THIMUN 2014 Review – by Ben Manifold
Wow. It really doesn’t feel like a month has passed, it’s gone so fast.
THIMUN 2014 was a brilliant experience that will never be forgotten. The trip itself was a combination of making brilliant memories with brilliant people all the while partaking in an incredible learning experience that changed the way many of the delegates and facilitators saw the world.
I won’t run you through the trip day by day since realistically that would make the article roughly 20 pages long! To run through the basics – we started our trip in Berlin (in my opinion the best city of the entire trip) and whilst there visited many historic sights, the focus of which was on museums and memorials as we tried to comprehend the intense modern history of this incredible city.
Within the next 10 days of our trip we visited some really beautiful cities, including Prague and Munich, and we also had some really intellectually stimulating experiences as well, at places like the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna and the UN Office in Geneva. Both of these cities were full of international agencies and many of the delegates seemed inspired by the work of the employees.
Paris was our next stop and we all took a moment to appreciate the absolute beauty of this city; getting caught up in the experience for 4 whole days and enjoying every minute of the bright lights incredible culture of this great stop-off.
It was back to work in Brussels were we started to work hard on our resolutions for the THIMUN conference and had a serious think about how we were going to handle the week and talked to the Facilitators about the best way to go about it.
THIMUN itself was an incredibly interesting experience for all involved. When you bring together thousands of young people from around the world, you know you’re going to be blown away by the creative vibes buzzing around the room. It was a great moment when almost all of our delegation got resolutions debated in their committees and even more amazing when a high majority of these resolutions got passed! Special congratulations must be given to Nick O’Hara, Stef Roberts-Thompson, Kathryn Ellis and Liliana Tai who got their resolutions debated in the plenary sessions of their Committees and to the Liliana and Kathryn for having their resolutions passed! The debates were interesting and at times intense and frustrating, however on a whole, the conference brought the group together into an unbreakable team and allowed us to present our skills and talents in a forum that hopefully will aid in preparing us for our paths ahead.
Returning home and looking back on the trip, THIMUN was an incredible trip that flew by so incredibly fast. The trip allowed me to explore cities that I had studied in school and as such get unbelievable firsthand knowledge which I never had before, something I value so dearly and don’t think has really hit me yet. Visiting UN agencies, Australian embassies and other international forums gave many delegates an insight into what they may want to do in the future and in the same respect, what they might not want to do in the future and as such I believe provided incomparable benefit to all. However more than anything, THIMUN 2014 was amazing because it brought together like-minded individuals with a common goal and allowed us to discuss, debate and ponder important questions but also have a magnificent time along the way.