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SIMUN was a great experience; I learned how to speak professionally with my parliamentary procedure skills. Also, I think SIMUN was a great way for us students to learn more about conflicts in the world and how to solve them in a professional matter. I thought the scenarios could have added some more of the countries involvement, because sometimes it was hard for smaller countries to join in on the conversation. The seniors helping us out both as mentors and on the chair made it a smoother ride in the process of learning the scenarios.
Before going into SIMUN, I thought I was SOL. I figured that the juniors would dominate us freshman, and the sophomores would try to join in on the dominance. But that wasn't the case at all; I owned some of the older delegates with questions they couldn't even comprehend. There was a scenario where my country, Ukraine had an election this year and the pro- Russian candidate had won, he was in favor of not joining NATO, but half of the country disagreed. I had no clue what to do. In all of the other scenarios there was a flat out question telling you to resolve it in a certain way. But in this one you had to make peace between the civilians and the government. For that scenario I relied on the older kids to tell me what to do just a tiny bit too much. But I took control at the end and joined NATO. I made powerful allies and for all of the scenarios I was a part of the winning resolution.
I felt my preparation was better than most of the other freshman. I knew what my country would do in certain situations and what they were against. I prepped with writing six assigned papers on different conflicts going on in the world and background history on my country.
Like I said earlier, I have a 3-0 record and I don't plan on adding any losses because 3-0 sounds just so much nicer than 2-1. I will definitely learn more about my relations with other countries because that will help me greatly next year. I am going to learn as much as I can about my country next year so that I can add facts into my speeches and sound like I know my country like it's the back of my hand. Therefore, I can dominate because trying is for children.

Ukraine's Decision

If the United States decided to go into Pakistan to secure nuclear materials from the Taliban, the country of Ukraine would fully back the United States. My country is both allies with Pakistan and United States, so we don't see anything wrong with what the U.S is trying to do. If the U.S needs troops to help patrol the area, Ukraine would be more then willing to spare some soldiers to Pakistan. Pakistan is very important to my country, they were one of the first countries to recognize Ukraine as a independent nation from the Soviet Union in 1991. If Ukraine was in the trouble Pakistan is, I'm sure they would do the same for my country.
My country knows what is like to suffer from nuclear radiation. We would in no way allow the Taliban to get a hold of Pakistan's nuclear material and potentially misuse it for terrorist actions. If the Taliban some how obtained control of the nukes, then we could only hope that there isn't a malfunction in the plant. Again, my country has had a bad experience with nuclear materials in 1986 at Chernobyl. Many people around that area are affected by the radiation everyday and we could not imagine that happening to another country. Nuclear materials are not for playing with, so if the United States decides to go in to Pakistan, Ukraine will be right behind them every step of the way.

The Kite Runner

I am currently reading The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, it is about a young boy, Amir, growing up in Afghanistan during the 1960's. I noticed while reading that there is a social class in Afghanistan and its divided between the Sunni and Shi'a muslims. The Sunni muslims also called Pashtuns are the richer, more well known people and the Shi'a muslims are called Harazas. Both groups of muslims are very similar including their religion, they both believe in the Koran.The Harazas are usually servants and are mogul descendants. They are often treated poorly and they have nothing they can do about it.
Amir grew up having a playmate, Hassan. They were both the same age and Hassan was one of Amir's servants. Hassan was a Haraza and that didn't affect his relationship with Amir at all. Until, Amir's neighbors began to bully Amir and Hassan frequently. The bullies would tell Hassan that Amir didn't like him, that he wasn't friends with him, that he was only his servant, nothing more. And the thing that bothered me while reading it was that, the bullies were right. Amir only thought of Hassan as someone he grew up knowing. He thought this until he got older and Hassan moved away. This is one of the major cultural differences and it bothers me on a high level.