LIMUN 2019: Home Victory
Written by: Lina Jeffcock
From the 21st to the 23rd of February, #TeamLSE attended the London International Model United Nations conference. To say the least, the weekend was a resounding success. #TeamLSE secured their sixth victory by winning Best Small Delegation yet again! Not only was #TeamLSE represented pristinely by our delegates, but we also had a large number of LSE students who attended the conference as chairs. Even the Secretary-General of LIMUN, Charis Yeap was none other than a proud LSE alumni.
While the award count of the conference is fantastic, the numbers alone do not tell the story of LIMUN. Recounting the events of LIMUN requires some honesty. Most delegates showed up to the opening ceremony exhausted, seeing as LIMUN took place during prime LSE deadline period. #TeamLSE obediently sat down in the opening ceremony, dreading the competitive weekend that lay ahead of them. However, the soporific pre-conference attitudes had flipped entirely after the first committee session as delegates came out of committee on Friday feeling empowered and ready to bring their A game to the conference. Clearly, MUN has the power to reinvigorate #TeamLSE. There is no need for class A drugs seeing as debating the importance of high-resolution satellite imaging is enough to get #TeamLSE high (Side note: #TeamLSE in no way endorses unhealthy MUN addictions or undermines the seriousness of addiction). LIMUN offered a wide range of topics that steered away from “typical” MUN topics - for example, one delegate discussed the issue of global currency manipulation, while another delegate debated ways in which to promote the creation of multilateral seaborne trade deals.
Regardless of what topics #TeamLSE delegates explored, chairs and delegates from other teams commended us for our excellent content in our speeches, resolutions and position papers. While the well-deserved awards reflect our hard work, #TeamLSE can, more importantly, be proud of the role we played in committee for its own sake as we all came out of LIMUN with a far more profound knowledge of our topics than when we first entered the committee room. As the delegation of Canada in some committees, we had to be particularly careful to stick to country policy as several Canadians, who were far better versed in Canadian foreign policy than us were lurking around in committee. Furthermore, LIMUN was a particularly unique conference experience in that it was so international. MUN teams had travelled far and wide from Singapore, the USA, Canada, Germany, Belgium, France and Thailand to get to LIMUN. I can only speak for myself but having such passionate and committed delegates from so many diverse backgrounds truly enriched my MUN experience.
All in all, LIMUN was an excellent conference experience. Many #TeamLSE delegates faced competitive MUN teams such as “MUN Society Belgium” and “Be.boosted” for the first time. Other delegates had a bit too much to drink at the LIMUN ball and waking up the following morning was a slight struggle for them to put it lightly. While #TeamLSE didn't have one homogenous experience, I think it is safe to say that LIMUN was a learning experience for all delegates in some form or another. Natalie Chung and Matheus Santos, #TeamLSE’s directors, have slept peacefully and proudly these past few nights knowing how far #TeamLSE has progressed this year.
We would like to congratulate the following LIMUN award winners:
1. Camille Coultrap - Diplomacy Award (DISEC)
2. Chris Matthews - Diplomacy Award (SPECPOL)
3. Frederik Braun - Diplomacy Award (ECOSOC)
4. Anderson Tan - Diplomacy Award (World Bank)
5. Alec Caruana - Diplomacy Award (Crisis)
6. Ines Dieringer - Diplomacy Award (UNHRC)
7. Lina Jeffcock- Verbal Commendation (IMO)
8. Jonas Bokelmann - Verbal Commendation (UNOOSA)
9. Eugene Gurin - Verbal Commendation (SOCHUM)
10. Ellie Cottrell - (UNSC)
11. Adam McMahon - (NATO)
And thank you to the Chairs:
1. Natalie Chung - Director (UNDP)
2. Sharif Kazemi - Director (SPECPOL)
3. Stefan Bogensberger - Director (League of Nations)
4. Mock Yi Jun - Director (UNSC)
5. Muqqaddam Malik - Director (African Union)
6. Christie Deng - Director and winner of the LIMUN Chairing Award (ICJ)
7. Petros Petrikkos - Director and winner of the LIMUN New Committee Chairing Award (LIMUN Social Pitch Project)
8. Serena Mukhi - Assistant Director and winner of the LIMUN New Committee Chairing Award (LIMUN Social Pitch Project)
9. Alki Giavridis - Assistant Director (ECOSOC)
10. Richard Sathirathaya - Backroom (Crisis)
We would also like to congratulate Charis Yeap, an LSE alumni, for her great contribution to this year's conference as the Secretary-General!
Finally, we would like to thank Chris Matthews for being a great Head Delegate, and leading the team to victory at none other than King's College London United Nations Association's very own campus down south.