Tuesday at THIMUN

Today was the second day of the conference in The Hague. At 7 AM Mrs. Vardi woke us up, we quickly took our showers and dressed for breakfast.  Afterward we walked over to the World Forum Convention Center and separated into our committees.

Today was the first real day.  After lobbying yesterday, we proceeded to opening speeches which lasted from 9am-1pm. The nations and non-governmental Organizations were allowed only one minute for their opening speeches, which ranged from the most serious of speeches to the most humorous including jokes. After the opening speeches from all of the countries, we headed downstairs to lunch. We each got a brown bag consisting of cheese sandwiches and for sides we got apples, yogurt, muffins and either soda or water to drink.

After lunch we headed back up to our conference rooms and the debates started. The first debate ran from 2pm to 4pm, and in my committee the first resolution was about ways to save the environment through carbon capturing. This resolution eventually did not pass after several hours of debating and amendments. We started our debates on the second resolution till 5pm, when we adjourned the meeting and were told by the chair that debating would resume tomorrow.

After the conferences we head back to the hotel four blocks away and quickly changed and walked over to this little Italian restaurant on Frederik Hendriklaan road. Here our foods ranged from pizza to pasta. At dinner we bumped into a couple of delegations, which we had made friends with while at this conference.

We headed back to the convention center for the evening’s entertainment:  a Dutch movie entitled, Rabat, viewed in the World Forum Theater.  The story followed three best friends traveling from the Netherlands to Morocco on a road trip.   The movie depicted how important friendships are and about how important and complex ethnic identities are.   The three friends were sons of Moroccan and Tunisian immigrants who had experienced all the trials and tribulations of newcomers to a country.  After the movie its producer, Julius Ponten, and the lead actor, Nasrdin Dchar, answered questions about the film. Mr. Dchar had one the Dutch equivalent of “Best Actor” for his role in the film.  Questions ranged from simple plot questions to more personal ones, such as how the movie influenced the actor’s and producer’s lives.

We had a full day today as the movie showing and questions ended at 10pm.  We headed back to our hotel to get a good night sleep for the big day we have tomorrow:  conference in the morning and a trip to Amsterdam in the afternoon and evening.  

Keon Manesh