MCGSMUN'18

SHIVRANJANI KUMARI

Dear Delegates and Faculty Advisors,

They say that the only time absolute peace prevails on Earth is the day after a war ends.

Neither is war the solution to any dispute, nor is it the answer to any of our disputed questions. But after more than enough of deliberation, we arrive at the conclusion that war is inevitable. In times of war, we shed blood. In times of peace, we prepare for war. Though these lines might not sound as idealistic and seasoned as the words of an esteemed diplomat, they are the truth and the truth cannot be veiled for long. Most diplomats that attend UN conferences and preach about world peace go there with the aim of practicing diplomacy, not to promote world peace. If we don't stop the rate at which efforts to maintain global peace are becoming superficial, we will witness the United Nations turning into a farce.

In Sir Einstein's words, "Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding".

Until each and every global citizen instils in himself/herself the spirit of compassion and understanding for everything around him/her, we will not be able to reach the state of utopia we are working towards. Peace is not necessarily something that can be achieved, but rather something that one must become. We must teach the people around us to be compassionate, kind, genuine and happy. When all of us are free enough to spread love and mean whatever we say, we will revitalize the future of our world. Although this proposal sounds more idealistic than most, the fact that one organisation is responsible for global peace is no less idealistic. Give it a good thought, for a good world; we need to be good people.

We hope this conference teaches us to initiate, negotiate and liberate. The future is in our hands.

With regards,

Shivranjani Kumari

Secretary General

NINGOMBAM TAMPHA CHANU

Dear Delegates and Faculty Advisors,

Every time you lump a person wearing a turban or a girl wearing a hijab into one culture, every time you skim the pages of a newspaper barely realizing that the photo of the girl behind the barbed wires is somewhere in the world figuring out her national identity or when the news of surgical strikes and encounters start sounding monotonous to you, you lose a little part of the humanity and empathy in you. We have started lumping people together according to the preconceived perceptions we have in our minds, have started thinking war is the only answer to peace not realizing that by doing so we are simply asking ourselves the wrong question. Truth be told, diplomacy is slowly fading into nothing but a farce, peace has become nothing but people accepting oppressive ideologies, corrupted policies simply because change is so hard to accept and religion has become nothing but a business and a rallying cry to kill people.

This year, at MCGSMUN 2018, each one of you will have the chance to make a small but a significant change and we hope to see you tear down the stereotypes, break through the walls that have been built over the years by notions of colours and pick up the pieces of the ones who no longer remember their own identity. We wish to see not sympathy but empathy, not just mere minced words of diplomats but words that resonate compassion and most important of all, people from all corners uniting in an effort to make the voices of the unheard, heard.

As Director General, I hope this conference helps you understand the world in its not-so-idealistic terms and start the chain of change that has long been stagnant. It is upon each one of you to uphold the responsibility invested in you and bring forth a better world where people can learn to Initiate, Negotiate and Liberate, before the clock stops ticking and all that will remain might just be remnants of what we could have saved.

In the end, I will just leave these words of Mother Teresa, "If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other."

With regards,

N. Tampha Chanu

Director General

ATISHA MAHAJAN

Dear Delegates and Faculty Advisors,

"I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word."

-Martin Luther King, Jr.

Countless displacements, rape, murder and arson in Northern Rakhine, ruthless insurgency in Mindanao, continuous bloodshed, bombing and destruction in the Middle East; mindless rape of a 6-month-old, protests and rebellion in uncountable number of countries: hopelessness, despair and misery. We are at the peak of civilization; technological advancements have allowed our faces to unlock our phones, design and architecture has created some of the most magnificent buildings in the world. We have reached the epitome of success and happiness. Or have we? As I said, so much advancement and progress, yet the shadow of hopelessness and failure to stay peaceful haunts our dreams. The man is only becoming wilder and the world is only becoming gloomier. But then again, as I write this, I bounce back to the first few lines by Martin Luther King Jr. and realize that 'hopelessness and hopefulness' are both a state of mind and all hope is never actually lost. It rests in the last breaths of a dying terrorist, in the first breaths of a healthy child and is the very soul of a new sunrise.

With this positivity and optimism in mind, our leaders created an organisation which embodies 'hope' in its very concept, idea and name, the 'United Nations'. Today at MCGSMUN 2018, we wish to conduct a conference to train our youth to become the leaders of tomorrow, so that the flame of hope and the baton of peace is handed down in safe, just and empathetic hands. Our team aims at keeping the conference as original, creative, stimulating and unique as possible. We worked on fusing all the four ideals into one, and came up with an idea, a first of its kind in the MUN circuit of the nation: the campaign at MCGSMUN 2018.

As Under-Secretary General: Head of Campaign, it is my aim to work my way to the chord of empathy in the heart of every delegate and manage to instill a sense of empathy and a drive for justice; an experience they shall never forget. It is my target, to use my resources in the best possible manner to expose every delegate to the roots of typical village life. At last I want to end my note echoing the words of the popular actor Max Carver "Empathy is the starting point for creating a community and taking action. It's the impetus for creating change."

With regards,

Atisha Mahajan

Under Secretary General- Head of Campaign

KUSHAGRATA GOEL

Dear Delegates and Faculty Advisors,

"Even savageness has its own attraction."

Our global community seems to be walking down a path of self-destruction knowingly, without deterring from this path. From the era of Adolf Hitler and Cold Wars, to the current scenario of Donald Trump and twitter wars, our community seems to be only avoiding the elephant in the room. The saying 'ignorance is bliss' seems to be the motto we work with, and the phrase 'couch potato',the perfect term to not only describe the global leaders, but each individual who sits behind the screens, merely criticizing them. In the words of the literary genius William Golding, "I am afraid of us".

With this in mind, this year,the Secretariat has tried to plan out agendas which not only discuss the pressing issues of our global society, but also throw light on the ones that are still kept in the shadows. We have not only tried to nip the problem in the bud by discussing the past- the very start of this all- but have also focused on the future which promises to be promising. With a universal boundary to our agendas, we hope to ensure committee sessions that are filled with intense and productive debate.

As Under-Secretary General:Crisis, I personally hope you find each committee captivating and necessary. The aim of this conference is to ensure that each individual learns to see, hear, empathize, and also take it a step further. The aim is that each individual takes it upon oneself to make the society around him or her sensitive to issues that truly matter. The aim is to ensure that people learn to listen with intent while they voice their thoughts, and to finally break the shackles of the old and orthodox. I hope we achieve in making each individual Initiate, Negotiate and Liberate.

To end with the words of Tennyson, "How dull it is to pause, to make an end,to rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use, as tho' to breathe were life".

With regards,

Kushagrata Goel

Under Secretary General- Crisis

PRISHA TIWARI

Dear Delegates and Faculty Advisors,

Living in the 21st century, we are just a click away from free access to all those innervating quotes and texts about revolution and development. We are just a click away from all those poignant pieces of news telling us about innumerable deaths and the unfathomable losses when it comes to humanity, but we need to stop and introspect and ask ourselves how we truly feel towards all that is happening around us. Do we actually feel the dolor or is it just an act that we put up to merge amongst the million silhouettes hiding behind their phone screens, using the crossbars of their hashtags to protect themselves from the abhorrent notions that have corrupted our nations. It is time we realise that nothing changes if nothing changes. Old keys cannot open new locks.

This year at MCGSMUN, we aim to recognise the need for empathy in today's world which should replace the ingrained nonchalance in us. We hope to see you all conceptualize new ideas that would not only enrich and nurture the minds of fellow delegates but also help us reach our goal of bringing about a change- one gesture, one moment and one person at a time. We wish to bring together a group of people who would tear down the walls of partisanship, insouciance and inhumanity and imbibe the notion that we are always one decision away from a convivial way of living.

As the Under-Secretary General:Logistics, I hope each and everyone one of you helps us generate and spread a vibe of empathy that reverberates across narrow perceptions of diplomacy. We also hope that you would help us carry forward the idea of initiate, negotiate and liberate. We await your presence at MCGSMUN this April.

With warm regards,

Prisha Tiwari

Under Secretary General-Logistics

RRYDHIMA PRASAD

Dear Delegates and Faculty Advisors,

"We must see that peace represents a sweeter music, a cosmic melody, that is far superior to the discords of war."

– Martin Luther King, Jr.

Today when I talk about peace I do not talk about the numb silence after a war or the victory trumpets muffling the death laments which are nothing but the consequences of war. When I talk of peace I talk of the freedom to walk on the streets without running for cover, I talk of the peace where a woman can walk freely without any threat to her security I talk of nations learning to live in mutual understanding and cooperation and the international community to move from the path of dissention. Soldiers lay their lives to attain peace and go to their graves thinking they have helped the world when in fact they are just buried, completely unaware of the harm the war they fought caused them and the lives of the ones they loved and the rest of the world. It is imperative for not only the leaders of the world but all global citizens to understand the significance of world peace today.

'Share'. It so happens that the global community is not ready to admit the word in their vocabulary. Nobody today seems to share anything be it territory, power or wealth. What we really need is every individual to not think like a political leader, a social worker, an officer or a soldier but like a fellow human being where everyone has equal power to be the change they wish to see in the world. A conference is more than the walls of a committee hall and the placard on your table, it is about how your discussions make you listen to your conscience and make an actual difference in your life. So we ask you to use this platform to inspire the future pillars of the world and resonate the words:Initiate, Negotiate and Liberate.

With regards,

Rrydhima Prasad

Under Secretary General-Public Relations

MRS. ANITA JOHN

Dear Delegates and Faculty Advisors,

"True peace is not merely the absence of tension, it is the presence of justice"

-Martin Luther King Jr.

True peace is peace with yourself and the world around you. The entire world is in tension because of war of words between President Trump of U.S and Kim Jong of North Korea, between China and Japan over Senkaku island in the East China Sea, between India and China over Doklam plateau. Tensions have been simmering in Middle East between Saudi Arabia,Yemen,Iran, Lebanon, Syria and Qatar.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. More than 128 million people in 33 countries are now affected by crisis including conflict and natural disaster. After 1000 days of civil war in Yemen millions have been displaced by violence and thousands have been killed,8 million people are at a risk of starvation. People in South Sudan are susceptible to diseases like malaria, cholera and measles and 3.6 million people are in need of food assistance. Due to ongoing violence and persecution hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have fled to neighboring countries.

When it comes to dealing with unfairness and injustice in the world, what ultimately matters is the purity of our intentions and our ability to tap our humanity. Humanitarians can help alleviate suffering and save lives, they can build communities' resilience. The lessons of history show that peace cannot wait, the world needs a surge in diplomacy for peace. We must invest in preventative diplomacy and mediation.

" In the face of today's challenges, the world needs bold leadership. We need less hatred more dialogue and deeper international cooperation."- Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary General.

We at MCGS believe to initiate, negotiate and liberate because darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that. We are determined to fight until justice runs down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream. We must come to see that at the end we seek a society at peace with itself, a society that can live with its conscience.

With regards,

Anita John

MCGSMUN Coordinator

SYEDA ASIA

Syeda Asia has worked for education policy implementation under Gandhi Fellowship in rural Rajasthan. She has done her Bachelors and Masters in Sociology from Lady Shri Ram College and Delhi School of Economics respectively. Having a bent of mind towards development and public administration, she has been involved with United Nations on multiple projects related to health, sanitation and minority affairs since 2013. Syeda has trained 10000+ students all across India in multiple skill-sets. She has participated in Model United Nations Conferences throughout her school and college, including international conferences such as Harvard MUN, Boston, United States of America.