February 9, 2011 1

belarusian model united nations

February9

2011

5 yearsanniversary

edition

BELAMUN 2011

Between Opening andClosing Ceremonies

Can you believe it’s already the 5th Belarusian model United Nations? It’s high time to draw some conclusions and think of the future, we even got some statistics about BELAMUN in

progress for you. Anyway, don’t forget about the present – enjoy your time and make a change to the world!

● BELAMUN STAFF

Even outdoors temperatute rises due to calm and friendly relations prevailing on BELAMUN

Delegates’ Diaries

Read the truthful reports from the scene(page 8-11)

How it really was?

Explore MinskWhat do the foreign guests think about the BELAMUN capital?(page 10-11)

2 February 9, 2011

Is it worth saying that MUN brought me self-identification and self-esteem: I know what I want and I know how to gain it? Is it worth saying that MUN brought me my best friends who ac-cept me as I am? Is it worth saying that I’ve been travelling across the world?

Olga Khabibulina:

Bittersweet Memories of MUNsIt’s always not so easy to write about the thing you have been doing for years by this moment. I’ve been asked to write about Model United Nations several times but I always gave bare facts and the journalist had to add something about MUN in my (!) life him or herself. It’s high time to share my view of MUN…

Model United Nations was introduced as a role-play for children of dip-lomats in New York City in 1948. At that time the main idea was to show the struc-ture of UN to diplo-mats’ chil-dren. They were pre-pared to serve for UN in the f u t u r e . Later, in 1968, in the Hague the first in-ternational conference was held. It’s called the Hague International Model United Nations (THIMUN). Being the highly prestigious confer-

ence for high-school stu-dents, it is held every year in January. The most prestigious conference for university students nowadays is the National

Model Unit-ed Nations ( N M U N ) held in NYC in March-April every year. Ac-tually the l a r g e s t MUN is T H I M U N . It gathers above 4000 p a r t i c i -pants from all over the world.

In Bela-rus the first MUN took place in December 2002 within the framework of the Winter University of

UNESCO Clubs. The first independ-

ent Belarusian Model UN was held in February 7-10, 2007. That confer-ence gathered more than 150 students from high schools and universities from Belarus, Russia, Lithuania, Ukraine and Poland. The Opening Cer-emony took place in the National Library of Bela-rus.

The second BELAMUN was in February 10-13, 2008. That year we had participants from Bela-rus, Ukraine, Turkey and Russia. The conference was a mixed one: both for high-school students and university ones. I’ll always remember the weather that winter: it was cold and frosty. We couldn’t spend much time outdoors and it was really cold even inside the rooms. Therefore we decided to move our con-ference to April.

The third BELAMUN conference was held in April 12-15, 2009, gath-ering participants from Belarus, Ukraine, Ger-many and Russia. The total amount of partici-pants was a record one for BELAMUN – 370 partici-pants.

The fourth conference was a prelude to a great anniversary that has been planned since April 2010. In April we had participants from Bela-rus, Lithuania and Rus-sia. The total number of participants was 300.

After four conferences we have decided to divide the participants into two levels: high-school and university.

In February 2011 we meet students of the Uni-versities from Belarus, Ukraine, Sri Lanka and Russia to take part in our conference.

In April 2011 students from high-schools from Belarus, Ukraine, Rus-sia, Poland and Lithua-nia will participate.

Every conference has its own spirit. It’s difficult to describe it but if I ex-plore my mind I will recall all the details. Though we decided to publish BELA-MUN memoirs in future, there are some interest-ing moments worth be-ing described now. I do remember participants from Kaliningrad at BE-LAMUN 2007 and I do remember how we spent hours in their hotel room after the conference. In 2008 I do remember Turkish students from Ankara and their three crazy American Teachers of English. I do remem-ber they bought the hat from the USSR period and the most beautiful guy’s name was Fatih. I do remember the way we spent 4 hours in Minsk Airport waiting for the Nigerian delegation dur-ing BELAMUN 2009. And they didn’t come. I do remember the sun and wind on the first day of BELAMUN 2010 in April. Having forgotten about the Easter and the Ra-dunitsa, we had set the date for BELAMUN 2009 as April 11-14. But 1 week before we had to move it to April 18-21. There are much more than this about real BE-LAMUN. Hope you’ll have a chance to understand it and shape your vision of this conference.

Full of memories, I still believe that someday to-gether with the people with whom we started BELAMUN in 2007 we will publish a book of our BELAMUN memories.

Yours,Olga Khabibulina

BELAMUN officially

February 9, 2011 3

Andrei Malashevich: “I live in the present”● Valeriya Grabinskaya

- What was your way to becoming the Secraty General?

- I think it’s due to my experience. I have been participating in such in-ternational conferences since 2007 in different roles.

- Do you know the number of participants this year?

- 104 delegates.- How many foreign

languages do you know?- Two. English and

German.- What countries

would you like to visit?- Italy, France, Aus-

tralia and United Arab Emirates.

- What kind of person are you in usual life? Are you always that serious or can you let yourself be a little childish?

- I think, in life I am serious, maybe, like at work. I study, I am working, and I am par-ticipating in UN modal.

- I suppose you have little free time. What is your girlfriend’s attitude to the fact that you are always busy?

- She is often angry. She doesn’t like it, I try to explain her every-thing and she tries to understand me. Any-way, I think everything will be OK.

- What are you plans for future?

- I don’t care much about the plans. I live in the present.

- What can you wish to the participants?

- Be active, have fun and success attend you!

Time to ask and answerWe decided to check how our honourable Organisators remem-ber the his-tory of the UNO and asked them some tricky and simple questions. Think what you could answer!

1. When was The Unit-ed Nations established?

Ivan Makarov: in 1945. (Right answer: Oc-tober 24, 1945)

2. How many commit-tees The UN General As-sembly has in its struc-ture?

Valeriia Brodnikova: 5 (Right answer: 6)

3. Who was the first UN Secretary General?

Angelica Belanovs ka ya: I don’t know (Right an-swer: Gladwyn Jebb)

4. What organization was replaced by the Unit-ed Nations?

Stas Venchik, Admin Staff: The League of Na-tions (Right answer: The League of Nations)

5. How many offi-cial languages does The United Nations have?

Olga Khabibulina: 6 (Right answer: 6).

Will Armageddon take place next year?

Tell us:

Questions and Answers

4 February 9, 2011

TOP 10MUSTHAVE OF BELAMUN 2011As you know, this BELAMUN conference is the 5th one already, so we’ve got some experience about what is really necessary during the event and what is better to leave at home… We are sure our tips will be actual for any MUN – so read carefully and smile widely!

1. Formal Suit – Re-quirement for both staff and delegates. Makes you look really serious and important in any situ-ation. If you are not a real fan of that official – think of casual and mood-creating accessories: like a funny tie, socks or even hat – why not?

2. Warm Formal Suit – Statistics says that the weather during BELA-MUN is traditionally… er… very winter-like. So

your favourite scarf or a sweater (of course, they are official, aren’t they?)) can be of use.

3. Dictionary – Sure-ly, we know that distin-guished and honourable delegates don’t have any problems with English or any other official lan-guage, but… They are all representing different countries, you know… Anyway, a small pocket dictionary in your mobile will only make the re-

spected delegate feel more confident.

4. Modes of Address –Official lexics is inevi-table. Come on, it’s so lovely! How can you imag-ine a conference without all these “Will the house please come to order” and “We will move into voting procedures”?

5. Badge and Placard –These two thing are prac-tically the most significant for any participant. They really help you to define

yourself, get to know oth-er delegates, they give you the right to vote and get to the party! Cherish them as the apple of your eye!

6. Sandwiches – Al-though you’ll have your coffee-breaks and lunch-es, sandwiches are still a good idea – not only to recharge your batteries while the Chair doesn’t see you, but also to share it with new friends!

7. Good Timing – We highly recommend you not to get late for any event. Why? Try and see how far your Chairs and colleagues’ fantasy will get you!

8. Positive Thinking Skills – Especially needed as the rhythm of the con-ference is always very fast and you’ll have to think a lot. So better think posi-tive – remember we are all here to save the world!

9. Charisma – Both important for personal in-put and representation of your delegation. Remem-ber that the more attrac-tive and convincing you look the more supporters you’ll have.

10. Resolution – Al-most forgot! Write it care-fully and in advance, put your soul into it and pro-mote it with all of your charisma and eloquence! The change of the world is up to you!

Professional Tie-ManSkills requested:• selection of ties, depending on the suit and shirt• knowledge of knotting techniques (no less than 5)• pleasant appearance and sense of humourContacts: (+) 375 29 553 17 00, Andrei.

URGENTLY NEEDED!

• affordable• ready on the day of order• experienced specialist

Call anytime:(+) 375 29 681 86 09, Olga Kh.

RESOLUTIONS! AMENDMENTS!

SPEECHES!

● Hanna Baradzina

Useful Tips

February 9, 2011 5

In BriefA few words on the issues of agenda

Human Rights Council Journalists and oth-

er media professionals working in war zones face many dangers. Be-cause of the very na-ture of their work, they are inevitably exposed to the dangers inher-ent in military ope- rations. Instead of flee-ing combat, they seek it out. Nevertheless, by far the greatest danger they face is that of deliberate acts of violence against them. Inasmuch as they are civilians, journalists are protected under in-ternational humanitar-ian law against direct attacks unless they take a direct part in hostili-ties. Violations of this rule constitute a grave breach of the Geneva

Conventions and Addi-tional Protocol I. What is more, intentionally di-recting an attack against a civilian – whether in an international or in a non-international armed conflict – also amounts to a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

Security CouncilInternational terror-

ism remains a very se-rious threat and con-stitutes a category of atrocious crime, it is not generally and on its own a permanent threat to the peace. The current situation of the two cor-nerstones poses risks to the protection of hu-man rights and the in-

ternational law. What is equally important is this situation, it weakens the legitimacy, acceptabil-ity and hence constitut-ing a threat to an effec-tive and efficient fight against terrorism.

Environmental Com-mission

The great Pacific Gar-bage patch – plastic gyre is an environmen-tal disaster on a biblical type scale. As chemi-cal type sludge, var-ied debris and highly concentrated patches of plastics are dropped anywhere across the Pa-cific Ocean, the circling currents of the ocean drag it into this north-ern area, a gyre (concen-trated system of rotating

type ocean currents). As many of the plastics that end up there break down into smaller por-tions (polymers), the concentrated particles left behind are creating a massive debris type field that sits mainly in the upper sections of the ocean's water column. Ironically, the real ex-tent of the spread of this field is only estimated as it continues to grow each year, even if completely invisible to spacecraft flying around the planet.

Special Political and Decolonization Com-mittee

Recent Congressional initiatives to review the anti-drug strategy sug-gest that lawmakers recognize the need to re-think current poli-cies. Meanwhile, dis-trusts to the policy to-ward drugs continues to grow. A highly regarded report released in 2010 by a commission headed by three of the region’s most respected former presidents called for an open-minded search for alternative policy op-tions that could reduce the damage of drug traf-ficking and abuse.

Economic and Fi-nancial Committee

Government is partic-ularly concerned about the potential impact the forthcoming round may have on certain ar-eas of local government activity, including (but not limited to): licensing the provision of services (such as food outlets), the regulation of services (such as waste disposal and building control), and general discretion-ary powers (such as giv-ing preference to local providers).

● Christina Zheshko

News

6 February 9, 2011

I don’t need a resolutionSimple ideas for a better worldWhile some people are criticizing UN for being too slow in making reasonable change to the world, we decided to ask the participants of BELAMUN what are they personally making to create a more beautiful world.

Valeriia Brodnikova, Chair of Special Political and Decolonization Com-mittee:

- I see my mis-sion in e d u c a t -ing peo-ple and s h a r i n g my ex-perience, p a r t i c i -pating in pro jects like MUN

and su ch like.Evgenia Biruk, HR

Cou n cil:- I’m interested in char-

ity, especially through so-cial network. I participate in one where you pay for meeting an interesting person and the money is spent to help the people in need.

Stepan Remniov, Eco-nomic and Financial Com-mittee:

- I often participate in charity events and fund-raising for the ill people who need money.

Olga Khabibulina, MUN Director:

- I’m concerned about natural resourses and I try to do the simple things: use water more economi-cally, recycle, use public

transport instead of hav-ing a car.

Anatolii Koval, HR Council:

- I give free lectures on programming.

Eugene Gvozdetsky, Economic and Financial Committee:

- I took part in installing a memorial plaque in the hohour of Ferenz List who gave his last conert in my hometown, Kirovohrad, Ukraine. And I constantly write articles for Wikipe-dia.

Vika Porechina, Spe-cial Political and Decoloni-zation Committee:

- I participated in a vol-unteer camp last summer, helping the restoration of Niasvizh palace.

Veronika Novik, Chair of HR Council:

- I always help homeless animals.

- Burhanuddin Hamza, Chair of Invironmental

Commission- I want to help people,

I’m a future doctor, I want to treat people, for cancer especially.

Nastya Zhvalevskaya, Chair of Security Council:

- I always smile at pas-sersby!

Anna Grigorian, Chair of Special Political and De-colonization Committee:

- I don’t eat fish or meat, don’t drink coke and I don’t eat at McDonald’s. I also don’t use cosmetics tested on animals.

Lena Viktorchyk, Chair of Environmental Commission:

- I make the world more beautiful by music (I played in a Jazz Orchestra for 8 years).

Ivan Makarov, Vice-President of General As-sembly:

- I’m saving the world every day. Actually, I’m Batman.

Be the change you want to see in the world.Mahatma Gandhi.

Idea!

February 9, 2011 7

BELAMUN: Behind the Scenes

Do you think that a conference like BELAMUN is made by magic? Look around and see these smiling kind fairies: Team of Administrative Staff. Obviously, their mission is a little bit more than just being nice to everybody. We did our best to realize their complex hierarchy and make it clear for you.

– Olga, where do you find all these nice peo-ple? Do you have a spe-cial casting every year?

– Actually, all these

nice people find me themselves, with no casting.

– Do they call you ‘Mama’?

– Sometimes. But I hope they don’t call me “ The Big Mommy”.

– How many Admin Staff do we have this year? ? Isn’t it bad that you are an Orgteam member actually?

– There are 12 of us, including me. And de-spite the official post, we are a very good and friendly team.

– How many percent of good conference de-pend on the staff?

– You know, not eve-rybody realizes the true importance of our work. Maybe, it’s because we do every-thing so harmonically and well-coordinat-ed. Personally I con-sider that about 30 % of the conference de-pend on us.

Administrative staff: “Yes, Mommy!”

– Do you envy the del-

egates?Artiom and Artur:

Yes, a little bit. But we think we’ll have a good chance to participate in the future and until that – make our input to BELAMUN with some administrative work.

Kristina: Well… Ac-tually, I took part as a delegate for two times before and I know what it’s like, so I’m not so envious about the del-egates.

– What’s in this job for you?

Artiom and Artur: It’s a good chance to meet new people, com-municate with foreign guests, try something new.

Kristina: First of all, it’s not a ‘job’ for me – it’s just a good way to help my friends and, additionally, to have some pleasant time free from university).

● Hanna Baradzina

Olga Chebrovskaya: “What did you say about my mama?”

In Person

8 February 9, 2011

ENVIRONMENTAL COMMISSION“Wow! So many suits and English is everywhere!”

● Olga Vasilko

Day 1I’ve never participated

in MUN conferences be-fore and I didn’t even know what to expect. Lots of fun? New friends? Learning about coun-tries, their problems? Helping the world?

But my first impres-sion can be expressed in the following way: “Wow! So many suits and Eng-lish is everywhere!” It was even a bit unex-pected for me to hear the question “What country do you represent?” in English when we came to registration so that I couldn’t understand it for the first few seconds.

And it was not only my problem, as far as I could notice.

I couldn’t say that the opening ceremony was something out of ordi-nary. I thought like this until we were shown a presentation about the history of BELAMUN. It was funny to see our chairs as delegates on the photos. And the serious part of it (“What has hap-pened to the world”) was really touching. The one who made it (ed. note: the superheroes are Ivan Makarov and Angelica Belanovskaya) did real-ly a good job. In half an hour we were leaving the

hotel “Belarus” not even having a slightest idea of what was going to hap-pen the following day…

Day 2 The first working day

of the Environmental Commission began at 10 o’clock sharp as it was stated before. Not wast-ing much time on intro-ducing ourselves, we set on the process of lobby-ing. Surprisingly, every-thing was very serious, without jokes or stupid mistakes. But it turned into a pleasure to discuss some points with other people. I could say that I was impressed most of all by the guy from Sri

Lanka. Lots of humor and jokes combined with sensible speeches made the process of writing our resolution really en-joyable.

Of course, I did learned a lot about the ques-tion of my commission, but the main thing I got from this conference, at least its 2 days, is lots of new acquaintances, and great, great, great prac-tice of the language.

I’m sure that the fol-lowing days will bring more joy, more commu-nication and lots and lots of great experiences, to say nothing of the long awaited disco party )

On the Spot

February 9, 2011 9

ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL COMMITTEE:“honourable deleHates” and “just one Russian word, dear Chair”

● Olga Romeiko When you leave the

classroom and you aren’t an “honorable delegate” any more… You don’t need to defend your country’s points, the resolution is out of your mind… What are your thoughts? As for me, I had none of them. Speak-ing only English made my brain disabled for a short (thanks God) period of time. But when this mi-nor ailment disappeared, I thought: “Wow, I really enjoy being here!”

What I liked about the 1st day at BELA-MUN? First of all – free and friendly atmos-phere, where the USA can fruitfully collaborate with Cuba and Burkina Faso is going to save the world. Where you are not scared to be mistaken, where you can use a Rus-sian word (just one, dear Chairs) instead of the for-gotten English one – but surely with English ac-cent (it’s funny, isn’t it?).

But the atmosphere is nothing without people. The company was great: peaceful Chairs, drinking coffee and overhearing us, “honorable deleHate” from Belarus - our guest from Ukraine and a sin-gle (as it was found out) representative of Norway. And you know it’s always a great pleasure to be among clever people – you have a chance to pretend intelligence even keep-ing silent. And I liked the badge, seriously!!!

So, I’m starting to un-derstand those people who say that MUN is a good habit that’s impos-sible to give up.

Delegates: Marta Taranko and Anastasia

Mozhaiskaya.– What are you reasons to be here? M: To practice active English, to meet

different interesting people, to develop some skills.

A: The same. And to take part in such a useful conference.

– Is this conference really useful? Can you change something? I mean, to make something better?

A: Of course, yes, because we have different viewpoints and we cooperate, we can share our ideas with other par-ticipants and we arrange and solve some-thing together.

M: I think, we can really influence the future. We can solve some global problems.

– What is your advice to the other par-ticipants?

M: Don’t be shy and prove your ide-as.

A: Be active and take part in such conferences again and again.

Admin Staff: Alexey Sorochinskiy and Elena

Trifonova.– What are you reasons to be here? A: You know, I worked as Admin Staff

for four times. I liked it, because I met some unusual people, made many ac-quaintances. I’m really interested in it.

E: I think, it’s important and inte-resting. You can get invaluable experi-ence, for example. And I admire the peo-ple who are so young and can really solve the problems.

– What can you wish to the other par-ticipants?

Both: ability to work, new ideas, self-realization.

Chair: Egor Klimovich – What are you reasons to be here? E: I enjoy my time here . It’s fun. I

can get more experience and communi-cate with interesting, clever people.

– Have you participated in any confer-ences like this abroad?

E: Yes, I was in Berlin last year.– What can you wish to the partici-

pants? E: Of course, not to be shy, develop

their speaking skills and share ideas.

Have your say● Valeriya Grabinskaya

On the Spot

10 February 9, 2011

SECURITY COUNCIL:“What are we changing it for?” – “This way it will look simply beautiful”.

● Anastasia Zhvalevskaya

The Security Coun-cil sometimes turns out to be not only the most powerful and serious but also the funniest and the oddest committee of the conference. While some of the committees have already had seven or ten points passed, the Se-curity Council was still struggling over the first one. Every word that you say or write in this committee may cause a long-lasting discussion. That’s probably because the delegates realize how important they are.

Sometimes the am-mendments that are made may seem minor and absolutely insig-

nificant. Once in a while the delegates even chal-lenge each other with the crucial question: “What are we changing it for?” However, one of the del-egates has answered this question perfectly “This way it will look simply beautiful”.

Another thing about the Security Council is the sense of cooperation. The delegates of China and the United Kingdom decided to have an alli-ance. The delegate of the United Kingdom was also eager to help India and repeated several times that he will help this country anyway he can. There was a real spirit of

HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL:“my honourable friend”…● Anastasiya Kalach

Being participant of BelaMUN for the first time in my life, I’m glad to share my fresh im-pressions with you.

At the very beginning of the day in the com-

sented. So, for instance, Saudi Arabia suggested that only male-jour-nalists should be sent to the territory of the armed conflict. Arguing against this point, one of the delegates warned us against “crowds of angry women”, which will be indignant at it.

The delegation of the USA impressed every-body with its infinite friendliness and insist-ent addressing other delegates by “my ho-norable friend”. It also cared much about the democratic value of eve-ry point under discus-sion, proclaiming almost always this or that one “democratic” or “anti-democratic”. Moreover, thanks to our honorable friend we could find out that helicopter is a spy technology.

collaboration in the Se-curity Council this year.

Of course there were countries that tried to impose their authority on the others. The mo-ment an unmoderated caucus began and all the delegates were in-tended to stand up. The representative of one of the Member States (be-ing politically correct we wouldn’t name the coun-try) stood up and urged everyone to remain sit-

ting while he delivers his speech. So you see that even in our extremely democratic institution the question of authority takes place as well.

Summing up, I’d like to express a very objec-tive and unbiased point of view: the Security Council was a real treas-ure in BELAMUN 2011’s anniversary crown. Hope to see all of the delegates, chairs and stuff in BE-LAMUN 2012!

mittee, to make the at-mosphere free and easy we were asked to intro-duce ourselves and to tell which colour (for the girls) and which car (for the boys) is our favourite

one. Some witty answers initiated our further fruitful communication.

In order to understand the point to be discussed properly it was written on whatman paper, or as we called it “our white-board”.

Delegates were some-times charmingly shy to say “we” replacing it by forbidden “I”, but in the course of negotiations this diffidence was fortu-nately overcomed.

Delegates were really very creative at finding protection means for the journalists. At some moment we even under-stood that introducing all these measures can make them equipped so thoroughly that even soldiers will envy them.

Delegates tried hard to express the ideas which reflect the particularities of the country they repre-

BELAMUN officially

February 9, 2011 11

SPECIAL POLITICAL ANDDECOLONIZATION COMMITTEE:“smoking grass” is bad but good…

● Maria Ugolnik

The first day of the conference consisted mainly of happy yelling and hundreds of hugs from my friends whom I haven’t seen since the previous BelaMUN.

While waiting for the Opening Ceremony in the hall you could think you were in a beehive. The future delegates and chairs were chatting, the Admin Staff were trying to switch from Russian into English while regis-trating the delegates.

And finally the Open-ing Ceremony of the Belarusian Model UN 5th Anniversary Ses-sion began. It finished so quickly that I just couldn’t realize for 10 minutes after the Open-ing Ceremony whether it happened or not be-cause usually by the end of such events my notes are full of funny rabbits and especially this year as the year of funny bunny.

But then I recalled this funny and serious presentation about the history of BelaMUN and short introductory to the global problems we have faced recently. I also recalled that Sec-retary’s General was constantly mentioning youth in his speech. Certainly, because

this year is the year of youth, our year. So that made me understand that the fun started.

The second day began with our and our chairs’ expectations about the conference and they really became true be-cause the process of lobbying was so active, funny and breathtak-ing that we even forgot about the lunch. Some of the solutions sound-ed really odd but still we came to the main two conclusions: poor-poor Colombia and Af-ghanistan and “smok-ing grass” is bad but good.

After the lunch our unofficial debates just stuck on the simplest points. Everybody be-came sleepy and we couldn’t come to con-sensus. The delegates from Belarus and The USA were arguing about something not connect-ed to the main question but still we made the resolution.Though our coalition and the other one had troubles with approving it we finally achieved our main goal: the resolutions for the further debates were ready. And now I am waiting for the debates which should be really hot and fruitful…

The first day in the Special Political and De-colonization committee was quite action-packed. It’s my first experience in modelling the UN, so I don’t yet have what to compare it with… It seems to me that my first day was maximally like the ordinary MUN day, just to get me an impres-sion of how it works. At first it was a little bit challenging for me to join the game, for example I confused what is “the placard” or how I should choose allies to team up with. The process of lob-bying was technically not hard today, and I en-joyed the freedom of dis-cussion. What I liked the most was the pluralism of ideas and viewpoints. To be honest, I had a lit-tle worry that everybody

will just support each other, and there would be no controversy, and that’s why I sometimes tried to provoke other delegates deliberately ;) It’s true that only via debating we can see the problem from all the an-gles. The funniest things were the punishments which the chairs invent-ed for people who were late – song-singing and a couple of minutes if playing crocodile, where a delegate had to silent-ly show some member states to the audience. I don’t know, maybe I will try to be late too, because it’s not so frightful as the chairs described it. Now, I am looking forward to next parts of the session, which I expect to be more dynamic and, ultimately, a lot more result-rich.

...being late is bad but funnyby Anton Dudko

On the Spot

12 February 9, 2011

WORK AND TRAVEL BELARUS● Anton Dudkodelegate of Belarusfrom Kyiv

What is the best way to learn about a new country and its capital? Maybe to book a tour and a guide? Or to rent a car and hit the road? No, the best way is to participate in the Model United Nations conference.

Why? Firstly because at such a conference you’re immersed in the atmosphere of interna-tionality and it just kin-dles your interest in a new culture. For exam-ple, not only I am an in-ternational participant in Belamun, I also got to represent Belarus in my committee. So I had to re-search everything about it, and I am really learn-ing about it from all the sides. But the main rea-son, for which taking part in Belamun is so great, is that there are a lot of nice local people, who are willing to share their cul-ture and make you feel like home and enjoy your time.

For me it’s the first Be-lamun, but not the first time in Minsk. I already have been here for a vol-unteer project and just traveling around. What conclusions can I make from those experiences? That Minsk is beautiful in any season!

No matter which new means of travel the hu-manity will invent, for me Minsk will always begin

with a railway station. Here, it’s not just a place to catch a train; it’s a hub for every transport con-nection within the city, for setting an appoint-ment, for observing the daily life, for looking at it just as a European-class sight, after all. I’m sure that this importance of the railway station repre-sents something. Maybe, that in Minsk people are in a constant journey? I like that idea: even if they never leave the city, they

are bound to keep going and eventually come to some new places.

After arriving, we can catch a bus. Or maybe a trolleybus or a tram? Suit yourself, because you will never have to worry about it in Belarus. If, when something is work-ing well, people say that “it works like a clock”, in Minsk the transport is like an atomic super-pre-cise Greenwich-adjusted clock. On a transport

stop, you can know ex-actly to a minute when the next service comes, and even look it up in the internet from your home! Even for me, who prefers to surf any city on feet, looking at these green buses with bright route displays, makes me feel secure and like Minsk more.

After the transport comes the money. That’s the funny part for tour-ists, because in Belarus

Where? Minsk!

February 9, 2011 13

you don’t have to work all your life to become a millionaire. Thanks to the fact that there are no coins here, you deal with thick packet of bills even if you buy just a mineral water. Belarusian peo-ple have their own ritual, which I call the ‘sorting job’: in transport or near a shop you can always find a guy taking a re-ally big pile of random bills out of his pockets and spending about five minutes to look through

them and get it in order. The money themselves are interesting too – from it’s interesting history of changes down to the fact that after an orthography reform, all the 50-roubles bills in the country now contain a spelling mis-take on them.

What tourists usually are looking for, are sights. Okay. Just as you walk out of the railway station, you are facing the “gates into Minsk” – the two “Big

Ben”-kind of towers which invite you into the capi-tal. Then you’ll probably go left and set yourself for a long journey down the Independence Avenue, which comes throughout all the city. By walking it you will unexpectedly find that Minsk is a city with a linear center, not a sin-gle one – there are at least four big squares upon the prospect, and each one can play that role. Yet an-other uniqueness. After getting the idea of the cul-

ture on this avenue, you only have to get out of it to the side to hit another side of the culture – the Traetskae Pradmestsye accompanied by the very lazy river Svislach.

Finally, after imagining what you see, think about what you hear in Minsk. Music plays, engines roar, clocks strike their hours – looks like an ordi-nary capital at first sight. But if you search for it, you will find a language, new for yourself, and find it a beautiful and elegant one. It’s a rare luck actu-ally, and every time I get to hear people speaking Belarusian, something inside me celebrates. But there is a little advice: if you want to get a good several hours of non-stop celebration, buy a tick-et to the Yanka Kupala Theater and you will irre-versibly fall in love with it for the rest of your life.

In the end, if you’ll al-low, a little scientific model of Minsk and Be-larus on the whole. I read in some interview a very clever thing – it said that Minsk has two faces. I had some feeling like that be-fore, but never imagined that it works so true eve-rywhere. It challenges the perception of everything around you and urges to come to Minsk to search for transcendent. A song by Belarusian rockers N.R.M. called “Miensk i Minsk” says it all, and be-came my favorite one. In architecture, in symbols, in double names of the streets, in bilinguism, in two orthographies of Be-larusian language, final-ly, in the mood of people, you will find this dualism. Then it’s your choice – to get confused or to get ex-cited.

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14 February 9, 2011

MUNdoThe world of MUNs in comparison

When I was asked to compare all the MUNs I participated in, I realized that it will be extremely difficult. That’s like comparing the cultures of the countries that are very similar to each other. But I’ll try to do my best.

Let’s begin with registration and opening ceremonies. Germa-ny (Berlin MUN), The Netherlands (Haarlem and Leiden MUNs) and our Belarus (BelaMUN 2010) did their best in preparing this. Eve-

rything possible was done for the delegates to feel comfortable dur-ing the long hours of introductory speeches and words. Comfort-able chairs, lunch breaks and of course some kind of entertain-ment. Though during these con-ferences we are pretending to be grown-ups we still need some kind of jokes or just something funny or interesting for our ears, mouths and eyes. Only in Haarlem, the Netherlands, the opening cere-mony was a bit odd in an old but beautiful church where it was ex-tremely cold and uncomfortable. All we were thinking about there was tea and warm clothes. But all in all, well done!

What I enjoyed in BerMUN, Le-MUN and HMUN is that all the committees were situated in one building and there was always a person whom I could ask where to go or what to do. Friendly staff was everywhere. They appeared from nowhere with a shining smile and a kind word to everything. Like magicians or so. Especially funny were those girls on LeMUN with those huge desks with words “we know where you should go”. Well, I understand that it’s rather difficult in such a big university as MSLU in Belarus but still we always can find a way for our del-egates, can’t we?

I love talking about Chairper-

● Maria Ugolnik

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February 9, 2011 15

sons in all the conferences. I en-joyed working with each of them. They are really friendly, they know everything that you don’t know about the procedures or the conference itself. They are sweet though at first it seems that they are a bit snobbish. Chairpersons are a real helping hand during the conference. They make the com-mittee a big loving family. That’s what I love about them. And it was great on BelaMUN when at the first day our Chairs gave us sweets to make us more acquaint-ed with each other. Everybody likes sweets.

I also should say about the par-ticipants. The level of knowledge

about the agenda, the fluency of English - everything shows that these people are serious about our world and grown-ups don’t need to worry about the new genera-tion. Some of the participants had an enormously huge experience in MUNs. I just can’t imagine how the girl could participate in 54(!) conferences and she is 17 years old! Wow. Still the number of con-ferences is not the main point here. The fresh view of the issues is more important and on every conference almost everybody has got lots of ideas worth debating.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t ac-quainted to the Approval panel in BerMUN or HMUN so I can’t com-

pare. But I can say that Approval Panel in Leiden was something like a pain in the part of our body we all know ;). Running up and down again and again checking if everything is alright because the resolution is too long on the Ap-proval Panel… That was too em-barrassing. But the moment when they said that they had forgotten about it made me furious. Still, we all need to stand in their shoes to understand how difficult it is to check about 50 resolutions as fast and properly as possible. So I just tried to stay calm. I think that on all these conferences the process of approving is really nervous and frustrating and all we can do is stay friendly and relaxed.

The debating time is the most serious part of the conference and it is really important how it is organized. The debating time should be right for each resolu-tion; each delegate should have the right to speak and must speak if the delegate was sleeping during all the conference. Here I should say that without a projector and a computer it is rather difficult to concentrate on the subject of resolution itself or the main point of the amendment. Or just some-thing that will help to understand more clearly what the delegate wants to say. Debating during all the conferences was really fruitful and sometimes really funny when just to cheer up the house on the HMUN the delegates send an amendment with point: “Legalize prostitution and drugs as to lower the level of violence against wom-en”. That really woke us up and the debates became alive again.

And just to finish my short anal-ysis of the four conferences that took place in different corners of Europe I should say that organiz-ing the conference is only a small part of it. The most important thing is that, the delegates try to make this world better in the end. But still we should say thanks to those people who made it not only possible but in a most pleasant way for us. I hope BelaMUN 2011 won’t leave us disappointed and we will remember only the best moments of it. Especially cookie breaks!

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16 February 9, 2011

It has become a good tradition to sing the BELAMUN anthem at the Closing Ceremony. Realizing the poor state of your brain and memory after the intensive lobbying and hot debate we put the lyrics for you.

Belamun TribuneOfficial Newspaper of the Belarusian Model United Nations. Minsk, 2011Press Team: Hanna Baradzina (editor-in-chief), Yury Kastsen (design), Maryna Kudzinava (photo), , Ilya Shashkov, Maria Ugolnik (cartoons), Vitalina Lebedeva, Aliaksey Pirozhkin, Christina Zheshko, Valeriya Grabinskaya, Olga Kovalskaya, Anton Leonik.Contact: simka.bspu@gmail.com; +37529-779-28-83.Web-site: http://sites.google.com/site/belamun2011info/home

BELAMUN ANTHEM

BELAMUN FOREVER!

The conference ends now,But it’s not farewell!Of course it will come backNext year, we can tell!We guess there is no one to blame,We’ll meet next year (meet next year)And now we can sing again and again

BELAMUN FOREVER!

You know, we’re so different, But our dreams are the sameWe’ve made here real good friendsLet’s light a great flameBELAMUN has united us allWe won’t forget! (won’t forget!)I’m sure we’ll all miss it so!

BELAMUN FOREVER!

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Farewell BELAMUN