By: Danice Abril, International School Ho Chi Minh
In a tiny room, debates, arguments, voting and a whole lot more create the Advisory Panel hum. An ongoing thread of ideas just keeps flowing. Two sides with two points of views: the Humanitarian, composed of NGO’s and UNO’s, and the Political,made up of representative countries. This committee focuses on one specific issue: dealing with the conflicts that involve the Pacific Islands.
Because THIMUN-Singapore 2010 revolves around the theme of government, the committee’s topics center on combating the strong government corruption faced by countries in the Pacific Islands.
Each idea produced by delegates supports the solution to the problem, but are they aware of the main purpose of the Advisory Panel and what it deals with? The delegate of the United Kingdom, Sung Won Lim, stated that the AP serves “to solve several problems within the Pacific Islands.” To be specific, they are debating borders and resource disputes and protecting the cultural identity of the countries.
A specific problem that this committee faces is the drowing island of Kiribati. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it is composed of 33 islands. Malavika Nair, the delegate of Kiribati explained, “It may be the first island to completely disappear from the map. The locals in the country have only 20 to 30 years to either evacuate the place or delay the sea level rate.” Currently, the delegates are focusing on the environment and tourism so that they can reduce the risks of the island’s dissapearrance.
Dhruv Srinivastava, head of the Advisory Panel, moves through both rooms to assist any delegates in need. He feels that they will develop a solution for mounting problems. When asked if the committee can produce a good solution on time, the president simply answered, “I think so.” Lastly, while checking up on the busy delegates, he stated that, “They are doing well.”
Solving that specific issue is not easy. Each delegate has his or her own perspective on how to solve it. The delegate of USA, Paddy Nopany, stated, “I would propose that we can solve this problem simply by researching for prevention of the rising tide,” In addition he proposes asking for help from NGO’s and UNO’s to gain funds to protect the country. He added, “We should implement a sustainable green development for the county” and, “international science may also have technologies that may prevent or maybe warn them about the problem that they are facing”.
