MAL-adjusted
For the past three days I’ve been at a convention for the Ohio chapter of the Model Arab League. That’s like a Mock UN, only it’s for the League of Arab States instead. The League of Arab States is composed of 22 Arab countries in the Middle East and Northern Africa.
The Delegation from UC was representing Libya. I got to represent the Minister for Social Affairs from Libya, which is really awsome for two reasons: 1) I got to be on the Social Affairs Council, so I could introduce resolutions, participate in debate, and vote; and 2) Libya is very revolutionary compared to a lot of Arab states; they are wild and even on a good day most of the other member states look at them kind of funny. They’re like, “You’re weird.” Recently Saudi Arabia has accused Libya of being behind a plot to assassinate their crown prince so right now everyone is really looking askance at them.
The libyan head of state is Muammar Q’adhafi (or Gaddafi, depending on who you ask). He is psycho and likes to be blunt and say exactly what he’s thinking (odd for a politician) and to storm out of Arab League meetings if he gets bored or thinks his time isn’t being used well. He doesn’t want to be a part of something unless he can be in charge of it. So I got to really fight with people; tell people their resolutions were a waste of time and that I didn’t see a point to them, and that unless they could explain to Libya how they would help us I wouldn’t support them; tell people how bored I was; and totally rip on Sudan, who broke a cease fire agreement that Q’adhafi (as the High Peace Mediator of the sehel-saharan space) had moderated, and Algeria a little bit because we have border disputes. At one point I told Sudan that I wasn’t convinced they had their peoples’ best interests at heart and that they couldn’t be trusted to carry out their own judiciary procedures without active involvement from the African Union; at another I said how pleasantly surprised I was that they had had time to draft such wonderful resolutions in the small amount of time they had left between making their cease-fire agreements and breaking their cease-fire agreements.
Three-quarters of the way through the second day of council meetings, when everyone was tired of discussing resolutions on the five topics we had been given to discuss on the agenda, the Secretariat-General walked into our caucus and said there was an emergency situation to handle. Saudi Arabia, who wasn’t present at the convention, had sent a letter explaining that the reason why was that they were boycotting the talks due to the fact that there women present who were voting, and who weren’t wearing the head-to-toe coverings required by some Arab states. So we had to deal with that by writing a press release (which we did quite well; it was read to the general assembly this morning at Summit). My suggestion as Libya was that they send an all-female delegation next year so that their men don’t have to be exposed to improperly-dressed women, and that they forbid them to vote. No skin off Libya’s nose; we don’t care anyways. And then at the end I stood up and said “Point of personal privilege– I have said all I wish to say on this subject and I am bored; I am Q’adhafi, and I am leaving!” and walked out of council. I had such a good time!
I think the thing I liked best about it was that I was able to meet other people who totally sympathized with me wanting to go to some of these countries and do relief work, or study economic development, or stuff like that. Or even just be a tourist! I mean I know like three people who are good friends of mine who understand. So to meet people who are like, “Yeah I’m going to Morocco this summer,” or “Yeah I’m going to spend two months studying in the UAE (United Arab Emirates),” or “Yeah I was in Syria last year and I couldn’t stop buying jewelry. It’s so beautiful. I’m addicted.” was a totally new experience for me. It made me feel less isolated and reassured me that I’m not some weirdo. Yay!
Anyways. I had fun. And, we’ve been invited to go to Nationals in about a month! Good times.
