Page 66 - Beyond_the_Classroom

International Rep’s 1995
Murray Nathan Anthony Fisher Deborah Wood
The United Nations
Forum
The main objective of the
United Nations is to save succeeding
generations from the scourge of war
and also to reaffirm faith in the
fundamental human rights of men
and women from nations large and
small.
So when four of us hearty 6th
Formers were asked to represent our
school at the inaugural mock United
Nations Forum on the weekend of
the 9th and 10th of September, we
had absolutely no idea what we were
getting ourselves into.
Murray Nathan and Anthony
Fisher as representatives for the
major drug-dealing nation of
Columbia, and Deborah Wood and
Shannin Keeley as representatives
for the healthy Muslim country of
Saudi Arabia.
During the week our heads
were crammed with information on
our respective countries. The
Commonwealth Heads of
Government
Being one of 50 schools
invited to take part in the first New
Zealand simulated students
Commonwealth Heads of
Government Meeting (CHOGM)
was both exciting and nerve-
wracking.
It was held in Palmerston
North on the 20th and 21st of
September and all 51 countries of the
Commonwealth were represented by
sixth-form Geography students from
all around New Zealand.
We were allocated the
Bahamas and so prepared for this
event by studying this country and
its value positions on topics such as
the environment, trade aid, human
rights and indigenous peoples.
After flying down and making
our (late) grand entrance into the
66
Shannin Keeley Amanda Farmilo Shawn Howie
governments, the policies, the laws,
the issues and the people. We were
ready to solve the problems of the
world!
When we arrived at the
University of Waikato there were
around sixty-five Secondary School
students from the Waikato and the
Bay of Plenty regions, all
representing a country.
As we gained allies we also
gained confidence through both
voting and speaking power. In
between terrorists holding hostages
at gun point, top-secret meetings
between OPEC and raising oil prices
by 25%, we learned an exceptional
amount of knowledge about the
forces keeping world peace.
In two days we had been
exposed to many complex
international issues, learnt to react to
unexpected crisies , become a
confident negotiator and thoroughly
enjoyed ourselves.
Deborah Wood
middle of the powhiri, we settled in
for two days jam-packed full of
debates, workshops and plenary
sessions.
Our aim was to prepare a
communique about issues
concerning the Commonwealth
which we later presented to Dame
Catherine Tizard to go to the real
CHOGM held in Auckland in
November.
It wasn’t all work though -
we attended a formal reception held
in the Palmerston North Museum on
the first night, and lunched with
Dame Catherine the next day. We
were billeted with High School
students from around Palmerston
North and met heaps of people.
Overall, the trip was a lot of
fun and was a very valuable and
worthwhile experience for both of
us.
Amanda Farmilo & Shawn Howie