By Alex Leichenger
The past weekend, Harvard-Westlake was one of a great many schools around the nation that attended the 46th North American Invitational Model United Nations (NAIMUN) at the Hilton Washington hotel in Georgetown. The conference was run by Georgetown students and hosted approximately 3,000 high school students, with 35 committees ranging from the British House of Commons to a UN Special Summit on World Food Prices. Besides me,
Seniors Alex Green, Cathi Choi, Jason Byun, Charlotte Abrams, and Gina Chang, juniors Michelle Yousefzadeh, Eli Moghavem, Max Zipperman, and Joe Girton, sophomores, Alex Velaise, Bryn Woolacott, Emily Khaykin, and Jean Park, and freshman Vivien Mao represented Harvard-Westlake in the conference. Mr. Church chaperoned the trip.
Day 1: Thursday
I had to wake up early like on a normal school day, but this time it was for a 9 a.m. plane ride out of LAX. I slept for most of the flight, but unfortunately the period when I was awake we hit major turbulence. It was pretty miserable for the last half-hour, as we were all hoping to avoid getting sick. Later we arrived at the hotel in, went to our rooms and got unpacked, and dispersed to pick up food.
From 9 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. we had our first committee session. I represented Randhir Singh of India on the International Olympic Committee. The 80-person group discussed whether the Olympic Charter should be amended to include standards for human rights policies of the country hosting the Games.
Day 2: Friday
We woke up at around 8:30 a.m. and went out to breakfast as a group. The line took about 45 minutes since it was packed with fellow Model UN delegates. Then most of us headed off to Georgetown University for a tour of the campus led by Erica Lim ’06. I was very impressed by the campus, and it sounded like it is extremely interesting to be a student at Georgeotwn because of all the guest speakers they can lure.
After walking around the neighborhood a bit more, we headed back to the hotel and prepared for another committee session. In the IOC, we continued to discuss the human rights issue and moved to voting on possible amendments to the Charter. Even after hours of work, none of the amendments were able to amass the two-thirds majority necessary to pass. Although this was very frustrating for some, it pleased me because Singh’s position is that he does not want politics to interfere with the Games.
In our second committee session of the day, I and the rest of the IOC delegates were lucky enough to have guest speaker Victor Cha, former White House Security Council Director of Asian Affairs, talk about the significance of the Olympic Games in Asia. After Mr. Cha departed, we listened to status reports on the upcoming 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver and the 2012 Summer Games in London. We approved the progress of these hosts without hesitation.
At night, most of the Harvard-Westlake students went on an excursion to the Lincoln Memorial. It was especially significant visiting it at that time since Friday was the day after Lincoln’s birthday. There were hand-written notes and even money placed in front of the giant statue.
Day 3: Saturday
Saturday was the most grueling day in terms of committee time, but also by far the most fun. In the IOC, we first spent three hours debating whether to approve the progress of Sochi, Russia in preparing for the 2014 Winter Olympics. Sochi’s status presented much more of a controversy than either Vancover and London. After the collapse of oil prices, the Russian economy has suffered and fallen behind in setting up proper transportation and security measures for the Olympics. In the end, we rejected the status report and set up guidelines for Sochi in their next five years of preparation.
After our lunch break, we returned for the main event: selecting a host city for the 2016 Summer Olympics. Four hours were exhausted with inspired supporting and bashing of the four candidates: Tokyo, Chicago, Rio De Janiero, and Madrid. Our committee welcomed three “guest speakers.” One Georgetown student working at the conference pretended to be Barack Obama and another pretended to be Queen Sofia, and they fielded our questions about the Chicago and Madrid bids, respectively. In the end, though, the competition boiled into a closely contested battle between Tokyo and Rio de Janiero. After these cities tied with a 38votes each, the five chairs of our committee (together acting as IOC president Jacques Rogge) voted amongst themselves 3-2 in favor of Rio de Janiero. The Rio supporters erupted in triumph while the Tokyo supporters (including myself) slumped gloomily in our seats. Choosing a 2016 host city was incredible in that it seemed like we were the real IOC, and all of the delegates became very involved and excited about the topic.
The delegate dance was after dinner. It was held in the main ballroom, with music blaring and tons of people crowded on the dance floor. I hung around for about an hour before leaving and watching a couple more hours of TV with my roommate and a few other people.
Day 4: Sunday
After one more hour of committee, Harvard-Westlake students packed their bags and boarded the bus to Dulles Airport. We landed in L.A. at approximately 5 p.m., and our long but very fun trip was officially over.