Insults and laughter in the first committee:
Most delegates of the first committee are making efforts to discuss combating piracy in southeast Asia. Except for the delegate of Yemen who continuously makes the humanitarian crisis the country is facing a topic by saying “it should be discussed in all committees”. He would appreciate it if all countries were to help Yemen survive and continues to speak about the crisis as his first priority which is harshly criticized by many others including the Malaysian delegate who demands: “Yemen deserves a punishment for wasting our time!”
Not much later Yemen does get its punishment after losing its temper facing the non-existent support of the other delegates regarding his personal agenda. He shouts and calls his fellow delegates “selfish” and “Islamophobic” which is the straw that breaks the camel’s back. And he is not the only delegate to become enraged and is asked by the chairs to apologize: The USA makes Iran see red by disrespecting them and talking in a sarcastic manner about Iran’s “peaceful intentions”, Malaysia refers to the USA as “pigs” and “wholeheartedly” apologizes afterwards and the Indonesian delegate rages about the UK and other P5 nations, calling them “arrogant” and saying “of course countries like the UK think they are better than others”, just to name a few incidents.
But despite ongoing disagreements and inadequate phrasings the atmosphere is pleasant and relaxed and a lot of laughter is shared in the second committee. From time to time one can even be under the impression that present delegates are not talking about their resolution at all anymore and tend to forget the actual matters of concern they’ve come to discuss. The same applies to the allocated add-staff who are indifferently sitting at the side and seem to forget about their duty every now and then when they absentmindedly wave back when someone actually tries to make use of their services and calls them to come. Well, the days are long, the add-staff’s work can be a bit one-sided and the used-up air surely does not boost concentration, so they shall be forgiven and appreciated for the underrated work they’re doing.
At the end of the first session Indonesia has managed to obtain the impressive amount of ten punishments most of which are because of his continuous use of first person singular in his speeches, closely followed by Russia. Its sure to say that the first committee can mentally prepare and look forward to witnessing a lot of pitch-perfect singing and glorious dancing this afternoon!