Discussion Heats Up on GA2

By Joanna Denis, Athina Kalaitzi

The conference started with the chairs’ presentations. They welcomed the delegates and presented the rules. They spoke about formal and informal debate, points, motion and yields. Nicaragua motioned and recommended the first topic: Privatization. After the agreement from the other delegates, the conference started. Germany spoke first and talked about monopolies and big markets. Then the French delegate made clear that France is in favor of actions that will be good for the public.

According to France, privatization will help the public because it will improve the quality of the services, unemployment, health service and transportation service. Iran said yes to privatization but with measures and Nicaragua spoke from experience and explained that the United Nations should privatize nothing because many countries are in economic crisis and they cannot afford more mistakes.

After a great debate they voted. 26 countries voted for privatization and 20 opposed. Then privatization was discussed for 35 minutes with all the nations. At the same time the chairs announced the time remaining. As time ran out, the delegates tried to find a resolution. It was not so easy. Delegates discussed with each other to make a conclusion. Delegates of Chad, Portugal, United Kingdom, Australia and China, and the United States of America talked about the effectiveness of privatization in today's economy and under which circumstances the privatization would have negative effects.

Meanwhile, 4 delegates, two for each block position, went to the prep room to prepare the resolutions that they strongly supported. Continuing, some more delegations wanted to take the floor in order to express their motions and of course answer every point of information. These delegations were Nigeria, Togo, Portugal, Austria, Libya and Senegal. Finally for the last 10 minutes Director Narin Ismail, asked that those who had not spoken so far to talk about the policy of each country. These delegations included Egypt and Finland, but also some others who had not participated so far.

8th ACMUN Conference Begins on a High Note

By Kelly Diolatzis, Angela Karathanasi, Domna Syropoulou

Vangelis Halatsis, the President of the General Assembly, announced the beginning of the 8th ACMUN conference, the first time Anatolia College has hosted a Model United Nations Conference affiliated with THIMUN.  Before the speeches of the special guests there was a role-call of the nations which are participating. After this procedure there was a magnificent performance of Anatolia’s Acapella choir. It was a really warm welcome for every participant. Afterwards, several people took the floor, including Deputy Secretary General Argyris Doumas, Mrs. Irina Taka Michaelides and Mr. Vasilis Stravaridis . After the inspiring lectures, the President yielded the floor to the Secretary General, Natalia Chantzi. Being a senior this year she began her speech by talking about her way through MUN and how this experience changed her life for the better. Immediately after the welcome speeches of the guests and the Secretariat, there was a short video about the committee’s topics of the 8th ACMUN conference. The opening ceremony ended with the hitting of the judge’s hammer by Vangelis Halatsis, which marked the beginning of this year’s conference.

Mariana Dimitrakopoulou

Oddysseas Drosos

Elinda Staikopoulou

Stella Kyranopoulou

Stella Banou

Stella Tsantekidou

Lazaros-Marios-Konstantinos Chalkias

Thanos Petkakis

Zacharias Papazachariou

Amalia Moula

Iliana Magra

Vaso Papadopoulou

Eva Kasapaki

Marialena Saraidari

Aliki Petsiava

Christiana Avarli

Christoforos Siakkas

Marina Moschoviti

But the journey never ends...

Their farewell MUN - Class of 2012

Achilleas Vrantzas

     It all began some years ago. Many ambitious students who wanted to start their MUN career. They served as delegates, chairs, directors, moderators and now as the organizing committee of the whole Anatolia College Model United Nations. Almost 20 people involved in the whole procedure will say goodbye to the school MUN editions as they are now graduating from Anatolia. Students from both Anatolia High Schools but from the IB program as well were also involved in the ACMUN for many years and we couldn’t help but wonder: what is it going to happen when they all leave?

     Certain students take part in the annual ACMUN leaving their own sign in it. For many years they have helped a lot in the procedure and now we have to say goodbye to them….

General Assembly <3

 by: Celia Tsapalou, Anny Miliara, Axilleas Vrantzas

        
         While the ACMUN draws to an end, the press team went to the General Assembly, which was held in Tracy Hall. All the country representatives gathered outside Tracy waiting to get inside in order to take their seats to begin the process. After a while, when the Administrative staff ushered them to their places, the General Assembly started. The secretariat prepared a resolution on the “Reconstruction of the UN”, which was addressed to all delegates of all the GA committees.

       Firstly, the president of the General Assembly read out the resolution and they proceeded to formal debate. A list of 15 ambassadors picked randomly to talk about the topic had been prepared and took some of the delegates by surprise! The delegation of DR of Congo took the floor to present their amendment, which proposed to strike clause 18, and it passed. Several similar opinions were heard by the numerous countries who took the floor. Afterwards, there was another motion to present an amendment which was overruled by the deputy director and they proceeded to moderated caucus.

      In general, the first hour was not a really active one, as the delegates were being rather noisy and not very eager to make points of information. We couldn’t help but notice that there were many inappropriate notes which contained flirty messages and compliments from one delegate to another!

   In the second hour, the amendments started to pullulate, as a lot of countries, such as Pakistan and Brazil, introduced one. It has to be mentioned that especially the ambassador of Brazil was really talkative, and he was eager to take the floor and express his points of view a number of times! Generally, the procedure was conducted harmonically and the delegates were really willing to make a fruitful debate and find far-reaching solutions to the issue.

     In the last hours, something really unexpected took place! The ambassador of Pakistan stated that they would actually resign from the UN, unless they were given a permanent seat in the Security Council. What is more, they also requested to expand their nuclear weaponry. Their demands were denied, and as a result, Pakistan declared its withdrawal from the UN. Negotiations between Pakistan and the secretary general will be made, in order for Pakistan to rejoin the UN on some conditions. Let’s hope for the best for the hours that remain! 

Awards yeahhhhh!!!

by Dimitris Giannopoulos

Many amendments,  a lot of debating and finally a bunch of clashes. The main submitter today was the delegation of China. This delegation was mainly referring to and arguing about the right that the citizens of Kosovo are free to decide whether they want to be independent or not, whether they want to belong to Serbia or not. But is this the main topic of the committee or not? Will the countries conclude somewhere? There are many possible solutions, but the countries don’t seem to agree on anything common. The Russian Federation though declares that it is upset with all the speeches. As you understand, it is not going to be an easy one. As the chairs mentioned, it was a committee that consisted of active delegates of which some were new and others had already experienced MUNs before. We can now move to the final part, which can somehow describe the last day in a MUN event; yes, I am talking about the funny awards each committee gives to the delegates. So here we have the awards of the Administrative and Budgetary committee:

1)      Hottest Male: Delegate of Spain

2)      Hottest Female: Delegate of Nigeria

3)      Mr & Mrs Committee: Delegates of Brazil & Canada

4)      Most Annoying Delegate: Delegate of Brazil

5)      Most likely to end up in prison: Delegate of Malta

6)      Most likely to end up in the UN: Delegate of Brazil

7)      Funniest Delegate: Delegate of Malta

8)      Best Dressed Delegate: Delegate of Poland

Tensions are high in the Security council!

Today as a dream team (and yes I mean both of us, Elina and Dimitris) we are attending the Security Council committee. The first one was being discussed for more than two hours and it finally passed! So many amendments, so many speeches, so many points of information! China and Russia were going to veto but in the end they seemed to be in a good mood, after yesterday’s exhausting conference. No speech, though, by the beautiful Colombian delegate, but a lot of note passing. Do not let us down! Delegates laugh and seem to enjoy every moment of ACMUN! The delegate of China isn’t satisfied as easily.  Does Germany form an “alliance” with Russia? That’s interesting. In the second clause discussed today the P-5 (the five countries that can veto) look like they are not going to end up with a good conclusion for all the delegations of the committee. Generally, a bunch of amendments passed while others did not. There was a lot of voting as well. The main question about all the clauses, amendments etc. is the following: Is China going to veto? Is the situation going to change tomorrow?