Interviews With The Executives
Interview with
TEDIMUN'19 secretary general
Zeynep Bınzat
Q: Did you meet some new people?
A: No sadly. I was too busy trying to organize everything.
Q: Are you satisfied with everyone’s work?
Zeynep: Yes, everyone is working very hard.
Q: Are you satisfied with your work?
Zeynep: I worked very hard so I guess I am satisfied... There is still a lot of work to do though.
Q: How was the preparation phase for TEDIMUN'19?
Zeynep: As there are in every conference, we did have some problems, but we managed to overcome those problems because of our amazing executive staff. Also we did have a lot of help from Ms. Cinli.
Q: How did you come up with the idea of TEDIMUN?
Zeynep: We were in Amsterdam for an MUN and at the end of the conference all of the executive team got together and right then and there we decided to create TEDIMUN.
Interview with
TEDIMUN'19 the Heads of Finance
Denız ozaydın & onur sezen
Q: What were your feelings before TEDIMUN?
Deniz: I was very excited the past week, because this is the first time we are hosting an MUN Conference at our school.
Q: How did you prepare for TEDIMUN?
Deniz: We worked really hard.
Onur: I ordered many pizzas and sold them every single day to raise the money we need for TEDIMUN.
Q: Why did you join TEDIMUN?
Deniz: I am a very idealist person and one of my purposes is to save the world.
Onur: We were at a hamburger restaurant in Holland and that is when Ms. Cinli told us about creating our own MUN. I was really happy to hear thatand told her I would be glad to take a part.
Q: You have a really big responsibility. What do you feel about that?
Deniz: It is a hard job to keep the money safe, but I figured it somehow ;)
Onur: I am the president of the student council so I am used to these kinds of responsibilities.
Interview with
TEDIMUN'19 head of hospitality
Sofya akcayoglu
Q: How do you feel about the first day?
Sofya: Pretty good.
Q: What do you feel about the people in MUN?
Sofya: They seem nice, half of them are my friends anyway.
Q: Are you satisfied with people's work?
Sofya: Yes, but we'll see tomorrow.
Q: What are your feelings about this year's MUN?
Sofya: Pretty good.
Q: Do you have any expectations about this year's MUN?
Sofya: For it to be BOMBBB!
Interview with
TEDIMUN'19 Heads of admin
Yaren sen & defne gozet
Even though it has been hard to catch them during the conference or even see them while they aren’t running, we were able to chat with our lovely heads of admins for a short period. Firstly, we asked them about their journey to this very day. We wanted them to tell us about the problems they faced and how they found solutions to these problems. As any Head of Admin would say, they told us that they had inconveniences with pretty much everything including the badges, food, placards and many more. Yaren, the rather short one of the heads of admins, answered: “But I understood that all the challenges we faced and every sleepless night were worth it when I saw all the smiling faces today.” They added that they have full trust in their admins and executive team and they hope that everyone has an amazing time here in TEDIMUN.
Marginalised Youth
In the past few years, the acts of arming movements are increasing and human security is jeopardized day by day. People are getting influenced by arming policies of certain groups, especially younger individuals. The average age of terrorists has decreased to as young as 10 years old. Examples of this can be seen all over the world, especially in counties such as but not limited to Iraq, Nigeria, Sri-Lanka, Myanmar and more… TEDIMUN'19 GA 1 Committee will be talking about the marginalized youth involved with extremist groups.
Dictionary definition of extremist is ‘‘someone who has extreme opinions, especially in politics.’’ Extremist groups become dangerous when the word of extremist is combined with violent actions. Extremist groups do not think that they are as dangerous or as problematic by themselves, compared to when these radical ideas influence others, as their ideas become harmful for a wider geography. In addition, these groups terrorize certain locations of importance in order to gain the attention of the general public. This also includes cyber-security concerning international terrorism.
In the past, extremist groups had to made face to face communications with potential members to make them join their groups, which is a time-consuming process. Unfortunately, with the development of technology, reaching to new members have become easier than ever. Mails, forums, chat rooms, e-groups... Extremist groups use the technologies utilized by the younger generation.
There are major parties involved in this topic that include countries like Iraq, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Nigeria and also organisations such as United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). To start with Iraq, there are 274 cases of recruited children by the Islamic State in Iraq in 2015 only. UN reports include military training to 10-year-olds in rural Aleppo. The Terrorism Prevention Branch (TPB) of the UNODC helps Member states for legal counter-terrorism actions. In the past few years, the priority turned towards the issue of the youth’s role in terrorism. Also in Myanmar, the UN called Burmese generals to be tried for genocide on Rohingya Muslims as a result of various events that include the revocation of citizenship rights of Rohingyans. Finally, Sri Lanka was split by Muslims and Christians. In the recent years there have been some attacks to groups of Buddhists. So, in 2012 an extremist group called the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) has been created. Effects of BBS on Sri Lankan youth is undeniable, this too only adds to the risks associated with large youth populations.
The most crucial step in solving this issue is the creation of an international legal framework. Furthermore, providing education is another effective way to make children stay motivated towards better lives. Social media plays a moderately important role in the recruitment of child soldiers to ranks through propaganda and manipulation. However, since most of the regions with such problems are countries with limited or no access to social media, peer pressure and exploitation of the youth’s naivete play a major part in the issue of children's involvement in extremist groups. The most straightforward way of solving this problem is setting an age restriction for recruiting soldiers. Other solutions include the inspection of the regions that have this problem through the UN and constantly governing the situation with sheer caution. As already stated above, improving the education facilities of those countries is of critical importance, as it’s one of the core causes that create this problem.
In a statement to the United Nations Security Council on 12 February 1999, Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of UNICEF, declared that "[W]e would be derelict if we did not reiterate, in the strongest possible terms, that until the minimum age of recruitment is universally set at 18, the ruthless exploitation of children as soldiers will continue." The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers wholeheartedly endorses this statement and would only add that African countries can play a leading role in ensuring this standard is adopted; of even more importance, they can help to ensure that this standard is respected in practice.
Sources
http://undesdoc.unesco.org/images
http://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/c306e3_2fbf4c14af7b410fb165478d2ae0cd59.pdf
Written by Teoman Tuncer (GA1 Committee Press Member)
Resilient Infrastructure
Resilience has strong gender and poverty dimensions. Women and girls constitute the largest percentage of the world’s poorest people and are most affected by climate, environment and disaster risks, but further research and action are required to properly integrate gender into decision making. Women and girls are also more likely to be absent from consultation and decision making. The concept of resilience brings together disaster and climate risks. For engineers, the concept of resilience has generally been related to the structural integrity of systems and physical infrastructure, essential to ensure continued operational performance during extreme loading. Engineers, therefore, have tended to view resilience as part of their professional duty of care, which is reflected in the engineering concept for resilience. Resilience in infrastructure should include both direct and indirect impacts. Direct impacts include resilience to sudden shocks and to slow-onset impacts Indirect impacts include the effects of depleting or degrading the natural environment such as through deforestation or pollution. This is considered as a reduction of ‘ecosystem services’ that enable the natural environment to increase our resilience. In addition, infrastructure has been a key term while discussing aiding the development of LEDCs. It can be said that better infrastructure results in well-functioning cities.
Typically, infrastructure investment is based on a return on investment and lifespan that is short. It needs to be recognized that infrastructure investment made today will not only need to respond to future climate impacts on the infrastructure itself but will determine how future users live. Assuring climate resilience of infrastructure thus requires a broad spectrum of analysis to be taken into account in investment decisions and design choices.
Until now, international support for LEDCs has focused too much on international demand for these countries’ existing or potential products. In essence, LEDCs face almost unlimited demand for their exports. What has been relatively neglected has been domestic production, sustainable or otherwise — and whether or not orientated toward export or domestic consumption. In very blunt and simplistic terms, many LEDCs simply do not make enough to meet the significant demand that would potentially exist for their products, and however good the incentives, their economies will not adapt to take advantage of that demand.
It is important to recognize that the support measures provided the international community is not a recipe for development, nor do they hold all the answers for LEDCs. They should be seen not as low-hanging fruit which alone can stimulate or support sustainable development, but as part of the overall development process to be complemented by active government policies. The sustainable development goals, however, and the earlier work of the structuralisms and develop mentalists may imply the need for a redesign of international support measures for existing LEDCs and for those leaving the category. Any framework which questions the limits of economic growth is particularly controversial in LEDCs. For countries at the very lowest levels of aggregate income, economic growth is absolutely essential to reduce poverty. Most LEDCs do not contribute substantially to carbon emissions and should not be prohibited from adopting productivity-boosting technologies.
Written by Çağla Pars (Press Member)
Not Only a Women's Issue
Gender equality is not only a women's issue, but it's also a human rights issue. Girls and women are discriminated in terms of access, permanence, completion, treatment, learning outcomes and career choices. On paper, gender inequality is a long list of statistics showing the imbalance of power between men and women. In real terms, gender inequality is a major problem on local, national and global levels. Not only does it affect the lives of individual men and women, but the inequality between genders also stunts economic growth and hinders development.
HeForShe is an invitation for men and people of all genders to stand in solidarity with women to create a bold, visible and united force for gender equality. Throughout history, women have had very different experiences at different times. Women through history have gained and lost power many times. Although ancient history records many strong female figures such as Cleopatra, Boudicca, Esther whose names echo down history to the present day. The first known author was a woman, in the Celtic culture of Gaul (now France) and the British Isles, women fought as warriors alongside their men and in the early Christian church, there is evidence that women could hold positions of influence equal to men. But all this was to change. During the early years, women were not entitled to the same rights and privileges as men. Women were not allowed to vote and were usually required to surrender control of their property to their husband upon marriage. Moreover, their educational and occupational opportunities were severely limited. It was commonly believed that a woman's place was in the home, raising children and tending to domestic affairs. The timeline of a woman’s right to property is filled with milestones that vary by culture throughout history. The first record of unequal rights to inheriting property dates as far back as the biblical era, when Jewish law dictated that women could own land, but wives could not inherit property from their husbands unless they had no children. In some major religions, such as Christianity, women played minor roles in serving the church, until the ‘60s, American women couldn’t open a bank account using their own name, while single women could travel using their own names, married women could only travel with their husbands, many of the world’s top institutions, such as Yale, Princeton, and Harvard, did not allow female students until the late ‘60s through the ‘70s, women were not allowed to sue men for sexual harassment and women had to travel across the world to access a painless childbirth in the early 1900s. In the 1960s, married and unmarried women formed special associations. They specialized in advocating for their equality in different spheres. Although they divided based on different ideological principles, they all fought for human treatment of all women and considered it their basic target. There’s some space for the necessary amendment in women’s educational, health, property, family, and other rights to guarantee their high living standards today. We should care for its importance and impact.
Made by Gülce Yüksek (GA3 Committee Press Member)