Another MUN conference I always believed I would visit was one held on the campus of the International School of Panama (ISP). Like Royal Russell School, ISP has for the past 20+ years sent students to THIMUN in The Hague as press team members. They are bright, creative and hard working students who always had a seriousness in purpose and brought with them a wonderful Latin American perspective of the world.
I could not have been more fortunate than to have Heather Mooney welcome me to ISP and PANAMUN. As the MUN director and high school social studies teacher Heather has built a wonderful program from a strong foundation, sewing the seeds of activism and working to show the students how to support the SDGs through their resolution writing.
The theme of their 27th annual conference was Building Bridges: Confronting Global Polarization. In all forums at PANAMUN the delegates had to reflect, in some manner or another, how it is that despite a feeling of interconnectedness in the world through the internet and the breakdown of social and cultural barriers, that people feel so divided by race, ethnicity, religious and political beliefs, economic standing, culture and so much more. Throughout the week the delegates worked collaboratively in order to unite our differences.
The keynote speaker was Deirdre Dlugoleski, a Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Scholar and Robert L. Bernstein Fellow who studied law at Yale and NYU. She spoke about the privilege of going to a beautiful private high school, but how she lived in a very different circumstance than most of the students. She explained how her family's total income for a year was less than the cost of one year's tuition at the school and how she had to do her homework under every blanket she could find because in the freezing winters the family had to turn off the heat at night to save money.
In her speech Ms. Dlugoleski focused on breaking down the meaning of polarization, saying, "The two worlds that I switched between in high school have grown ever further apart and this is happening all over the world; extreme inequality is on the rise. Since the financial crisis in 2008, the number of billionaires has almost doubled while almost half of the people on the planet scrape by on less than six dollars a day. Ten thousand people die everyday because they can't afford healthcare and each day two hundred and sixty two million children will not be allowed to go to school." Acting as a barrier for interactions and alliances between classes and communities with differing resources and views, polarization divides our world based on extreme opinions. As a result the moderate voices lose power and influence. As a global community it is the duty of our MUN delegates to connect with one another, each nation, in spite of existing differences and strive for unification of ideas rather than a separation because of them. Ms. Dlugoleski concluded her speech emphasizing how at a conference like PANAMUN youth can fight for everyone's rights regardless of their class or their beliefs.
What I loved most about PANAMUN was that they had over 20 committees in Spanish and English across middle and high school levels running throughout the three days of meetings.
This was the first year for a United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) forum. It seemed a perfect fit given the theme and the focus on development, trade, aid, transport, finance, and technology. I was also impressed with the fact that PANAMUN ran the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ) in both the high school and middle school venues. In both forums the students discussed issues related to transnational crime and criminal justice. Listening to middle schoolers represent different countries and discuss policies to address the increasing crisis of human trafficking is fascinating. One of the measures they came up with was to increase education of the issue in schools. After the resolution passed several delegates commented on how it was funny how they were living in the moment the words they just put on the page by studying the topic in a school. But what is so amazing to me is how 12-18 year olds are focused on complex solutions like what it looks like increasing border control and how to create policies to support the victims and how to punish the traffickers, especially when some of the traffickers are barely teenagers themselves.
In the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) forum the students discussed alternatives to single-use plastics. Delegates debated creating roads and houses with recycled plastic to looking into how stainless steel and bamboo straws in public zoos and their own school cafeterias to programs that will encourage stores (or entire countries) to stop freely distributing plastic shopping bags and plastic wraps on fruits and vegetables. After the first day of the conference the school cafeteria made a visual and auditory effort to encourage students to use water bottles for drinks and provided a limited number of plastic alternative cups. I later had the privilege of presenting to the UNEP forum my journey through the Garbage Patch, once again impressing upon our youth that while it's not an island of plastic, the amount of macro and microplastic in our oceans is significant and affecting marine life and getting into our bodies as well.
Just for fun I included photos above of the placards at PANAMUN; the first time I've seen the points of order printed in such a way. For some HS and many MS students it was certainly handy having it printed there and led to smooth debate and order in the forums.
And yet another first and real treat was seeing how the students at ISP contributed to decorating the doors to all the forums.
The middle schoolers really did their research and became mini-experts on the limitations of freedom of speech, maritime piracy and the effects of overpopulation, but you know, they sure haven't learned yet how to tie a tie. I was happy to help a few delegates before they walked into their sessions but darn it, sure wish I could have helped this lad:
And then there were all the amazing directors/teachers/chaperones who I met. They were all so curious about MUN Impact. They spoke with excitement about their MUN students and all the clubs and projects they are involved with in their schools around Central America, South America, Canada and the US. From beach clean-ups to gender-equality education to supporting more diversity in their local MUN conferences, they were all excited to put the pieces of the puzzle together and realize how their programs are supporting the UN and the Global Goals. As I've mentioned before, everyone just lights up when they realize this. I am beginning to realize now that I have a lot of follow-ups to do to see what becomes of this realization.
The Panama Canal
Now that I've seen the canal up close in person I just don't see how my message in a bottle that I mentioned in Post 8 could have possibly traveled/drifted through this series of lochs. What I did learn however are that some tankers take in massive amounts of water as they enter and spit it out when the exit. Perhaps my bottle was a "stowaway" on one of these beasts of a boats?
To my eye the Panama Canal is so much more than what I expected. Between taking a small boat ride on the water to visit Monkey Island and eating dinner at a restaurant that literally sits at the edge of the two-step loch at the edge of the Pacific Ocean, I am just in awe of this incredible engineering feat and beautiful wonder carved into the landscape. (lest we not forget, however, the the horrific conditions and cruelty to the local workers who battled to complete it in 1914. Over 26,000 workers (a huge number) died from disease (malaria and yellow fever) and work-related accidents.
Just watch this video to get an idea of how the ship is lowered with the water, it passes through the gates and then the water fills back up in the first chamber.
Pictured above are common animals seen on land on on the islands surrounding the canal: Black-headed spider monkey, Howler Monkey and Two-toed sloth. Sadly, there is a lot of plastic debris in and around the canal (in the hands of one of the monkeys above).....a lot of debris:
Near these four locations on the beaches of the Pacific on the outskirts of Panama City were evidence of clean-up efforts.
I know several school participating in the conference talked about their efforts, but when I showed them the four picture above, we all just paused and thought out-loud, "where do you even start?", which led to a debate; do you start one clean-up at a time or do you start at the source and advocate for companies to change their behavior and work to create alternative products? Or, as several students who have done their research suggested, do you accelerate the research on plastic eating bacteria?
Casco Viejo - Old Town
I spy Newmo!
