Faux Global Crises and Genuine Debates

MISSION VIEJO — Delegates to the Security Council knew something was very wrong when the council’s president abruptly interrupted the session.

Twenty-five rockets had just been fired from Syria toward the Israeli-controlled area of southern Lebanon, despite a 1993 agreement that barred attacks on civilian targets, the president announced solemnly.

The “delegates” had a global crisis on their hands--all the more nerve-racking because of their tender ages. All were still in high school.

The youngsters were playing roles on various committees at a three-day Model United Nations Conference at Mission Viejo High School. The 14th annual event Saturday drew about 1,500 students from 28 schools throughout the state. Participants discussed and debated issues ranging from troubles in the Middle East to peace-keeping in Rwanda.

The rocket emergency that cut short the Security Council’s routine meeting was designed to test the students’ abilities to lead and to cooperate with each other.

“The conference allows students to know the inner workings of the activities of the United Nations,” said Laurie Kund, the program’s advisor. “Educationally, the students get so much out of it.”

They hone skills such as researching, writing, debating and public speaking, she said.

Brianne Ford, a 17-year-old senior who served as this year’s U.N. Secretary General, said she learned how best to manage her time. She also “learned to be loud,” because she had to oversee meetings in which more than 200 students vied for her attention.

“Like the delegates at the U.N.,” she said, “the students are very opinionated.”

And like the real U.N., debates can become heated.

At the meeting of the ad hoc committee on the Middle East, for example, nearly a dozen delegates wrangled over whether people in the Middle East should be required to have visas or passports to enter Jerusalem.

An Algerian delegate said no, there should be “an international Jerusalem.” But the delegate from Iran objected, saying there must be a way to monitor the number of people entering the city.

“Who’s regulating it now?” the Algerian shot back. “It’s the Israelis’ rule, and they’re regulating it now. So, they can [continue to] regulate it.”

The two sides, each joined by supporting delegates, sallied back and forth until the representative from Iraq motioned that the caucus be closed “because opinions are still different.”

Just like at the real U.N.