Model United Nations

Very sorry dedicated readers. I have indeed neglected my super-fantastic blog in the past week.
I have been rather busy, as you may very well know.
This weekend I attended my first Model United Nations (you can read about what one actually is in the blog entry entitled M.U.N.) and it was really fun. It wasn't nearly as formal as I had envisioned and we actually did have lots of laughs and jokes (I could pretend they were highly intelligent , but I understood them).
The first day was from 8.45 to 4, and I had to drive to get there so my Saturday started at 6.30 in the morning. Nope, no sleep-ins for me this weekend. Big thanks to my parents for driving me to and from the event twice, two days in a row.
We listened to a guest speaker first up on Saturday. The man's name was Tim Groser, he was until very recently the New Zealand ambassador for the World Trade Organisation, and if that doesn't speak for itself, he is very prestigious and experienced. He gave a wonderful speech that I truly enjoyed. The conference was held at a university and, yes, I did very very smart sitting in the lecture theater a taking notes.
Our first topic of debate in the UNEP (Environment Programme) was:
'The Question of Sustainable Fishing Practices'.
I made one short speech opposing an ammendment, it didn't go to well, but in the end I don't think it was passed, so all was well.
I think I did pretty good for a newbie, even if I do say so myself.
In the two breaks and lobbying lunch I talked to a lot of people, and everyone was really nice.
I talked to one guy who was a veteran in my opinion, this was his twelfth conference and he had done nationals three times!
Out of everyone I asked, probably around ten or so, everyone was year 12 and one was year 13.
So, by the time I'm year 12, I think I'll be doing okay. Oh yeah, I plan to attend lots more of these conferences!
The last twenty minutes of debate on Saturday was a bit crazy, and an ammendment was passed stating the immediate annihilation of Portugal and remaining land to be salted then turned in to a theme park.
Also, an ammendment I wrote was passed without debate on the same topic ('The Question of Corporate Environmental Responsibility'), which was a good feeling.

I changed the clause: request that all stares require their central savings schemes to invest only in organisations with proven adherence to the standards
to:
declares accordingly that member states invest not only in organisations with proven adherence to the standards but to organisations needing financial aid to become economically sound; the method with which to determine organisations that need aid will be determined at a later date.

Today was also a good day, too. I made a speech supporting the resolution on the military use of outer space to the entire General Assembly (at least 120 people). And in the end, the resolution was passed.

We all had placard with which we used to vote, and I have to admit, rising it for points of information was fun.

Now I have to start campaigning to my parents so I can go to the National. (And they can come with me and pay accommodation and travel money...one's gotta try, right?).