Dreaming of the Model United Nations

By George Jieh
For this issue Munity-East was fortunate enough to sit down and have a short talk with a leading figure in the world of Model United Nations, Mr. David L. Williams. He is one of the founders of THIMUN the Hague, and helped construct THIMUN-Singapore. He had done all this with one vision of bringing everyone together for the purpose of world peace. Here is what he has to say about Model United Nations and his experiences:
Munity-East: Hello Mr. Williams. Could you please give us a brief introduction to yourself and what you do?
David L. Williams: I have been teaching for 40 years, I have retired, and started to teach again. I was one of the founders of THIMUN the Hague. When I retired from teaching, I retired from the board of directors. I helped to set up THIMUN-Singapore together with Katharina Haucke. It was mostly Katharina Hauke’s initiative to set up the second conference in the Far East to widen the scope of THIMUN to make it available to more people, particularly in Asia. Because the cost of coming to the Hague prohibited many students from participating and the Hague was full anyways. I am very pleased, now that I have gone back into teaching, to be able to bring delegates to a conference that I helped set up. Now I am the MUN director of the American School in Taichung.
Munity-East: What is your vision in setting up THIMUN Singapore?
David L. Williams: The vision is, because I believe very strongly in United Nations first of all, having the Model United Nations as an educational tool for bringing young people together to discuss the current issues. For THIMUN-Singapore, this is an opportunity to widen and bring more schools, and schools that haven’t done MUN have the opportunity to participate in a big conference. To bring young people together with different nationalities and cultures. I think I am making a contribution to world peace. When you understand people, you will be less likely to kill them.
Munity-East: What do you see in MUN? What is its deeper meaning?
David L. Williams: The deeper meaning is international understanding, particularly among the youths because everyone says that the youth is the future, which is true. More people will have the opportunity to meet more people of other cultures and other nations. They will try to solve their problems with diplomacy. This will also help young people to become aware of the environmental problems, such as global warming and so on. It makes them aware of human rights, it’s abuses, and how we can prevent human right abuses. The deeper meaning really is the education of young people in cultural aspects for better understanding.
Munity-East: How do you feel about this year’s conference?
David L. Williams: I think the conference is very well run. The students are working hard, well dedicated and well prepared. I think it will be a very good conference this year. The other thing that I didn’t mention is the book. So I will tell you a little bit about the book. When I retired from teaching I decided to write a book. I wrote a book on United Nations and Model United Nations. The title of the book actually gives my philosophy towards MUN. It’s a book for students, with a DVD that has shots that I had taken in THIMUN the Hague with real delegates talking and explaining how they prepared and made the speeches. That is what I am promoting now because I think this is just a useful resource for schools and students that wants to prepare for Model United Nations.
Munity-East: Do you have any memorable experiences pertaining to MUN?
David L. Williams: The most memoriable experience was when the former Secretary General of United Nations, Kofi Annan, came to a conference in the Hague. Because I was a chairman of the board, I had the honor of greeting him, and presenting him to the students. He was such a great secretary general. He was a man with outstanding diplomatic ability. He made a speech in front of 2000 students. In the middle of the speech he thanked me for all my work. That was the real highlight of my MUN experience.
Munity-East: Do you have any last words of wisdom for the delegates this year?
David L. Williams: I said it all in the book, which contains my real words of wisdom. All I can say is, prepare well, work hard, and enjoy yourself meeting other people and working together with other people.
Having heard the vision, meaning and purpose of MUN, Munity-East hopes that all delegates will be able to live their MUN experience through the words of Mr. Williams, and carry it on in real life.