THIMUN 2018 - Day 3

Monday, 29 January 2018

Today is the first day of the 50th Anniversary session of THIMUN The Hague. I, Ryan Chua, am part of the Sustainable Development Sub-Commission 2, representing the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

Sustainable development is, by definition “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs.”

Just like every other committee, we had four topics to choose from, and I chose “Promoting the development and dissemination of affordable technological solutions to achieve sustainability.” Sadly, there weren’t as many people focusing on this issue, so our group was very small compared to the others. On the very first day of every conference, all of the delegates try to congregate in an area among people working on the same topic. They will discuss things like issues in the main-submitter's resolution, and which clauses they can use from other delegates’ resolutions to merge with the main submitter's. This is called lobbying and merging. I really enjoyed today’s session since it was super efficient and we made the most out of the time we had.

At around 3 pm, we all left to either go to the theatre to watch the opening ceremony, or to another room to watch on a live stream, as I did. Victor was part of the opening ceremony as a flag-bearer. Unfortunately, I had a hard time seeing the screen; however the audio quality was decent, so I could enjoy the wonderful speeches made by the guest speakers.

Ms Fidalgo managed to catch a glimpse of Victor Skjoldby, our ambassador, carrying a flag in the opening ceremony!

A lot of the the speeches had a specific theme and mentioned a lot of the same points such as education, human rights, civil society, etc. This all correlates to the theme of the conference, which is “building civil society through education.”

King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands opens the 50th annual session of The Hague International Model United Nations conference.

Overall, today was a great first day. I got to meet a lot of people, had a very efficient lobbying and merging session, and I got to watch many well known guest speakers go up on stage to deliver a speech. This is my first conference out of Asia, and I have to say that this is very impressive and I am looking forward to debate on Tuesday.

Stay tuned for more updates soon!

- Ryan Chua

THIMUN 50th Anniversary Conference, 2018!! - Days 1 & 2

This year's trip to The Hague is particularly special, because it is the 50th anniversary of this amazing conference. Our very own MYMUN is a THIMUN-affiliate, and we are very pleased to be attending, as this is the 17th consecutive session Mont' Kiara International School has sent a delegation to this highly-esteemed international conference. M'KIS' MUN program has always enjoyed a strong reputation at this and the THIMUN-Singapore conferences, and our students are regularly selected for important student officer positions.

On Friday, our small group of two student officers (Stephanie Kannimmel & Jane Chea), and two delegates (Victor Skjoldby & Ryan Chua) met MUN Director, Ms Claudia Fidalgo, and Advisor, Ms Andi Januskiewicz, at the M'KIS breezeway at 8pm for a slow, rainy drive to the Kuala Lumpur International Airport. We breezed through security, grabbed some snacks, and boarded our flight for take-off close to midnight. Everyone enjoyed some movies and got lots of sleep on the flight, allowing us to arrive in Amsterdam early Saturday morning feeling reasonably refreshed.

We were met by THIMUN Student Representatives, and they ushered us to our bus, where we enjoyed seeing some of the countryside at dawn on our way to our hotel in The Hague. Once in our hotel, we freshened up and prepared to take the train back to Amsterdam to spend a day seeing some sights. We enjoyed eating some Dutch fries with an assortment of sauces - a popular treat - and walked around the squares and canals, seeing the unique architecture of tall, narrow buildings and beautiful stone cathedrals that mark the area. Finally, chilly and tired, we all returned to the hotel to get some sleep.

On Sunday morning, Jane and Stephanie had to be up early and spent the day at the World Forum Conference Center (WFCC) attending training meetings in order to prepare to co-lead their respective committees as Deputy-Presidents. While they were busy, Victor and Ryan went out with Ms Fidalgo and Ms J to visit the WFCC to find out where their committees would be located, and then went to the beach. It was a cold, cloudy, windy day at the beach, but it was very beautiful, and there was a great indoor walk from the beach out toward the ocean with gorgeous views. In the evening, the team met up again in the hotel lobby and took the tram into the downtown area of The Hague for dinner at an Argentinian steakhouse. Finally, everyone returned to the hotel to prepare for the first official day of the conference.

This morning (Monday), Stephanie and Jane headed out early to prepare with their fellow officers, and were soon followed by Victor and Ryan as they headed to their committees, and Ms Fidalgo and Ms J, who headed off to the Director's Meeting. Everyone will be busy for the day until 3pm, when we will attend the Opening Ceremonies, which is always a very exciting event. This year, King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, who once attended THIMUN himself as a delegate, will be opening the conference!

Stay tuned for more later!
Ms J