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Editorial First-timer experience UN news center headlines Committee Reports Chair disclosure Journo-Awards Common Secrets Party time
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EDITORIAL: Dear Muners, This is the last commun issue and the last editorial respectively…. T h e journalists and myself hope you had a constructive conference. That the ThessISMUN experience, was an educational as well entertaining experience! Our only advice is that you continue to participate in such conferences and you maybe come again next year? In any case the ThessISMUN family has a big enough hug for all of its members! Now the thanking part! The journalist team is extremely grateful to the secretariat, chairs and administrative staff for all their help and comments during the creation of this “newspaper”. Secondly I would like to thank all you delegates for giving us the necessary uncommon information for the content of this newspaper! Finally I would like to thank from the bottom of my heart the members of the journalist team : Maria, Chrysoula, Valia, Maro, Filippia, Dimitris, Michalis, Khatsig, Angeliki, amd Athina. But most of all my right hand Marina and left hand Zafeiris! I love you guys! I sincerely hope you liked our newspaper honorable delegates! See you next year! Sophia ThessISMUN experience after 4 days First of all I would like to note that • Secretary -General Ban Ki-Moon dispatches special ThessISMUN is a great institution and I hope envoy to Kyrgystan. that I will be able to participate next year too. • Haiti: Agencies team up to relocate displaced at risk in The whole conference is exemplary, regarding petionville camp. the organization, and it demonstrates that • Deputy Secretary-General to travel to Haiti, focus on young people know very well how to work sexual violence. with each other. This is the place where older • Sudan: head of peacekeeping concerned over aspects people must come and watch the attitude of of electoral environment. young people in and out of the classrooms in • Flow of people crossing Gulf of Aden is slowing. order to change their minds about the behavior • New round of U.N. climate change negotiations start in of a part of today’s youth. I do not believe that Germany. the fact that they pay to participate has any • Secretary -General chairs chief executives board in relevance with their behavior since we all Vienna. know how much we pay generally for educa- • Secretary -General to discuss Non-proliferation initiation and the quality of education we receive. tives in Washington . Secondly, the education you receive • Deputy special envoy to Haiti ended assignment in through the conference when you learn how March. different organizations work as for example the council of Europe or the Security Council is irreplaceable and one of a kind. Furthermore a lot of preparation is required as well as a certain level of knowledge in order to be able to understand the topics and the different procedures of the simulation. In my opinion you must be well prepared if you really want to have a respectable participation in an MUN. Next, I would like to note something about the use of English. For me it’s the first time I participate in such a conference and I was impressed. An all-English simulation is an important educational factor despite the fact that for some it is something that they do not give much significance to. Finally, it’s important to comprehend that in our lives we all are part, and have to function within a chain of command and respect. This chain exists also in ThessISMUN. On the one hand you have the chain of hierarchy between delegates and chairs and chairs with the secretariat. And on the other hand respect between all participants regardless of their position is obligatory since it is also referred to as “diplomatic courtesy” in the rules. I believe that in life obtaining experiences and educating yourself with any means possible is very important to survive! Here is a place where you can work on your character and teach yourself. By Dimitris Konstantinidis 2
1st Committee The third day of the 1st committee's sessions started with delegates arriving with a significant delay obviously due to last night's party! Among them, China's and Philippines' delegates were half an hour late while Syria's delegate was the last to join the house with one hour delay. During the sessions of the 1st committee, the draft resolution sponsored by the Peoples Republic of China was overruled mostly due to the fact that the Chinese delegate did not really stick to the very policy of his government. As a result, we saw the withdrawal of three signatory countries. Pakistan played a very energetic role on this crucial issue of discussing effective international arrangements to assure non-nuclear weapon states against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons. In the meanwhile, Peru's delegate's Simpson tie gave an entertaining tone to the entire procedure! In the end, the first committee of the General Assembly voted and passed the draft resolution sponsored by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Au revoir! By Michalis Konstantinidis
2nd Committee Yes! It's true!! The 2nd Committee was not only the best one of this year's conference, but it was also the best of its kind during the 9-year history of ThessIS MUN. The second committee did a great job-again- by making a perfect Draft Resolution on topic area B, which was voted unanimously (by each 58 delegates)! Of course there were a few accidents, which made everyone laugh!!(China will understand!!) Many delegates were late during the first committee session, as last night everyone attended the wonderful party at Figaro! As a result, a lot of chocolates were brought for the board! All of them were shared between the delegates as a gift for the "funny awards", which had a great success!! Worth mentioning is the Award of Best Diplomat, given to the delegate of Chile and that of Best Tie, given to the delegate of Germany, on whose ties there was a whole scenario in place...!!! Hope to see you again all next year! By Filippia Cheilitsi
2nd
1st
Human Rights Council During the last day of discussion the delegates worked on topic area B. Firstly the Committee kept one minute of silence, in order to express their sorrow, regarding the plane tragedy that was announced. Afterwards, the representative of the UK introduced it’s Draft Resolution to the house. The representatives talked on the amendments that according to them were needed as well as on the clauses they wanted to add. During the Session, the U.S.A. and the Russian Federation were accused for the violation of Human Rights. The representative of Russian Federation responded that “All states in this room have violated Human Rights. We’re not here to point fingers but to find a solution for the promotion of international solidarity”. The majority of the Delegates found U.K.’s draft interesting, though suggested the addition of new clauses or the alteration of others.Finally this resolution passed with 37 votes in favor and 6 against. Afterwards, China and Bolivia raised a competence against the UK’s proposal, which finally failed. At the end of the Session the members of the Council voted on the funny awards. In specific, the most likely to become a dictator “title” was awarded to China, who was additionally nominated as the funniest Delegate. The Representative of Cameroon received three awards: most beautiful, best dressed and the one with the best hair. The Council’s Chair was voted as the most handsome, while the Delegate of the U.S.A. was considered to be the sexiest and with the best tie. A really interesting Council’s Session came to an end! By Athina Tsakalidou 3
SECURITY COUNCIL Yesterday’s sessions in the SC were extremely stressful for the delegates. A draft resolution sponsored by Japan failed as the U.K. activated its veto power. While a confusion had disorientated the house breaking news came up. The involvement of Hezbollah in the crisis of Nigeria taking Libya’s side in order to protect the Muslim population, was announced.. The Russian Federation sponsored a draft resolution concerning the first topic of the Council above the non-state actors. The session continued with the resolution passing after having being questioned upon its legal basis. USA presented a second resolution on the topic of the crisis, where Austria and Turkey passed two amendments since both agreed that the problem was the Republic of Niger. Through these proposed amendments the Council ensured that Niger’s borders were no longer out of control. As the delegate of Turkey stated to the journalist team afterwards “Niger seems to be the “emmental” country which has so many holes allowing other countries to use their country as a bridge to other neighboring states”. Let us remind that Libya doesn’t border Nigeria and only through the Republic of Niger they obtained access. This resolution passed at the end of the session with the USA condemning the invasion of Libya and the involvement of Hezbollah stating “We do not negotiate with terrorists”. Finally a question posed by Turkey the Council was unable to answer : “if the Nigerian government was obliged to resign then what is this poor delegate doing here?” (referring to the delegate of Niger)! By Valia Meletiou
N.A.C The last day of negotiations found the NAC a few delegates short, in the beginning at least. Apparently, Figaro’s outing was a blast! All in all, the debate resulted in a draft communiqué that did not satisfy all delegations. During the voting procedure, the delegate of Norway casted a negative vote, which fired up the Council. It was not only after he was asked to leave the room after a heated disputre with the Chair of the Council that the delegates successfully passed the draft communiqué. Congratulations delegates! Before entertaining a motion to adjourn the meeting until next year, this reporter would like to thank all the members of the journalists team and especially our editor, Sofia, for an excellent cooperation and so many wonderful moments. As Thomas Jefferson said, “Our liberty depends on the freedom of press, and that cannot be limited without being lost”. See you all in ThessISMUN 2011!!! By Maro Lazarou
NAC
Security Council?!
Council of Europe The day for the Committee of the CoE began with the delegates’ ideas concerning the disappointment and the lack of political participation leading the youth to ideologically extremist behavior nowadays. It is a matter of great importance, as most of the delegates stated and today’s draft working paper needs to be an excellent declaration of new possibilities for the participation of the youth in the state’s politics. During a 30 minute unmoderated caucus lots of interesting ideas were put forward. Austria’s opinion about launching campaigns for the youth in order to familiarize them with their rights and the political participation was a characteristic example of delegates’ points of view that were heard in the House. Poland was the sponsor of this draft paper which includes five key sectors that the countries of the CoE need to deal with in order to eliminate the problem: Education, Corruption, Freedom of Speech, Economy and Unemployment. Amendments are welcome to improve this draft paper…but I suppose that for the moment everyone is looking forward to avoid any amendments and ultimately at tonight’s hang out (Thessaloniki by night)!!!Yeah!!! By Chrysoula Kachramanou 4
3rd Committee ECOSOC The 3rd committee started their daily The fourth day of ECOSOC started smoothly. At this negotiations with the unpleasant announce- point, it should be mentioned that all delegates of ment of the death of the president of Poland ECOSOC were here working on their Drafts by 10:00 and his wife.All delegates kept a minute of in the morning while the session started officially at silence to express their sorrow The commit- 12:00. After that “wild” night at Figaro… CONtee continued to discuss about the second GRATULATIONS GUYS!!! Niger and Mauritius topic area “ The rights of indigenous peo- were the sponsors of the two Drafts on “International ple ,reconsidering the declaration and moving migration and the Youth”.During the procedure the towards a convention” and started working on two coalitions concluded that their proposals were the second Draft Resolution which was spon- more or less the same, so they decided to present a sored by Peru and signed by Philippines, common draft sponsored by Mauritius. After a few Uruguay, Serbia , D.P.R.K, Poland , Chile, amendments and some comments the final Resolution Cuba, Argentina, Nicaragua, Qatar, In- was ready. Finally, we would like to express our condia, Iraq, Brazil, Venezuela, Pakistan, Ger- dolences for the polish president and his team that was many, France. The procedure continued with killed unexpected while flying over Russia. That’s all By Maria Katsigianni the voting of the second Draft Resolu- for today… ;-) tion which finally passed with 47 in favor , 5 ECOSOC against, 8 abstain . The day ended pleasantly, with the funny awards of the committee. The most awarded delegate was Canada who took the best dressed award, the most handsome award, the best tie and the sexiest award! Delegates also awarded were France, Lebanon, Lithuania, Syria, China, German, Ghana . By Angeliki Biti
We asked the Chairpersons to reveal little secrets of their partners! Stay tuned and learn juicy info about the people that gave you a hard time during the sessions!!! Electra Tsakalidou… was very stressed about the conference before it begun. Ana – Maria Enache… should be proud of her co-chair, who did not reveal anything about her. Well done, Electra, but we can’t have a newspaper like this!!!
Kostas Koukouzikis… was proven to be a crazy party animal! Vasilis Paligiannis… has a new friend for a lifetime, and the name is… Kostas Koukouzikis! Iliana Lantzou… really craved for the best dancer award, which she finally got! Unfortunately, it was at the expense of Gina Kosmidou’s feet, though…) Gina Kosmidou… has really cool bra’s, according to her co-chair!
Aggelos Peppas… was looking the delegate of Cameroon all the time…. Neofytos Aspriadis… though, was looking the delegate of Norway! At least, they are not going to fight with each other for the same girl! Also Christos when asked for Konstantina’s secret stated that he would make something up! Naughty Christos! Christos Kyriakopoulos… loves French sunglasses! 5
Giorgos Goniadis… had an accident in last year’s NAC session, when a rubber “went out” of his pocket, while he also misleads his colleagues about his hobbies and experience. Mihalis Dekastros… never brought the chocolates he had promised to the delegates. Moreover, we would like to inform him that he has a lot of admirers in the Council, although he might have already shown a small preference for the delegate of Iceland… Despina Gkinoglou…caused quite a trouble yesterday at the Conference, since her shoe broke and he was allowed to go to the shoemaker as soon as possible. Eri Nomikou… loves the multi-nature nature of the 2nd Committee’s board, enabling each other’s strengths to cover each other’s weaknesses. Jameson Ungerer… had a lot of admirers, and many girls stared at him during the sessions. Last but not least, we would like to apologize on behalf of Evelina Pagalou and Paul Kampisopoulos for failing to meet the newspaper deadline and missing their chance on this great idea of revealing secrets!
We are always in the committee, do not ever participate but are ALWAYS watching your every move! You had your own awards but you never asked OUR opinion! So we decided to give you an objective awards table. Enjoy! Loud
Active
Well-dressed
Entertaining
Mr and Mrs Committee
1st
Slovakia
U.S.A.
Russia
Jordan
Mr. U.K. and Mrs. Chair (Electra Tsakalidou)
2nd
Venezuela
Slovenia
co-chair (Eri Nomikou)
China
Mr. Chile and Mrs. Nigeria
3rd
Germany
Lebanon
France
China
Mr. Syria and Mrs. Denmark
H.R.C.
Magadascar
Russia
Cameroon
Bangladesh
Mr. Chair (Angelos Peppas) and Mrs. All female delegates!
ECOSO C
Germany
Belgium
Congo
Egypt
Mr. Canada and Mrs. Finland
S.C.
Gabon
Gabon
U.S.A.
Turkey
Mr. Russia adnd Mrs. U.S.A.
N.A.C.
President (Evelina Pagalou)
Romania
Journalist (!!!)
Norway
Mr. Hungary and Mrs. Romania
Albania
Secretary General (George Goniadis)
Mr. Bosnia Herzegovina and Mrs. Turkey
C.O.E.
Germany
Russia
Created by Marina Cheilitsi 6
1. There are chairs which have showed a particular “preference” to a certain delegate….. 2. Which chair does not have genuine office software and the message “This reproduction of Office is not genuine” kept coming up? 3. Which chair has a crush on admin assistants? 4. Which delegate is hoping to become the party animal of its committee? 5. Which delegate opened her shirt when she stood up to take the floor? 6. Which delegate was watching a video during the Committee session? Which delegate admitted that she was bored during the sessions and that she was looking forward to the end? S… 7. Which delegate spent 26 euros for a special haircut? 8. Which member of the journalist team has participated in a hair product commercial ad?! 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
Committee= with a number / State = U Committee = it’s a Council Committee = with a number U C C (actually, it might have been more than one… Order, delegates!!) C V
Has there been a “connection” between people from these two pictures ? 7
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