Full of Spice and Everything Nice

-Punya Mahajan

By Aditi & Hemangi V

1

THESIGNPOST

Unabated, debated the del-

egates of SOCHUM-SMP on

deux jours of the committee,

starting with a motion of deep

import being under treatment.

Mr. Dorsey from Twitter neatly

branded censorship as unsatis-

factory and a bad idea, keep-

ing in view the difficulty in the

process of defining clear terms

for press and media, stressing

instead on the alternative of

imparting ‘media literacy’ to

the masses which would help

people decode media mes-

sages and analyze them criti-

cally.

The representatives of various

media organizations present in

the committee shared a view

that governments must be

pro-active and respect the

right to freedom of speech and

expression, with Sue Gardner

from Wikimedia calling trans-

parency as the forum’s hall-

mark saying,” Media doesn’t

incite sentiments against a

nation’s government.

Protests can only be there if

citizens are dissatisfied with their

government.”

The delegate of China, once again

made it a point to make clear to

the committee that social media

organizations must comply with

the laws of China in case they are

ever interested in business, some

of the guidelines set by the del-

egate being-state’s secrets won’t

be allowed to be shared, no use of

words like ‘Taiwan’,’ Tibet’, ‘Por-

nography’ and no material be

made available that would draw

attention towards the

government’s policies. The del-

egate said, “The government of

China governs the Internet, gov-

erns the Media, and governs its

citizens.”

Two working papers, one authored

by China, DPRK, Brazil, Malaysia,

and Turkey, speaking of imposing

a ban on explicit lyrics inciting

public emotions, sexual scenes,

videos of execution, hate articles

and demanding that media houses

and government work together,

and the other by USA, Russia, UK,

Egypt, Israel and Iraq, titled

‘Censor Censorship’, saying media

literacy spread should be focused

at, were presented.

The second session of the com-

mittee saw a crisis unfolding,

when social media updates

informed that sexually explicit

images of Obama and the Chinese

Premier Wen Jiabao have gone

viral, with the US and China

bashing and blaming each other

on the issue. Later on, it was

revealed that Al Jazeera was at

the helm of affairs in making the

photo and having hands in

spreading the same, Justifying

that this was done to promote

love and peace between nations..

The committee gave a press

release saying, “UNGA-SOCHUM-

SMP considers an immense need

to be wary of viral obscenities

that have exploded on Facebook

and Twitter. Al Jazeera apologizes

for the recent development.

Cyber security and infringement

of privacy are also issues being

addressed.”

5th Jan 2013

Who cares about the peace?

-Shruti Sivakumar,FarsTHESIGNPOST

The 4th session of UNGA –

DISEC saw a discussion that

was largely on the usage and

ill effects of landmines and

cluster munitions, and also a

relatively rare occurrence,

when Pakistan appreciated the

solutions given by the delegate

of USA on how to avoid the

death of civilians caused by

landmines. The suggestion

brought forward by USA, was

to deploy security personnel in

the areas where landmines

were planted, to ensure that

civilians do not accidently

trigger the landmines. The

delegate of Pakistan, in the

undying irony that formed the

backbone of his argument, in

his speech, stated that the

country strongly believes in

Love, Peace and Humanity, but

the fact remains that Pakistan

is one of the countries that has

not signed the Ottawa treaty/

mine ban treaty, and it has

done nothing to come up with

a peaceful solution to the problem

as yet.

While USA strongly propagated

the use of landmines and cluster

munitions, stating that these

weapons of warfare were used

only in their borders with the sole

purpose of defending their coun-

try from enemy attacks, and that

they were not going to be used to

attack innocent civilians, the

delegate suggested that countries

that have a history of conflict also

use landmines to defend them-

selves. On the other hand, Ger-

many who strongly supported

USA on day 1 was against the use

of such weapons and was one of

the rare advocates of actual world

peace. But the advocates were

clearly outnumbered, with Russia

suggesting the use of Landmines

in borders stating that the size of

the nation is so large that it is not

possible to assign defense person-

nel as judiciously.

A working paper that was pre-

pared on day 1 was discussed and

it consisted entirely of the defini-

tion of conventional and non

conventional weapons. With the

committee going nowhere with

the deliberations on the working

paper, the chair walked in with a

grave crisis that he had just

received news about: Syria had

bombed 4 towns, including two

5th Jan 2013

2

of their own, Aleppo, El Has-

sake, Mardin and Kilis.

The delegate of Syria gave a

presidential speech justifying

the act by stating that Turkey

was aiding and proving weapons

to anti Syrian bodies, and that

they had sufficient proof to

justify this statement. He

claimed that this move was only

in defense against Turkey’s

alleged conspiracy.

It has to be noted that while it

was important to stop Turkey

from aiding and providing weap-

ons to anti Syrian bodies, it did

not give the Syrian government

the right to bomb towns and kill

several innocent civilians. They

should have taken a more diplo-

matic step and should have

resorted to more peaceful ways

of resolving the issue.

Apart from the crisis, the com-

mittee stuck to the agenda.

USA, Russia, Germany and

Pakistan as expected, actively

participated in the proceedings;

and as always, gave out the

impression that world peace

was of absolutely no signifi-

cance next to their country’s

policies.

Of course, as long as there can

be debate about how efficiently

the war can be won, who cares

about peace?

Of Bacon and Aloo Tikki Burgers

-Khushboo Doshi,Returs

“India, is fortunately not in

despairing need for investors

now, as was the dearth for the

same in its recent past,and hence

it can focus on developing its

economic.Strength by adopting

measures to filter as per their

needs” explained the representat

-ive from India. He further

emphasised, that the investors

would need to modify their selling

pattern as per market demands ,

with the interesting example of

aloo tikki burgers selling like hot

cakes in India when compared to

bacon and pork.

THESIGNPOST

Day two saw the coming

together of dynamic minds, in

ECOSOC, as the session com-

menced with deliberations on

Foreign Direct Investment

(FDI) in developing countries.

The Delegate of China stimu-

lated a probe into the aspects

of investment in a manufactur-

ing, office, or other physical

company-related structure or

group of structures in an area

where no previous facilities

exist, formally known as

Greenfield investment.

“Improving the business envi-

ronment as a whole” the Del-

egate of Netherlands sug-

gested, with respect to the

increased influx of FDI in only

the financially effluent nations.

The solution of providing

incentives to would-be finan-

ciers, gave rise to the question

by Russia, of whether a coun-

try should be pushing the

envelope to provide outside

enticements or improving the

local scenario.

Russia spoke about the problem

of a possible loss of control and

dependency in the long term in

case the host country was not

able to imbibe the technical

know-how resulting in an entire

sector lost to the expertise of the

foreign investors. The delegate of

Germany brought to light the

other side of the same, explaining

that MNC s that invest, consider

long term aspects and the poten-

tial payback period.

Ukraine supported India’s contri-

bution about FDI as an aid and its

promotion, while USA believed

that the whole process of foreign

investment was an exceptional

symbiotic process with mutual

benefit to investors and the host.

5th Jan 2013

3

To Kill, Or Not To Kill?

-Aditya Baskaran,FarsTHESIGNPOST

An agenda, which has been

under debate for a significant

period of time was taken up by

The Human Resource Council,

as the abolishment of human

death penalty was under

debate for the second day

today.

While a seeming majority

supported the abolition, a good

number of countries came out

with pragmatic reasons about

the rather positive effects of

death penalty – the mental

fear it instilled amidst fellow

wrong-doers in the society. The

first caucus for the day

occurred on execution of

people, with diminished mental

capacity. Most countries stated

that their judicial system

detains convicts with mental

issues rather than grant them

death sentences, and pressed

for the need of better health-

care facilities and proper trails

to avoid ‘injustice from being

served’ and to help such mem-

bers of the society.

The delegate of the Islamic

Republic of Iran, who served the

much-needed spice during the

long rant of a debate, stated that

mental instability of any manner –

be it the temporary one, fuelled

by alcohol consumption - would

not be tolerated, and thus, would

be given the same treatment as

any other criminal, under the

Shar’ia. The delegate went on to

state that human mental instabil-

ity was “Allah’s punishment to

men”, and such citizens “with

special brains” were still criminals

under the eyes of law.

The next moderated caucus was a

discussion on the reasons for

which death penalty were avoided

in different countries.

5th Jan 2013

The majority stated murder,

genocide, high-level drug traffick-

ing and treason to be major

reasons, while the term “aggra-

vated” rape, introduced by the

delegate of USA was tested by

some, before going onto the list.

While the religious laws of the

Islamic countries of the commit-

tee, namely Pakistan and Iran

were portrayed negatively for

being non-secular, the delegate of

Iran retaliated with a mighty

comment that “What is a crime

for one country is not so for

another”, and managed to thwart

the meek onslaught against the

Islamic laws, with a little help

from Pakistan.

4

To Kill, Or Not To Kill?

-Aditya Baskaran,FarsTHESIGNPOST

The post-lunch session was

filled with drama on the lighter

side, and proved to be “highly

entertaining”, as a caucus on

the cost-effectiveness of the

death penalty took a funny

turn, when Malaysia stated in

manner of spirituality that

death penalty would allow such

beings to be better humans in

their next lives via resurrec-

tion. Malaysia’s complete lack

of knowledge in Muslim values,

followed by a statement from

Iran that “the delegate of

Malaysia would be accused,

under the laws of Shar’ia for

blasphemy” evoked laughs

amidst the committee.

The council, while putting

forward some bright points,

spent a lot of time on several

sessions of un-moderated

caucus. Yet, these un-

moderated caucus’ gave space

to understand the humanity

present in delegates, as the

two female delegates

stepped forward to propose

‘raping of rapists by homosexuals’

as punishment instead of death.

Two resolutions were conceived

today – one by Spain and Philip-

pines, which spoke of urging

nations towards abolition of the

death penalty , and submitting

reports towards the UN on the

statistics of convicts executed, per

a given time period. The resolu-

tion also called on nations to

follow the M’Nagten Rule, and

sign the second optional protocol

of the UN International Covenant

5th Jan 2013

of Political Rights. The second by

India and USA, addressed more

specific issues, such as the defini-

tion of crimes that warrant the

penalty, appeals, penalty towards

the juvenile and mentally-

challenged, and the families of

the accused.

The resolution stated the impor-

tance of the accountability of the

nations towards the UNHRC and

stated guidelines towards coun-

tries that follow the death pen-

alty.

5

Of cad vessels, tri-partite treaty and more

-V.Vidya, Reuters

THESIGNPOST

The United Nations Security

Council (UNSC) is one of the

six principal organs of the

United Nations and is charged

with the maintenance of inter-

national peace and security.

The session began with the

Delegate of India extending a

hand of support to China’s

naval base and urged them to

take aggressive measures on

the unidentified ship whose

exact whereabouts aren’t

known as of now. The German

Delegate put forth his point

which said that Germany, India

and japan should be given

factual information on the

exact where about of the ship

by the Chinese navy which was

seconded by the Delegates of

Ireland, Portugal and Japan.

Following this was an update

from the chair who said “the

ship has been identified as a

Russian fleet but there is no

information on whether Russia

is in control of the same”.

Reacting to this, the Delegate of

India expressed the need of quick

action at this point of time and

extended support to China in its

operations while the Delegate of

Indonesia urged all the countries

to come forward to find a solution

rather than playing the blame

game.

When the chair quoted an incident

which involved accidental attacks

by the Israeli navy on an Ameri-

can ship which it thought to be

Egyptian, the Delegate of Iceland

ruled out the possibility of such

accidental attacks in this situa-

tion.

This was immediately followed by

an update from the EB which said

that the Russian Navy commander

in chief deeply regretted the loss

of lives and for the loss of control

of the fleet. It was also mentioned

that the rogue elements haven’t

been identified as yet. The Del-

egate of China made a quick

mention of an apology that they

have received from Russia.

While the Delegate of Portugal

insisted China to collaborate with

Russia and other countries to

attack the ship, the Delegate of

Indonesia said that such attacks

might lead to counter attacks and

cause further damage and

strongly felt that this has to be

dealt with using negotiation

5th Jan 2013

among countries.

The next update in line was the

attack on a merchant ship of

Indian origin which was deeply

regretted by member countries.

There was unanimity among most

of the countries which said that

quick action has to be taken

without causing much destruction

neither to the marine life nor to

the lives of innocent civilians.

“The trade and merchant ships in

that region should be put in high

alert” said the Delegate of Philip-

pines.

On the other hand the Delegates

of Portugal and South Africa

insisted that the Russian ship has

to be destroyed to prevent further

damage. The Delegates of India

and China put forth a Joint Action

Order to be implemented if the

Russian Navy doesn’t come up

with a solution within a time

frame of one hour.

To end with the delegate of India

said “I express disappointment

over the Russian vessel and urge

the need for a tripartite agree-

ment between Russia, China and

India to put an end to this

demanding issue which has

already affected major countries

of the world”.

6

The Summit on Media and Press— Secretary General’s baby

-Arvind Badri,Fars

THESIGNPOST

From experience, one would

expect the secretary general of

a MUN to be a very tired and

exasperated woman, but

Dhwani Sabesh, the

Secretary-General of MOPMUN

is actually a charming, affable

and a talkative person.

Very quick to redirect compli-

ments about the success (so

far) of MOPMUN to the Charge

d’affairs and the Organizing

Committee, which has worked

tirelessly to make it possible-

one can’t help but feel pleased

with the quick and efficient

response of even the liaison

officers in the councils.

When asked whether the con-

ference has satisfied or

exceeded her expectations, her

smile falters.When the MUN

was proposed, they had

expected a lot of applications,

and quite a few of what she

describes as “half-decent

delegates in the MUN circuit”

had applied. But there has

been a very depressing trend-

one that could even be described

as an alarming one—of delegates

and Press members dropping out

right before the start of the MUN.

And this, according to her, is

where the executive board has

stepped up and has risen to the

task brilliantly—with the number

of delegates much lower than

promised, the EB has constantly

modified the country matrix to

cooperate with the Organizing

Committee; and this has enabled

them to pull a MUN off even with

all the last minute dropouts.

But when the UNGA-SOCHUM

Summit on Media and Press is

mentioned, her face lights up

again, as she fondly describes it

as “my and Shreya’s baby”. Of

course, credit to the idea goes to

the VIT MUN that was cancelled a

week before it was charted to

occur, MOP takes the credit for

successfully carrying the commit-

tee out for the first time in the

country.

And she, like the Executive Board

of SMP, couldn’t ask for a better

set of delegates. The delegates

were a little slow on the first day,

and the debate was a little

sluggish—but on the second day,

when the delegates became famil-

iar with the committee’s

demands, the debate was

5th Jan 2013

brilliant.

The EB was visibly pleased with

the amount of research the del-

egates had done: in their words,

these days, there are many

unconventional committees simu-

lated with end up being crisis

committees with too much em-

phasis on spontaneous debate.

While there are merits and

demerits to spontaneous debate,

the very backbone of a MUN is

research and preparation. To

them, it was heartening to see

the delegates’ research pay off. In

a council like SOCHUM-SMP,

where one mistake regarding a

law would result in ten delegates

pouncing at the delegate with

points of order, because it’s

primarily human-rights based, it

pays off to know your laws. And

with countries like India actually

carrying the constitution of her

country along with her so that

she could submit articles off that

as proof of statements—the EB is

not exaggerating about the

amount of research the delegates

in this council.

On the whole, the seat

behind the desk that says “execu-

tive board” is an enviable position

to be in—as it is clear that this EB

is enjoying MOPMUN quite a bit.

7

UNEP nods for global ETS

-Aishwarya Kumar,FarsTHESIGNPOST

Day 2 of the UNEP was all

about deliberation to set up a

global Emission trading system

(ETS) thereby retaining the

initial idea of carbon trading

and bringing in the concept of

accepting every nation into its

fold. India, which was blatantly

against the concept of the EU

ETS, gladly accepted the global

ETS phenomenon.

Session one of day 2 witnessed

a moderated caucus on the

topic “mitigating the environ-

mental impact by Aviation

Industry.” The United Kingdom

continued its stance on the fact

that improving fuel efficiency

will not be as successful as

carbon trading. It also believed

that reduction in the number of

flights would help in mitigating

carbon emission but this

should also be done keeping in

mind the trading system

followed by the EU ETS.

Tony Tyler from the IATA and

India were on the same page

and wanted the IATA and the

UNESCO to come together with a

solution instead of an independent

body like the EU ETS working

towards trading. He, along with

most of the developing nations,

was also against the concept of

the developing countries paying

auction and tax rates and there-

fore wanted the developed coun-

tries to allocate funds. UK tried to

justify the ETS, as it has been

doing (with little success) for the

last two days, that the lesser the

carbon they emit, the lesser the

amount they pay.

The delegates then debated the

measures taken by the Interna-

tional Civil Aviation Organization

(ICAO) to combat climate

changes. “There have been mea-

sures taken by ICAO and aircrafts

industries to increase fuel effi-

ciency by 1.5% per year and to

cut the fuel usage by 50% by

2050,” stated the delegate from

India. This statement opened a

whole new debate wherein all the

developing nations along with

Tony Tyler came up with the

statement that ICAO/IATA in

collaboration with the UNESCO

would definitely be a better alter-

native to the Emission Trading

System.

An un-moderated caucus then

resulted in the formation of a

5th Jan 2013

global ETS, with the major objec-

tives being monitoring carbon

emission, payment of penalty by

the defaulting nation to the coun-

try it is based and more transpar-

ency. By the end of day two a

crisis situation arose wherein the

UNEP received an intelligence

report of a bomb blast, in a Japa-

nese plant where there was a

joint research undertaking

between Japan and UK in Tokyo

city, which killed fifteen people,

including top Japanese and UK

scientists. The research could

have resulted in a plausible solu-

tion for the energy crisis and was

allegedly hugely important. A

Japanese diplomat was kidnapped

moments before he was about to

give a statement about the per-

petrators of the crime. The intelli-

gence report also stated that the

Indian Media house was informed

by the Al-Jazeera prior to the

blast and that they suppressed

the information.

There was a joint session with

both the UNEP and the Summit

on Media and Press to resolve this

crisis, considering the repercus-

sions on both forums.

Session 2 of the second day

ended with all the members of

the UNEP deciding to go in for an

emergency fund in order to help

the situation.8

By Aditi & Hemangi V

9

THESIGNPOST

What was your reaction when the Security Council became a Con-tinuous crisis council?

Personally I would’ve wanted to continue with the agenda, since I had researched exten-sively on it. But the CCC has been good for the council. It makes us think and use logic to find possible solutions. It is especially good for the first timers.

What is your opin-ion about the crisis at hand?It’s a grave situation seeing as a lot of lives have been lost and India particularly has faced a lot of challenges. It would be better if all the nations got together to solve it immediately.

Are you happy with the flow of the updates and the direction of the debate?The updates are per-fectly timed and ex-citing. The debate has been very good and gets better with each update.

An interview with the delegate of India in the Security Council

5th Jan 2013

By Aditi & Hemangi V

10

THESIGNPOST

1) What is the general stance of India on Carbon trading?India does not philosophically ap-prove Carbon Trad-ing. It vehemently opposes the Euro-pean Union abiding by the carbon trad-ing despite the fact that India as a country accepts the system.

2) India,a devel-oping country with agriculture being the prime occupa-tion, will it be pos-sible for us to reduce green house gases emis-sion?India’s per capita Carbon emission is low. However in the recent times, owing to population explo-sion, it is on the raise which is the reason behind India appearing at number 4 in the Global per Capita Carbon Emis-sion List.There are 2 ways by which emission of green house gas can be reduced.

Eliminating poverty and increasing the standard of living of the people would help them to afford technologically ad-vanced fuels thereby eliminating the need for conventional fuels which increases the green house gas emission. Advanced technology would also help in the same.

3) What are the solutions for Carbon trading?There is no specific solution to this issue. Irrespective of the strategy adopted there would be some amount of Carbon which is emitted. Thus the only pos-sible solution is to look out for alterna-tive energy sources.

Interview with the Delegate of India

- Vahini Mahalingham, Reuters

5th Jan 2013

By Aditi & Hemangi V

11

THESIGNPOST

1) Greenfield in-vestment and Ger-many, how far is it a successful asso-ciation?

Germany has an open and free trade policy and hence it supports all the types and alternative in-vestment options including Greenfield investment. Also China’s promotion of an option based on an open economy is inconsistent with its country’s generally restricted policies.

2) Your country’s take on Iraq’s reputation of being label led a “ terror-ist country” by many?

No country can be classified as a terror-ist country. If a sec-tion or group of citi-zens of a nation re-sorts to violent and destructive actions, that doesn’t mean the entire country is involved in the same. Hence any such label is baseless and politi-cally incorrect.Germany would be open to invest in Iraq, if assured that there will be security in all aspects and the fears are dis-persed.

3) Is it a devel-oped nations “re-sponsibility” to help out the devel-oping nations?

Using the word re-sponsibility would not fit the bill as it is always going to be about dollars and cents no matter what. The developed and developing na-tions through diplo-matic relations can work out a symbiotic and mutually benefi-cial scheme so as to assist the developing nations to further accelerate their progress .

Interview with the Delegate of Germany, ECOSOC

-Khushboo Doshi , Reuters

5th Jan 2013

Interview with the Delegate of USA

-Parvathya, Reuters

By Aditi & Hemangi V

11

THESIGNPOST

What is USA’s stance on the usage of UAV Drones?

USA: USA feels that UAV drones are a good milestone in terms of development of mili-tary armsbut can prove to be quite hazardous in countries that do not have the resources to control the consequences of the usage of drones.

5th Jan 2013

What is USA’s reaction to the statement “UAV drones being used for exploration disregards International Boundar-ies”?

USA: The United States of America has a very clear policy when it comes to the usage of drones. The UAV drones are used only for research and development purposes and in the whole sight of research, we are allowed to fly these drones over a certain altitude. When statement in question was called out in the case of Pakistan, the country was intimated about the USA drones and then claiming that they had no prior infor-mation about the surveil-lance actions by USA is vio-lating the policy. All our actions are pre informed.

Would a developed country such as USA be willing to extend assis-tance and lend technol-ogy in disarmament of land mines to financially unstable countries such as Africa?

USA: Yes, definitely one hundred percent. We extended arms even with the excavation of pirates in the attacks in Somalia. We have unmanned technology that can help in disarma-ment of land mines. We will also be willing to extend our research tech-nology appropriately and aide in the financial nature as well.

By Aditi & Hemangi V

13

THESIGNPOST

1) Delegate, in your speech, you talked about cen-soring words like “freedom”, “human rights” and “protest”. As an editor of FARS, if I want to publish a newsletter in your country about the events of the current session of the United Nations, how am I sup-posed to do it without using the term “human rights”?

The delegate of China suggests the news agency should use the words, but they can blur out these words in the website of the agency.

2) Delegate, wouldn’t it be obvi-ous if we wrote f****** and h**** r*****?That is the maximum the country can do, sir. China is a peaceful country and it feels that these words would incite rebellion.

3) Delegate, what is the point of ban-ning articles on the internet if citizens can download the article, change the blurred-out part and upload a hundred copies of it on online forums?Sir, downloading ar-ticles illegally and up-loading copies of it is an act of piracy. Piracy comes under a differ-ent mandate. When we say censorship, it is under the context that the original article will be censored. The gov-ernment cannot do anything about the pi-rated copies.

4) If China bans social networking websites like Face-book and Twitter, isn’t it isolating China from the rest of the world in social networking?

China has brought al-ternatives for all those websites and also has an alternative for google that many say is better than google. The Government of China has a duty to protect the people of China from dangerous news that would incite rebellion. If the people of China don’t have a problem-

5) How would you know what the people want, del-egate? Is China a democracy?

But of course it is. The Government of China does exactly what its people want.

Interview with the Delegate of China -Arvind Badri,Fars

-Parvathya, Reuters

5th Jan 2013

13

THESIGNPOST

Editor-in-chief( Press Head)Punya Mahajan

EditorsKhusboo Doshi (Reuters)

Arvind Badri (Fars)

Reporters (Reuters)Vidhya V

Lakshmi P V Parvathya SripadhanVahini Mahalingham

Reporters(Fars)Aditya BaskaranShree Varshini

Aishwarya KumarShruti Sivakumar

International Press

5th Jan 2013