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Report On GYLC Global Young Leader's Conference NYC and Washington DC 2009, July 12-26th.
Report On GYLC Global Young Leader's Conference NYC and Washington DC 2009, July 12-26th.
Report On GYLC Global Young Leader's Conference NYC and Washington DC 2009, July 12-26th.
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July 14th - Ms Angelica Silvero was the first speaker of the day when we visited to
World Bank Headquarters. Her speech detailed the World Bank’s transition from
simply functioning as a bank to actively working for humanitarian improvement.
She gave examples of many projects from around the world that had been
supported by the World Bank and different nations’ roles as lenders and
borrowers and she answered many tough questions from the scholars on cases
of corruption. She pointed out that many of the countries where money is lost to
corruption are the countries than need it the most, so simply refusing to give
anything to these countries was not a solution to the issue as it would inevitably
affect those in poverty more than the wealthy. We had lunch in Georgetown and
it was interesting to see around the American University. I also heard from a
member of the Carnegie think-tank who visited Guantanamo Bay to investigate
the effectiveness of US interrogation techniques especially in comparison to the
Saudi Arabian system, which he had also visited. Finally that evening we took
part in a World Trade Organisation simulation in which we had to resolve a
dispute between the EU’s Airbus and the US’s Boeing, both of which had
received unfair grants from their respective governments.
July 15th - The day started with a visit to the US Department of State where the
speaker outlined the Department’s commitment to securing peace and stability
in the world through long-term development rather than short-term military
action. However, he found it difficult to justify the large discrepancy between the
budget for US aid and foreign development schemes and the far larger military
budget. In the afternoon we visited the Israeli Embassy, which prompted a
healthy debate on the Middle East situation. It was particularily interesting to
hear the views of people from Arabic countries and I expect that for many of
them it was their first time hearing what Lucy had to say, as many of the
scholars from Muslim backgrounds had never met someone of Jewish ancestry
before. Our group also gained from Lucy’s personal connection to the Holocaust
Museum which we visited the next day. I found many parallels between problems
that exist in the Middle East and problems that have
existed in Northern Ireland and I saw many cases where
Northern Ireland was used as an example of how to
resolve such conflict.
July 19th - In the morning I went on my site visit to Ellis Island. I enjoyed the boat
journey past Liberty Island to Ellis Island and it was interesting to see the
buildings that some of my ancestors probably passed through. When I did a
search for my family name on the records more results came up than I could look
through. Back on Manhattan we ate lunch in Times Square, which has now been
pedestrianised. It amused me that many Americans seemed to think it was a
radically new idea, despite it being common in the centres of most European
towns and cities. We then went to see Mary Poppins on Broadway, the first time I
had ever been to a musical.
July 20th - We had to report back to our Leadership Group and Country Group on
what had happened in our Commissions so that we could maintain an overview
of the summit as a whole. We then had a speaker from the financial world, Mr
DeNaut from Deutsche Bank. He emphasised the impact of globalisation in terms
of the current global recession and hinted that perhaps in the future Europe
would be favoured as a more stable financial entity because of the origins of the
recession in the US financial market. We had a further two Commission Meetings
and Leadership Group meetings in preparation for the Global Summit.
July 21st - After breakfast we spent some hours negotiating with other country
groups to try and win support for our resolution, ahead of the debate in the
United Nations. We then boarded buses and drove to the United Nations where
we heard from Ms Sorensen who had many years experience in the different
functions of the UN. She was able to give us a rare insight into the lives of
diplomats and the prerequisits for jobs in international relations. That evening we
had our ‘National Delegation Rally’ where each country had to sing a song or
dance to show off an aspect of their culture. The Saudi Arabian group danced to
‘Saudi boy - crank dat oil’ (new lyrics to the pop song ‘Soulja boy’) and got
Christian from Florida to do a belly dance.
July 22nd - Finally after much preparation we had our Global Summit in the United
Nations buildings on Manhattan. Being in a real UN conference hall gave a great
atmosphere to the debates. Unfortunately Saudi Arabia did not become a
permanent Security Council member, but it was a
close vote and we definitely won over many member
nations. Inevitably the threat of a veto was what
killed the resolution. The resolution from Human
Rights regarding the problem of Genocide contained
a clause that was in breach of the UN charter. To
change the charter requires a 2/3 majority vote in
the general assembly. I had a copy of the UN
Charter with me and realised this wasn’t in order, so
Saudi Arabia made a point of order and the resolution failed without reaching the
2/3 majority.
We had lunch in China town and little Italy, it was fascinating to see the diversity
on Manhattan island, as these places actually felt as though they were in a
different country. We returned to Manhattan College to discuss the events of the
summit with our country groups and to get ready for the farewell dinner cruise.
The cruise around Manhattan Island was a beautiful way to see the city and to
end the experience, and provided many photo opportunities with my friends.
July 23rd - Everyone had become surprisingly close during the conference and as
it was the last day I had to say goodbye to many friends. Even though the
conference had a strict schedule and an even stricter lights out at 10.30, that
really just marked the start of the evening’s socialising. We moved from room to
room after lights out and chatted and got to know many more people than we
would have otherwise, these informal gatherings went on into the small hours
and we ended up sleeping in whatever room we were in when we got sufficiently
tired, returning to our own rooms in the morning to shower and change. I made
the most of these opportunities to meet other young people from all around the
world and to exchange contact details with them.
The conference ended at 10am but my flight wasn’t until 9pm that night. Luckily
there were others who also had late flights so we spent the day together
exploring Manhattan.
At home again – Keeping in contact with almost 350 people across 5 continents
can never be easy, but it’s been possible through Facebook. For the first few
days that I was home I existed not in East Coast time or GMT, but in ‘internet
time’ which was simply whatever time people were uploading their GYLC photos
to facebook. I’ve been able to chat to many of the other scholars so we can keep
in touch. I wouldn’t recommend it as a cure for jetlag though, as when I’m talking
to people in America it might be early evening for them but 2am for me! Even
more complicated are those in Australia, I have to bear in mind that evening for
me is morning for them. It’s also strange to be reminded that they are still in
their winter so are not off school. The amount of followup on facebook has been
incredible, the days after the conference I would be struggling through 75
messages each morning and I’m already organising to meet up with some of the
scholars in London at Christmas as well as a reunion being planned for the
future.
I’ve now been asked to nominate another pupil to go to the conference next
year, however given the costs of attending especially during the recession I am
hoping to have secured more sponsorship or funding for any future global young
leaders before they plan to attend.