tourist
zone you should always
ask the price before your
purchase.) Jan from Bel-
gium, has pronounced
well but the sound “x” it’s
very difficult for a Belgian
person.
-Thanks: Gràcies
- I want… a sangria, a
sandwich,
a
beer:
Voldria una sangria, un
entrepà, una cervesa.
Peter from Belgium is
an observer and his pronunciation is fantastic.
When he goes out tonight
he won’t have any problem to get a beer.
- I’m hungry!: Tinc gana!
- I’m falling sleep: Estic
a punt d’adormirme
- I’m tired: Estic cansat
- How can I get to…?:
Com puc arribar a…?
- Is this place interesting?: És interessant
aquest lloc?
- Would you like to
come with me to drink
something? T’agradaria
venir a prendre alguna
cosa amb mi?
Kartal Okan is from
Turkey and he is a member our press team. He is
a very good pupil!
- Lots of kisses: molts
petons.
This is the sentence of
the Chair of the Enviorn-
PABLO RODRÍGUEZ-AGUILERA
Hold the press for The Clarion’s indispensible guide to the Catalan language
ment Committee,
Selim from Turkey: You
smell good: Fas bona
olor.
He had a little difficulty
with the letter “f”; he pronounced it like “v”. But I
think that with another
class he will improve dramatically.
- You are very beautiful/handsome…:
Ets
molt guapa/guapo
A Cigne in C’MUN’s pond
- Have a nice day: Que
tinguis un bon dia by
Irina Pak from Pakistan.
- You have beautiful
eyes: Tens uns ulls molt
macos by Rustam from
Kazakhstan.
- Barcelona is the best
city in the world:
Barcelona és la millor
ciutat del món By
Patrick from Germany.
- “The Chair of Ecuador
gave the Chair of Sierra
Leona”: La presidència
d’Equador ha donat la
presidència a Sierra
Leona. This is an insidejoke by Semra from Germany. In one of sessions
the delegate of Ecuador
messed up with the term
“to yield the floor” and
yielded the chair to another country.
- I want to close the debate: Jo vull tancar el
debat
By Ines Simak from Germany who wanted close
one of the sessions in
Catalan and thus show
her ability.
- I adore Barcelona: Jo
adoro Barcelona. By
Volha Karpuk from Belarus.
- A happier world: Un
món més feliç. By Olga
Barcari from Moldavia,
it’s the best phrase and
we gave Olga a prize because
this
concept
should be embraced by
C’MUN. Thanks!