Issue 3/2012 • Sunday, June 2nd 2012 • www.facebook.com/TheBaticHerald • www.twitter.com/BALMUN
THISISBALMUN’S CONF MANAGER DANCING! EXCLUSIVE
DOUBLE INTERVIEW
WE SHOW YOU OUR CATERING HEROES
SECURITY COUNCIL
The Choice of Topics By Franziska van Heiden The trust in the individual Delegate may fade vastly, taking into consideration that the Delegation of Portugal as a matter of fact asks Google if “[it is] important for the Arab countries to be involved in green politics” after the Columbian Delegate suggested “an investment in renewable energy to ensure the post-revolutioned Arab countries a key role in future energy politics”. Since Google did not seem to have anything against the proposal, the clause passes, even though the Delegation of India is clearly against an investment into the unstable countries, since a new dictatorship may still arise and any money given to either Egypt, Tunisia, Libya or Syria may have supported those in the end. Even though the will of the Chinese Delegation to support those countries was called into question in the last edition, now a positive reference to its work in the Securtiy Council will not be withheld. For example the clause proposing a free secondary education for the habitants of the named countries up to the age of 20. The Delegate of Azerbaijan wants to encourage the important role of journalism for the transparency of the government in a democratic state – very unexpected like the Delegation of the United States of America does not fail to mention, which leaves Azerbaijan affronted. And last but not least, to pay the Delegation of the USA some credit; it got everybody in the Security Council to take actively part in the discussion on its proposed clause: “Urges More Magically Developed Countries (MMDCs) to help the post-revolutionised Arab countries
in establishing an independent ministry of magic and limiting the use of flying carpets to transportation of wares to limit magic particle pollution.” Thank you to prove for The Baltic Herald that every Delegate has something to say – if it is on the right topic.
POLITICAL COMMITTEE
Economic issues By Gawa Seldon The committee moves into voting procedure and one of the proposed amendments fail. The delegate of China submits a new amendment. It’s about adding a new operative clause. It is as stated, “Sanctions be deemed on countries whose economies have been through a crisis”. He says, “Countries such as Greece and Ireland that have been through an economic crisis should be more closely monitored. The Committee then goes into voting procedure and with a total of 11/29 votes; the amendment passes and is a part of the resolution. The Delegate of China yet again submits another amendment to add a new clause where the government is sanctioned, monitored and is in charge of the central bank. The Delegate opens the floor to points of information and several suggestions are given and in response, the delegate kindly welcomes changes to be made to his amendments. The Committee then goes into voting procedure and with a total of 10/29 votes; the amendment passes. A few more amendments are proposed but unfortunately, none pass. After much discussion, the delegate of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland proposes a motion
to move onto voting procedure for the whole resolution The motion passes. They move on to voting procedure and have 14 in favor and 15 against. The resolution submitted by South Africa and China fails. The delegates of Germany and the United Kingdom propose a resolution. The delegate of the United Kingdom then goes on to present the resolution. After a short break the Delegates of North Korea, Palestine arrived late and were given the punishment of singing a song in front of the whole committee to which the Delegate of Sweden offered provide musical background. In a relaxed environment, the Delegates of North Korea and Palestine sang “Wonderwall” by Oasis while the Delegate of Sweden played the guitar. At the end of it all, and with much resentment from the Delegation of Iran, the resolution proposed by the Delegates of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Germany, passed with a total of 16 to 12 votes.
SPECIAL CONFERENCE
Fishing like Facebook By Lisa Ritter, Alina Drexler The this years topic of the Special Conference was ‘Promoting social inclusion in the Baltic Sea region, especially in education matters/ setting common rules for fishing quota in the Baltic Sea to insure ecological balance in the Baltic region’. At this morning the second part of the topic was the main theme and the delegates of the states Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Norway debated about the resolution for fishing quotas. The presidents of the Special Conference are Laura Lipton
and Jasper Lanz, the latter had to step in for the delegates of Norway, who weren’t present. First of all the presidents explained the rules of a debate to the delegates, who were mainly for the first time at the Balmun Conference. After that, the presidents wanted to wait for the resolution, which ,amusingly, was already on the desks. While the delegates got time to write their opening speeches, the presidents showed a short Balmun video about the conferences on Friday. Following to the video the delegate of Latvia read the resolution to the other delegates, who had to answer with an opening speech. The opening speeches were very short and they all talked about the great honour to be here and the importance of working together in a Baltic alliance to regulate the fishing quota. Among other amendments the delegates resolved, that the Special Conference urges the members of the Baltic sea alliance to found ‘Windparks’ in order to generate more green energy and ensure that fish colonies have ‘safe-zones’ to reproduce. This amendment passed with the majority of 5 to 3. Moreover they decided to make the fisherman to sign a contract to accept the suggestions provided by the scientists, otherwise they will lose their license. If they don’t follow this contract they will be punished. This passed with the absolutely majority. These and other additions to the resolution were part of the Special Conference on Saturday.
CRISIS! TEXT BY JOHANNA-KATHARINA MÖLLER
‘Ladies and Gentleman, may I have your attention, please?’ – with these words the Secretary General, Oliver Hartwich, made all delegates listen. He announced ‘we just received terrifying pictures from the Korean peninsula’. Everyone was asked to go directly to the General Assembly. No sooner said than done. Within a couple of minutes everyone was in the Aula; each delegate seemed to be very excited. After a
few words of the President of the General Assembly they watched movie which showed the terrible extents: North Korea had attacked South Korea with the help of nuclear weapons. Rifles, soldiers, shots – the movie seemed to be very realistic and alarming although everyone knew this was ‘only’ an arranged crisis made by the Organisation Team. The Deputy Secretary General, Adriana Evers, surrendered this crisis to the Secrurity Council. We wonder which solutions it will find!
INTERVIEW BY JENIA BARNERT AND JOHANNA-KATHARINA MÖLLER
It is the 5th BALMUN conference this year. How do you feel? I am very excited. It is our first anniversary and I am curious wheter all goes as we planned it.
But I am looking forward to this year´s conference. Has anything changed since your first BALMUN? The team is getting younger and bigger. And I am acquainted with it.
Once you have said that you are not that good at English. Has it changed over the years? At all events! BALMUN helped me very much to get better and better. At the conference you learn really well. How many participants the ISG expect this year? I think over 250. How long did the preparations take and were there any troubles? The preparations took the whole school year and we had troubles with choosing the topics for the conference. It was difficult because they should not be outdated and boring but current. There left two conferences for you until you graduate from school. What are your future prospects and will you continue to participate in BALMUN? I am planing to do something international where I can use English. And I will try to continue to accompany BALMUN. What do you expect from the conference 2012, especially from your team? Of course I expect a good work from all team members. They should work concentrated, together and not against each other. But above all, they should have fun!
INTERVIEW: CLAUS LUCAS LETSCH
“ABOVEALL
HAVE FUN”
INTERVIEW: FRANZISKAWEIGT
“BALMUN is the right place
for enlarging
GLOBAL
UNDERSTANDING”
INTERVIEW BY JENIA BARNERT AND JOHANNA-KATHARINA MÖLLER
Security Council and the Human Rights Committee.
How do you feel about the 5th BALMUN conference this year? In fact, I did not participated from the start, so it is not really my 5th conference. But I think for those who did, it is something special to celebrate BALMUN´s first anniversary! For me it is foremost important that this year´s conference will be the last one for me as a fully member. That makes me feel a bit longing.
Was it difficult to create a motto for the conference? We have had some disagreements like in previous years but I do not think that it was too difficult.
Is there a topic in this year´s BALMUN which intrests you especially? Yes. I really would like to visit the
If you look back, are there any moments or situations which you will surely remember for a long time? Yes of course! I will remember our Get Together in 2011 because it was really relaxed and funny. Especially our flash mob dance! Why, do you think, so many young people take part at MUN´s
and what attracts them to us, to Rostock? I think that taking part at MUN´s is a good chance for people to have a little period abroad. Basically the people have fun and learn something. Somebody might say that MUN´s are pointless and just games. But that is not true. MUN is a imitation of the UNO but not a game. Primarily the students think and discuss about current global problems and find their own solutions for them. People say that we can overcome these problems when we stay together in a closed community. For that reason everybody have to be aware of this. BALMUN is the right place for enlarging global openness and global understanding.
CATERING HEROES TEXT BY ALINA DREXLER AND LISA RITTER
300 pieces cake a day. Everlasting grocery lists. Working hours from 08.00 am until 10.00 pm. That is the daily routine of the catering team of Balmun 2012. They are as important as the delegates because without them we wouldn’t have the popular cookie breaks, a warm lunch or we wouldn’t have every time cool water to hand. Laura Rebecca Klettke and Marie-Luisa Lißon take care for our daily well-being by organising the procedures in the kitchen. Diligent auxiliary is the Staff team, which is an important crutch for the catering team. ‘We don’t feel like slaves, but we’re just having much fun’, said one of them with a wink. Although they have a hard job and so much to do, they experience a lot of funny things. We heard from our insider sources, that they witnessed some amusingly breakdowns during their work: Thursday they had to wait for hours just because of – ham. They say, that the ones, who had to buy it, needed so much time, but nobody knows what really happened. It stays a mystery. While they wanted to boil water for coffee, the water boiler ‘exploded’ and all the hot water sprayed around. Moreover a big cactus tumbled so that one of the prickles stuck into the hand of a girl. The wound fortunately was not serious. But all in all everything went pretty well. The catering team got a good feedback from the delegates for the food and all the organization. For some delegates with gluten- or lactose allergy the team specially baked a cake. And so the catering team is one of the heroes of Balmun 2012 and all this has been done by 12 people. Congratulations and a big thank you!
EVERYBODYJUST HAVEAGOODTIME
BALMUN DANCE AT HELGA’S STADTPALAST
TEXT BY FRIEDERIKE KLEIST
June 2nd, 8 PM: Time for Balmun Dance! We’re so excited to hit the dancefloor. So LET’S GET IT STARTED (Black Eyed Peas). The location holds a lot of promise: Helga’s Stadtpalast is a truly majestic place, but cosily-inviting never the less. And we are the ones to make it shine like new. WE GON’ LIGHT IT UP LIKE IT’S DYNAMITE (Taio Cruz). But showing his dancing qualities is not enough for a certain delegate. That’s because he has a strange voice in his head, sounding like a drunk English pub patron. It has a tip for his young mate: I TELL YOU WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO: YOU HAVE TO BE TRUE TO YOURSELF! AND DO EVERYTHING THAT MATTERS IN THE WORLD...AND THAT IS DRINKING, DANCING AND TO FIND A GIRL (AKA AKA). Easier said than done. Okay, the delegate’s necessity to dance has almost been fulfilled within the last minutes. But making somebody fall for him tonight? Without getting rejected? That seems to be a harder job. So he decides to rather fullfill the alcohol part of the task at first.
CHEERS (Rihanna), pal! Let’s take a look at the remaining people in the interval. What a crazy crowd! You see American students trying to dance Salsa with those from the Netherlands. A Polish girl helps another from Germany to do her hair. Everybody’s just having a great time, since this is what Balmun Dance is all about: meeting new folks, making friendships – and to shake a leg, because we LIKE TO MOVE IT, MOVE IT, YOU LIKE TO... MOVE IT (Madagascar). While everyone’s partying, our delegate is believing to see juicy spoils: A long-haired girl with beautiful blue eyes takes a chair close beside him and his 4th beer. His risen blood alcohol level makes him sing ‘I’m sexy and I know it (LMFAO)’ innerly, which makes him grow in confidence. What happens next could perfectly possible also be a scene of ‘How i met your mother’: As if he was Barney, the adressed delegate raises an eyebrow, puts his arm around the beauty’s shoulder... and suddenly starts yelping ‘HEY, I JUST MET YOU...AND THIS -blurp!- IS CRAZY. BUT HERE’S MY NUMBER... SO: CALL ME MAYBE (Carly Rae Jepsen). Anyhow, this does not work
out...and neither is there anybody wanting to play ‘Have you met this delegate?’ with him...where are all these freaky sitcom fans? The DJ’s playing ‘ALLEIN ALLEIN’ (Polarkreis 18), which holds a mirror up to the Balmun delegate’s innerworld. You want to know about the upshot? INTERNATIONAL LOVE (Usher feat. Pitbull). A flirt with a girl from the US makes him feel like he was having the ‘TIME OF his LIFE’ (Dirty Dancing), and so feels she. The next morning (he’s GOT A HANGOVER (Taio Cruz)), he will meet her in the GA. And out of all reason, he will be astonished... hadn’t that been someone like Jessica Simpson whom he had kissed the day before? This girl rather looks like Courtney Love...luckily, she will be of a similar opinion looking at him. Following, the two of them will just just say ‘I WILL SURVIVE’ (Gloria Gaynor) to themselves and take the whole thing as a joke. A simple Stadtpalast affair... ...you don’t believe in this story? Right, it’s totally fabricated. But the nice thing about it is that everybody can set someone as the mysterious delegate. Quicken your fantasy! PURE IMAGINATION (Kenny Loggins)!