AU

Dear Delegates,

My name is Beth Dukes and I’m a second year here at Berkeley majoring in Political Economy of Industrialized Societies and minoring in Public Policy and perhaps French.  I will be one of your vice chairs in the African Union.  I am actually new to MUN this year and am excited to continuing learning the ins and outs of MUN and the Berkeley tournament.  I am especially excited to be a part of African Union!

I’d now like to make a few comments on the Darfur conflict, one of the two topics you will be debating in committee.  The Darfur conflict refers to the crisis in this western region of Sudan where the Sudanese government-supported Arab militia group, Janjaweed, has targeted non-Arab Sudanese populations and has killed and displaced hundreds of thousands of these individuals.  Because the violence in this area is based on Ethnic divisions, the United States government and others have deemed it genocide.  The UN, however, has been unable to declare the conflict genocide—and therefore has had a harder time taking action in the region—because of certain country’s dependence on Sudan’s oil.  Some important questions to think about when addressing this issue are: is this conflict genocide, and if so, what makes it genocide; as the African Union, how does this conflict affect your continent and people; and what can you do to resolve this conflict and what kind of foreign aid does Africa need?

We hope to get your brains working and the ball rolling for your research.  Good luck with everything and feel free to post questions here.

Beth Dukes

Hi future African Union debaters, my name is Taylor Wiegele and I am one of your vice chairs for BMUN’s 56th session! I’m a sophomore in the College of Chemistry here at Cal studying Chemical Engineering. I’m an avid Cal sports fan and was among the many that cried themselves to sleep at night following the demise of our football program this year. I’m also an out-of-state student from Shawnee, Kansas (about 15 minutes south of Kansas City). I’m looking forward to working with all of you in March and want to give you another point to consider concerning the water crisis in Africa:

As an issue that gets little to no international (let alone domestic) attention, how can the African Union raise awareness and mobilize people to change the water crisis in Africa?

Excited,
Taylor Wiegele

Dear Delegates,

It is my great pleasure to welcome you all to the 56th session of Berkeley MUN and specifically the African Union. We hav not launched this committee in a few years and I am very excited about bringing it back for the 56th session. The committee will be a small one, strictly comprised of African nations and focusing on african issues.

This year we will discuss the crisis in Darfour and Africa water rights. You should find the topic synopsis posted on: http://bmun.net/documents/bmun56/committees/AU56.pdf

The purpose of this blog is to stimulate debate, have, engage with your fellow delegats, start forming caucus groups and reach out to us about any questions that you may have.

Let me end by quickly introducing myself. I am Lina El Houssamy, a fourth year student, double majoring in business administration and economics and I am going to be your head chair. This will be my 8th year doing MUN and the conclusion to a truly amazing MUN journey; I look forward to ending this journey with a great committee and stimulating debate from you delegates.

Cant wait to see you all in March!

Lina

P.S Coming up: Introductions from your vice chairs and how to write a good topic synopsis!