Haiti: An Example of the Need for Preparation for the Unknown Following a Natural Disaster

Source: Haiti Cholera outbreak prompts fresh UN plea. 12/11/2010. BBC News

As many of you have probably heard on the news, Haiti is currently in the middle of a devastating Cholera outbreak.  Caused by a bacteria called Vibrio cholerae, Cholera usually causes mild abdominal discomfort and diarrhea, but can result in severely dehydrating diarrhea in about 5% of cases.  If oral or intravenous re-hydration therapies are not administered immediately, these severe cases can be fatal.

Haiti had previously been considered to be free from Cholera, so it was not expected to be a problem following the earthquake in January 2010; however, ten months after the earthquake, Cholera was present in Haiti.  To date, about 189,000 cases of Cholera were reported and 3600 people have died from the outbreak.  While it is not clear how Cholera was re-introduced to Haiti, it is a possibility that it was as a result of the high quantities of international aid that was provided to the nation following the earthquake.

This outbreak in Haiti highlights the importance of continuing health-care support after the immediate aid for the natural disaster has ended.  Initially, the mortality rates for the outbreak were very high (~6%), but they have dropped as a result of support provided by many international agencies to the Haiti Ministry of Public Health and Population.  The American Center for Disease Control is one of these agencies that has provided support to Haiti.

It is important to remember that while the immediate health effects of a natural disaster (e.g. physical trauma, shock, starvation) are usually treated fairly quickly, the loss of health infrastructure is a longer-term problem.  Nations and international aid agencies need to find an approach to health aid that is able to assist with both the immediate, acute effects, but also able to help the affected nation rebuild their health infrastructure.

New Green Technologies

Linked below is information about a list of new technologies that have large potantials to help make industries cleaner. However, while most people would certainly say that adoption of these technologies is certainly a good thing, the fact remains that many will not see the light of day. This is due in large part to the reluctance of industries and corporations to accept new, more environmentally-friendly methods of production, often because they raise the costs of production and subsequently lower profit margins.

What are some of the ways that industries and corporations can be persuaded to begin to adopt a wider range of these new "green" technologies? Is the most effective way through financial incentives? Through government regulation?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2011/jan/19/top-10-renewable-energy-companies

War, What is it Good For?

Hello Delegates!

Today's blogpost is going to focus on some key reasons for terrorism, and cross-border terrorism quite specifically.

You can find the blurb at length here

The SparkNotes are as follows:

State-Sponsored: Always difficult to deal with, this is pretty obvious from the name. Dealing with it is a complex issue, because it often can't be ended by sheer brute force: the source of the trouble is in a country other than the one you have control over, notably that is determined for that terrorist group to continue.

Failed States: Also difficult to deal with, these are terrorist groups arising out of the turmoil of a Failed or Failing State. Warlike, but often limited in their ambitions, they are hard to stop due to the lack of institutions that provide rule of law in their country.

War Time: An excellent example is the Israelo-Arab conflict, where terrorism is used during a war.

Narco: A fine line is drawn here between a drug cartel and a narcoterrorist group; largely in terms of motivation. Drug cartels exist to make money through the sale of drugs and perpetuate themselves; Mexico's troubles are a good example, as though the cartels play in politics it is not to bring about a revolution, only protect themselves. Narcoterrorists use drug revenues to fund revolutions. FARC is the best example here, though the Taliban have their own label here. They often have international implications as much due to their terrorism as their drug trade.

Supranationalism: Remember the Kurds? These types of terrorists want to build a nation out of others.

Some other views can be found here and elsewhere on the internet, the above is by no means exhaustive:

http://www.jamestown.org/single/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=20281&tx_ttnews[backPid]=224

An interesting article on some less known examples of state-sponsored terrorism in the CAR:

http://www.jamestown.org/programs/gta/single/?tx_ttnews[tt_news]=37291&tx_ttnews[backPid]=457&no_cache=1

The Jamestown Institute in general has a number of great articles to help with understanding terrorist activities across the world.

Cheers,

Robert

UNODC Background Papers are Now Available!

The UNODC Background Papers are now available:
The Question of Human Trafficking in Relation to the Trafficking of Narcotics
The Question of Dealing with and Erradicating Illicit Drug Crops

Please remember to begin researching and writing your position papers, as they are due to hsmun.unodc[at]gmail.com by midnight on February 11th, 2011 to be considered for an award!

Background Papers are Now Available for UNICEF!

The UNICEF Background Papers are now available:
The Question of Preventing and Controlling Child Malnutrition
The Question of Coordinating International Efforts Against Child Pornography on the Internet
Now is also the time to begin the researching and writing for positions papers, as they must be submitted to hsmun.unicef[at]gmail.com before midnight on February 11th, 2011 to be considered for an award.

WHO Background Papers are Available

The WHO Background Papers are now available:
The Question of Access to Healthcare During and After Natural Disasters
The Question of the Appropriate Use of Traditional and Conventional Medications

Now is also the time to begin the researching and writing for positions papers, as they must be submitted to hsmun.who[at]gmail.com before midnight on February 11th, 2011 to be considered for an award.

ECOFIN Backround Papers

The ECOFIN background papers are now available:
The Question of Sustainable Technological Development
The Question of Globalization of the Cultural Industry

Now is the time to begin your researching and writing for the position papers, as they must be submitted to hsmun.ecofin[at]gmail.com by midnight on February 11th, 2011 to be considered for an award.

DISEC Background Papers are now available!

The DISEC background papers are now available:
The Question of Militarization of Borders
Creating a Framework to Deal with "Cheaters" in Disarmament Agreements

Now is the time to begin your researching and writing for the position papers, as they must be submitted to hsmun.disec[at]gmail.com by midnight on February 11th, 2011 to be considered for an award.

SC Background Paper is now available!

The SC Background Paper on the Question of Crossborder Terrorism is now available.  Now is the time to begin thinking about researching and writing your position papers, as they must be submitted to the hsmun.sc[at]gmail.com by midnight on February 11th, 2011!

Jazz hands and the Cold War

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyLjbMBpGDA

What would those two things have anything to do with ECOFIN, you may ask? Well, just to give you a bit of insight in regards to one of the early examples of globalization back in the 1960's, we will take a break from reading and listen to some Louis Armstrong. Yes, that's right. In the 1960's, Louis Armstrong was well renowned for his talents in singing and trumpet playing. He was so talented that the US government decided to enlist Armstrong to serve as "Ambassador Satch," (Satch was his nickname) over in African nations in hopes of spreading good will for America around the globe. State Department-sponsored tours and broadcasts were used in attempts of introducing and swaying foreign citizens towards American culture.Armstrong quickly garnered a large fan base as was soon recognized as an international celebrity and American jazz icon.

Is something like this a positive or negative result of globalization?

How have events like these change cultures across the world?

Do we still observe similar changes today?

Recent Developments in Cases of Child Pornography

Hello UNICEF delegates,

While researching malnutrition probably won't create too many difficulties, reading about online child pornography may be quite problematic. However, there have been many recent developments, ranging from Austrian operations uncovering an international ring of criminals, to smaller scale discoveries in Britain, which deserve your notice.

These news stories can serve as great background information on various countries' actions and policies regarding these illegal acts, and news websites such as the BBC often have helpful links at the bottom of each article which can lead to more specific information. Recent news includes:

• Two small-scale stories (here and here) from Britain which emerged today.
• A story from April estimating the amount of child pornography currently circulating online.
• Two stories (here and here) from Austria detailing a record seizure and the discovery of an international porn ring.

In addition to news websites, many countries have governmental organizations which deal specifically with online child exploitation, and outline that particular country's current policies:

• UK's Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre
• An international cooperation entitled the Virtual Global Taskforce.
• Canada's NCECC.
• The international police agency Interpol.
• European Union's CIRCAMP.
• Australia's federal police.
• UAE police.

By far the best database on national laws regarding child exploitation can be found on Interpol, here.

Remember that virtually all countries are against online child pornography, and that national laws are already in place to deal with offenders. However, due to the global nature of the internet, police efforts across countries must be coordinated to effectively uncover international porn rings.

Good luck with further research; remember, knowing what your country's policies are, and what it is likely to agree to in a proposed resolution is key!

Wait a minute... Why does this even matter?

Hello, bonjour, guten tag, مرحبا , and hei delegates!

By this point, you should have read the background papers and begun looking into what you need for your position papers. I know from my experience as a delegate that this is the point where I begin to ask myself, "why does this even matter?" This refers to two things; the idea of writing the position paper/preparing, and why the topic being discussed is important.

Well, going into the conference having done the paper and researched gives you something to say. A three day model UN conference is much more fun if you aren't just sitting there. When you have a topic like cross-border terrorism, lots of dialogue is good... like cookies... you can never have too many.

As for the second thing, cross-border terrorism has had a huge effect on the global order and how we percieve it. Our entire outlook on war and how it is waged has changed. The United Nations was founded out of the wreckage of WW2. The Security Council and many of its other bodies were designed in a manner to address another WW2 style conflict. That is to say, wars between states. Now, you have non-state actors coming into play. Actors who base their operations within states who may not be hostile to the victims of the organization. This presents a massive challenge to the Security Council. It wasn't designed to resolve conflict of this manner. You must find a way. How then does the international community respond? After 9/11, we didn't know what to do. George Bush declared "a war on terror". But, to be serious (we all know he isn't), you can't battle an idea. You can't defeat an emotion (unless you're a Vulcan... shhh Star Trek is awesome). The international community decided to take action how? By attacking Afghanistan... A STATE. They justified their actions by claiming that they harboured al-Quaeda. Would taking broader action against the organizations themselves be more efficient? Should the states who harbour and (on occasion) fund these organizations face the same punishment as Afganistan? You decide.

"If Clinton had only attacked terrorism as much as he attacks George Bush we wouldn't be in this problem." -Dennis Miller

Good luck delegates. The world is counting on you... sort of... if you think about it... TERRORISM IS BAD!

Two points of view

Hey all you cool HSMUN-UNICEF kids.

Will rising food prices perhaps cause a global crisis? This article believes it will.

(Do you guys know what is causing food prices to rise? RESEARCH IT. Briefly, it is a drought in Russia that is causing the price of grain to rise)

To contrast, this article explores how although food prices have been rising for quite a while, we have seen no world crisis.

Hopefully these two articles help you in figuring out what your country's foreign policy is in regards to our malnutrition topic!

Useful Resources

Greetings Delegates,

I hope you had a nice vacation because it has now come to an end. I know that all of you are busy preparing for the upcoming United Nations conference and I would like to help you with your work.

This site is a very brief introduction to narcotics trafficking. It may be a good place to start but by no means to end. It is important to remember that this site speaks about drugs in general whereas our committee aims mainly to talk about narcotics; the difference will be for you to decide.

http://www.ehow.com/facts_5549701_drug-trafficking.html

If you are looking for facts and statistics, this site would be a good place to search for them. It is more detailed and also gives up to date information.

http://www.narcoterror.org/

Lastly, I have posted to the trailer 2000 Oscar winning movie Traffic (in HD of course). Its a pretty decent movie and talks about the different affects of the drug trade on politics and society.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPKxpu6inKM

Ill see all of you in a month. Good luck with your preparation.

Your Chair,

Zohaib

Make a New Years Resolution to... READ SOME RESOLUTIONS!

Happy new year to all of you keeners out there! I hope 2011 brings you good fortune... and greater excitement for the upcoming conference!

The United Nations is very very good at setting up committees. To a certain extent, the Security Council has attempted to resolve the question of terrorism. How did they do this? They set up a committee!

The United Nations Counter-Terrorism Committee was set up in 2001 as part of Resolution 1373. This committee drafts policy, provides assistance to member states, and carries out assessments of counter-terrorist measures. They want to make it difficult for terrorist groups to exist by addressing their sources of funding and assisting governments with tracking them down. It is difficult to blow something up when getting the materials to make a bomb is hindered.

The CTC is not perfect. It relies heavily on member states for cooperation. If a member state is funding a terrorist group and is not cooperative with the CTC, it becomes tricky to pursue any course of action.

The website provides country reports on terrorist activities and counter-terrorist acts. I highly recommend reading through a few of them. They show which countries have been reporting on their implementation of Resolution 1373. Does your country have anything to say? Have they done anything? If so, what are they doing? Feel free to check out the rest of the site as well. They have links to various interesting things about what they're doing and how they're doing it.

Resolution 1624 was passed in 2005, providing more guiding principles to the CTC. Here is a report on the implementation of this resolution. Make sure to read the complications involved in the issue or addressing global terrorism.

Until next time, cheers!

"Is it the extremist, or the media, that blow things up"
Loesje (a Dutch free speech organization)