Tuesday, January 26, 2010

On Committees and Coffee

There are three days left until I leave for Jamaica, and amidst getting everything organized and packed, I'm compiling massive amounts of research and detailed policy statements/resolutions. The competition is in April, and though it may seem a ways off, my permanent representative (permanent rep...aka "boss") e-mailed me and told me Jamaica was no excuse for sluffing off. Gulp. Okay.

Actually, I don't mind. At all.

I, Risa, am the Japanese Representative from the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice to the UN. It is my job to thoroughly understand and provide solutions for:
  • Combating and Preventing Transnational Maritime Piracy
  • Countering the Financing of International Terrorism, and
  • Addressing the Effectiveness of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.

This is so different from highschool debate. In NCFCA we had one resolution and then developed individual cases or "plans" on how to fix proposed problems. In Model United Nations (http://www.munfw.org/), each person is a representative in a specific committee (IAEA, UNEP, G-20, etc) and from a specific country. American River College is representing Japan, Pakistan and Cuba this year and it's been an exciting whirlwind of committee choosing and practice debates these past couple weeks. We debated over Christmas break and met on Saturdays to decide who would be on what committees. I'm *thrilled* with mine - though a bit nervous: international terrorism is no small topic to tackle when under fire from the UN Security Counsel and dozens of other countries, some allies, some not. Gulp. Okay. But oh! It's so exciting!

And so, today I'm munching on chocolate-covered coffee beans and writing a policy statement explaining my (i.e., Japan's) stance on the first issue - Transnational Maritime Piracy - and our "plan" we'd like to submit to the UN as a possible solution. The trick is, my representation of Japan and Japan's stance must be 100% accurate, or I'll get disqualified at the competition. Gulp. Okay. Sooo, research, research, research.

Come April, UN representatives from colleges and universities all over the country (and from the Philipeans and Russia as well!) will convene in San Francisco for four days of role-playing, fierce debate, alliances and (hopefully) resolution-passing. I.can't.wait.

But for now, back to work.

さようなら,
Your Japanese Representative from the CPCJ

2 comments:

Anne W. said...

This sounds great! Is it an ARC team?

Risa said...

Yes, I'm with the ARC team, though many other colleges and universities will be at the competition as well. It's really neat - the International Relations professor at AR is the head of the MUN club on campus, so we get little tips and insights from her. Nifty. :)