UNAIR NEWS – Four delegates of Universitas Airlangga took part in the UN meeting simulation, The Harvard World Model United Nations (World MUN) in Montreal, Canada, from 13th March – 18th march. The prestigious event was attended by more than two thousand students from 136 countries. They came from universities across the world, including UNAIR.
They are Dirgandaru Galih Waskito (International Relation/2014), Fransiska Berliani (Sastra Inggris/2015), Andreyanto Surya Putra (International Relation/2014), and Eko Ratmoko (International Relation/2015)
They got new experiences from their participation in World MUN. They learnt a lot on negotiation and diplomacy during debate with students from around the world.
“This event give us a chance to interact with students around the world. Sharing ideas, knowledges, and also solve international issues.” Dirga Said, the head of world MUN delegation from UNAIR
WorldMUN is the gathering forum for students around the world to share knowledge on international politic issues for example Immigration issues, Health, Security and other international politic issues.
Learn to be Diplomats
In the conference, all the participants have roles as if diplomats from various countries. The conference conducted like the real UN Meeting. There are rules to follow.
“Step by step, the meeting referred to UN meeting. We did not make our own. When we made amendments, resolution draft, we learnt how UN conducts its meeting,” said Fransiska.
Fransiska said that the UN meeting simulation is important to be followed by students. They can learn about negotiation and diplomacy and discover got new experience. Soft skill gained from the conference can be applied in daily activity.
“Actually, the main goal is to improve the negotiation and diplomacy skill. However, there are many things we can learn through MUN. Negotiation skill are not always for becoming diplomats. There are many skills acquired, for example the how to debate with manner, how to behave, and share ideas with others,” Fransiska said.
Introducing Indonesia Culture
In the World MUN forum, there is Global Village session. In this session, delegations made a booth for presenting their country. Dirga and team presented their booth with unique and different way.
“We decorated our booth which represents Reog Ponorogo. We brought East Javanese culture there. We wore East Java Traditional costume. Our booth was the only one presented halal things. The other booth showed food and more alcohol drink instead of their culture,” Dirga said .
Booth of UNAIR got more attention by other participants. “We explained to them that Reog Ponorogo is a part of our culture. We also told them that Reog player wear mask and have supernatural power. They were very excited of it,” Dirga said.
Canadian Life
At the time, the weather was -270 Celsius in Canada and it did not make the team got sick. They were so amazed with Canadian life which has high tolerance, the adherence of citizen to the government regulation and also tidy traffic.
“There were no traffic congestion and speeding drivers. Streets downtown was so tidy. Canada is very welcome for immigrants, so the people in Canada are diverse and there’s no conflicts,” said Dirga.
The most amazing thing during in Canada, they still found “Indonesia” there. “We met people who lived in Jakarta, he was so friendly. Though it was so far, we found people who can speak Bahasa,” Dirga said. (*)
Author : Binti Q. Masruroh
Editor: Defrina Sukma S
