<p>how many georgetown applicants and acceptees are involved in Model UN?</p>
<p>haha cuz i'm starting to get the vibe that half of SFS will be filled with MUN presidents, chairs and secretary-generals.
(which would be AWESOME XD)</p>
<p>I was in MUN for all 4 years of high school 
but i got into MSB, not SFS</p>
<p>I read on one of Georgetown’s informational pamphlets that approximately 10-15% of undergraduates at GTown participated in Model United Nations in high school. Behind high school athletics and student government, it was one of the highest-listed activities on the list.</p>
<p>Many, many.</p>
<p>:pokes head in: I’m a MUN geek, too. Three years and running. Security Council Chairs FTW!!! :D</p>
<p>MUN-er applying to SFS.</p>
<p>My DS will be at NAIMUN. Try not to argue with him ;)</p>
<p>i absolutely detest MUN with my entire heart. there is probably no single club in all of high school that i hate more</p>
<p>@ terroristlatino
</p>
<p>don’t be a hater. Tell us; what clubs/activities/sports/meetings/shindigs/hootinannys/get-togethers do you love?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Then, pray tell, why are you here?</p>
<p>haha sorry, i just go to school in india and its disgusting for me to see all of these super rich high schoolers pretending to talk about important issues they know about, when in fact most of them don’t know JACK about anything and there’s starving people down the road.
its kind of an oxymoron -try to solve global issues, but don’t actually do anything about them? haha yay for the UN!
i think a much more meaningful activity would be something like volunteering at the red cross or for habitat for humanity. idk something useful. i just find MUN useless.
sorry to be a downer. i know debating is really fun (i’m also a master debater), but i get really disgusted by things like MUN sometimes</p>
<p>^■■■■■…I wrote about that for my actual GU essay. I blasted my ECOFIN committee, the World Bank, the IMF, and the actual UN in the beginning of my essay for their “disgusting hypocrisy” and “terrifyingly sanctimonious attitude.” Maybe this was a mistake. :/</p>
<p>But as a Haitian immigrant, the issue of Agricultural Subsidies hit close to home, since my old man was driven out of business because of them. So I feel your pain. Developing countries unite!!</p>
<p>
Probably, since the IMF hasn’t instituted austerity measures (which I hope is what you’re talking about, otherwise you probably don’t know what you’re talking about) in about a decade. They gave out billions of dollars in grants and cheap loans to developing nations for countercyclical deficit spending just a few months ago.</p>
<p>But anyway, I’m sure GU will love the overall theme. You want to go to the school of foreign service to learn to become a member of the global system which you despise.</p>
<p>My essay was written mostly with relation to Haiti itself and the problem of trade liberalization as a catalyst for collapse of several other portions of its already rickety economy. Granted, limited economic infrastructure, a lack of irrigation and capital for rural farmers, and a political system teetering on the edge of collapse contributed to the demise of the rice industry, but trade liberalization itself lies at the center of the problem. There were three main problems I discussed:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The 1994 trade liberalization agreement Haiti entered into with the IMF, which resulted in a cut from 50% rice tariffs to 10% rice tariffs. The following year, 1995, resulted in a cut from 10% to 3%. Although the IMF official Andreas Bauer described the cuts as part of a “gradual two-part process,” how can one make the claim that going from 50% to 10% tariff rates within one year is gradual?</p></li>
<li><p>Not only did the slashing of tariff rates have the effect of substantially decreasing the government’s tax base, but it also resulted in the flooding of the Haitian market with US rice. Thus, not only are the farmers presently unable to compete, but it remains unlikely that they will recover. And this isn’t just a problem in Haiti.</p></li>
<li><p>Environmental degradation is, in part, a byproduct of the farmers’ need to compete with their better equipped (and better subsidized) counterparts in developed countries. While this is not the sole reason for the massive deforestation and water pollution that has occurred, of course, it sure as heck is a big one.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Austerity measures, while an important component of my contention with the IMF, did not form the crux of my argument. However, the IMF’s postulation that a lack of active implementation of austerity measures somehow denigrates their effect is countered by the situation of quite a few nations, such as Haiti. Haiti’s already limited reserves were annihilated by that policy, and the IMF’s policies thus hobbled Haiti not just during the years in which they were implemented, but for long after. Self-righteously (on the part of the IMF) claiming that a lack of austerity measures has helped to reverse their harm is, IMO, an example of the myopia of some of our larger aid agencies that desperately needs to be addressed.</p>
<p>With regards to the benefits of giving out grants, I suggest you read Michael Maren’s The Road to Hell: The Ravaging Effects of Foreign Aid. I remain skeptical of the benefits of aid, even if they are in the name of countercyclical deficit spending.</p>
<p>And I don’t really see anything wrong with wanting to go to SFS to learn how to work within a the global system to help change it. But hey, different strokes for different folks, I guess. ;)</p>
<p>ksarmand: you take the words right from my mouth
marry me?
…just kidding
but i like your ideas a lot, they’re really close to mine (especially about working within the system)
:D!</p>
<p>^I won’t marry you (or anyone in this lifetime, for that matter), but we can be friends. :)</p>