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| Courtesty of Christopher Lederhouse |
This weekend I went to Miami University at Oxford's 2011 Model Arab League Conference. Every year I go it's always the same thing. You study the night before, have a sixteen hour trip-sleep and study for confernce-plenary, a day of comittee, party after nine hours of commitee, closing summitt, awards, and go home. I have done models for six years now-two years of model UN and four years of model AL- but next to Cornell University's 2006 model UN, I think I have gained a lot of learning experience about myself, the model, and the Middle East.
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| Courtesy of Christopher Lederhouse |
What I learned about myself was that I need to improve on a few things. First, cooperating with others. I'm not naming any particular delegations-Egypt- but a few were a bit annoying to the point of almost showing how my bslap is way strong. Despite being the nicest group of people that a person doing a model can ask for, sometimes a few delegations thought that the position of vice chair was actually "the chair" practically being out of order all the time. And at times, their version of parliamentary proceedure was really confusing, even at times I didn't know and saying, "what the hell is going on." What I learned about myself in this situation was that I needed to let this go. I was very open about my irratations, to the point of being unprofessional and undiplomatic. My tone in my speeches sometimes really showed that I was vert pissed off even yelling at delegates to get my point across in certain resolutions that I was trying to pass. And that wasn't fair either, because the Arab Republic of Lebanon-who I was representing- was not the author of said resolution. Secondly, people like to hear themselves speak and when they do this, let them. These said people-Egypt- would present a question to a respected professor in a field, that has nothing to do with the lecture, or their field. Sometimes, its a question that anyone who is not understanding the protest in the Middle East can answer. In addition to this, what I also learned was that I need to fine ways to control a room. Derek, gave me a few pointers of how to do it. First, always be the last person in a room because you own the room. secondly, agree to disagree to appease said person. say that this person is right. it makes them feel good.
Despite studying for this model like a class and being in character 85% of the whole conference (I really messed up towards the end during the crisis, which I said fuck it, its the end.) I didn't win anything. Last year I did understand because it was during the earthquakes that hit Chile and Hati and there was a potential tsunami hitting Hawaii so I didn't do much because I was worried. But this year however, I still didn't win a reward. And I'm not pissed which is the funny thing about it. My professor, said that its not about winning anything, but its about what you have learned about the Middle East and the conference which counts.I have found throughout going to this conference in particular is that you have to be way off your policy to win. I'm not saying any particular delegations-egypt- but I just want to remind the students of Belemain University that Egypt is under a military regime and that you didn't solve your political in 18 days. Although, I found it particularly funny when I kept saying to Sudan and Jordan, who I loved by the way thanks guys, that if Egypt solved their political power in 18 days I'm pretty sure Sudan's situation along with Lybia and Bahrain could as well.
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| Courtesy of Alyssa Anderson |
Finally, what my favorite part about the conference is the twelve hour drive. You have interesting conversations about girlfriends, canada, culture, love, music, and who would you sleep with. What I found interesting about the ride was the culture that the midwest has compared to the east coast. For one thing, is the amount of religion vs the amount of sin meaning, the amount of anything religous whether it be a sign, a church or a truck; to pornography ie. porn shops or nude bars. I found that every single time we passed by a porn shop we, the boys in the back, would talk about it. Hilarious. And another thing, to the citizens of Cincinati putting chili on everything is disgusting, especially speghetti.
Alright, so I want to say thnaks to our professor that made it possible to go, Dr. Craig Ilgenfritz.Hopefully, we could get a model working at our campus real soon. The Middle Eastern Studies Organization at Millersville University, Student Senate and the Financial Comittee. Everyone who went to the conference Derek Smith, King A'Dartangnon, Curtis Martin, Crystal Manafi, Alyssa Anderson and Barney Cannon.Also, thanks to Alyssa Anderson and Dart for your pictures.
