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Earlier this year I was nominated by Claire Henderson

and Angharad Thain, now past pupils of Methody, to
represent Northern Ireland at the Global Young Leaders’
Conference in September. They had both attended the
previous year and were keen that I also have the
experience. Before going on the trip I had to fundraise.
My sister Alice baked 150 “MUN BUNS” for me to sell at
the Junior Model United Nations in June, I managed to
sell all of them before we were even halfway through
the conference and also raised much interest among
hungry junior delegates about my trip. Unfortunately
Methody wasn’t able to help with funding but the Belfast Education and Library
Board kindly contributed £300 towards travel costs and a local firm of solicitors
Magennis and Creighton helped too. Having booked my flights, borrowed some
ties and bought my first suit I was ready to go. Here is a glimpse of what I got up
to on the trip.

July 12th – I left Belfast on a mid morning flight to New

York, my connecting flight to Washington was delayed by
4 hours so I arrived at the Global Young Leader’s
Conference after all the introductions had been made.
There were 350 scholars from all over the world at the
conference, the simulations involved everyone but we
were also divided into smaller working groups. I arrived at
2am Belfast time, which was 9pm Washington time and
introduced myself to my Leadership Group, of course they
all remembered me but it took me a while to get to know
their names. I joined in the ‘ice-breaker’ games they were
playing and got to know Lucy when we won a game of
‘pirate ship’ by being far too strategic and competitive for our own good!

July 13th - We had our first serious Leadership Group

Meeting. The Leadership Groups were groups of about 25
scholars. Most of our time was spent in discussions and
debates with our group. Each group was assigned a
country to represent in the various simulations throughout
the conference. Our country group was Saudi Arabia, so I
had done some research on the country before leaving.
The meeting in the morning was to discuss the speaker we
would hear, Dr Gary Weaver, a professor in American
University. Our FA (faculty advisor / teacher) Ms. Nora
gave us the analogy of the iceberg to explain cultural
differences. In our group we marked some things such as
architecture or dress as on the top of the iceberg as we can see these cultural
effects. We placed things such as beliefs and tradition under the iceberg as these
are parts of culture that cannot always be seen. Dr Gary Weaver outlined in his
speech that whilst globalisation might make different cultures, such as those
from the Eastern and Western world, seem identical above the surface this is not
the case in beliefs below the surface. We had lunch in Washington’s famous
Union Station. After this we visited the Franklin D. Roosevelt and Thomas
Jefferson memorials. Upon returning to the Sheraton National Hotel we heard
from Ms Molly Blank who had made a documentary film about racial attacks in
South Africa. It reminded me of news back in Northern Ireland just before I’d left
about the Romanians who had left their homes due to racist attacks and
intimidation. The attacks that had been occurring in South Africa were far more
serious but similar in nature and with similar causes. The documentary film
focused especially on why so many normally moderate people either joined in
the attacks or did nothing to help the victims. Tutsi in our group was in
Johannesburg at the time of the attacks and so was able to share her first hand
experience with us later on when we were being debriefed in our leadership
group meeting.

July 14th - Ms Angelica Silvero was the first speaker of the day when we visited to
World Bank Headquarters. Her speech detailed the World Bank’s transition from
simply functioning as a bank to actively working for humanitarian improvement.
She gave examples of many projects from around the world that had been
supported by the World Bank and different nations’ roles as lenders and
borrowers and she answered many tough questions from the scholars on cases
of corruption. She pointed out that many of the countries where money is lost to
corruption are the countries than need it the most, so simply refusing to give
anything to these countries was not a solution to the issue as it would inevitably
affect those in poverty more than the wealthy. We had lunch in Georgetown and
it was interesting to see around the American University. I also heard from a
member of the Carnegie think-tank who visited Guantanamo Bay to investigate
the effectiveness of US interrogation techniques especially in comparison to the
Saudi Arabian system, which he had also visited. Finally that evening we took
part in a World Trade Organisation simulation in which we had to resolve a
dispute between the EU’s Airbus and the US’s Boeing, both of which had
received unfair grants from their respective governments.

July 15th - The day started with a visit to the US Department of State where the
speaker outlined the Department’s commitment to securing peace and stability
in the world through long-term development rather than short-term military
action. However, he found it difficult to justify the large discrepancy between the
budget for US aid and foreign development schemes and the far larger military
budget. In the afternoon we visited the Israeli Embassy, which prompted a
healthy debate on the Middle East situation. It was particularily interesting to
hear the views of people from Arabic countries and I expect that for many of
them it was their first time hearing what Lucy had to say, as many of the
scholars from Muslim backgrounds had never met someone of Jewish ancestry
before. Our group also gained from Lucy’s personal connection to the Holocaust
Museum which we visited the next day. I found many parallels between problems
that exist in the Middle East and problems that have
existed in Northern Ireland and I saw many cases where
Northern Ireland was used as an example of how to
resolve such conflict.

July 16th - In the morning we visited the US Holocaust

Memorial Museum which really brought home many of
the concepts of human rights that we had been
discussing previously in our Leadership Group Meetings.
We were able to explore Washington D.C and visit some of the Smithsonian
Museums. That evening we prepared for the United Nations Security Council
simulation.
 July 17th - We heard from the Humanitarian Issues Panel
which was made up of guest speakers Ms Anderson from
Mercy Corps, Ms Hill from Catholic Charities SUA and Mr
Doyle a reporter for the McClatchy Newspapers. Mr Doyle
was an especially interesting speaker as he often
questioned the other speakers.
Questions from the scholars
ranged from whether
vegetarianism was a moral
imperative given food shortages
to the impact of the Catholic Church’s teachings on
contraception. We continued to prepare for the UN
Security Council simulation throughout our Leadership
Group Meetings that day. The 17th of July was also my 17th
birthday so at dinner Lucy and Camilla had organised a
birthday party for me. They’d made a card for me of
shared GYLC memories and wearing some makeshift
party hats, they along with the other 350 scholars down for dinner sang happy
birthday. Afterwards we went up to the rooftop of the Sheraton Hotel, which had
a view over all of Washington D.C for an impromtu birthday party. This was our
last night in Washington D.C so we continued the party atmosphere back in our
Leadership Group Meetings where we had a Cultural Exchange. I found out more
about the different cultures represented in our group and I was also able to share
a bit about Northern Ireland. Many of the other scholars were very amused when
I showed them a photograph of Belfast’s skyline and named the Harland and
Wolf cranes, they couldn’t understand how cranes, no matter how big, could be
considered landmarks or have ‘names’. I explained to them about the heritage of
ship building, including the Titanic. Some scholars also misunderstood the nature
of the Giants Causeway, asking “how did they do that?” When I explained about
the sudden cooling of volcanic magma when it hit the sea they still asked “Yes,
but how did they get it to flow into the sea?” because they were still under the
impression that it was man-made. In my cultural exchange I was also able to
show them an unusually lightweight, blue ‘rock’ which was formed when a blue
ulsterbus seat melted into the tarmac of the road. I found this rock when I was
much younger a few days after the bus had been burned out one 11th night. I
was also able to show them the Good Friday agreement and give a brief
explanation of the troubles and what effect the agreement had. Even though the
other scholars’ knowledge of Northern Ireland would seem poor to us, it actually
greatly impressed me as they had all heard of Northern Ireland whereas often I
would be approached by people whose countries were much larger but I’d barely
heard of. For example a representative from Belize was surprised that I didn’t
know more about their country given that they’d been a part of the British
Empire and still to this day export their entire banana crop (their main industry
and largest employer) to Ireland through Fyffes which largely ‘owns’ their
country. In fact, something I shared in common with the rest of the UK
representatives was surprise at exactly how far the UKs news and influence
extended across the world. I noticed how despite everyone having many
similarities, particularily as most of the scholars had received western style
educations and had educated liberal families, even people from places such as
Texas could have very different lifestyles from people here in Northern Ireland.
Everyone in the group made it clear they’d love to welcome guests to their
homes if other scholars wished to visit their country.

18th July - Most of this day was spent travelling. We

had a bus ride up to Philedelphia where we stopped
to get lunch. Then we continued our journey to New
York city. Upon arrival my luggage didn’t come out
of the bus, though I was certain I had loaded it.
Later on that night it turned up, in the girls dorms,
thanks to the pink ribbon my mum had tied onto it!
Manhattan College was a beautiful campus and we
particularly enjoyed being able to congregate in the
‘quadrangle’ of grass in the courtyard.

July 19th - In the morning I went on my site visit to Ellis Island. I enjoyed the boat
journey past Liberty Island to Ellis Island and it was interesting to see the
buildings that some of my ancestors probably passed through. When I did a
search for my family name on the records more results came up than I could look
through. Back on Manhattan we ate lunch in Times Square, which has now been
pedestrianised. It amused me that many Americans seemed to think it was a
radically new idea, despite it being common in the centres of most European
towns and cities. We then went to see Mary Poppins on Broadway, the first time I
had ever been to a musical.

Upon returning to Manhattan College we had our first Commission Meeting. In

these Commission Meetings we prepared resolutions to various issues for our
United Nations Global Summit happening at the end of the week. I was
repesenting Saudi Arabia on the Political Committee and argued for a resolution
which would give Saudi Arabia permanent Security Council membership, on the
basis that despite being the world’s 2nd largest and fastest growing religion Islam
was not represented on the Security Council and that Saudi Arabia’s oil made it
an important world power.

July 20th - We had to report back to our Leadership Group and Country Group on
what had happened in our Commissions so that we could maintain an overview
of the summit as a whole. We then had a speaker from the financial world, Mr
DeNaut from Deutsche Bank. He emphasised the impact of globalisation in terms
of the current global recession and hinted that perhaps in the future Europe
would be favoured as a more stable financial entity because of the origins of the
recession in the US financial market. We had a further two Commission Meetings
and Leadership Group meetings in preparation for the Global Summit.

July 21st - After breakfast we spent some hours negotiating with other country
groups to try and win support for our resolution, ahead of the debate in the
United Nations. We then boarded buses and drove to the United Nations where
we heard from Ms Sorensen who had many years experience in the different
functions of the UN. She was able to give us a rare insight into the lives of
diplomats and the prerequisits for jobs in international relations. That evening we
had our ‘National Delegation Rally’ where each country had to sing a song or
dance to show off an aspect of their culture. The Saudi Arabian group danced to
‘Saudi boy - crank dat oil’ (new lyrics to the pop song ‘Soulja boy’) and got
Christian from Florida to do a belly dance.
July 22nd - Finally after much preparation we had our Global Summit in the United
Nations buildings on Manhattan. Being in a real UN conference hall gave a great
atmosphere to the debates. Unfortunately Saudi Arabia did not become a
permanent Security Council member, but it was a
close vote and we definitely won over many member
nations. Inevitably the threat of a veto was what
killed the resolution. The resolution from Human
Rights regarding the problem of Genocide contained
a clause that was in breach of the UN charter. To
change the charter requires a 2/3 majority vote in
the general assembly. I had a copy of the UN
Charter with me and realised this wasn’t in order, so
Saudi Arabia made a point of order and the resolution failed without reaching the
2/3 majority.

We had lunch in China town and little Italy, it was fascinating to see the diversity
on Manhattan island, as these places actually felt as though they were in a
different country. We returned to Manhattan College to discuss the events of the
summit with our country groups and to get ready for the farewell dinner cruise.
The cruise around Manhattan Island was a beautiful way to see the city and to
end the experience, and provided many photo opportunities with my friends.

July 23rd - Everyone had become surprisingly close during the conference and as
it was the last day I had to say goodbye to many friends. Even though the
conference had a strict schedule and an even stricter lights out at 10.30, that
really just marked the start of the evening’s socialising. We moved from room to
room after lights out and chatted and got to know many more people than we
would have otherwise, these informal gatherings went on into the small hours
and we ended up sleeping in whatever room we were in when we got sufficiently
tired, returning to our own rooms in the morning to shower and change. I made
the most of these opportunities to meet other young people from all around the
world and to exchange contact details with them.

The conference ended at 10am but my flight wasn’t until 9pm that night. Luckily
there were others who also had late flights so we spent the day together
exploring Manhattan.

At home again – Keeping in contact with almost 350 people across 5 continents
can never be easy, but it’s been possible through Facebook. For the first few
days that I was home I existed not in East Coast time or GMT, but in ‘internet
time’ which was simply whatever time people were uploading their GYLC photos
to facebook. I’ve been able to chat to many of the other scholars so we can keep
in touch. I wouldn’t recommend it as a cure for jetlag though, as when I’m talking
to people in America it might be early evening for them but 2am for me! Even
more complicated are those in Australia, I have to bear in mind that evening for
me is morning for them. It’s also strange to be reminded that they are still in
their winter so are not off school. The amount of followup on facebook has been
incredible, the days after the conference I would be struggling through 75
messages each morning and I’m already organising to meet up with some of the
scholars in London at Christmas as well as a reunion being planned for the
future.

I’ve now been asked to nominate another pupil to go to the conference next
year, however given the costs of attending especially during the recession I am
hoping to have secured more sponsorship or funding for any future global young
leaders before they plan to attend.