UN day was last week and I was responsible for planning and initiating both assemblies.
The beginning one required that I greeted fag bearers and handed out flags on
the morning of UN day. This meant that I really got to greet and interact with every
delegation. It was fascinating as it always was to see all the culture brought
to show in the parade of nations.
I was also responsible for reading and preparing a speech to
be read at the opening. Though it was only two minutes long it was still a new challenge for me as I have never
been responsible for writing my own speech before. I have in the past been
asked to speak add lib and to read speech prepared with other people, but never
before had I been allowed to be solely responsible for my content. Writing for speech
is very different for writing for the page, and it was an interesting foray
into a new skill. The text of the
speech is included at the end of this post. I think I did well in addressing the
global importance the activities undertaken
during UN day. Educating students about how to discuss and interact with international
issues is deadly important in a interconnected world.
I was only partially responsible for planning of the
classroom sessions. My role was mostly to be a sounding board and resource for
the student leaders, as they were responsible for the content of their lessons.
However, I do wish I had taken a firmer hand in insisting they used by
suggested structures and recourses that I provided. A lot of the feedback on
the classroom sessions suggested that they were largely improvisational in
nature. I am going to make a suggestion to next years secretary general that
they require lesson plans or some other sort of written plan from their student
leaders rather than the verbal wall through we required this year.
(me lighting hte Oil Lam in my position as Secretary General) [OSC school photographer]
Text of My Un day Speech
In this age of constant interconnectedness, where news from
around the world may reach us in minutes, it may seem like global citizenship
is a given. Perhaps these days we all posses passports stamped with the seal of
the united nations, declaring us international by merit of existence. Or
perhaps sometimes it seems like there are no longer any borders at all.
It may seem like this, however, as the cultural social
political and economic landscape that we all navigate grows in scope and
complication, it is even more necessary that we work to foster global
citizenship rather than assuming it’s existence. How we understand and interact
with those spaces that exist between cultures and nations, where it is not
clear which one holds power or if there is any governing rule at all, speaks to
our merits as individuals and our preparedness to face a global future.
Today, as we celebrate Un day, we take steps toward that
elusive goal of internationalism, whether these are our first steps or only
additional ones on a journey already undertaken does not matter. What matters
is today we work to find a balance between the celebration of our own cultures,
our own viewpoints, and an understanding of other’s.
