ILYMUNews 2014: Issue 1

ILYMUNews, THE INTERNATIONAL LYON MODEL UNITED NATIONS 2014

GETTING STARTED...

Dear readers,

From the hectic space that is the Press Room, we would like to welcome you to day 1 of ILYMUN! It’s already the end of the first day, and what an exciting day it has been. From the arrival of 22 schools to lobbying, it’s been a very busy start to the second ILYMUN conference here in Lyon, and we’re sure that, like us, you’re all greatly looking forward to tomorrow!

We’ve been busy running around, interviewing, reporting and taking photos. In this issue, find out if you’ve been published as one of our Best Dressed; read our interview with ILYMUN’s Secretary Generals (without whom we would not be here today!); review today’s highlights; and find out this conference’s expected social events.

Remember that you can keep up to date with more ILYMUNews by following our twitter (twitter.com/ILYMUN). You can use the hashtag #ILYMUN to see updates from the previous conference, and share your excitement with us.Asha ZaharudinAngelica Larner


LETTERS FROM THE EDITORS

Drawing by Sarah Sidrine

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Au bureau de la Press Team les membres travaillent dur, la température ambiante de la salle est supérieure à la moyenne, les esprits s’échauffent et il n’y aucun moment de répit. Le seul air frais à notre disposition est celui que la porte crée lorsque quelqu’un passe. Cela donne l’impression d’être en plein milieu d’un essaim d’abeille: les gens sortent, rentrent, discutent, la plupart sont sur leur ordinateur à écrire des articles sur l’événement ou à retoucher des photos. Le plus souvent les membres de la Press Team parlent en anglais, même si quelque touches de français se font entendre. Toutefois malgré cette atmosphère de dur labeur, on ressent une chaleureuse ambiance.

Bonne lecture !

Holed up in the press room, the Press Team has been working hard; the room is getting stuffy, people are getting flustered, and the work is relentless. The only fresh air we get is the odd breeze when someone opens the door, and it’s beginning to feel like a beehive: people are buzzing everywhere, leaving, entering, talking, debating, and many are sat behind numerous computer screens, writing articles or touching up photos. Most of the conversations occur in English, but we do hear the odd snippet of French amongst all of the excitement. Despite the overwhelming atmosphere, the overall mood in the Press Room is positive and enthusiastic. Enjoy!


Rémi GUILLET, translation by Translation by Abigail Angelica Larner

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During the first few minutes of ILYMUN 2014, we asked a few questions to the Secretary Generals who were busy running around getting everything set up on time. They told us what they expected from the conference:

Anne-Maud Dupuy Roudel from the Cité Scolaire Internationale expects this event to go very well: “I hope that the delegates, admins and the press people will find an inner peace like I did after having experienced ILYMUN.” She hopes that the delegates will learn lots of things and acquire skills that will be useful for everything they attempt to do in the future. Martin Jego from the International School of Lyon hopes that the project will become permanent: “I hope that it is a success so the Rhône-Alpes Region will want to keep working with us”. At last, Camélia Moudène (from the CSI) said: “ I expect the conference to be great and amazing, and that the debates go well, as everything else in order to be able to do another edition next year.”


INTERVIEWING THE SECRETARY GENERALS

Left to right: Martin Jego, Camélia Moudène, Anne-Maud Dupuy Roudel

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The lobbying rooms buzzing with anticipation for the upcoming debates, the delegates broke off into small groups and began to redact their resolutions. The chairs’ hopes for “constructive resolution making” were flying high as the delegates discussed conflicts, crises and attempted to untangle a mess of international relations.

Some cha i rs ’ f ears tha t the delegates would not come to enough conclusions and not submit enough clauses for a productive debate were soon alleviated as the delegates attempted to form alliances and old grudges were brought to light. The delegates of Iran and Syria discussed a partnership through which they would combat the use of chemical weapons.

Country lobbying was muddied, though, by overwhelming, first-day confusion.

Delegates ran back and forth in the halls having mistakenly gone into the wrong rooms, the administrators all the while attempting to mitigate the mayhem.

The delegates of the United States of America felt that although the Sahel Crisis was a difficult issue to tackle, it brought up very important questions. Known for its foreign aid, given out with many strings attached, the USA is expected to clash with Syria, the delegates of which maintain a solid opposition to any humanitarian aid or outside intervention.

Other delegates, such as that of Indonesia, Titouan Rahbé, fear that the general assembly subject may be too specific for many of the countries represented to even have a chance to intervene in the debate.


LOBBYING TIME

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However, Indonesia did present a resolution to the chair overseeing the lobbying.

Country lobbying coming to a close, the delegates added the final touches to their resolutions and prepared for committee lobbying.

In committee lobbying, relations between some countries strengthened, while others withered. During lobbying the African Union Committee, the delegates of Peru, Morocco and Mali discussed submitting a clause requesting free and mandatory school for children. Meanwhile in the lobbying of the ECOSOC Committee, the delegates of Chad and Australia had been coming to an agreement about the independance of North Sahara, when the delegate of the United States of America in opposition, said that it could disrupt trade and create conflict. Interesting alliances also emerged during the lobbying of the Environmental Committee: the delegates of Tokyo and Nigeria discussed the preservation of natural resources, namely of

water through education and increased awareness of water consumption. The chairs of most committees have come to the consensus that both country and committee was very productive and has brought about many interesting topics for debate and allegiances between countries.


Elena Aigle,Photos: Joachim Pinochet lobos

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This year, ILYMUN 2014, committee 7 will be discussing the theme of Political and Decolonization of the planet. One of the two issues that the delegates will be debating on, is the worldwide conflict over the natural resources in the Arctic Waters.According to the chair Sevanna, they will discuss whether countries, such as Russia or the United States, should utilize the area’s resources and what would be the consequences of such a decision. These nations are mainly interested in extracting rare materials, minerals, metals and petrol. In fact, 18% of the world’s oil is located under Iranian territory. Therefore, we can imagine that the quantity of oil in the Arctic regions is significantly larger.

Nowadays, there is an ongoing conflict between countries over the land as they all want to find these rare resources.

These acts could have serious impacts on the environment such as pollution but also oil spills that take up to eight months of cleaning up and need an important amount of money. As if this wasn’t enough, countries fighting about the Arctic waters will lead to biodiversity issues. The habitat of rare fish and polar bears could end up completely destroyed or gravely damaged and as a result, species will become instinct.

CELLUPICA Carla and MOORE Clea


ON THE QUESTION OF ARTIC WATERS

Interview with Sevanna, Chair of Committee 7: Political and Decolonization.

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First day of ILYMUN and we’re really impressed! Everybody is well dressed and adheres to the formal dress code. So with this in mind, we (Laure and Sarah) went on a quest to find a few of ILYMUN’s best dressed! Just because the dress code is formal, this doesn’t mean that we can’t be original!


Meet Arthur, who has the right idea: when asked about his choice of clothes, he simply answered ‘it’s classy’. And indeed, it was! After a while, he revealed that this classy ensemble was in fact from Versace.

“FASHION ALLOWS yOU TO THINK”

On our quest for originality, we stumbled across Tara, who is

studying in Rennes but is originally from the United States.

Her outfit, a mix of cute and formal, was original and different. “I didn’t have a blazer, so I wore a

jumper”.

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Jenny is from Aix-les-Bains, and told us that this year, she purposefully chose not to wear a suit.She was here last year for ILYMUN and came in a suit, it just didn’t feel right. “I wanted to be myself” she said. Her style secret? A mix of American Apparel and thrift shop finds. It’s simplicity at it’s best.

It was Xavier, though, from the CSI in Lyon, who came up with the punchline of the day.

According to Xavier, “it is better when everybody is well dressed, we can be more

concentrated. Fashion allows you to open up your mind.”

In French? La mode permet de mieux réfléchir.

He is certainly very classy and well dressed, but his dashing appearance required the

help of quite a few people - and their clothes. “The suit is my brother’s,” he said with

humour, “and the shoes are my father’s. The tie, though, is mine.”

Photos and text by Laure Nicols and Sarah Sidrine

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We met up with the organisers of the social events of ILYMUN, to find out all the great things they had planned for us. Etienne Coltat, Sophia El Akroud and Yasmine Lund-Ricard (the heads of social events from the CSI) were hard at work during these last few months, to turn this formal event into a social gathering. They aimed to provide games, parties and other activities to entertain all the participants throughout the days and evenings for the next three days.Tonight, different bars or restaurants will be available for you to choose from, making sure you get the best out of your ILYMUN experience.

On Friday (the 31st of January), from 8pm to 11pm, students, teachers and all participants in the ILYMUN conference will be invited to join us in one of Lyon’s most popular clubs, the Pop, for a night to remember. Bear in mind that these three organisers have struggled to find a suitable place to host this event seeing as though many of the

participants are minors, and clubs were hesitant to accept.

During the day’s debates, visits are organised for the representatives of each school allowing them to discover the city, accompanied by local ILYMUN organisers. As for delegates, they will be invited to take part in a game which will be revealed tomorrow afternoon…We hope you enjoy your stay !


SOCIAL EVENTS: WHAT TOEXPECT

Gabriella Boffy, Charlotte Ballon, Léa Ventura, Julie Martin, Justine Ortholand

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Elliot Boiron, ILYMUN’s resident DJ, is the ingenious mastermind and head of our silent disco. A long haired American from Philadelphia, Elliot has a box full of wireless headphones, all connected to his tablet, from which he controls the music heard by delegates, admins, writer etc all around the building.Remi Guillet, Elena Aigle, picture Joachim Pinochet Lobos.


ILYMUN SILENT DISCO

COVER PICTURES: Magalie Vennin, Carla Ulrichilymun.orgEditing: lucas PoissonEditors: Asha Zaharudin,Angelica Larner 11

ILYMUNews 2014: Issue 1

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