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NUS and Singapore to play host to Harvard WorldMUN 2011 next March |
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By Tettyana Jasli
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Sep. 16 2010 |
When National University of Singapore (NUS) undergraduates Sharmeen Alam and Ngiam Jing Zhi talked casually about Singapore hosting the Harvard World Model United Nations (WorldMUN) conference, little did they know that it would become reality.
“We got really excited thinking...if Singapore were to host it, what would we have done and then suddenly the idea started materialising. It was quite accidental actually”, said third-year Economics and Political Science major Alam, who also participated as a delegate in this year’s WorldMUN Taipei.
Alam and Ngiam took the next step and submitted a bid proposal to the Harvard WorldMUN panel.
Singapore was picked as the next host of the 20th World Model United Nations Conference, becoming the first country to win the bid on her first try.
The Harvard WorldMUN is an annual college-level conference and is held in a different city every year.
Harvard University co-organises WorldMUN with the host university in each host city.
Both Alam and Ngiam head the organising team for WorldMUN Singapore 2011.
Next March, Singapore will play host to some 2,300 student participants hailing from over 250 universities from 60 countries.
This is the first time that WorldMUN will be presented in Southeast Asia.
Singapore edged out competition from other cities like Istanbul, Chennai, New Delhi and Sydney.
WorldMUN 2011 Secretary-General Reihan Nadarajah said that “as a truly global city, Singapore is the best place to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the WorldMUN conference.”
“Singapore is truly a locus point for various cultures - both from Asia, and across the world; synthesising the best of the east and the west. WorldMUN operates in a very similar fashion, bringing together delegates from over 70 countries, to learn and explore a new nation, while making friends from many more,” he said.
And as the host university, NUS will also feature in the five-day conference, to be held from March 14 to 18 at the Suntec Singapore International Convention and Exhibition Centre.
The opening ceremony will be held on March 13 at the NUS University Cultural Centre (UCC), and will be graced by Mr Kishore Mahbubani, Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP).
The team is also hoping to get academics from the LKYSPP and the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) to chair the various WorldMUN conference committees.
The NUS team will also be collaborating with Butter Factory, Singapore Flyer, National Youth Council and the Singapore Tourism Board and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The team is excited at the prospect of hosting the Harvard WorldMUN conference.
“It’s great for NUS specifically because we’re going to be on a very equal playing field with Harvard and Harvard is such a huge name...now NUS is going to be synonymous (with Harvard WorldMun) during the event so it’ll be really cool,” enthused third-year Communications and New Media major Anushka Aurora, who is the WorldMUN 2011 Director of Media & Public Relations.
Aside from the usual conference aspect, the social aspect is also a central feature of WorldMUN.
Traditionally, this is where the host city gets to showcase its culture to its foreign guests.
“Social events are a very big part of WorldMUN culture,” said Aurora.
The Social Events team has planned a slew of activities for the visiting student delegates, with something planned every night.
Among the events planned are a Singapore Night, ASEAN Night, Cabaret Night and a Global Village.
Global Village will see the delegations from each country set up booths to showcase the unique aspects of their culture.
It will take place at the Singapore Flyer Deck.
The NUS organising committee has even booked the entire Lau Pa Sat area where the foreign delegates will have the chance to sample all kinds of Singaporean cuisine.
Due to the large-scale nature of WorldMUN, what started off as an initiative of Alam and Ngiam has now grown to a team of 41 members.
Registration for student delegates opened on September 10.
And although a delegation normally has 15 members, the team is aiming for 100 student participants from the Singapore delegation.
Said Aurora, “We hope it will do wonders for the MUN culture here and hopefully get more people involved in thinking about global issues.”
Alam is also optimistic, pointing out that the foreign delegates will “carry the NUS brand name back with them.”
“We’re going to have 2,300 foreign delegates, who will come to Singapore and who will remember Singapore for this conference itself and they’ll go back home and share all their experiences with all their friends,” she added.
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