This past weekend, I had the privilege of meeting everyone from Francois Hollande to the very-controversial Vladimir Putin (or at least their look-a-likes) at the Harvard-sponsored Model United Nations conference in Boston. Now that I have your attention, let me backtrack a little.
Despite our incessant preparation and eagerness to speak up, Hewitt’s team arrived at Back Bay Station with low spirits. Would we have the confidence to counter amendments made by the delegation of the United Kingdom? Do our freshmen have the personality necessary to stand in front of an auditorium filled with over 350 delegates and give a speech on why Cyprus believes in the establishment of a deposit guarantee mechanism to increase investors’ confidence in European banks?
4-days, 20+ hours of debate, and several coffees later, we all proved that we could do that and much more (even though it required some confidence boosters along the way, namely in the form of prescription-less reading glasses). While some of us conjured ways to keep drones out of ordinary citizens’ ways in war zones and others worked tirelessly on finding ways to avoid future incidents of fiscal data manipulation in the European Union (my committee), we all came together for one thing: the infamous delegate dance. Despite my wishes to divulge every little detail from that night on here, what happens at the delegate dance, stays at the delegate dance.
All joking aside, however, I came back home with my head full of new ideas and ways of thinking. It never would have occurred to me, for example, to suggest a bicameral parliament as a way to appease smaller European countries’ concerns that the accession of a country like Turkey (or even Russia) wouldn’t silence their voices in the European legislative system.
As I mentioned before, my committee had the privilege of hearing from several heads of state. The first guest was Antonis Samaras (Greece’s prime minister), who made a speech announcing his country’s retirement from the Eurozone. This led all delegates, who had spent hours compromising with Greece’s delegate on different ways that they could regain their economic footing, to enter panic-mode. We quickly had to change our strategy, and later our resolution, to include further measures that would keep other struggling nations from seceding. Putin and Hollande made equally-as-shocking announcements that sent all of us scurrying to find new solutions that would address each country’s concerns and demands.
It’s interesting to work together with students from India, Brazil, and the Czech Republic (among many other countries)…figuratively AND literally…toward a common goal. They all bring different perspectives, information, and even writing styles, allowing each committee to produce resolutions that are incredibly rich, diverse, and innovative.
@Isa, do you have any predictions as for the likelihood of Greece leaving the eurozone in reality?
Anna, the real answer is much more complex than I’m going to make it, but here you go. In committee, the dais made up a crisis and told us that Greece was leaving the Eurozone, so we could find a theoretical “solution” if something like that were to really happen. In reality, however, they haven’t withdrawn from the Eurozone, because it would hurt them AND the 17 other Eurozone nations. However, these nations are forcing Greece to take several measures (such as austerity measures) to “help” them improve economically. This would help them, because it would mean that Greece would have enough money to pay back its loans (as opposed to defaulting on them). They could also start working on overcoming the huge deficit that they’re currently dealing with.
To answer your question: At several points in the past couple of years, people have said that there is a small chance that Greece could leave the Eurozone, so they can solve the problem on their own and not have to follow Eurozone regulations and requirements. However, these theories are pretty remote. The chances that Greece would actually leave are low (in my opinion).
I enjoyed the emphasis in this piece on the political nuances with which our delegation had to grapple, along with the subtle humor. Nice glasses!