Donations for Japan Earthquake

On the 11th of March 2011, an earthquake of magnitude 9.0 hit Sendai, in Japan. The earthquake caused a massive tsunami that destroyed costal areas in the North Eastern part of Japan. Thousands of people were killed in the earthquake and the tsunami, and out of those who survived, many have died because of the cold. On top of this unfortunate natural disaster, there have been nuclear reactor leaks in Fukushima, exposing radiation. These two crises are currently affecting Japan extremely badly and so the Japanese community in Sri Lanka decided to collect donations to give to the Japanese Red Cross in order to help the situation. Me and another Japanese student decided to open an account in the school business office for donations in the school to help the Japanese community. The money collected is being given to the Japanese Embassy in Sri Lanka. Although many people believe that, because Japan is one of the most economically strong nations, they are not that in need for donations, the two disasters happening simultaneously is devastating. We hope our school can contribute by donating some money to the account in the school business office.

Badminton

On Friday 25th of March, we had another Badminton match against Colombo International School. The players is CIS were incredibly strong so we ended losing a lot of matches, but nonetheless, we enjoyed the matches and they helped us work more on our skills. In doing Badminton, I am working collaboratively with others and developing new skills.

Badminton

On Friday 18th of March, we had a match against Alethea International School. Considering they were a very strong team, our results were good. We won 6 matches and lost 8. I enjoyed this match a lot and I thought it was very good practice for us.

The criteria that I am fulfilling in taking part in the badminton matches are:
Working collaboratively with others in playing doubles matches with my doubles partner,
Developing new skills.

Colombo Model United Nations - The Real Conference

The real Colombo MUN conferences took place over the course of three days; Friday the 4th of March to Sunday the 6th of March. I was the delegate of Austria and my committee was Security Council. The real conferences were just like the practice ones but I felt a lot more nervous and intimidated by the other delegates in my committee.

The topic of the first conference was 'The Situation in the Korean Peninsula' and we discussed the tension that existed between North and South Korea, including recent acts of aggression by North Korea such as the sinking of the South Korean warship 'Cheonan' and an artillery attack in Novemeber 2010. We started by giving opening speeches, briefly explaining our country's stance on the topic and then went on to what was called 'unmoderated caucus' in which the delegates of countries with similar interests got together to construct a resolution to resolve the conflict between the two Koreas and avoid the break out of a war. The delegates of other countries were incredibly knowledgeable, suggesting the involvement of various UN bodies such as the Inter Governmental Panel (IGP) and the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) in resolving the conflict. It made me realize how much more research I needed to do so that I would be more prepared for the following conferences. The rest of the conference was mostly debating over the resolutions.

The topic of the second conference was 'The question of Security Council Reform' where we discussed the need to make changes the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in order to make it more efficient. The suggestions on reform included the distribution of permanent seats, regional representation, Africa for example, dilution of the veto power which was held by the P5 members, China, USA, UK, Russia and France and so on.

The third topic was an emergency topic. This meant that we were not informed of what the topic was until the day of. So to prepare myself I researched on some of the recent conflicts that had been going on around the globe, such as the situation in Libya, the Iranian conflict, the Pakistani conflict &c. Fortunately the emergency topic was 'The Deteriorating Situation in Libya' for which I actually prepared for. The main problem in Libya is the aggressive acts of the Gaddhafi regime and because every single nation in the UNSC condemned his actions, all 15 members got together to contruct one resolution to solve the problem. I thought out of all of the resolutions we wrote and discussed, this was by far the best. Here it is:

Topic: The deteriorating situation in Libya

Submitted by: The UNSC

Pre-Ambulatory Clauses:

Condemns the human rights violations accuring in Libya such as the recent carpet bombings in an attempt to crush opposition to Gaddhafi

Recognizes the need for immediate and effective action on the crisis as well as the establishment of a pathway towards long term stability

Operative Clauses:

1) Demands that Gaddhafi and his inner circle complies with the sanctions placed upon them by the UNSC and further urges all member nations to support the aforementioned sanctions and prevent their breaching or circumvention

2) Decideds that the UNSC set up the Libyan peace initiative in order to provide a platform for all relevant parties within Libya to meet and negotiate:

a) Terms for a ceasefire

b) A common consensus regarding the political and governing structures in Libya

c) Demilitarized zones within Libya to aid in the humanitarian efforts

3) Designates the United Nations Peace Keeping Force (UNPKF) to mobilize within Libya and its borders in order to:

a)Ensure that no further clashes between the various factions occur and authorizes the right to fire when fired upon

b) Help aid in evacuation and protection of civilians and migrant/guest workers from Libya

4) Requests the military staff committee to immediately implement a no fly zone over Libya as the first steps to prevent further air raids by pro Gaddhafi factions

5) Recommends that with reference to the ICC investigation on the Libyan crisis:

a) The report is drafted and submitted within the next week

b) No military action will be taken by the UNSC until the findings of the rpeort provides the UNSC with a legitimate reason to do so

6) Encourages nations to refrain from unilateral military action and show maximum restraint when considering the Libyan crisis

7) Calls upon the relevant bodies and nations to co-ordinate with the UNHCR to tackle issues pertaining to the IDP and refugee management

8) Decides to establish a specialized committee to examine and analyze the political structures within Libya to

a) Propose suggestions to solve the underlying issues that resulted in the Libyan crisis

b) Assist in post conflict reconstruction of Libya's political and administrative structures

to ensure the longterm stability of Libya

Overall these three days were an amazing experience for me as I learnt so much more in Colombo MUN than the other MUN conferences that I took part in, mainly because it was much more professional and I would think that it was much closer to what UN conferences are really like. I was extremely intimidated by the other delegates so I actually did not talk as much as I hoped to and mainly focused on Points of Information (PoIs), which refers to questioning others' speeches and resolutions. But I learned so much from actually being a part of the conference, especially how to listen to the points of others while formulating something to say in return which was a skill that I did not have before and a skill that I feel can be best developed in MUN. In taking part in MUN, I increased the awareness of my strengths and areas of growth, coming up with resolution clauses was a strength I developed and public speaking is still my area of growth, undertook new challenges, as this conference was at a very different level to the other conferences I partook in, worked collaboratively with others, mainly in resolution writing, showed perseverance and committment, committing myself to MUN these past 7 months, engaged with issues of global importance, like the situation in Libya and on the Korean Peninsula and developed new skills. I feel that the things I learnt by being a part of Colombo MUN will be useful in my future and I am glad I decided to take part in it as I got to know what it is like in a real UN conference and because I got to make friends with the other delegates. Overall I enjoyed these three days a lot.