The Road to the United Nations

It’s holiday season again, though I shouldn’t consider it as a ‘season’ since my holiday is only for 2 weeks. In fact, I shouldn’t even consider it as a holiday since there’s so much to do during my 2 weeks in Malaysia! First, I have to apply for VISA at the US embassy in order for me to set foot in the United States early next year. Second, I have to propose a few companies to kindly sponsor me throughout my 2 weeks stay in the United States. Third, I need to do research on the current world healthcare issues.

For those who haven’t known yet, I will be going to Boston, USA next February for a 4-day United Nations General Assembly. Well, it’s not really THE General Assembly, but a simulation of it. Simply put, it is just the same as the real general assembly except that it is made up of a bunch of university students from all around the world, acting as delegates for an assigned country, and the Directors, Secretary Generals, etc. are made up of Harvard University students. Although it’s a simulation, the topics that will be discussed are based on real-time situations.

Under the General Assembly are a few other committees, such as the Disarmament and Security Council (DisSec) and the World Health Organization (WHO). As a medical student; where else would they put me if not in the World Health Organization? It’s an honor for me to get the chance to see a world-perspective view of the current healthcare issues. I’ve been sitting in class, listening to public health lectures for almost 2 years now, and so far I still don’t have a clear view of what’s the situation out there. Well, it’s my fault actually, usually I will fall asleep during the first quarter of the lecture, and if the lecturer is lucky enough, I would make it to the second half. But I rarely make it to the end. Sad =(…but because during the conference, I will have to speak in front of hundreds of students from all around the world, I wouldn’t want most of them to doze off during my speech. I believe in karma, so lessons learned, for the past few months I have been listening attentively to the public health lectures =P

Despite the busy days ahead of me, I plan to write more about this sometime later. However, if you’re interested in knowing what this conference is all about, visit www.hnmun.org