GIMUNers in New York (17.10.07)

Daniel Lerch and I had the pleasure and honor to be the first ECOSOC-accredited GIMUNers at UN plaza, UN headquarters in New York City. I joined a General Assembly session concerning NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa’s Development) on Wednesday, 17 October 2007. As we anticipated, worldwide diplomacy did not show an extreme interest for this topic and the half of the country’s seats remained empty. Nevertheless, it was interesting to see what had been done for African development during the past years and what could be envisaged in the future.

Besides the conference, we visited the very beautiful sculpture park around at the East River border (which, unfortunately, is not open for the public), the tasty UN cafeteria and different other UN-facilities. We spent a great day there and discovered some particularities of the headquarters in Manhattan.

It seems to me that the UN in New York is much more down to earth and less glamorous than its counterpart in Geneva. In a way, the Palais des Nations in Geneva represents some kind of European ‘old diplomacy’, showing up with professionalism, exhausting etiquette and shiny marble floors. In contrast, the UN plaza in New York presents itself as an immense administrative machine, an organization fighting against the restriction of its funds and defending its position in today’s changing international environment. I believe that both facets reflect realities of the United Nations, which have to be taken into account when we simulate the organization via GIMUN. Of course, GIMUN is more about diplomacy than about bureaucracy, but we have to keep in mind that this is only a part of the whole picture – the nicer and more interesting part, I suppose.

Anyway, thank you GIMUN (and especially Dominik Knieriemen) for the help with our accreditation in New York. I sincerely wish you all the best for the 9th edition of the annual conference in March 2008!!