End of the Year Issue
By Georgia McKerracher
December 31, 2022
Sciences Pistes Model United Nations (SPMUN) has come and gone — but that won’t stop us from reflecting upon the unique experiences that were had by those 170 Sciences Pistes who partook in the first intercampus event of the 2022-23 academic year.
The conference focus on “Reconstruction and Redirection” proved to be a popular one — with three language committees, highlighting the true diversity of Menton as a site sandwiched between a variety of Mediterranean states and bringing together aspiring policymakers, diplomats, leaders and journalists from across the world.
The opening ceremony kicked off with an address from the Permanent Observer of the International Chamber of Commerce in Geneva and former Australian Ambassador to Nepal and Chile, Mr. Crispin Conroy. Not only did he manage to diplomatically ingratiate himself to the community through remarks about the beauty of our campus, but he also spoke about his experiences as a gender parity champion and reflected on the roots of the ICC, League of Nations and the Paris Climate Agreement. According to Conroy, the multilateralism of our increasingly globalized world is today threatened by the politics of fear we are witnessing engulf the world’s democracies; therefore, he positioned his audience to reflect on their duty to rethink the multilateral approaches they can employ to further the global common good.
Secondly, Sciences Po Refugee Help’s representatives Cameron Sterling and Ferida Altun delivered a moving speech to the audience, condemning the militarization of the Italian-Franco border and the human rights abuses which occur right next to our campus daily. They informed the community of the systemic police brutality and migrant mistreatment that occurs daily, with Sterling extending this theme to her SPMUN position as Chair of the UNHCR English-speaking committee alongside second-year Sienna Bertamini.
Crisis also had many intriguing happenings — from day one, when we saw a peasant revolt, followed by a bout of dancing to Cotton-Eyed Joe, to Melania Trump assassinating Marjorie Taylor Greene in the Bahamas. As usual, Crisis directors Riwa Hassan and David Ederberg did a marvelous job ensuring the committee’s activities were punctuated by random but stimulating ebbs and flows of chaos.
At the ceremony’s closing, MEDMUN organizers, chairs and delegates all came together to reminisce on all that had taken place throughout the weekend. Second-years Sami Omaish and Vinciane Rosenzweig gave an opening address to the fatigued yet good-spirited crowds, followed by Pauline Da Cunha and Lucie Taïeb from the Paris MUN as well as Madeline Crepin Calarnou from the Poitiers MUN.
Paraphrasing the resonant words of Menton Campus Director Yasmina Touaibia’s opening ceremony speech, for this weekend, we didn’t only see the well-known “Ummah Mentoniyya’ – but we had the good fortune to see the collectivity and unity of the wider ‘Ummah Sciences Po.”