One of the sections of the Yakutia International Science Games is «Diplomats of the Future». Correspondent Liza Nikonova, she is also «ambassador of Greece», goes to all meetings and talks about impressions in her blog of the diplomat.
At the International Science Games, the business game «Model of UNESCO» is held. The main topic is «The Role of Youth in Scientific Diplomacy». Participants play the role of ambassadors of different countries and discuss the world agenda. Read more about the first round here.
The second round is the most emotional one. Diplomats are united in coalitions and groups of interests. Some delegates immediately decided which coalition they would be in, others thought for a very long time, the previously agreed unions collapsed, new ones were created. Everything is like in real politics.
Two days of the coalition prepared a resolution — a draft proposal for UNESCO. This had to be done in secret from other groups. The resolution was written in their spare time: at night, in a fierce dispute, they buried themselves on the Internet. It was difficult to agree. In my coalition there were 4 girls and 18 guys, so they watched the World Cup in parallel. I will tell you, the sounds of the resolution match are very interesting. On the day of the speeches, each coalition jealously listened to the speech of the chairmen. What interesting will be offered? Are there any finds? What are the shortcomings?
Everyone especially liked the point offering a simplified procedure for obtaining a visa for young scientists.
The winners were a delegation led by the United States and South Africa. It is difficult to imagine, if such a situation occurred, for example, in the United Nations. We have a democracy. They voted openly.
It would be too easy, if all these performances ended. The most difficult and tedious stage came after lunch: working with documents. The resolution was amended and voted on each item. Our resolution was actually «blown up»! There were only 13 items left out of 22.
It was a shame that not all delegates understood our idea with comics. We offered to promote science through hand-drawn pictures. Many thought that this was inappropriate, but we believed that this is how you can attract children to this area.
All this time, experts, scholars of the Diplomatic Academy attached to the Russian Foreign Ministry, watched the participants. Meanwhile, the delegates were hotly debating every amendment. One coalition led by Britain even broke up for a while because of the heat, but then reunited again.
Finally, the resolution was accepted. We decided to celebrate this case with the traditional Yakut round dance of friendship and unity «osuohai». Do you know who sang. Sergey Tarasov the Attache of the Foreign Ministry’s Representative Office in Yakutsk. All the former coalitions disintegrated under his resonant voice.
Lisa Nikonova
Translation: Konstantin Popov