This year’s BERMUN 2 conference hosted by the JfK school was especially engaging, since we discussed a very important issue under the banner theme of ‘Decolonize’, a term which is difficult to define but has deep ramifications. Even today, some countries engage in neocolonialism and whether colonialism is truly only an event that remains in the past is questionable.
In total, seven of us went to the conference and we all represented the United Kingdom; a challenging country to represent, given the theme. We were distributed across different committees: Arjun in the Middle School MUN, Lina in the GA4, Kerem & Cillain in the Security Council, Ivan in ECOSOC, Charlie in the GA3 and Vin in the Historical Security Council. Ivan also served as an ambassador and held an opening speech at the opening ceremony. He reported that he felt very excited and that it was an experience he will remember forever.
The guest speaker event was one of the most remarkable moments of the conference. The Honourable Jerobeam Shaanika, who is the ambassador of Namibia to Germany, spoke about the after effects of German colonialism.This event was very significant,because he explained how the colonial mindset of countries does not change, even after a country receives its sovereignty and gains independence and that Decolonization is a long process including psychological and cultural factors.
Overall, every single one of us had a lot of fun during this conference. The debate was very engaging and everyone was respectful to one another. I always look forward to participating in MUN conferences, since I learn a lot about politics and have the opportunity to meet new people.