Spaghetti Supper

I recently assisted a number of my classmates in a spaghetti supper that they had organized. This event, which took place at St. John the Evangelist Parish Center in Pocasset, was set up in order to benefit Lithuanian Children's Relief Inc. Spaghetti was sold for between $5 and $10 to those who attended and that money was used to buy supplies that would help children in Lithuania. My duties at the event included setting the tables, washing dishes, and helping clean up after people left. The supper seemed to be fairly successful. I thought that a good amount of people showed up, all of the students were willing to help, and some students who came entertained everyone there with music. It was a very enjoyable activity to be a part of, and I am glad to know that it was beneficial on a larger scale.

Model UN- MUN Reflection

Reflecting on this year's Model United Nations event has made it clear to me how much I have changed over the past year. When I participated in MUN last year, I had no idea what to expect, and I was very much unprepared for everything that awaited me on the trip to New York. This time, having one year's experience of this activity in addition to the skills I have adopted over time as an IB student, I left the event feeling much more successful.

I think that the most noticeable measure of this was, to me, the fact that I was willing to stand up in front of my committee, which consisted of about 200 people, and speak about the issue on three different occasions. I am aware that other students spoke much more than I did, and that they had likely done much more research on the topic, but I was satisfied with my improvement since last year, when I only spoke once, involuntarily. Multiple other delegates told me that they thought I did a good job, which was very nice to hear. I feel that, even if I didn't have a very important role in actually creating the resolutions, people listened to what I had to say and I was able to at least have some impact on the course of discussion and some of the ideas that were brought up afterward. Because of this, I believe that participating in MUN for a second time was an extremely beneficial experience to me, as well as a very enjoyable one.

Model UN- New York Trip

Sturgis' MUN group recently returned from the National High School Model United Nations event in New York City. I feel like I participated significantly more in my committee's meetings this year than I did when I went last year, and because of this I believe that I gained much more from the trip this time. I collaborated with others including people not only from Sturgis, but from all over the nation, in order to discuss issues of global importance. The specific issue that my committee discussed was the impact of foreign debt and foreign direct investment on human rights. I worked with students who represented many other countries, and we were eventually able to create and pass two resolutions that we felt would effectively address this problem. While not in committee sessions, the Sturgis group was still organized, for the most part, staying in groups as often as possible and trying to make sure that everyone knew where everyone else was. Overall, I am very glad that I participated in MUN and joined the group on this trip.

Model UN - Practice Debate

Yesterday after school the Model United Nations group held an hour long meeting/practice debate in preparation for the trip next week. The topic of the debate was whether or not child soldiers should be prosecuted for the crimes they commit during wars. We divided ourselves into two teams, one to argue for prosecution and one to argue against it. I thought that the debate went very well. Everyone seemed to do an impressive job of thinking quickly and coming up with reasonable points to support their arguments. There was a large amount of collaboration among both groups; we planned out the major points that we thought we had to bring up, and we all listened carefully to what everyone had to say. I think that we will be ready to do an excellent job when we go to New York next Wednesday.

Model UN - Second Position Paper

Some issues came up recently and as a result I am going to be the only person representing Macedonia's SOCHUM committee. Because of this, I had to write a second position paper in order to be prepared to discuss either one of the two topics that might be discussed. As I wrote earlier, one topic was the rights of disabled persons. The topic I wrote about this time was the social and humanitarian implications of foreign direct investment and foreign debt. I had to write this essay on a very short notice, so it is not as long as the first paper I wrote, but I did the best that I could. As always, the other members of the school's Model UN group were very helpful, offering whatever advice they could to help me complete the paper on time.


Position Paper Topic A:

The Republic of Macedonia has been greatly impacted as a victim of the current worldwide financial crisis, and it recognizes the effect of the crisis on humanitarian matters. Macedonia, being one of the least wealthy former Yugoslav states, has been classified as a landlocked developing state by the United Nations.

At the moment, The Republic of Macedonia is concerned more with Foreign Direct Investment than with foreign debt. Between the years of 2003 and 2007, Macedonia seemed to have actually benefited from Foreign Direct Investments. The number of countries investing in Macedonia appeared to have increased dramatically since the early 2000s, with Greece, Hungary, and the Netherlands holding particularly large amounts of FDI stock. This was very helpful towards achieving the goal of developing the Republic of Macedonia. More recently, however, the global financial crisis has caused the investments in the country to begin decreasing again. This change was particularly noticeable in 2008 and 2009.

The Republic of Macedonia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs considers the "promotion of economic potentials and opportunities to invest in the Republic of Macedonia" and "conducting active economic foreign policy" to be among the nation's top priorities. We believe that cooperation with large organizations, including multinational corporations, is a very important part of improving conditions within landlocked developing countries such as Macedonia. As such, it may be wise to keep the regulation of multinational corporations to a minimum.

Of course, we also believe that some amount of regulation by the United Nations is necessary, recognizing that maintaining the respect of human rights as an equally important goal. In addition to this, no matter how the Republic of Macedonia may benefit from foreign aid through direct investments, it is not willing to make any sacrifices in terms of its national identity; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs aims to preserve Macedonia's sovereignty and independence.

Model UN - Position Paper Finished

I was able to finish writing a position paper for Model UN. I chose to write about Topic B, which discusses the rights and treatment of disabled people in Macedonia. Unfortunately, I was not able to write a second paper for my committee over the weekend. I will talk to the group about what to do about this, but at the very least I will be sure to do research on Topic A, which focuses on foreign debts and investments. I have posted my essay on Topic B below. I think that writing this essay helped me to develop yet another new skill; I needed to write it quickly, and I knew very little about the topic, so I had to do a large amount of research in a small amount of time. While this may not be a great habit to get into, I think that being able to more quickly process information that I research could be very helpful for my future education.

Position Paper Topic B:

Implementing the Convention on the Rights of Disabled Persons

My country, Macedonia, is very much aware of the difficulties facing disabled persons throughout the world and the extent to which it is necessary for the United Nations to ensure that the human rights of such persons are not overlooked. As such, Macedonia hosts non-governmental organizations such as Polio Plus, which is dedicated to preserving human rights and supporting people who suffer from disabilities. The nation is also currently involved with international organizations including UNICEF and USAID. Because of its concern for this matter, Macedonia has provided its signature for the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Disabled Persons. In addition to signing the convention in March 2007, Macedonia also signed the optional protocol, further proving the nation's commitment to resolving this issue.

Within the past few years, Macedonia has made progress towards implementing the ideas set forth by the Convention on the Rights of Disabled Persons. The Ministry of Labor and Social Policy has been working with various NGOs in order to eliminate discrimination against people with physical or mental disabilities since 2008. Polio Plus has been a particularly active participant in this movement, assisting Macedonia greatly with the process of Universal Periodic Review and remaining in contact with the UN Human Rights Council.

Macedonia is also providing disabled children with educational opportunities, working with organizations like USAID to give these children access to specially designed computers, in hopes of establishing equality in the education of all children in the country. We have recently begun the development of community homes for people with intellectual disabilities. Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski has stated that he sees this development as the first step in creating "a just and inclusive society in Macedonia," as it will help to encourage the people of Macedonia to recognize the rights and equality of the disabled persons around them.

However, we are still struggling to implement the convention as effectively as possible. In the recent past UNICEF has pointed out the inefficiency of institutions for disabled children in comparison to the relative success of providing the children with a family environment. Macedonia is willing to keep an open mind in regards to the best methods with which to improve this situation. Nations like Macedonia might not have the large amounts of resources that may seem necessary to combat discrimination against disabled persons, but it is clear to us that open-mindedness and sheer determination to succeed in this endeavor could easily be our most useful tools. The world must recognize the troubles that face disabled persons daily at treat those persons accordingly. However, it is important that this is done in a way that supports people with disabilities, rather than in a way that causes them to be denied of their human rights.

Model UN - Position Papers

There was a meeting this week in which we discussed the position papers that are due this coming Monday. I have been very busy with other schoolwork recently, so I have been unable to start my work on this assignment until now. I was told at the meeting that something had come up unexpectedly with my partner in Macedonia's Social/Humanitarian committee, so I will try to write both of our position papers. Normally this type of event may seem to make it difficult for me to achieve my goal of collaborating with others, but I felt that the whole situation was communicated very effectively through the group and I will do my best to complete my committee's position papers.

Model UN - Practice Debate

The Model United Nations group met for about an hour and a half today after school. The primary purpose of this meeting was to hold a practice debate, in order to prepare us for the trip to New York next year. The topic of our debate was whether or not Guantanamo should be closed or left open. There were not many people at the meeting, so the debate did not move as quickly as we had hoped. However, it seemed to be a good start, and the idea of practicing debates seems like it could be very helpful. We spent the rest of the meeting trying to organize the group so that we could meet more effectively. I suggested the idea of providing people with packets of information about the topics of the debates before the debates themselves actually take place, so that we will all know what we are talking about at each meeting. The group seemed to agree that this was a good idea. However, we had some trouble determining which days are best for after school meetings, because this is a very busy time of the year. Despite these problems, the group seems very determined to succeed in its preparations.

Global Poverty and Solutions- Solutions Part 1

8/16/09
This week we began to discuss some of the possible solutions to global poverty. Much of this discussion was centered around energy poverty. A lack of accessible energy seems to be the root of almost all other types of poverty. Because of this, figuring out how to connect the world to a clean reliable, and abundant power source should be an important step towards eliminating extreme poverty. Many countries that have only recently been developed seem to want what they see as "the American lifestyle." However, it is important that these countries leapfrog directly into the most modern technology, rather than following the same model that we went through. We also talked about the social effects of oil as a source of energy. These effects seem to be generally negative today, as oil has been fueling petro-dicatorships in some areas and slowing down progression toward more efficient types of energy. I am not sure yet if there is much that I can do as an individual to help end energy poverty, but I am looking forward to learning more about solutions in next week's class.

Global Poverty and Solutions- Millennium Development Goals

8/9/09
Today I learned about the Millennium Development Goals, a set of eight goals established in order to improve conditions in developing countries. These include:

1. Decreasing poverty and hunger
2. Universal primary education
3. Gender equality/empowerment
4. Decreasing child mortality
5. Improving maternal health
6. Combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, and others
7. Environmental sustainability
8. Global partnership

We also discussed the possibility of a water crisis. There seems to be an increasing scarcity of fresh water in many parts of the world, and this is made worse by various factors, such as the production of many types of food and biofuels, which require a lot of water to make. Many plants that developing countries export require large amounts of water to grow, meaning that they are virtually exporting the water that they need.
Today's class has further increased my awareness of my responsibilities as a person and our responsibilities as a country, informing me of how the world hopes to approach global development and what people can do to help achieve these goals.

Global Poverty and Solutions- Extreme Poverty

8/2/09
This week we identified our current goal as ending extreme poverty, rather than ending poverty altogether. Trying to fight poverty itself is likely to be unsuccessful, but eliminating extreme poverty, in which people live on less than a dollar a day, should help greatly improve the standard quality of life around the world. We also revisited our discussion about misconceptions, concluding that not all of the issues related to poverty can be linked to one thing, such as the type of government that controls a country. For example, one popular thought seems to have been that if a developing country is made into a democracy, poverty in that country will be eliminated. This has proven to be false, as poverty leads to poor governance instead of poor governance leading to poverty. It is also important for developed nations to trust that developing countries are not too corrupt to put money to good use. Now that I have become more aware of misconceptions like these, I realize that it is my responsibility to make sure that I avoid them and keep a more open mind about the state of the world and how it might be able to improve.

Global Poverty and Solutions- Misconceptions

7/26/09
Last week the teacher of the class was not able to be there. Rather than canceling the group's second meeting, we had a substitute who showed us the movie Slumdog Millionaire, which portrays conditions of extreme poverty in India. The film was very interesting and we spent some time discussing it in class this week. After this, we talked about the misconceptions that people often have about developing countries. For example, people might mistakenly believe that developing nations suffer extreme poverty because they are lazy, because of their different cultures. Another misconception is that other countries are growing at our expense. In fact, the entire world is growing, but some areas are not growing as quickly as others. Because of this, the world must work together as a whole in order to improve conditions globally.

Global Poverty and Solutions- Introduction

7/12/09
Today was the first day of this summer's High School Studies Program (HSSP) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston. The course that I am taking in this program is called How to Change the World: Global Poverty and Solutions. Every Sunday morning until the end of August, I will be traveling two hours from my home to MIT, where I will meet with a group of students who share an interest in learning about and finding solutions to poverty throughout the world. For our first class, we discussed the basic idea of the course and learned some background information that helped us understand the state the world is in today. Much of this focused on the factors that have separated different regions in history in terms of poverty, as well as what nations have been wealthier in the past and which ones will be wealthier in the future. The class seems to be more based around discussion than around lectures, and we were encouraged to keep up with the news so that we could have more to discuss in the future.
So far I am really enjoying the program, and I believe that it is entirely worth the time and the amount of traveling it takes to get there. I feel like I have already learned much about poverty, and I am looking forward to hearing about some possible solutions to the problem.