Bratislava's model United Nations meet has been quite successful for every member of our team. Early Friday morning, the delegates of all the teams gathered in the assembly hall of the Pan-European University in Bratislava to listen to speeches by the Polish and Turkish ambassadors to Slovakia as well as a representative from the Vienna International Centre of the UN. All of these speakers, despite disagreeing on certain topics, such as the efficiency of the Security Council, agreed that the United Nations is the key to world security and future prosperity.
Once in our councils, we began working on solutions to a wide variety of issues, including the storage of spent nuclear waste (Alex M., Jessica C.), the financial situation in the European Union (Andrea S., Ethan T., Owen M.), women's rights (India L.), the legalisation of medical marijuana (Damon D., Davis C., Grayson T.), terrorism (Hayden A.), and the environmental impact of a changing Arctic (Kristen G., Quinn A.). Many of our delegates wrote resolutions or working papers, which we hope to pass tomorrow. A gallery of pictures is below:
We finished council for the day, then proceeded to a pizza restaurant downtown. Tired and hungry after a long day of debate, a pizza for everyone was clearly in order. After spontaneously belting out a rousing chorus of a Whitney Houston song on the Slovak radio, we each ordered a pirogy, a delicious chocolate-filled dessert.