THIMUN Singapore 2007
November 26th, 2007
The Pacific American School was back in balmy Singapore for the annual THIMUN Singapore Model United Nations conference. This year’s conference was even larger than last year’s, and some schools from as far away as Mexico take part. The theme of the conference was “the promotion gender equality” and the student delegates spent long hours debating solutions to chronic problems of inequality, poverty and abuse, which still plague women in countries all around the world.
Also on the agenda this year was the tricky and controversial issue of Taiwan’s admittance into the United Nations. Our delegation ambassador, Ching Lin, worked tirelessly throughout the week to pass a resolution on the issue. Unfortunately, all three resolutions failed. The committees did, however, pass a number of resolutions on issues as diverse as conflict diamonds and their link to insecurity in Africa and child labor in newly industrializing countries.
The Model United Nations program allows our students at PAS to mix with Asia’s future leaders. While students may not agree on the issues being debated, they do all learn the difficult art of compromise and cooperation. Singapore, being a multi-cultural metropolis, was the perfect setting for the conference. Our taste buds were treated to all sorts of delicious foods, from spicy Indian curries served on banana leaves to local Singaporean hawker dishes like stingray. All-in-all, this year’s conference was a definite success. I was proud to see our first year students take the plunge and participate in committees with over one hundred student delegates. Also, I was impressed by the maturity shown by our two returning delegates, Ching Lin and Erica Jang. So now it’s so long Singapore and hello New York City as we begin to prepare for our next MUN conference in the spring. Personally, I can’t wait.
Alexandros Vassilakis
MUN Director