A few weeks ago, Rutherford was privileged to have two teams competing in this year's Model United Nations Assembly. One team, with Aqueela Rasheed, Bindi Bhonsle, and Oscar Le Meur, were representing delegates for the nation of Iran. The second team, with Dallis Ashford, Jason Cassidy, Tate Robinson, and with help from Barbara Soares, Javiera Tossi, Laura Tossi, were representing delegates for the nation of Bolivia. Each team had to choose two topics of discussion in the General Assembly to speak on, and each person in the team had to speak at least once. 

The delegates of Iran spoke on the topics of “The United Nations calls upon the members of the G20 to help address growing climate inequities” and “The United Nations calls upon member nations to respect the territorial sovereignty of all members.” Each delegate spoke to the issues of both topics exceptionally well, representing Iran's views. The major issue for Iran is that it carefully governs its territory and keeps a watchful eye on Iraq, Israel, and any Palestinian development. They spoke to the general assembly about how they are working towards helping with the climate inequities, and about the amount of inaction towards what is happening to the Palestinian people. 

The delegates raised many “Points of Information”, where they ask a question to another delegate speaking. They raised a point of interest to the delegates of Israel, and asked them how they can justify their actions against the Palestinian people, which basically led to a shouting/cheering/booing match between everyone there.

The delegates of Bolivia chose to speak on one of the same topics as Iran, “The United Nations calls upon member nations to respect the territorial sovereignty of all members”, and they also spoke on “The United Nations calls upon its members to establish a commission for the conduct of nations in space.” Each delegate spoke to these issues, while mostly representing Bolivia's political view. Primarily, Bolivia does not have much representation in ‘space boundaries,’ and they supported the creation of an establishment of a commission for the conduct of nations in space. Also they called for a total ban on weapons in space.

The delegates for Bolivia also raised Points of Interest, one was to Peru about how they are continuing to burn parts of the Amazon Rainforest, and how they can justify this. To which the delegates of Peru responded with “no comment”, which essentially meant they were not prepared for a question like that.

Overall, both teams worked exceptionally well at researching their nation’s political views on a variety of topics. Everyone helped to represent their country’s point of view as accurately as possible. 

Special thanks to Mrs Chusovitina-Stretton and Mrs Fraser for their help and continued support.

by Jason Cassidy