The end of an era

As was mentioned in my previous entry about the school newspaper, the grade twelves just graduated.  And, as is the tradition amongst IB students in our school, it is the duty of the grade eleven students to buckle down and plan their end-of-CAS banquet.  Leading up to the banquet on Wednesday we organized everything:  food, decorations, set-up... I was on the hosting and electronics committees.  We were all a bit worried about how it would turn out, but somehow some tablecloths, balloons, twinkly lights, and tulips turned the school cafeteria into a wondrous place that was not quite as grungy as the school cafeteria.  Honestly, it ended up looking rather nice.  After we were done with set-up, we went and got pizza, so that was also a perk.  Then we were back to greet people at the door, direct them on where to go, and also take in and out food from the kitchen.  I was only supposed to host, but I ended up helping carrying a lot of the food around as well.

As I mentioned before, I was also in charge of electronics, so during set-up Adrian and I worked to get the projector and sound systems working.  Mostly that entailed using pre-calc textbooks to get the projector at the right angle.  My other job in electronics was to get the music ready, and the soundtrack I made was a combination of graduation-ish songs and scores from musicals, since the 12s were big Les Mis fans.  I figured finding grad music would be quite easy, but I was really surprised about how long it took me to make my 20-song playlist.

CAS Banquet from Lazulia on 8tracks Radio.

I was told we'd be able to hook the iPod directly into the sound system, but as it turned out we only had a CD player to work with, so there was some last-minute CD burning to do.  Aside from that, I'd say things went pretty smoothly.  It's hard to imagine a year from now we'll be in the twelves' place... actually, it's kind of a scary thought.  By that point we'll have applied to universities, written IB exams, chosen programs... it's hard to imagine that a year from now the direction of our lives will be planned out so much more than they are now.  So much will change in a year.

Next year, we'll be the grade twelves, and we'll be sharing our hallway, our classrooms, and our parties with a new set of students.  The fourteen people we've grown to know will be off at university, doing completely new and different things.  And soon enough, we'll be them.

Still, we're not quite there yet.  In the words of one of the stereotypically-cheesy grad songs included on my playlist, "Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end."

 

That's a wrap

Since the school paper is run predominately by the Grade 12 IBs who just graduated, the last issue of the year came out this month.  I wrote a piece on upcoming events at the public library, and the issue prior I reviewed Beth Revis's Shades of Earth.  I'll definitely be returning to write for the paper again in the fall, and Jessica and I have been invited to take over as editors.  I kind of want to accept, although I'm also conscious of our other responsibilities, and I want to be careful not to bite off more than I can chew.  I guess it will all depend on what extent we choose to be involved with the yearbook committee next year.  The librarian, Ms. King, did express interest in reverting the newspaper to a literary paper as it was two years ago instead of the all-encompassing work that it has been this year.  A literary paper has a special niche market as there are none others like it locally, and apparently many different institutions wanted copies, something that stopped when it began covering school events.  Jess and I have been writing solely for the literary portion of the paper all the way along, so I would say if we did take on an editorial role, that would likely be the path we would take.  I think it is something I want to do, but I guess I'll just have to play it by ear and see what the state of affairs looks like in September.

Introduction to guitar

I am currently attempting to learn how to play guitar.  Over the last few weeks I've purchased my instrument, a FG700MS Yamaha Acoustic, read up on a few articles, and watched some how-to videos on Youtube to learn the basics and how to play "Smoke on the Water", but today I took a big leap into something more organized:  I've enrolled in a (free) online class put on by a professor at Berklee College of Music.  The six week course actually started last week, so I've spent my afternoon playing catchup.  Last week's assignments don't count for me as I missed the deadline, but I'm doing them anyway for the learning experience.  I watched through the professor's video lessons on the difference between acoustic and electric guitars, the parts of guitars and guitar accessories, and fretboard maps and chord block diagrams.  Some of this information I'd encountered through my flings with Youtube how-to videos, but a lot of it was new and all and all this course is just a great environment for learning.  The last of week one's material was to practice A minor and E major chords and then to answer some questions pertaining to the difference in their sounds, so here's a short video of me working on learning them.

I still have to finish answering the questions (later there will be a peer review session with other students enrolled in the course), and then it will be on to week two!  I really should be studying for my math test tomorrow, but this is much more fun.

Reconsidering the right to protect

Despite having slept for ten hours last night, I am still exhausted from Model UN.  One a.m. bedtimes and six o'clock alarms tend to do that to a person, I guess.

All and all, Model UN was amazing.  I was extremely unsure of what to do in our first session, but seeing everyone else passing notes to the pages, I decided just jumping in and going with it outweighed the risk of messing up.  And it really did.  During the opening speeches, I sent notes to Egypt, South Africa, and the Ukraine, three countries that had stances similar on the issue to mine, and I got replies from all saying they'd like to discuss our positions further during the unmoderated caucus.  I also got a note from Togo, who agreed with Tanzania's stance and was impressed with my opening speech.  When a moderated caucus was motioned for later on, I immediately went over and talked to Ukraine.  While we did share similar views on the employment of peacekeeping troops, she was not interested in aligning herself too strongly with the African nations, so we went our separate ways.  I then met up with South Africa, and our two countries agreed strongly on the issue.

Later on, Ethiopia invited us to join an alliance between her, Egypt, Togo, Russia, China, and Myanmar, which we accepted.  Soon we found our committee polarized between two groups:  the western countries such as Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States, who believed that the R2P doctrine should entitle them to "help" states suffering conflict by using military force, and the other countries who feared Western intervention.  In the case of Tanzania, both America's war against Iraq in 2003 and the fact that NATO had abused their authorization to invoke R2P in the 2011 situation in Libya to conduct over 7000 airstrikes and arm the civilian rebellion caused a distrust of the motives of Western powers in such conflicts, and a desire to pursue resolutions in which it is regional powers who are providing aid in such situations.

Later on, our group splintered again, with Russia, Sudan, China, and Myanmar splitting off to create their own draft paper based around their desire to never have any outside intervention ever, be it from Western or regional powers.  Our ideas began to take shape, with our alliance headed by Egypt, and Brazil taking the lead on the drafting of our working paper.  Two of the clauses that ended up included in our final resolution were written by me, which also was kind of cool, and I had a hand in the editing and revising process as well.

Within our group, a bloc formed between myself, Ethiopia, Togo, Rwanda, and South Africa, as we as African nations were in a very similar situation and shared the same reservations about the possibility of our interests being ignored when the rest of our alliance attempted to garner the support of other countries.  This fear intensified when it came time to sign on as sponsors, and none of the five of us were allowed a position.  Instead, Brazil and Egypt sponsored, as well as Saudi Arabia, who had just joined on to the working paper.  Why should the five of us, who had been there since the beginning and had no small part in shaping the clauses and preamble of the working paper, be refused sponsorship?  Add to the fact that the three sponsors were male and the five of us were female, and we understandably felt that the situation was a bit unfair.

Despite this and the fact that the three sponsors continually met and discussed the paper behind our backs, we managed to talk our sponsors out of the majority of proposed amendments that did not suit the interests of our countries by using the unspoken suggestion of aligning ourselves with the Western alliance.  At the end of the day, our finished paper was a strong resolution that well reflected the interests of us African countries, and in the final vote it won out over the West's paper.  I spoke more than a few times during moderated caucuses, supporting our paper and pointing out the shortcomings of our opponents', and while my oral graces were by no means extraordinary, I think all in all my performance was supportive of our cause.  Afterwards, our committee had an award ceremony, and I won the category of "Most Enthusiastic."  There's something to be said in trying one's best, I suppose.

I also had a blast hanging out with my friends (including my roommate, Harini-of-jade-plant-fame), and both the car ride there and back was thoroughly enjoyable, despite its length and the fact that we were all exhausted on the return trip.  Supposedly the organizers will be sending our school our passed resolutions sometime in the indiscriminate future, so whenever that event arrives rest assured I will be uploading our magnum opus, as well as any pictures I deem not too horrible to be seen by the human race.

I yield the remainder of my time to the moderator.

The road so far

Tomorrow the rest of the school delegation and I leave for Model UN.  I'm pretty excited; first for the five hour car ride with some of my good friends, and secondly for Model United Nations itself.  I've learned quite a bit about Tanzania over the course of my preparation, and about the issue of R2P, although I'm sure this weekend will be filled with hectic research between sessions to try and learn more about whatever topics my fellow committee members bring to the floor.  In any case, here is what I have written for my two-minute opening speech:

Mr. Moderator, Madame Director, Honourable Delegates, it is my honour to partake in the SOCHUM committee debate regarding the right to protect on behalf of the United Republic of Tanzania.

It is one of the utmost priorities of the URT to both safeguard the sovereignty, integrity, and independence of our nation, while also defending human rights, freedom, democracy, justice, and equality, both within our borders and throughout the world. We attest that the promotion of good neighbourliness, African Unity, and the support of the UN in its endeavour for peace, economic development, and international security are of the greatest importance.

It is critical that the United Nations carefully reconsider its current stance on the issue of the right to protect. In 2009, the URT, and many other honourable delegates, sponsored resolution A/RES/63/308 at the sixty-third session of the United Nations, deciding to continue consideration on the responsibility to protect, and the time for that consideration to turn to action is now.

Since that resolution, the international community's commitment on the right to protect was put to the test with the 2011 situation in Libya, after thousands of civilians were killed and countless more deaths were possible. The decision of the UN Security Council on this matter was to authorize NATO to protect Libyan civilians by any means necessary. In this crisis, NATO armed the rebellion and carried out over 7000 airstrikes, both actions that put the civilian population at risk.

This must not be considered the right to protect; like the US's war against Iraq beginning in 2003, these actions are not condoned by the URT. It is the undeniable duty of the international community to ensure the safety of the peoples of the world, but that safety should be ensured by peaceful means, and with those peoples as the primary priority, not the economic interests of NATO or the West.

The URT is proud to have over a thousand peacekeeping troops serving in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Lebanon and Sudan, and hundreds more engaged in peacekeeping efforts in the current situation in Syria. The United Republic of Tanzania believes that such peacekeeping efforts are key towards achieving the proper balance of national sovereignty and the protection of human rights on the international scale.

Thank you, I yield the remainder of my time to the Moderator.

I'm sure I'll have more to say about Model UN later in the weekend!