Trip to World MUN

I arrived in Taipei about 9:00 am on Monday. Unfortunately, the directions were a little off and I ended up wandering around the Taipei 101 neighborhood for a while. Eventually, I found my way. I was a bit late, but Ami Nash, the Secretary-General of the World MUN Conference helped me find my way inside the conference center. She was even nice to give me a pass that let everyone know I was a "VIP." This helped later on.

    I was able to watch a large chunk of the WTO Committee on Trade and Climate Change. I arrived right after roll was taken so I didn't miss too much substantiative debate. When I arrived, the delegates were in the middle of their Opening Remarks. Next came a round of Moderated Caucus on the topic of "Specific ways in which climate change effects trade." The delegates threw out a lot of examples, but little in the way of specific plans. After this came a round of Unmoderated Caucus (what we have been referring to as "Informal Caucus"). During the Unmoderated Caucus, I was allowed to walk around, take pictures, record some short clips for the MUN students, and listen. By this time I had a good idea of who the leading delegates were, so I kind of followed them around and listened. It gave me a good idea of where the committee would head later on. Another Moderated Caucus followed. This one was on the topic of "How to provide technology transfer (technology that would allow developing countries to not leave such a big carbon footprint as they develop) from industrialized countries to developing ones." After this caucus, the committee recessed and went for lunch.

During lunch, I went to the "Special Projects Room." This room contained projects developed by university students to help with development, reduction of pollution, water rights issues, etc. There were delegations from Taiwan, India, The United States and The U.K. One dealt with raising water levels in Bangalore, India. One dealt with improving access to medical care for women in Uganda. Another was about HIV/Sex Education in Trinidad and Tobago. The Taiwanese delegation had a plan for improving the MRT in Kaohsiung .At the end of it, we all voted for our favourite. I voted for the raising of water levels in Bangalore. Also during lunch, I wandered around and took a look at what delegates were doing. I noticed that, even during recess, many were meeting with each other and discussing their issue. I listened in on a group of students planning a strategy for engaging Iran in a discussion on Nuclear Disarmament.

After lunch, we went back into the committee room. Roll call took about 30 minutes, which was all the time I had left, so I listened to it and met a journalist from CTA. He asked if he could interview, which I gladly did, and today we are cited in his article on the World MUN conference (See this attachment: ). Once they had reconvened, I took off.