Harvard Model Congress Europe

Hey guys! My name is Evan Covington, and I will be your Vice Chair for the G-15 committee this March. I am a freshman from Houston, TX (but I don't have a Texas accent - sorry to disappoint you all. I guess I'm not that Texan!). I am also a concentrator in Latin American Studies at Harvard so I'm clearly a huge fan of anything Hispanic or Spanish related.

Hi Evan,

We are the American College of Greece, and we represent Argentina.
We have difficulty in finding more current information on Argentina's position on Climate Change and Food Insecurity.We don't speak Spanish!
Can you suggest any sites we can look at?

Hey Guys,

Okay so I tried to find some websites in English as opposed to Spanish to help make things a bit easier! For information on the food security & agriculture pertaining to Argentina, I found some websites & documents containing data that might be useful to you:

http://earthtrends.wri.org/pdf_library/country_profiles/agr_cou_032.pdf
http://www.unccd.int/publicinfo/pressrel/press_release_drought_feb09.pdf
http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/wrs013/wrs013e.pdf
http://infochangeindia.org/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=183
http://www.ids.ac.uk/UserFiles/File/poverty_team/climate_change/IDS-FAO_Food_Sec_CCA_and_DRM_issues_paper_2008.pdf

For Climate Change:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4073933.stm
http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/~mikeh/research/wwf.argent.pdf
http://www.pewclimate.org/docUploads/pol_argentina.pdf
http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/tar/wg2/517.htm
http://earthtrends.wri.org/text/climate-atmosphere/country-profile-6.html

These might help out a little bit & jumpstart some thinking on Argentina & some approaches you might take to help solve these problems. If you have any other questions or anything else, just let me know!

--Evan--

Hey Evan
As the congress draws closer, we are getting a bit nervous about the lack of information concerning the peruvian government, and policies etc. Do you have any advice as to where we could find a good website?
Thanks
Molly and Sydney

Hey Molly and Sydney,

This is Jason, the committee director. Thanks for your question.

So, when researching Peru, I found that the BBC and the NY Times were two really good sources of information on world politics. For example, when researching food security in Peru, BBC had this article (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7359880.stm). You can search for Peru specifically on the BBC and NY Times websites or you can more generally use Google. What I find when trying to come up with information is that it can often be helpful to place the name of the president of Peru into the search; that way you come up with quotes from him personally, which can often be helpful. As an example you could search: "Peru + Alan Garcia + Food Prices" and it will pop up with interesting information like the link I posted above. As a side note, if you can read any Spanish, El Comercio is a good Peruvian newspaper (http://www.elcomercio.com.pe/).

If you have any more questions about this, please get back in contact with me and Evan!

- Jason

Thanks for the advice! I've already found a some helpful info.

Molly

Hi Fellas!
We are the team of Nigeria and just want to leave a nice "hello and good work". Hope it will be fun this year, anyhow, I guess it will...
Okay, 17 days to be in Bruessels, never have been there, is it a nice city?

BTW: We are from the "Gymnasium Hankensbüttel" from Germany, so its not that far for us...

So, lets meet there,
Lara and Jan

Hello ! We are two HMC participants from the Casablanca American School, and we are looking for information about the two issues for Zimbabwe. Unfortunately, we have not been able to access a lot of useful information. Any research suggestions would be very helpful.
Thank you , and see you very,very soon ...

-- Edited by HMCE Delegate at 16:59, 2009-03-03

Hey Evan,

My partner and I got stuck, and we have Venezuela. All the deep, interesting articles that I've found happen to be in Spanish. The ones in English barely mention the issues that we will be discussing in Brussels. I was wondering if you could give any suggestions on where to look to find good articles.

Thank you.

Hello Lara & Jan!

I'm very glad you all reached out a hand to say hello. Oh and don't worry, everything will be fun - I can most certainly guarantee you of that. If not, Jason and I will definitely get something going that will keep you quite entertained I'm quite sure. And my crazy antics are sure to amuse others as well.

In terms of Brussels, this is actually my first time going to the city as well, but I hear the city is pretty spectacular. I'm quite sure the executive board wouldn't choose the city for this conference if it weren't a great place to visit. You both and I will be in the same boat in terms of experiencing the city for the first time - just make sure to make the best of it while you're there of course! Nonetheless, I hope your preparations are going well for the conference, and you're getting excited for it all!

If you have any questions or such, don't hesitate to let Jason or me know. Otherwise, keep in contact & we'll see you soon.

--Evan--

Hey all, it's Jason and I just wanted to respond to all of your questions, so I will reply in the order that they were posted!

NIGERIA:
Lara and Jan, I just wanted to echo Evan's comments and thank you for reaching out to us. I was actually in Brussels a few years ago and it was one of the most interesting cities I have been to by far. The Grand Place (Grote Markt) is this great square in the middle of the city that was constructed hundreds of years ago! It's really a sight to see. I look forward to seeing you at the conference.

ZIMBABWE:
A different piece of what I suggested to the group doing Peru will be extremely helpful in Zimbabwe! Over the last few years, Zimbabwe has been a very personalistic state. By that, I mean that it's government and policies have been almost entirely shaped by the whims of its dictator--Mugabe. So I might suggest that in Google, you search "Mugabe + Food Prices" instead of "Venezuela + Food Prices." That popped up a lot of results for me:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/06/03/un.food.prices/index.html
http://www.nysun.com/opinion/mugabes-food-fight-in-rome/79152/

VENEZUELA:
As far as Venezuela goes, I would suggest much the same thing that I suggested for Peru. BBC, in particular, has a few articles that I found really helpful when researching Venezuela. Since I wrote the study guide, this was an update (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7558435.stm). I think even more than specifics of what the Chavez government has done, it will be important for you to understand his theory of governance. He is a socialist and supports keeping prices down for his citizens. He is also not a fan of the free market. Therefore, I would find more general articles that back up those propositions and relate it to food prices. It's okay to make some inferences!


And as always, if any of you have any more questions, do not hesitate to contact me!

- Jason

Hi my name is Roda Al-Thani, me and my partner Ghalia Al-Noaimi, are representing Jamaica.
We are kind of lost in our research. We still don't know what Jamaica's perspective is on our two topics. How can we find websites regarding these two topics? Is Jamaica with the UK and USA? We were wondering if you could give us a link to the reference of passing resolutions in HMCE G15.

Thanks  
-Roda and Ghalia

Hello Roda and Ghalia,

Thank you for writing to us with your questions! Jamaica definitely has a really unique perspective on a lot of different issues and often time the interests of Jamaica (as a developing nation and an island state) do not line with up with the interests of the US and the UK.

I think one of the best examples of this is with climate change, which is one of our topics. Jamaica is an island nation that makes a lot of its money off of fishing. However, with rising global temperatures, a lot of fish are dying off (http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20080224/news/news5.html). So Jamaica would probably push for a harder line on climate control than would the US or even the UK. Even more basically, as an island nation, Jamaica's future is clearly threatened by rising sea levels that may accompany global warming!

On food, this article is a really good place to start:
http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20080521/news/news8.html

As far as general research, you're lucky because Jamaica is an English-speaking nation, so you can read its newspapers. I would do this...two websites may be particularly handy: The Jamaica Observer (http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/) and the Jamaica Gleaner (http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/)...You can also use the same websites that other delegates are using like those of the BBC and the NY Times.

Let us know if you need any more help/clarification!

- Jason

Hey!
We are the delegates of India, Ayesha and Ananya :)
( we are from India too so thats reeli helping)
We are a little stuck while researching on food insecurity in India.. Can you help us out please?
Will we be following a procedure in committee, and are the two topics going to be done separately?
Thankyou, and hope to see you ll soon :) We both are extremely excited :D

-- Edited by HMCE Delegate at 10:33, 2009-03-10

-- Edited by HMCE Delegate at 10:34, 2009-03-10

hey!
i am from the bilingual school of paris this is my first time at a debate conference and i am very excited! my partner and i are representing chile, studying has been going alright but i could always use some tips. i can't wait to be there!
thank you Lea

Hello Anushka & Roshni!

I'm glad to hear from you about your questions. In regards to the communique question, you are not required to have written any communiques or resolutions on each of the topics before arriving at the conference. Most of - if not all - of the work, resolution writing, etc. will be done in committees during the conference.

In terms of delivering your views, there will be plenty of time for debate & discussion of both topics with moderated debate, unmoderated debate, etc. You will have no problem delivering your respective views throughout the conference as we plan on giving everyone a fair chance to voice the stances, ideas, etc. of their respective countries.

I have been informed by the Director of International Committees that laptops will not be allowed in committees - this helps give everyone a more equal & fair environment within which to work.

For Indonesia's perspective on Climate Change, check out some of these websites below which should help give you a better idea on the stance of Indonesia and some other related facts:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16867998/

http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/EASTASIAPACIFICEXT/INDONESIAEXTN/0,,contentMDK:21357528~menuPK:224605~pagePK:2865066~piPK:2865079~theSitePK:226309,00.html

http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTINDONESIA/Resources/226271-1170911056314/3428109-1174614780539/PEACEClimateChange.pdf

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6610973.stm

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/01/23/jakarta-most-risk-climate-change.html

If you have any other questions, please don't hesitate to let Jason or me know. Hope you're getting excited for next week!

--Evan--

Hey Ayesha & Ananya!

Thats quite a coincidence that you two ended up receiving India to represent! If you would like, you can check out a few sources that I found on India & food security below:

http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/GFA14/GFA14-i.pdf
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWFiles2009.nsf/FilesByRWDocUnidFilename/MYAI-7PH7LH-full_report.pdf/$File/full_report.pdf
http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/taxonomy/term/9827
http://www.foreignminister.gov.au/releases/2008/fa-s141_08.html

As for the operation of committee, Jason & I will be using standard protocol and Robert's Rules of Order to conduct the committee. If you're not quite sure what that is, simply just Google it and you can find lots of explanations about it. The two topics will be discussed separately (even though they are related in one sense or another, it would be difficult to solve the two problems at once). So you don't have to worry about that there.

If you have anymore questions, please let Jason or me know and we'll be happy to continue helping you out. Otherwise, keep that excitement going and we'll see you soon in Brussels!

--Evan--

Hello Lea,

Sorry to get back so late. This week has been pretty busy with work and will only culminate in an even busier week next week before we leave. I'm very glad you are excited for the conference (as we are as well). As a few tips, make sure you know the positions of your country and other countries as well and begin to think of potential ways to resolve the issues. What has worked in the past to try and solve these problems and what has not? How might acting on one issue affect the other? (since both are related in one sense or another). How can this all be done under the economic conditions we are now facing across the globe? These are things you will want to consider amongst other things and will also help you analyze the situations more thoroughly in committee. Above all, don't stress! This is all going to be a great learning experience and we are definitely going to have a load of fun! Just keep up the hard work and you'll see it pay off. If you have any other questions, just let me know alright!

--Evan--

Hey Guys,

I'm Molly from Western Canada High School. Much of my research has been going very well and I am getting really excited for the conference. (Our school leaves tomorrow!!)

I am having some trouble finding specific information on any sort of collaborative food stockpiling (as described in the packet between Brazil and Venezuela). I've searched many Western newspapers as well as the Brazilian and Venezuelan government website without any success.

If ANYONE comes across a decent article, let me know!

Thanks,
Molly

Oh ya, I am representing Peru and do not speak Spanish..

Molly