Vol 12, Issue 1 - American International School - Riyadh

UN Week 2011Celebrating diversity and multiculturalismSunday!How best to show our support forthe United Nations? The ElementarySchool had official T-shirts made tocelebrate the day…in UN blue andwhite, of course.Monday!What happens when 58 differentnationalities converge on one location?If they are wearing national colors, it’sa wonderfully colorful representationof our amazing diversity.UN Day 2011AIS-R Goes Global!Mansoor ElahiGrade 12 Studentmy perspective. As I went from MUNconference to MUN conference, bothinternationally and locally, it occurredto me how the AIS-R community is justlike the UN broken down into its simplestform.As an organization The United Nations consists of many bodies,mainly the General Assembly represented by 193 countries. Othermajor bodies include the Security Council, the International Courtof Justice, and the Economic and Social Council.tUESDAY!Athletic teams have incredibly loyalfans, so what better way to learnabout who roots for whom than toask students to wear a favorite sportsteam jersey?tRIVIA cHALLENGE!Courtesy of the MS and HS Model UNclubs, young minds battled each dayover the topic of geography. It mayhave been trivia, but what happenedhere was certainly not trivial.What all of these agencies do, when working together, however,is increase our awareness of the world outside these walls.When we discuss possible solutions or just research an issue, weautomatically increase our awareness, and consequently becomeless ignorant people and in a less ignorant society. That alone mayhelp us in our day-to-day lives.FIND THE FLAG!Teamwork was essential in this activityas students deciphered clues to leadthem to flags hidden all over ourcampus. And those located on theAvenue of Nations didn’t count!oN THE cATWALK!During our Fashion Show, studentshad the opportunity to strut theirstuff in beautiful costumes before anappreciative audience. Dubai FashionWeek’s got nothing on this!tRY tHIS!It’s no surprise that the “Food fromthe 4 Corners of the World” event wasthe most popular. Who wouldn’t betempted to skip lunch for these sweetsand treats from across the globe?wORLD pEACE cAFE!For the second year in a row, theHS Student Council sponsored thisinformal talent showcase. Couldthis have been just a warm-up for“AIS-R’s Got Talent?”Each year for our K-12 United Nations Day celebration, an AIS-Rstudent is selected to address our school community. On October26, Mansoor Elahi, Grade 12 student and Model United NationsPresident, delivered a speech entitled, The Impact of the UnitedNations. We have reprinted the full text of his speech here.Good Morning AIS-R, Mr. Ambassador, Dr. Breslin-Smith anddistinguished guests.When I was young, an adult asked me what I wanted the worldto be, what I would change in the world and I replied, just likeany other naïve child would, “World Peace is what I want.” Whowouldn’t want the world to be a utopia at that age? As I spentmore and more time here at AIS-R, from KGI to elementary school,I learned very quickly that world peace is an ideal worth workingtoward but not as easy to achieve as I originally thought. In fact,sometimes I began to think that maybe world peace isn’t possibleat all. So I was forced to stick with this mindset of never being ableto achieve peace even on a small scale, just because I knew thatglobally, world peace would never be possible.This mindset was wrong, and I quickly learned that too when Iwent into my middle school years and realized that yes, we are partof something much bigger than ourselves, and that connectionrequires that we do our part in our community and try to bringchange into our lives. That’s why I got involved in Model UnitedNations. And by participating in Model United Nations, I realizedthat the real United Nations is the perfect catalyst for reinvention,and working through it ultimately gives us hope for a better, morepeaceful world.Lastly, and possibly my most important realization about the UNis the fact that this organization is a human organization—it isa group of people coming together to talk. That is the UN in itssimplest, most basic form.Now I know that it seems pretty obvious that they are a bunchof adults that talk with one another, but isn’t that what theworld needs? Isn’t that what we are supposed to do as well—aspeople—on a more fundamental level?We talk with each other all the time, whether we’re trying tounderstand what in the world our French teacher just said,discussing the meaning of life in ToK, or just engaging in discussionwith our friends in this international school. Everyone does it,teachers, students, and the administration. We talk, and when it’sdiplomatic enough, we arrive at a solution. That is what the UN is,and to an extent, our school as well.So as the celebrations of this week come to an end today, keepin mind that nothing is perfect including the UN, but that doesn’tgive us the right, as a global society, to not try and achieveperfection—and along with it world peace.This was very liberating. It liberated me from the somewhatchildish mindset I had in the years before. I realized the MUN isnot a club, but it emulates a global organization and it globalized10 11