I represented the Netherlands on the Economic and Social Council on the topic of Desertification and Land Degradation, leading me to write a couple things in the last few weeks on similar topics to prepare myself better for the whole event.
I am, after three days of attending sessions and trying to get a Draft Resolution that properly tackled the matter to go through, really quite tired, and as such will be posting short little write-ups about the JPHMUN trip as well as some of the speeches I made in written form as a testament to my ability to write stuff on the fly to allow myself to relax and not worry too much about things.
Obviously, the handful of speeches I made without writing them first are not available for perusal, but they started out being rough and got progressively approaching competent, so they weren’t exceptional, though there was a lovely little back-and-forth I quite enjoyed with the delegate from Russia. Following will be the daily review for Day One.
Then the first session began; just under thirty delegates representing their countries being directed by the moderator and the director. Each delegate was expected to give an opening speech (not that each country did,) and the speech for the Netherlands was written just before the opening ceremony and being amended right up until I was called to the podium. It goes as follows:
“Good evening, (M/Ms) Director, (M/Ms) Moderator, and the honorable assembled delegates. I am the delegate from the Netherlands for the Environmental and Social Council, and I am here to pursue the Netherlands’ interest in regards to desertification and land degradation as a result of world-wide climate change. While the maintaining and development of the Delta Works (+ explain) has kept the Netherlands safeguarded against flooding and further destruction of land (+*), there still remains a clear and present danger that impacts us all that we wish to curb for the safety of both ourselves, and the rest of the world. (*) Thank you, and I yield the floor to the Moderator.
“* A series of dams and locks that have protected our country against flooding since its initiation after the 1953 North Sea flooding
“*Of which 20% sits below sea-level and 50% sits at or above by only a factor of a few meters
“As a center of economics, legal, and political power in Europe, it is the duty of the Netherlands to work with this council to prevent the severity of future disasters.”
As you can tell by the couple of starred segments, the amendments to the speech were included by sticking a wedge between bits and pouring in any relevant information I remembered that seemed to work. Most of the speech was alright, though now looking back at it with a mind for revision, it could’ve been a stronger introduction. However, it got my points across, and opened the way for me to get more used to public speaking.
Looking back at my speeches, I can’t actually recall which were the first day and which were the second, or even which were day three… Honestly; same room, same subjects, and the vague knowledge that after a certain point I started not giving so many prepared speeches due to the Netherlands not being relevant has led to considerable blurring of the days in regards to session events, so I’m just gonna toss down another speech and call that day one.
“The Netherlands believes… It is vital for a free world that alternatives to the environmentally harmful methods used by the world’s current superpower-countries be made available to developing countries so that those countries we hold to a higher standard than the United States or Canada were during their time of rapid-development are capable of joining their allies in a modern, safe, and healthy world. We cannot simply leave those countries to their own devices and ignore the misbalance in their time of development compared to others.”
It was a neat experience, I must say; hearing the topic of discussion get lain out and desperately try to get a speech down before time was up or other speakers were no longer speaking, ending such a caucus early. More than once, I was trying to get the last word scrawled while I was called up to the podium to speak; good times. Much easier to speak with confidence when you’re not umm-ing and ahh-ing trying to think of a word for your speech.
Hope you enjoyed this little look into the first day of the JPHMUN trip; inter-national political frictions will likely come up in the day two segment, as that’s when alliances and working papers were being formed. I’ve got about another ten speeches to write up as well, and even one about the Netherlands’ drug policies that I never had the chance to unload.
Thanks for reading, have yourself a lovely day, and see you tomorrow at eight AM for more!