SIMUN Blog

SIMUN was at first a nerve wrecking terrifying unfamiliar experience. I didn't believe Mrs. Bergeski when she said it was fun and the older Globies help you out; however, I was wrong. SIMUN was a fun and educational experience which usually don't go together. It was fun because of the interaction with older kids that you have never met before. You also have to stand and speak up instead of just listening your teachers. It was very interesting for me because my county, Zimbabwe, would be considered one of the bad guys in most of the scenarios. It was kind of a challenge to fully give 100% when you yourself would do exactly opposite of what your country would do; for those three days in SIMUN, you aren't you, you're your country. The best part of SIMUN was asking questions after a junior gives a speech and they are not able to give a straight answer.
Over all, for my first year in SIMUN, I don't think I did too bad. I'm not a big fan of public speaking, but I did give my fair share of speeches, especially on the first day when my country was in the middle of the scenario. I helped write recommendations, gave speeches standing up for not only myself, but also pleading my allies' cause, and asked questions of the chair and the speakers. I definitely was not the most vocal in my group-that falls to Cuba-but I did speak a lot. If the scenario on the first day hadn’t been about my country, I know I wouldn't have had the courage to say much for the other two days.
To prepare for SIMUN, I did what every other Globie in my class did-look up the answers for the questions Mrs. Bergeski had us answer. Going to website based in different countries really gave me an idea of how other countries felt about Zimbabwe. I along with my fellow freshmen Globies, freaked out in between questions about how hard this would be. Since my older brother was in Global Ed, I called him a few times to ask him about SIMUN, how it worked, how nervous should I be, etc. He and his reassurance that SIMUN was fun probably helped me as much as the research did. Although I looked up my allies, I wasn’t really all that sure on where I stood with certain countries in my group.
Next year, I will definitely spend more time looking up Zimbabwe's relationships with other countries. Luckily, I knew China was my ally, along with other small African nations, but the only country I knew Zimbabwe was on horrible terms with was the United States. So I generally stayed away from European countries like Germany, France, and Denmark, along with the United States.

Pakistan Simum Question

Where would Zimbabwe stand if the Taliban was gaining control in Pakistan, the government was about to fall, and the government falling would put nuclear weapons into the hands of the Taliban? What if the United States soon sent troops and got involved? Where would Zimbabwe stand? This is a tough call because although the United States and Zimbabwe do not get along, Zimbabwe has a cordial relationship with Pakistan. According to Wikipedia, Pakistan promised to back Zimbabwe by saying, “stand by Zimbabwe in its challenging times and continue to render assistance in every way possible in an effort to cement the already cordial relationship between the two countries.” Zimbabwe would be caught between supporting the United States, something Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s president since 1987, would hate to do, and helping out a country that said it would help them. In the end, I do believe Zimbabwe would support the United States decision to send troops into Pakistan to stabilize the government so that Zimbabwe can have their continued help with the controversial issues that Zimbabwe gets itself into. Zimbabwe does not have very many allies and needs to keep all the good relationships it can get. Also, Zimbabwe can use the experience of helping the United States out as a good way to stay in their good graces and get out of tight spots with the United States at a later date.

Free Write-A Thousand Splendid Suns

For those of you who haven’t read A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini, it is a story about two women trapped in an abusive marriage, both physically and verbally abusive, in Afghanistan. The younger of the two, Laila, was told that her boyfriend was killed and therefore since her parents were killed, she should marry Rasheed, the abuser. Mariam, Rasheed’s first wife, had several miscarriages, but no children, so Rasheed was not happy with her and treated her much worse than he treated Laila, who was young and beautiful.
This book really opened my eyes to how dramatically different a woman’s place is in Afghanistan compared to a man’s. Men are allowed to beat their wives, and at one point, after a failed attempt at running away, the women were caught and questioned by an officer. They feared for their lives. ‘“If you send us back,” she said instead, slowly, “there is no telling what he will do to us.” She could see the effort it took him to keep his eyes from shifting. “What a man does in his home is his business.”’ The way that women took this abuse and how easily men got away with it, without a care in the world, honestly made me angry. Also, before the Taliban took control, some men were looked down on because of how lenient they were when it came to controlling their wives. While some women were allowed to wear only a scarf, lipstick, nail polish, some were even allowed to smoke.
Once the Taliban came in control though, the ideas were stomped out. Women were not even allowed out of the house without a male relative. Laila, who was forced to put her daughter in an orphanage because they could not afford to feed her, risked being beaten to see her daughter. She even tried multiple times a day to see her daughter if she was seen alone the first time. She soon learned to wear extra layers of clothing to soften the beatings she received from the Taliban posted along Kabul’s streets.
When Laila was pregnant with her second child, men and women were no longer allowed to be treated in the same hospitals. The women’s hospital that she was forced to go to was basically a riot; Taliban guards had to guard the doors to treatment rooms. When Laila was in labor, she found she needed a caesarian section; the hospital had no drugs, clean gloves, and no x rays. All the money for hospitals either was turned away because it was charity, or given to men’s hospitals.