Recently I spent a weekend at a Model United Nations Event. I was Cuba in UNESCO. I was a communist, which goes against many things I believe in. Throughout this weekend we had three topics we were supposed to discuss. We barely completed two of them. I now understand why the government does not get things done often or quickly.
This was just a hypothetical situation, but we still treated it as if the fate of the worlds laws were in our hands. Our first topic was equitable education for all. We spent a total of nine and a half ours, spread out over three days trying to come up with a solution the whole world would be somewhat happy with. It was difficult. North Korea kept talking about standardized testing, Singapore kept talking about online schools, and as Cuba we didn't approve of most of the other things people talked about. Resolution papers (papers that solve the problems we were addressing) were consistently voted down because it is incredibly hard to please the entire UN in the same paper. Now imagine that in a way that includes way more countries than we had present, includes laws that when put into place affect everyone on earth in reality. It is really something to be amazed by.
After finally finishing equitable education we moved on to Freedom of the Press. This took less time because all of the "communist" or "oppression" based countries were paired together against the democratic countries. Can you guess who Cuba aligned with? We came up with a resolution to protect journalist traveling to another country, unless they break the laws of the country the are in. We decided to allow them to be tried in an international court. I know it sounds a little tough but no need to worry because we were greatly outnumbered. Coming to an agreement took about eight and a half hours.
Going to this Model UN conference gave me a much needed insight into understanding the frustration the government experiences. We were constantly debating and consistentyl arguing about the same things over and over again. Pleasing every country in the world is not possible, but it is possible to create something that speaks to both sides of democratic or autocratic sides. I understand now how it takes the government a very long time to pass laws and how they half to look very deep into an issue. However, I do believe that if a bunch of 14 to 18 year olds were able to tackle two very important topics in four days, a government should be able to come to an agreement in a reasonable amount of time.
I encourage you to become active in your government and make sure you read every clause and amendment of every resolution.
