BLISSMUN September 2013
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The exigency for a new approach
G E N E R A L A S S E M B LY
Journalist : Priya Kharbanda Photographer: Prachi Gaba
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he General Assembly of BlissMUN’13 convened again at Sri Venkateswara College to discuss the pressing problems and the requirements of the Antarctic. This session saw the delegates discussing the inadequacy of the currently prevailing jurisdiction in the continent. The several rules set down by the United Nations in the 1900s were sufficient for the then conditions of Antarctica and the rest of the world. But the world has advanced, and so has the situation in Antarctica. Those policies are trending towards incompetent in the 21st century. A change needs to be brought about, suitable for the current state of affairs. Several problems that are not being addressed properly were brought 2/ BLISSMUN September 2013
up, including the harm to the ecosystem, climate change, and appropriate jurisdiction of criminals. Lebanon proposed the formation of new customary laws, to look into these problems and devise efficient and effective solutions for them. And hence, began a spectrum of further commendations to the new proposed legislature. Supported by Australia, the delegate of Ukraine laid emphasis on the soil being contaminated by the constant interference of the rest of the world. He also expressed concern over the repercussions on the environment and the various species, to which the Antarctic is home. He ardently accentuated that tourism be stopped, since the amount of tourism has significantly increased, over the yearsr, to more than 600 per week. The
delegate was of the view that strict action be taken against loose jurisdiction in Antarctica. While Bulgaria believed that the countries claiming territorial rights over the Antarctic should be a part of the central body, the other countries forming the subsidiary ones, so they could still be participants in the major processes; the delegate of Portugal inserted that countries like US and Chile were given far too much importance, and that the small Asian countries should be given a chance. Laughter erupted in the committee when the delegate of South Africa compared the UK delegate with ‘a thief teaching the bank how to stop the robbery, after committing it, himself.�
THE ANTARCTIC TREATY Thoughts In Tanka (Japanese style syllabic pattern) by Aarohi Narain
World community: Resource protection Demilitarization This frosty fortress An ecosystem unique Save it! (For future plunder) Whales: These waters of mine Bitter bastion I call home How dare, ye humans Loot this aquatic beauty As if ye have fins? Japan: We are not in breach Of international law Whales we indeed kill For a science beyond you, fools We won’t stop no matter what. Australia (about Japan): Samurai of war Legality can’t be slain If you seize the seas Claiming them as if your own Prepare for the boomerang. UK: All the land is mine Mine mine mine mine mine- back off All the land is mine Mine mine mine mine mine mine mine Mine mine mine mine mine mine mine. South Africa: You vile Englishmen Who died and made you king of Anything at all? Leave your expansionism This isn’t the middle ages.
Entreaty of the Unresearched Delegate A sonnet in terza rima. Ye compatriots, walking past me empty-handed An infinite vessel not, is the foolish young mind That sans research files in this council we landed By our cleverer brothers so pitiably maligned As points of information bring horrors anew Better off passing chits, we jointly opined When teatime came, filled were we with rue Spirits sunk lower than a boat of lead in the sea To our debating days, we bid tragic adieu O h , ambassadorial affliction, pray set me free M e r c i f u l Executive Board, we accept our fall Unlearned are we in polityyou must agree
Hark! I prithee, our countries do not call Let us be silent spectators in this committee hall. -Aarohi Narain
DELEGATE TITLES UK- Mr. Blind, leading The Blind. In the gallery of gaffer that is the General Assembly, the delegate of the UK rose as a definite leader. Iraq- Rajat Rai Handa, Version 2.0 The IP thought this delegate bore a stunning resemblance to the famous (notorious?) Rajat Rai-only a bit taller and wellbuilt-but just as vocal. Australia- Disturbance Down Under With his constant shifts from one end of the committee to another, the IP couldn’t help wondering if there was some ‘Disturbance Down Under”. Argentina- Sir Accuse-A-Lot Constantly launching allegations left, right and centre, the delegate of Argentina earned the title of Sir Accuse-A-Lot. BLISSMUN September 2013
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The Antarctic:
The Status Quo A No-Go A descriptive timeline
Is the Antarctic Treaty, once lauded as an embodiment of the near mythical era of Cold War cooperation, in the process of losing its sheen as a supposed “model” agreement of the world community?
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anuary 28, 1820: Approaching the Antarctic coast, explorer-commander s Faddei Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev sight colossal glaciers floating against a seemingly endless milieu of pristine snowthe ultimate unknown, the final jigsaw piece of the natural universe, a continuous landscape of white on white, lies nascently discovered- Antarctica.
to safeguard the frozen landmass as a reserve where peace and science coalesce; demilitarization, friendly relations and environmental protection are the watchwords of the day.
1982: Tensions soar between UK and Argentina over territorial disputesthe Falkland War occurs as the largest and most severe armed conflict over the sovereignty of the islands, symbolic of November 23, 1935: an increasing sentiment American polar explorer of territorialism. Lincoln Ellsworth undertakes a daring May 1985: British Antarctic trans-Antarctic flight from Survey researchers publish Dundee Island to the Ross a paper on the discovery Ice Shelf; skimming the of the monumental ozone atmospheric expanses on hole in the Antarctic. The pewter wings, he finds scientific community the eponymous range of is flummoxed; the majestic silvery peaks: the contemporary epoch Ellsworth Mountains. marked by exploitation of resources, environmental December 1, 1959: depletion and illegal Nations of Argentina, fishing in the once Australia, Belgium, Chile, untouched Antarctic zone France, Japan, New has commenced. Zealand, Norway, Russia, South Africa, the UK and July-August, 2007: the US convene to sign Russian activity in the the historic Antarctic region is on the increase. Treaty, a commitment Two mini-subs make a 4/ BLISSMUN September 2013
symbolic eight-hour dive beneath the North Pole to bolster the country’s claim to a large swathe of seabed believed to be rich in oil and gas; the Russian flag is planted firmly. Present: A war on the region may just be unavoidable. As technologies are being developed to extract fresh water from Antarctic glaciers and oil prices rise exponentially, the Antarctic shelf is bound to be regarded as an economically viable solution to the earth’s growing deficiencies. Another cause for concern is that the conservation commission requires a unanimous vote for any sort of environmental action; thus, any single party can hold it hostage. The need of the hour is deliberation on and restructuring of the Antarctic Treaty and a true evaluation of its core premise and whether it is being held up- protection.
G E N E R A L A S S E M B LY
Journalist : Aarohi Narain
BREAKING NEWS :
The revelation of a ‘secret’ document by the UNECOSOC leaves the President of America red faced and shocks the entire world!
E C O S O C
Journalist : Ishana Singh Photographer: Tanmay J.
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he UNECOSOC leaked a ‘secret’ document revealing USA and Israel’s plans to bomb Syria and Egypt and this is just the beginning. The UNECOSOC claims that it received this document from USA and Egypt themselves, who expected the ECOSOC to keep this under wraps and not reveal it to the other members. The Chairperson of the council decided to hold a press conference immediately in order to confront the two perpetrators of violence to put an end to their devious plan of action and affirm the council’s responsibility as peacekeepers of the world. The document not only included information about the bombings but spelled out a well devised plan to blame the attacks on a Saudi Arabian ‘terrorist’, thereby justifying USA’s military
intervention in Saudi Arabia. The fact that this operation was actually a hidden agenda to exploit the Middle East for oil was made pretty obvious. After a chaotic discussion, The Press was called in to interview the delegates with regard to the extraordinary and dubious circumstances perpetuated by the revealing of the document. The first obvious question to USA and Israel was why did they assume that the UNECOSOC would keep mum and safeguard their ‘secret’ after possessing a document indicating a threat to world peace? The delegate of USA responded with the usual ‘cocky’ and hubristic swagger in his voice claiming that the UN had violated article 100 and exposed it to the public without applying any logic. He asserted, to
think of the USA as having a hand in this is absolutely trivial. And then he went on to say that the whole thing was a ‘conspiracy’ by USSR against USA and its allies. On being questioned about why USA and Israel kept quiet and waited for the Press Conference to begin before they defended themselves, they pointed out that they were not allowed to, whereas the Chairperson gave them a number of chances to appeal. The delegate of USSR was asked to sum up the conference and he chose to blame the USA for its preposterous actions. The question that remains to be answered is whether this was a publicity stunt by the USA to appear as ‘victims’ or did USSR actually play an invisible hand in all the drama?
An Act of Sexual Offence
E C O S O C
Journalist : Gargi Choudhry Photographer: Prachi Gaba
The session started from 14th February 1974 and the debate was on 1967 Act of Sexual Offence (decriminalization) that led to intense discussion in the House of Commons. The homosexuality contact should be between only men and not women and had three main conditions: should only be in private and not public, it should be between consenting adults and the age should be 21 years. The trigger for the protests was the judgement by the judiciary moving towards strict implementation of the act. The debate hinged around the demands for the repeal of 1967 act by the conservative groups. The aim was to disrupt the “Big Capital” at work enforcing majority opinions of ethics and morality. “Big Capital” refers to the big firms with money hijacking government and its morals. The delegate of USSR claimed that it is regrettable and urged the government of United Kingdom to take strict actions and isolate both the factions and initiate a negotiation. The delegate of United Kingdom claimed that “UK was always a heterogeneous committee with LGBT right, equal right has been given to every individual, and no citizen is denied any work. We need oil and international support and economic stability should 6/ BLISSMUN September 2013
be restored, and capital should not hinder.” The delegate of Peru said that homosexuality is a matter of choice, if citizens are not happy, it will at the end result in the decrease of the revenue. The delegate of Syria opined that this homosexuality is natural and suggested that it should not only pertain to men but also to women. The delegate of Uganda requested all nations to suggest how to call off the protest. The delegate of Iran accused the delegate of United States of America of funding the LGBT protest in the United Kingdom. The delegate of United States pretended to be allies to the United Kingdom but his intention suggested something else.
Quote of the Day Syrian Delegate to EB: “Sir, Point of Privilege” EB: “Yes” Syrian Delegate: “Sir could I please request you to tell the other delegates to stop sending me chits again and again about the liberal policies of my country, I am in mental agony now and my hands are in pain!”
Speculating the Roots of
Capital Punishment
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Journalist : Prachi Bhardawaj Photographer: Saahil C.
The Human rights council, taking forth the debate over death penalty focused more on solutions and alternatives today. Plight of a juvenile, the first motion raised in the committee invited bulks of intellectual opinions. The primary purpose of the juvenile justice system is to hold juvenile offenders accountable for delinquent acts while providing treatment, rehabilitative services and programs designed to prevent future involvement in lawviolating behavior. Also, since the passage of revised death penalty statutes in the last quarter of the 20th century, a shift in the juvenile justice system toward stronger policies has occurred.
The delegate of Saudi Arabia cited the Indian juvenile system, exposing the hypocrisy completely wherein the legal age to choose a sexual partner is sixteen but at the same age, when an individual commits crime like rape, he is termed a juvenile because he is sexually unconscious. Another motion that called for a dynamic debate was the identification of crimes for the codification of capital punishment. The federal cases in which a defendant is eligible for a capital sentence are generally those in which, first, the defendant is charged with a crime for which the death penalty is a legally authorized sanction, second, the defendant intended or had a high degree of culpability with respect to
the death of the victim, and three, one or more aggravating factors specified in a statutory list are present in the case. The statutory aggravating factors include, commission of a killing in the course of another serious offense, the defendant’s having a prior criminal history involving serious violent offenses, the commission of a killing after substantial planning and premeditation, killing multiple victims, or endangering the lives of other persons in committing the crime. But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.
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Op Ed: Just How Deterrent is the Death Sentence?
A report released in April 2012 by the US-basedNational Research Councilof the National Academies, based on a re-examination of more than three decades of research, concluded that studies claiming a deterrent effect on murder rates from the death penalty are fundamentally flawed. The report established: “The committee concludes that research to date on the effect of capital punishment on homicide is not informative about whether capital punishment decreases, increases,or has no effect on homicide rates.” What can be inferred from the above is simple: there isn’t enough credible proof yet for proponent countries to assert that the death penalty is the only way to effectively curb capital crime. One would
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argue that it is equally applicable vice versa, namely, that the efficacy of capital punishment cannot be ruled out just yet. Also, 87% of expert US criminologists, on the basis of their evaluation of empirical research, believe that abolition of the death penalty would not have any significant effect on murder rates. In addition, 75% of the respondents agree that “debates about the death penalty distract (the American) Congress and state legislatures from focusing on real solutions to crime problems.”(M. Radelet and T. Lacock, Do Executions Lower Homicide Rates?:The Views of Leading Criminologists(2009)). The idea implied is that if the death penalty is deterring anything at the moment, it is deterring policymakers from exploring other ways of penalty andameliorating the judicial response to heinous crimes. The purpose of penalty for crime in any modern State can be broken down simplistically into two mutually dependable parts: firstly, to reform the perpetrator, and secondly, to keep others from following suit. Capital punishment definitely cannot be pertained to the first count, and the second, as mentioned above, is yet to be found applicable. Moreover, if we get down to the brass tacks, statistical findings continue to suggest an inverse relationship between the number of executions and
the rate of crime in states that tolerate capital punishment. It is largely undeniable that the death sentence also comes at huge costs. The biggest, most irreversible cost is social, that is, people are killed and will continue being killed, sometimes even when blameless. The next is the financial cost, as every execution proves to be costlier than life imprisonment for a convict, and generally requires expenditure running into six to seven digits. The question that comes up is this: are we, when striving for a more humanistic, rational and civilised way of life, willing to put so much at risk, in more ways than one, for something that is yet to be ascertained as a deterrent force? Despite the raging debates, can states that are yet to abolish capital punishment for whatever reason, continue the execution of bodies and human rights at the same time,in the name of betterment of society? And what does it imply, when a farmer shoots another man in cold blood, only to testify later, knowing he faces the death row, that he did so as a way of suicide, for he “grew tired of living”? Or, when capitalpunishment ends up encouraging homicide by seeming to legitimize killing ofenemies, also tagged as the “brutalisation hypothesis”? These easily manipulated andoften antithetical implications of capital punishment are costing any legal structure much more than how much the penaltyconvincingly contributes to the dissuasion from crime.
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Journalist : Aayushi Sinha Caricaturist: Harsh Vardhan Kher
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From the Director’s Cut U
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Journalist : Prachi Bhardawaj Photographer: Sahil C.
Cinema has always played a crucial role in presenting an unbiased image of the society and capital punishment has been an issue extensively close to it. The 10 best death penalty movies can actually be categorised as anti-death penalty films. Let us have a look:“Paths of Glory” – Directed by Stanley Kubrick, this is one of the greatest death penalty movies ever made. When French soldiers sent on a suicide pact are betrayed by their commanding officers, their direct commander represents them in their court marshal, where they are to face death by firing squad, if found guilty. “The Green Mile” – Based on the Stephen King novel, the movie is about a large African American man who is found guilty of murdering two young girls and is sentenced to death. While on death row, we learn of his innocence but there is no way to stop his execution. “Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman” – This movie traces the true-life story of Albert Pierrepoint, Britain’s official hangman from 1932 until 1956. Pierrepoint executed over 400 individuals, including around 200 Nazi war criminals over his distinguished career.
“Capote” – This film is based on the encounters between truecrime author Truman Capote and convicted murderer Perry Smith. The interviews became the novel “In Cold Blood” and the movie documenting it serves as a good example to be included in this category. “Dead Man Walking” – In this brilliantly done film, Sean Penn plays a man on death row who killed a young couple and Susan Sarandon is the religious woman that he turns to for help in his final days. “True Crime” –In the film, Clint Eastwood plays a journalist assigned to cover the execution of a convicted murderer. However, when the journalist discovers that the man might be innocent, he sets out to discover the truth before it is too late. “The Life of David Gale” –Kevin Spacey plays a man found guilty of murder and awaiting his execution. The entire movie is designed to show what happens when an innocent man is put to death by the state.
Attack of the Points -Aayushi Sinha The second session of the UNHRC today witnessed a sudden, devastating attack in the early hours of the afternoon when unidentified delegates opened verbal fire in the council in cold blood, resulting in many casualties. The morning saw the session begin on a calm note, but just as the representatives were approaching the possibility of a Resolution, assailants masquerading as ambassadors in the council began shooting several rounds of Points of Order. While the Executive Board had no means of escape and began retaliatory shooting, several delegates ducked to take cover under their desks and some of the remaining got caught in the crossfire. “It was awful. We lost so much today, so many minutes of precious debate were butchered”, claimed a visibly shaken (genuine) delegate later, who does not wish to be identified. As the committee struggles to make up for the loss, we wonder to what extent it could have been prevented in reality.
The Various Meanings of “Bliss”
Bliss MUN is one of the events of Sri Venkateswara’s Economic Fest, Bliss Point, and is consequently inspired by a specific Economic concept- Bliss Point, a state where the consumer’s utility reaches a maximum. However, the name “Bliss” has been the source of amusement for many a perverted mind, of punning opportunities for the jesters amongst us, and for those who are of a more innocent bend of mind, reminded them of happy smiles and sunny days. We bring to you an assortment of replies the Press received when it conducted an impromptu survey, asking members of the Executive Board, International Press, Organizing Committee and delegates what the word means to them. “When I heard of Bliss Point, all I could imagine was a spiritual gathering where people achieve bliss, nirvana.” - Hisham Rizvi, Chairperson of ECOSOC. “Here, it is a war of the worlds.” “Initially I thought it was BlingMUN. I expected a lot of dizzle, fo shizzle,” he continued. “But after this (pointing to the furious Unmoderated Caucus in which the delegate of US was screaming doubts about Swiss delegate’s mental health), “I would say 10/ BLISSMUN September 2013
that ignorance is bliss.” “It is Bli$$ MuN for me, if you know what I’m saying.”Aditya Pattanath, Chairperson, ECOSOC. The Executive Board members of General Assembly were engrossed in an aggressive game of Fifa XIV on their laptops and managed to say that was their bliss amidst hysterical clicking of the keyboard. Penguin and fish have been discussed too much in this council, which is discussing Antarctica and the feasibility of scientific research there. The organizing committee had a different story. “Bliss? Blisters on our feet,” said one of the USGs, as another feebly added, “headaches.” “Surya,” was the answer of the Head of Photography, which made the Sec Gen look at him till he sheepishly added, “and other hot women.” The Secretary General herself confessed food to be her bliss, and we had to take a food break because we agreed so much. Press members had a multitude of replies. “Boring,” said one of the photographers. Clearly the paparazzi has been experiencing a dry spell. “Smiling!” exclaimed the happy caricaturist, who has been busy with his satirical pen. “Bliss is a very pleasurable term,” said the Representative of the British Broadcasting Committee. “I almost expected to find an org-,” But we were out of there lest we heard the rest.
-Menka Ahlawat (Head of Press)
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THE INTERNATIONAL PRESS
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