Yale Model United Nations

A Tale of New Cities

We’re hoping you’ve started planning your great expedition to the city that we call home – New Haven! YMUN 2012 is only 2 days away.

It cannot be said that New Haven has the stellar image of most other college towns that pepper the East Coast, and it doesn’t have the sunny weather that our Californian counterparts have to offer. But regardless of what’s said, New Haven is not a “sketchy” city that you want to stay away from. Much to even my own surprise, New Haven has a lot to offer, but this post will be centred on food.

A favourite of many are the food carts that are spread out throughout the city. The Cheese Truck is definitely one of the most famous, with its absolutely delicious grilled cheese sandwich (their signature mustard is highly advisable). Other offer freshly popped kettle corn, tacos, hot dogs and even some Indian street food.

But New Haven is not just about the food carts. It’s big foodie moment of glory comes from the pizza made at Sally’s and Pepe’s – reputed to have the best pizza in the country. Other options include Thai, Japanese, Indian, American (chicken wings in buffalo sauce, anyone?) and Mediterranean.

My personal favourite food-related part of New Haven is the quaint coffee shops conveniently placed around Yale. Willoughby’s, Blue State, Starbucks, Atticus, Book Trader, if you enjoy curling up with a book or eating some organic food while enjoying the great company of your fellow YMUN delegates, these are the places for you.

Regardless of what your preference is, New Haven is a great place to explore sime gustatory delights!

Devika Mittal

YMUN XXXVIII IS IN THE WORKS!

Registration’s up and running, our new website’s up and running, the new Secretariat is up and avoiding running (physical exercise is just not our thing), and we’re working on the first ever advisor newsletter - that’s right, YMUN XXXVIII is in the works!

I’m Larissa Liburd, the USG Conference for this year, letting you know that it’s time to get pumped. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at larissa.liburd@yira.org, or contact our YMUN Secretary-General, Marj Berman, at marj.berman@yira.org.

Start the countdown - only 233 days, 5,594 hours, 335,684 minutes, and 20,141,000 (and counting!) seconds to go until the greatest weekend of your lifetime!

YMUN COUNTDOWN

YMUN XXXVII is less than a week away!

ANNOUNCING: YMUN XXXVII’S KEYNOTE SPEAKER

This year’s keynote speaker will be Dr. William Ury.

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We at YMUN are incredibly pleased to welcome Dr. William Ury as our opening ceremonies speaker this year. Both the Secretariat and the Yale community very much look forward to learning from Dr. Ury during the Conference. We hope delegates find the chance to study his work and gain inspiration as well.

Over the last 30 years, Ury has served as a negotiation adviser and mediator in conflicts ranging from corporate mergers to ethnic wars in the Middle East, the Balkans, and the former Soviet Union. With former president Jimmy Carter, he co-founded the International Negotiation Network, a non-governmental body seeking to end civil wars around the world. During the 1980s, he helped the US and Soviet governments create nuclear crisis centers designed to avert an accidental nuclear war. More recently, Ury has served as a third party in helping to end a civil war in Aceh, Indonesia, and helping to prevent one from starting in Venezuela.

He is also trained as a social anthropologist. With a B.A. from Yale and a Ph.D. from Harvard, Ury has carried out his research on negotiation around the world. His work has been widely featured in the media, in such newspapers as the New York Times and the Financial Times and in such news networks as ABC and BBC.

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William L. Ury is the author of The Power of a Positive No: How to Say No & Still Get to Yes (2007) and co-author (with Roger Fisher) of Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In, an eight-million-copy bestseller translated into over thirty languages.

COMMITTEE SPOTLIGHT: Arab League

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Directors: Fatin Al-Alawi (fatin.al-alawi@yale.edu) and Hala Siraj (hala.siraj@yale.edu)

Founded in 1945, the Arab League is an organization comprising 22 Arab states from Southwest Asia and North/Northeast Africa. It’s main goal, as stated in the Pact of the League of Arab States (1945), is to: “draw closer the relations between member States and coordinate collaboration between them, to safeguard their independence and sovereignty, and to consider in a general way the affairs and interests of the Arab countries.”

At this year’s YMUN, the Arab League will address two key contemporary issues. The first deals with the age-old tension between the Sunni and Shiite islamic sects. This tension has, in recent times, led to political turmoil throughout the Middle East. As delegates, you will have to find a way to bring internal piece and stability to this region of the world by addressing such dimensions of the issue as national politics, cross-border interactions, and foreign policy.

The second topic will address the economic development of the Middle East. While not clearly defined, this issue is multi-faceted. As delegates, you will have to explore all of these different sides to the problem. Would it be beneficial to bring micro-finance markets to the Middle East? If so, how could these be implemented? Should funds be invested into education, or is there a more immediate course of action that should be adopted? The answers to these questions are yours to determine.

More information about the Arab League committee, including its topic brief, can be found at: http://ymun.yira.org/ymun/committees/77/

Questions about YMUN preparation?

Are you lost when it comes to doing research for your committees? Are you confused about what “decorum” is and why everyone cares so much about it? Do you need to brush up on those pesky rules of parliamentary procedure? 

The YMUN website is the answer to all of your problems!

Check out the General Links section for a detailed and exhaustive list of useful and highly informative websites to use in your research, and look the YMUN Resources page for all of your resolution-writing or parliamentary procedure-observing needs. 

And, of course, if those pages don’t answer your questions, feel free to contact the Secretariat at any time! 

COMMITTEE SPOTLIGHT: World Bank

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Directors: Jasmine Lau (jasmine.lau@yale.edu), Connie Leong (connie.leong@yale.edu), and Snigdha Sur (snigdha.sur@yale.edu)

Since its creation in the wake of World War II, the World Bank has emerged as a key figure in the field of international development. According to its website, its mission is to “fight poverty with passion and professionalism for lasting results and to help people help themselves and their environment by providing resources, sharing knowledge, building capacity and forging partnerships in the public and private sectors.” The World Bank addresses a variety of needs, from short-term emergency relief to long-term investments in infrastructure and education.

This year, the World Bank committee at YMUN will tackle two very intricate issues. The first addresses the Global Food Crisis, or the rapid increase in price of staple foods in developing countries worldwide. This issue is particularly pressing because the countries involved already have high hunger and malnutrition rates, and a good solution to the issue will require a mix of immediate assistance and long-term changes in infrastructure.

The second issue addressed by the YMUN World Bank committee will be the new Eco² Cities initiative. This initiative targets the problem of sustainability in rapidly urbanizing regions of the world. The spread and growth of cities, replacing natural landscapes with sprawling metropolises, has often triggered a conflict between the interests of furthering economic growth and of addressing ecological concerns. The Eco² initiative calls for harmony between these two interests, which should not be competing but rather equally necessary. The “economy vs. ecology” mentality is outdated and, as delegates, you will have to find innovative ways of implementing the Eco² philosophy and being leaders in the quest for sustainability.

More information about the World Bank committee, including its topic brief, can be found at: http://ymun.yira.org/ymun/committees/76/