30 March 2009

THE HAGUE, Netherlands: The conference center at The Hague is buzzing with activity as six students from American University of Beirut (AUB) discussed with The Daily Star their future plans after they receive their Bachelor's Degrees. They are the delegation representing AUB at this year's World Model UN Conference, hosted in the shadow of the International Criminal Court.

It is an interesting question to pose to these ambitious AUB students who had traveled all the way to The Hague to represent their school, their country and their culture. The resounding answer from all six was largely to be expected:

"Graduate school in Europe." "Graduate school in America." After that? "Work in the Gulf..." "Europe..." "America..."

"But you have to understand," said Laith al-Shawaf, "for us, just as for anyone, leaving our home country isn't really about leaving a place with or without opportunity for us. It's about getting out and seeing the world. And that," he paused, "that's exactly what we're doing here in the Netherlands."

While each member of the AUB delegation confronted stereotypes, bureaucracy, and chilly North Sea weather in The Hague this past week, all reported the conference a "huge success."

The six-person AUB delegation, "representing" the role of the GCC state Qatar, sat with The Daily Star Friday afternoon to discuss their experience at Dutch-organized event, featuring over 2,400 students representing 275 universities and 53 countries.

Sitting in a quiet lobby away from the thousands of foreign students engaging in endless simulated debate, the AUB delegation talked about their Model UN organization. Sally Meouche, the head of the delegation, told The Daily Star that, not only was Model UN a "growing movement in the Arab World," noting that the 2006 World Model UN event was hosted at Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt, she added that, "overall the average awareness of Arab political and cultural realities is growing as well."

The consensus was that, "Misconceptions are variable."

"This is all about cooperation, learning and social events - we meet a lot of people and when they hear we're from Lebanon they want to know more, they want to help out. Students who are interested in the Middle East [and] who are in Model UN aren't interested in being spies ... they're interested in making the region a better place."said Maya Sabban.

"The delegation from the University of North Carolina represented Jordan at this conference - their understanding of the country, its challenges, its attitudes and its overall strategy was amazing. They told me they had met with the Jordanian ambassador to the US, and their portrayal of Jordan was very realistic," Meouche said.

The AUB delegation also stressed how important it was that they were here representing Lebanon as students and as citizens, given that "obviously there are some misconceptions of who the Arabs are."

"Yes, I do get asked whether we ride camel, but overall I was impressed at the degree of understanding and knowledge. The students who participate in Model UN are from all over the world, and they know a lot more about foreign peoples, cultures and politics than your average University student," Ghassan Nassif told The Daily Star.

Other American and European teams were sometimes, "overly optimistic or idealistic in their portrayal of Arab nations," but, "it's good that we're here to correct them." As an example, the American team representing Syria acquiesced to UN monitors - said Ghassan, "I had to yell at them - obviously that wouldn't happen in real life."

The AUB delegation is planning a Model UN event in Beirut this July, and they stressed how important it was that foreign students who come to the event also get out to see the country. "We will be accommodating our guests in Hamra because of its proximity to student life at both AUB and LAU, and we will be sure to show them the many faces of Lebanon - the historical sites, the clubs and bars, the mountains and the sea - so that they get a full picture of Lebanon while they're here," Dina Kfouri told The Daily Star.

It is easy to see how important Model UN is to these students - equally obvious is the degree to which they believe that Model UN, which enjoys near universal participation at colleges and universities around the world, is a force for international understanding.

Asked what their impressions were of the event in The Hague, the AUB delegation all agreed that "it was a success," their only complaint being that, "there were so many [participants that] it was hard to debate and to meet people."

The also complained that the scope and size of the event  made it difficult to get things done, and "committee sizes were so big that they were crippled."

Evidently, the event was simply too realistic; endless bureaucracy, circular debate and a cacophony of too many voices and interests are recurring problems of the real UN.

The Daily Star also took some time to speak with some of the event organizers from the Dutch Model UN club. Based at Radboud University in Nymegen, these Dutch students were responsible for putting on one of Model UN's biggest events.

Annalise Rietveld, Director of PR and Communications for "WorldMUN 2009," told The Daily Star organizing this year's World Model UN conference took a "full year" and the work of "14 dedicated students."

"We're really happy, it was a huge success. We haven't slept in weeks but we're just happy that it went so well. We've had lots of compliments," she added.

Copyright The Daily Star 2009.