IASAS MUN was my 1st conference this year as well as the first advanced conference. It was obvious that the delegates knew what they were doing about and had been to at least a few conferences (though not everyone participated). In my resolution group, we made a resolution on Hampering the economic repercussions of COVID 19 on the economy. To prepare for the conference I did a lot of research on Chile and the different economic systems, solutions and how they function. I was able to grasp a strong understanding of the topic. I was the main submitter of the resolution and this was the only reso in our ECOSOC to pass with no against votes. In fact, my resolution got picked to be debated in the General Assembly ( which is the combination of all the committees where all delegates debate together. My resolution is pasted below. I learnt a lot at the conference and I was able to improve on my debating and thinking on the spot skills. Practising to speak in front of the general assembly was nervewracking and challenging but I did mentally prepare myself ( however we didn’t get to debating it due to zoom hackers and outside factors).

#LO6- global value- Learnt about the global economy in detail and the possible solutions.

#LO5- collaboration- Worked with my reso group and committee to improve on these solutions as well as the other issues that were being debated.

#LO2- challenge- Possible speaking in front of the General Assembly. Explaining the reso to other delegates and convincing them (I succeeded as the reso passed).

Topic: Hampering the economic repercussions of COVID-19

Main Submitter: Chile

Co-Submitters: Palestine, South Africa

Signatories: Luxembourg, Venezuela, Philippines, Burkina Faso, Niger, Côte d’Ivoire, Thailand, Sierra Leone, Brazil

Committee: Economic and Social Council

 

Deeply disturbed, that the IMF has warned that the global economy will shrink by 3% this year. 

 

Recalling in the first three months of 2020 the G20 economies fell 3.4% year-on-year

 

Acknowledges that The Dow and the FTSE saw their biggest quarterly drops in the first three months of the year since 1987

 

Noting with regret that between April and June 2020, the International Labour Organization estimated that an equivalent of 400 million full-time jobs was lost across the world

 

Taking into account, it is predicted for global growth to rise to 5.8% next year if the pandemic fades in the second half of 2020

 

Keeping in mind that income earned by workers globally fell 10 per cent in the first nine months of 2020, equivalent to a loss of over US$3.5 trillion

 

1. Encourages the implementation of stricter regulations in combating the proliferation of the Covid-19 virus, thus improving the overall health and safety in the country which would benefit the economy, with stricter regulations such as but not limited to:
   1. the implementation of night or day curfews 
   2. stay at home orders or quarantine 
   3. military or police presence in the streets to ensure safety protocols such as but not limited to:
      1. 1 meter Social Distancing
      2. wearing a mask in public spaces
   4. encouraging unwilling protesters to follow rules in ways such as but not limited to:
      1. arrest warrants
      2. fines;

 

1. Calls upon member states to tackle the economic issue of income disparity through the use of fiscal and monetary policies in order to strengthen the economy and ensure that all citizens are well-supported to prevent the widening of the income gap through the use of policies such as but not limited to:
   1. providing stimulus checks to the middle class and lower-income households to boost aggregate demand through spending within the economy
   2. the use of wage subsidies which reduce the costs of production for firms
   3. progressive taxes which aim to reduce the burden on lower-income earners 
   4. cancelling penalties for late submission of tax returns
   5. subsidizing public systems such as public transport in order to support working-class citizens, which in turn will increase productivity within the country
   6. purchasing government securities/Quantitative Easing
   7. reducing the reserve ratio;

 

1. Recommends that member nations create revised trade agreements which, maintains and updates previous agreements in line with the impact and needs of COVID-19 and allows globalisation to prosper rather than contract increasing the global GDP, in ways such as but not limited to:
   1. boosting the confidence in trade and global markets by improving transparency about trade-related policy actions and intentions through:
      1. monthly reports detailing
         1. the countries statistics in terms of Covid
         2. medical needs
         3. finances spent on Covid-19 relief
      2. meetings between member states every quarter
   2.  keep supply chains flowing, especially for essentials such as health supplies and food through methods such as diversifying supply chains to decrease the stress on specific member states for goods and services
   3. avoid unnecessary export restrictions and other trade barriers (eg, more tariffs)
   4.  considering the ethical and environmental implications of modern trade;

 

 

• Encourages  member states to issue new temporary regulations to banks to mitigate the economic effects of COVID-19 such as but not limited to:

 

1. 1. give loan borrowers the option to postpone monthly/periodic loan repayments for the next four months, and for the tourism and hotel sectors for the next six months with options such as but not limited to:
      1. overdraft
      2. restructuring
      3. rescheduling
   2. prohibit the collection of fees, commissions or additional interest on deferred payments
   3. launch an SME fund to provide soft loans to SMEs impacted by the crisis which would be disbursed under the 3% interest rate with a repayment period of 48 months;

 

1. Emphasises the benefits of behavioural economics and understanding nudge theory as to direct consumers towards desirable actions, save the government money as well as ensure the efficient spending of resource, as well as the ways that it can prevent the spread of COVID and through ways such as but not limited to:
   1. creating PSA’s that show the real-life consequences of COVID on a person health and interviews victims of the diseases
   2. starting campaigns like the UK’s NHS’ #helpushelpyou to support and raise awareness for healthcare workers
   3. placing masks and other PPE in convenient locations to influence consumers to buy these products;

 

1. Emphasises the benefits of creating a fixed currency fluctuation range and regulating the value of the currency to ensure that trade is unaffected by detrimental impacts of a rapidly changing valued currency through ways such as but not limited to:
   1. appreciating a currency by:
      1. selling foreign exchange assets and purchasing currency
      2. raise interest rates to attract money flow
      3. supply-side policies to increase long-term competitiveness
   2. devaluing a currency by:
      1. buying foreign exchange assets and purchasing currency
      2. decrease interest rates to attract money flow;

 

1. Approves the use of educational reform/improvements which have long term economic benefits using methods such as but not limited to:
   1. reducing fees and providing subsidies to students and younger unemployed civilians who can rejoin the workforce 
   2. providing specific skills and retraining courses for jobs that will likely be replaced
   3. providing targeted training courses for jobs that are currently required ( eg. Contact tracers, temperature takers, health monitors and workplace redesigners )
   4. exploring and improving online educational platforms and creating strong broadband infrastructure systems. 

 

• • Goal to meditate in free time make it a habit

• • Meditation has been a relaxing experience to have every Wednesday morning. I think my next steps are to make it a habit and do it outside the activity as well. Here is a link provided by mr Suarez which is a playlist of guided meditations I can use outside of school.
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ep4Y2CHH6MQ&list=PL1j_MOXiLZCddkQBud_t11wMvnbj8-BjY&ab_channel=MartinSuarez
  • Hopefully, I manage to do a full week of meditation, so one a day. I have also linked below MR. Suarez’s portfolio that provides many resources for meditation but science in general. It can be a tool for breathing exercises and Yoga as well.
  • The current challenges I am facing have to do with time management. I can’t find the time to do this every day and am sometimes not motivated to, but I think that making it a habit would have many benefits.
  • http://portfolios.uwcsea.edu.sg/meditatescience/auto-draft/

 

#LO1, #LO2

Kahaani is an annual dance performance that showcases dances from India and supports the service Kolkata GC. Kolkata GC helps give women in India, some of whom have disabilities, support by helping them through the arts, creating jewellery as well as dancing and singing. I have participated in the Kahaani dance event in grade 9 and 10. Kahaani has been enjoyable and has improved my dancing skills, as well as my confidence and collaboration skills with my other peers. My grade 9 kahaani experience was probably my favourite. I was able to improve my dance skills and I happened to have all my friends in my dance. Last year, however, the dance was a lot easier and I was put in a dance group with ONLY people from the grade above. It was not very fun but I was able to learn new things. This year I have 2 people I know in my dance group, which is really exciting. I hope to get to know the rest of the Peers in my dance and am excited to work creatively. I was surprised to get into a dance on Wednesday, as I thought I would get another day, all my friends have it on Thursday changes some of my previous plans. I hope to have a more positive experience than I did last year. I also hope to learn about how to lead a dance as that is something I would be interested in doing next year. I am also curious as to how Covid will change dancing while social distancing.

#LO4 #LO2 #LO5 #LO1

The annual UWC Model UN conference will be held online due to Covid-19 restrictions. This will be a challenge as it hasn’t been done before. The procedure and all the delegates and chairs will have to learn and challenge themselves in this situation. In this conference, I am a deputy chair for the Disarmament and International Security Council. I have to research a specific global issue and create a report to give to the delegates of the committee as an overview of the topic. I was given the topic of Combating the proliferation of weapons to non-state actors with special reference to the MENA region. When I was first assigned this topic I didn’t understand what it meant. However, after extensive research, I have a strong understanding of the topic and managed to finish this report (a week early too). Linked below is the research report which reflects my knowledge and understanding of this global issue. The conference is in December and I am excited to be the chair and lead this committee and to collaborate with the head chair from Dover.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CBJz8hhluQ-YGqdNLxR2EokfL2OaBERPYuRxqTTI59U/edit?pli=1# 

#LO2, #LO6, #LO4.

The first week of activities was really enjoyable. Below is a picture of the rooftop garden where we work during Urban Gardening the service which I participate in as well as a picture of some of my friends who are in the service. I am happy that I have some people that I already know in this service (Eddie and Isabel) and I am excited to get to know my other peers.

As for my other activities: Meditation was very calming and helped clear my head for the rest of the day, it was incredibly refreshing and we hope to be able to spread this throughout the school. It is an initiative that we will look into and collaborate as an activity to create. It will take a lot of work, time, and commitment but it could be an interesting project.  #LO5 #LO4 #LO3

MUN was also incredibly exciting. I was pretty nervous as know I have moved up into the advanced training group which happens to be the highest one. I was nervous about speaking in front of my peers who are incredibly skilled and talented at public speaking but I pushed myself to give a speech within the first lesson. I am glad I did because now it doesn’t feel as scary and I will definitely try to actively participate. #LO2

I had my first NeuroSoc activity. I got to meet the people who signed up and I am incredibly grateful for the students who signed up. Though I can tell we are all interested after a long Monday it will be a challenge for everyone to stay engaged. I think the first lesson was good in terms of that but we could definitely do better. I think I managed to show my leadership skills and initiative.  #LO2 #LO3

 

 

Neuroscience Society, Pre- Activity reflection, and Goals.

#LO2( Challenge)- Starting a new activity is a challenge, to put this into motion we started planning activities and other administrative requirements during the summer holidays. Now that this activity is about to start I am sure we will face and overcome many challenges. I hope to approach all of these challenges with a positive attitude and an open mind and to view them all as learning objectives.

#LO3 (Initiative)- Shreya and I have planned about six weeks’ worth of activities for NeuroSoc. After receiving confirmation that the activity will start this season we have continued looking for activities as well as improving the ones we already have. For example, in our Slideshow of activities, we chose to add a creative art activity to aid the memorization of certain important anatomy that everyone in the activity will need to learn. We did this because we thought combining art and science will make the activity more interesting and will help make the knowledge visual and easier to remember. The change in plan was rather than just showing a diagram of the brain and labeling the different areas we should draw it and make it a poster.

#LO4 (Commitment)- I think Commitment in this activity is about keeping this activity engaging and motivating for the participants. I think that this requires planning and motivation. There is also a commitment on my behalf to work hard to keep this activity interesting. I have to be committed to managing my time and plan activities properly to ensure that this activity is impactful and continues to thrive even after I graduate.

#LO5 (Collaboration)- NeuroSoc is an activity that my friend Shreya and I have started together. It requires strong and effective collaboration skills to run a successful activity. I feel that working with Shreya is not going to be a huge challenge as we have worked together on other projects like our Global Perspective Project last year. I do think that there will be times when our ideas don’t necessarily align as we have different approaches to learning. I think I value creativity and experimentation more than memorization and learning things like anatomy. I feel that both are important and we will be able to find a balance. More than anything I am excited to see how we handle these new challenges and experiences.

#LO7 (Ethics)- In NeuroSoc we have plans to explore the ethics of Neuroscience including the method of gaining information and how and what information is spread. As neither of us are experts, I am excited to explore these issues and understand the ethical real-world implications that occur.

Meditation –

#LO1 (Awareness)- Meditation is something I have had experience with before, Mr. Suarez the activity coordinator was my IGCSE mentor and gave us many meditation opportunities. I feel like meditation gives me the opportunity to clear my find and focus. I hope that learning to meditate with has other positive effects on my life like better concentration and emotional management. I feel that meditation has the power to help you reflect on your thoughts and action in a more calm way which is important in all parts of your life. Meditation is known to help reduce stress, control anxiety, improve emotional health and awareness, lengthen attention spans, reduce memory loss, and improve sleep, all of which are important for a healthier lifestyle and an enjoyable IB experience

#LO2( Challenge)- One challenge that I have previously had during meditations is the ability to concentrate throughout them. This is something I hope I get better at, I also hope that I learn how to meditate without guidance.

MUN-

#LO2( Challenge)- Something I have previously struggled with in MUN is Confidence. Expressing my ideas and being outspoken can be difficult when giving important speeches. Over the past few years of my MUN journey, I have definitely seen some improvement which I hope to continue seeing.

#LO6 (Global Value)- I hope to learn about many global issues, as well as understand the different perspectives which I will have to adopt as I take the role of a delegate representing different countries.

#LO7 (Ethics)- While Exploring different perspectives I also have the opportunity to understand the ethical implication of resolutions that have been made previously. When making my own resolutions in conferences and practice I will have to carefully think about the ethical implications of the resolutions we put forward. I think this will help me understand the impact of global issues as well as my own morals and perspectives.