LUMS Model UN has been one of the most memorable experiences of my life because of many aspects. A Pakistani yet I attended the event as an International delegate. In fact, I was the sole representative from Australia.
LUMUN is a five day event which consists of work, practicing diplomacy, getting to meet many Pakistani teenagers, great sights and tours and as I learned from my fellow Lumunites and a lot of “Masti”. I’ve made so many close friends with my fellow committee members (UN Human Rights Council), fellow room buddies and other participants, too!
As any other Model United Nations, the concept of the conference was of course, to represent a member country, of the United Nations, and participate in a debate among world issues ranging on your interests, from climate change to the global financial crisis, from nuclear proliferation to arbitrary detention. No doubt, this in itself is a great opportunity and experience (and looks so amazing in a CV)!
During the five tough and hard days, every delegate has a chance to chill out and get over the day’s work, over an exclusive event daily. The first day, as tradition, is the “Global Village”. The Global Village is where each delegation sets up a stall representing their country. This can include the country’s food, decoration, flyers, ornaments, clothes and in some even rituals! The second night, at LUMUN ’08, was a Rock Concert. I must admit, the security procedure to get admitted into the rock concert was quite irritating (security check ups went for thirty minutes!) but as an International Delegate, we got to cut in line. Now I’m not endorsing such injustices, but still, it’s a great feeling! The concert was outstanding with a famous band called Overload. They were famous for this man who is known as the “Dholki Wala”. I had no idea who he was but the crowd went mad for him! He was just marvellous!
The third night was the annual LUMUN dinner which has a distinct theme every year. Last year, the theme was 1920’s Jazz and it was AMAZING! It had the whole ‘shaadi/valima’ feel and the food was excellent! The fourth day was the ‘Surprise event’ which was actually a sports carnival, with each of the 12 committees representing a team. The carnival was so fun and every committee really got to bond together and the day ended in a fun filled celebration of “Rung”. Later that night, it was the inaugural masquerade ball! It was a great night as it was the last ‘fun’ social event and all the performances were great. There were also some awards given to a few delegates and chairs, based on personality and overall the night was a great success. The last night was the closing ceremony, a sad event, no doubt for all. None the less, these were all great opportunities to meet and create new friends, some I know that I’m going to have for a lifetime!
As I said before, as much fun as LUMUN is for all delegates, being an International delegate, had its perks! Other than the obvious VIP treatment, us international delegates got front row seats at opening and closing ceremonies, speed ups when lining up, ‘tea with the Dean of LUMS’ that everyone else seemed very envious of, proper dorms with beds and the organised tours and outings! Last year there were about twenty International delegates out of a total of 1,200! 7 were from all over Europe, one girl was from Abu Dhabi and around 10 were from India. In 2008 I was alone in
representing Australia, but you can help change that this year. If you’d like to attend LUMUN ’09 or want some more information, then email me at ridaahmed@hotmail.com and register at www.lumun.org. This year LUMUN is being held from 30th Dec to 3rd Jan 2010 and promises to be bigger and more fun than ever before and it will be great if we could have a large delegation from Australia!
Rida Ahmed is a year 11 student at Shenton College in Perth, Western Australia
