Model United Nations

The situation at Harvard Model United Nations in India (bestdelegate.com)

Model United Nations is an academic simulation "to proliferate the spirit of United Nations all across the globe", in the words of the MUN Community in Universitas Gadjah Mada. In these simulations, you are being tasked to act as a diplomat representing countries of your choice. My personal experience so far is being the "delegate" of Thailand, Italy and Greece. It is a formal debate - not the kind of debate conducted in Asian/Australian/British Parliamentary System, it has its own rules and procedures. What characterizes MUN the most is the fact that you are debating on behalf of your country preference, not on the behalf of your own opinion. Say, you are representing the Russian Federation, no matter how much you are a pro-democracy or pro-liberalization in real-life, you have to shed your own ideals and adopt what Russia stands for. Yes, it involves a lot of investigations (in my own terms) to the deeper, innermost background of the said country. It's complicated, tiring, yet at the same time FUN!

I will be the first one to admit that I had never heard of a MUN before the orientation period of my campus. Hence, when I experienced it for the first time, my thought was, "Have I been living inside a rock all these times?" There are so much about my own major that I haven't known yet. MUN is one of them. Now, I'm writing these to you guys so that you would not be caught off-guard just like I previously was. MUN is, after all, also applicable for high school category and university category.

One of my first MUN experiences happened just recently, at Universitas Diponegoro, Semarang (yay! home!). Feeling a bit guilty for representing UGM instead of the pride of my home city, I went on a MUN competition conducted by the local chapter of ALSA (ASEAN Law Student Association) in Undip's Faculty of Law. Sorry to go into much technical details here, guys. I gotta give credits to where it is due. I was representing Greece. Lots of fun happened in that particular conference.

First, we didn't get the study guide (a.k.a. the issue in the agenda and the country allocation) until three days before the conference began. Shame on me, I was crowded by many school works so that my time for preparation was only one night. Feeling so underhanded, I read the study guide and my country allocation. Tada! Guess what? The issue was transmigration. How in the world did I end up with that issue? A bit mind-numbing to be honest. And Greece! Well, Greece has pretty important relevancy to that issue, I stress to you. However, the study guide only mentioned China and South-east Asian countries in details. At that moment I knew I was going to have a hard time convincing other delegates of Greece's relevancy.

Second, ECOFIN (Economic and Finance) Committee, the council that I was in, ended up to be, in my biased opinion, the most tight-knitted council among others (Security Council and UNICEF). What's the proof? Well, we managed to befriend each other and not be hostile, and in the dinner night, we agreed to sit in one table. I am so glad to be in ECOFIN because some of the delegates in other committees are, well, scary...

Third, I won! Huh, what? Yep, I didn't believe it either. I was unable to attend the closing ceremony (one complain, why did they go with those pointless events? Much prefer to go straight to the winner announcement. Plus the schedule was far from punctual..), and I frankly did not have much care about who's winning 'cause I was seeking experience. I was not a bloc leader and I did not really roll up the working paper/draft-resolution making. What I did do instead was being an antagonist to the paper by invoking the "Greece has many debts! You gotta help us!" card. In my defense, everyone (like I mentioned before, we're friendly :)) was so agreeable and ready to ratify the draft as soon as possible - it was tiring. But the conference was not scheduled to end that soon. Someone has gotta be making the drama, rite? Although, winning an award caught me off-guard. (By the way, delegate of Australia, I still think you deserve more than me. ;))

Bottom line, MUN is a very new experience to me, but I have always been in love with public speaking and debating. I do encourage you to expand your boundaries and try something new! Cause you might not know what opportunity lies ahead.

P.s. I'm so excited to be one of the delegates for Harvard National Model United Nation February next year! Very unexpected! I mean, me, the newbie??? But why not? To other HNMUN 2015 delegates from Undip (yep, I met you ;)) and other Indonesian universities, and of course, beloved UGM delegations, let's rock the boat in Boston...!

P.s (#2) Yep, it's not a scholarship. Thanks for your prayers though! I do believe that it's not a coincidental mistake. It's gonna happen exactly like the "modified" version. Another time, another day. Let those who understand, understand. :D

On the subject matter of.....politics

There is no excuse for what I have done, abandoning my dear blog without any accountability - so much for professionalism!

Still, my dear readers, there is a reason why I have gone AWOL since last month.

UNIVERSITY!!!!!

I am studying international relations within the scope of politics. You can expect my subsequent blog posts to be oriented on that basis.

Source: mario-dumont.com

I have undergone the first week of college to form a view on this subject. And you know what I feel? I hate politics.

Politics is consisted of theories and implementations. Often times, the theories and implementations are opposite of each other. Theories lean toward an idealistic approach while the facts on the field will usually challenge the view. You will end up learning the art of negotiations.

In learning about politics, you have to keep your head straight since most of the ideologies will be enticing and persuading. Ideologies are a very dangerous tool. Take the famous (or infamous) case of Hitler. What persuaded Germany to be a national socialism country under Hitler's iron hand? It was the power of persuading that the ideology had.

Source: cambridge.org

International Relations on the other hand....

IR is a pretty fun branch of study, that is my first impression. You get to learn about analysis of world affairs and investigations of background. My curiosity always peaks at this discipline. However, the sad thing is that I won't be learning any country's background until at least the third semester (that's 1 year from now).

This week I have been learning about diplomacy. It's a pretty complicated art. Just like journalism, diplomacy is changing. The main reason depicted is globalization (one of these days, it all comes down to globalization). Diplomacy is not exclusively for diplomats or other state actors anymore. Non-state actors such as business people and involved civilians are diplomats too. You and I who are on the net are representing our respective country in this World Wide Web. 

It's been fun learning terminology such as attache, diplomatic couriers, consulates, immunity, the principle of extraterritoriality, asylum and so on. I am very green at this branch of study. I thank God for placing me in the midst of friends who have diplomats as fathers/mothers/relations to study with them.

I am an ENFP

I normally am not a person who is much into analyzing thyself and all that stuff, but of course who can really withstand the temptation of free personality quizzes here and there? Especially when you're feeling down and lost about yourself.


That's how I stumbled upon the MBTI personality test (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator), which is apparently one of the most "accurate" personality tests around. Personally, I wouldn't put my money on these personality tests, 'cause people do change, don't they? But, admittedly, it is kinda fun to have my ever-so-faithful computer screen trying to describe my personality.

Surprisingly, it's pretty accurate!

icongal.com

Source: Todd Atkins

Extraversion, Intuition, Feeling and Perception. Done the test several times already with always the same result: ENFP. I suppose ENFP and I are two peas in a pod...

Most of that description is on the spot. I like drama. I am an enthusiast to the point of overbearing (or so my friends say). I like spontaneity. And the things that I always hate are routine and authority. Ok, so maybe I need to grow up a little bit on this. Hee... hee..

And yeah, I've had problems in the past involving unfinished projects and procastination. But you can always find me at you beck and call whenever there are new (and interesting) projects.

Source: enfpproblems.tumblr.com

This is what even my own father complains about me. But yeah, rambling is a favorite past time of mine. Well, in my defense, would you prefer it to be gambling? Got the point? Yep.

Source: enfpproblems.tumblr.com

As a consequence, my big mouth doesn't reflect well on my intelligence. Newsflash, we ENFPs can think pretty well on our feet ;)

But the good news is.... a character that I really really admire from my favorite guilty past time (aka. Smallville) turns out to be an ENFP! (I had once been inspired by her style too so that I cut my long hair. Bad decision.)

Here. Taken from funkymbtifiction.tumblr.com (hopefully, I give enough credits where it's due)

Smallville: Chloe Sullivan [ENFP]

Ne: Chloe loves abstracts. She’s totally focused on outward possibilities, without any evidence to back up her theories. Her go-to solution is meteor rocks, but it takes her time to build up evidence to prove her suspicions. She knows Clark is hiding a secret from her, but isn’t going on anything but her own instincts. She is a big “what if?” girl, who loves to ponder ideas more than tangible facts and realities. Anything is possible in Chloe’s mind, no matter how far-fetched it may seem.

Fi: She is very sensitive to conflict. Sometimes, she ignores other people’s advice if it conflicts with her personal beliefs, and can lash out angrily in times of emotional turmoil. Chloe values certain things in her own life so much (the newspaper, the desire to connect to her mother) that she can’t understand why others don’t share her enthusiasm or need for closure. Chloe has a hard time emotionally leaving relationships even when she has physically abandoned them (hanging onto Clark for years, without promise of a returned love).

Te: Her organizational skills make it easy to run a school newspaper and meet deadlines. Chloe wants to put her knowledge to good use, not just collect it for its own sake. She considers situations, decides if they are working or not, and if not, terminates them (firing reporters, dumping a bad relationship even if she’s still emotionally involved).

Si: Chloe is sentimental and keeps pictures of her and Clark. Much of her emotional motivation is fueled through memories of abandonment.

With all of that said, funnily enough, I don't recommend you to believe these kinds of personality testers. No matter how accurate they "seem" to be. Why? Because after visiting some of the other personality types, I can easily see and fit myself to other types. It depends on the day, whenever I'm in the mood, whenever I'm obsessed with something. The truth is, people change and personalities follow what is accommodating for us. If your environment requires you to be bold and blunt, you'll be (at some degree) bold and blunt. And we haven't even counted yet the influence of our post-patriarchal society, with some remaining residues of men's attitude over women. Some women are bred to be obedient, gentle, and all of the stereotypes. No, there's nothing wrong with that. But it does influence one's self.

Source: enfpconfessions.tumblr.com

ENFP has its strengths and weaknesses. If I were to obsess over it, I'd probably end up as a procrastinator who was too flighty to hang on to one job forever. I don't want that. In this stage of life I might be an ENFP. Next stage, who knows :)

What about yours truly? Curious to know your type? Try an MBTI test for free (albeit a little bit fake, but what's the matter? It's not like it's life and death, right?) by clicking this link:

 http://www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test

And here's an article why your result is not ABSOLUTELY WITHOUT COMPROMISE the real you:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/adam-grant/goodbye-to-mbti-the-fad-t_b_3947014.html