Crisis Simulation

In Crisis, maps are an invaluable tool for our Ministers. Firstly, maps are useful for locating the area where a certain event occurred. For example, it would be difficult to respond to a terrorist incident that happened in Chin-men Tao if you didn’t know what country Chin-men Tao is in. Secondly, maps will show you terrain features, which are important to consider when making decisions. In this way, you might want to reconsider your plan of attack after finding out that the world’s tallest mountain stands between you and the enemy.

Here are several of the maps that we’ll be using in Crisis this year. These maps will be reproduced for you by the time of the conference, so please don’t feel pressured to print them out yourselves. Right now they may appear a bit tiny, simply click on the map to view the larger image.

One final note: don’t read too much into the maps. Simply because you were provided a map of Aksai Chin doesn’t necessarily mean that anything important will happen there. On the other hand, events might happen in areas where you are not provided a map (right now that is).

Map of China

Map of India

Map of Pakistan

Map of Kashmir

Map of Sino-Indian Border

Map of Taiwan

In college, it is a common practice for Graduate Student Instructors (GSIs, pretty much university Teaching Assistants) and Professors to hold “office hours”. These are times when the instructor makes him or herself available to students in order to answer questions about anything. As college students we are highly encouraged to attend office hours, as we get individual attention.

BMUN this year is offering a similar service to delegates, in the form of virtual office hours. Every Tuesday and Thursday, from 6:00PM to 7:00PM, I will be available online through the AIM screen name “bmuncrisisoh”. Please feel free to message me at this time with any questions you have on Crisis, or to just say hello!

Of course time is a funny thing to play with. If you think about it, you never really can be on time, since you can always be an infinitesimally bit late.

In Crisis, we treat the concept of time specially, with two major changes:

1. Scaling Time- If Crisis were completely run in “real time” (where one minute in our committee equals one minute in the real world), things would be rather dull. That’s because in the real world programs and orders take tons of time to implement. Imagine coming to Crisis, issuing an order to run an investigation, and then waiting three months for a result! Naturally we will at times “speed things up”, so that we can quickly deal with the results of what is going on. Your Chairs will notify you when a day or week changes, and the Crisis documents will reflect the adjusted time.
2. Reality Cut-Off Date- There’s a certain point where real life will end, and Crisis life will take over. This is in part due to our preparations that we complete before hand, and that we need an extra bit of time to paint the perfect background for our Crisis weekend. So when we announce it (and the cut-off date is most likely going to be in the later portion of February), you don’t have to pay attention to what happens in the news. We will notify you of events that are happening after February, and we’ll just all assume that nothing else has happened.

If there are any questions as to this funny time thing, post a comment!