This last week i have started doing it more frequently and regularly. at the moment my plan is to go swimming from 6pm to 7pm every monday, tuesday, thursday and sunday. im hoping to improve my fitness and my skill in swimming. to begin with i'm just going to do laps in freestyle and breaststroke, and after ive set in this routine i can start learning and practicing other techniques.at the moment i have no supervisor, which is something i need to find in order to track my progress.
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Thursday, November 8, 2012
MUN - Working on Practice Debate Topics
With the conference appraoching, the topics for the practice debates have to be finalized. since ECOSOC has a new approach in which to make the conference more current, technical and intense, the practice debates will be important in for delegates who are new to ECOSOC. Each succesive practice debate will have to be slightly harder, and introduce more ideas. For the Conference i am planning to include the Eurozone crisis and the credit crunch. For the 1st Practice debate, we are hoping to include a very simple topic, not nessacerily economic. This is becuase the 1st day will be for the delegates to learn the format.
My Ideas for the 2nd debate is regarding the economies of the countries recovering from the Arab Spring, like Lybia, Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen, whether foriegn help should be given, or whether to allow them to recover by themselves, and the strategies that should be taken.
The 3rd Debate, I think should that currency manipulation should be the focus. this is a more technical topic and should prepare the delegates well for the conference.
My Ideas for the 2nd debate is regarding the economies of the countries recovering from the Arab Spring, like Lybia, Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen, whether foriegn help should be given, or whether to allow them to recover by themselves, and the strategies that should be taken.
The 3rd Debate, I think should that currency manipulation should be the focus. this is a more technical topic and should prepare the delegates well for the conference.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
COMUN 2013 Update
Have to make presentations for the workshops
speak to faculty advisors on the direction we are taking ECOSOC
Many sponsorships have been found, and the priority has shifted away from finding them
speak to faculty advisors on the direction we are taking ECOSOC
Many sponsorships have been found, and the priority has shifted away from finding them
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Habitat Build - 6th and 7th October
The Children of the Family we were helping
The full team - (Left to Right) - Zahara, Ahmed, Avanti, Me, Sam, Sho
Me, carrying soil for the foundation. This would be one of the hundreds of trays we would eventually carry
Returning to the top of the hill for more earth
Taking a well earned rest
Taking the empty wheel-barrow up the hill to be reloaded
Laying bricks and stuff
Friday, October 5, 2012
Goals for Habitat Build - on 6th & 7th
- Learn new skills in building and construction - with each Habitat build we have learnt new skills because each time we worked on a different part of a house, each requiring different techniques. i hope that this build wont be different. However it all depends on the other construction workers we will be working with. sometimes they trust us with more difficult and skill-based tasks, but sometimes they just use us to carry things around.
- Understand the significance of the contribution i am making - making sure that i am making an improvement to this family's life.
- Work well with the other volunteers and with the other workers to make the most of the time we have there. 2 days is not enough time to build a whole house, but i will try to contribute as much as possible
- Improve my strength and willpower - in previous builds i have noticed that towards the end i start slackening and doing less work, this is partly because the work is really exhausting and partly because i begin to feel that i have done enough work for the day. for this build i need to have more perseverance and willpower to continue working.
Saturday, September 29, 2012
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
COMUN Meeting - September 12th
We were brought up to date about sponsorship's. Some progress has been made, though obviously still lacking and i have yet to make a contribution as well.
I was assigned to help with the Souvenir and with the EXCO t-shirt design. For the souvenir I am to play apart in the layout and design as well as getting the written content from the other committee members. Each of the Committees were given T-shirt colors. The President, Kaveen, and I asked that ECOSOC be given green as it is the color of money. Then plans were made to discuss the specific designs on the T-shirts.
I found out that the ICJ meeting on Monday was cancelled since the Vice-President, Taryana, had fallen ill.
The workshops, in which new delegates will be taught the about MUN and how to make the most of it, was planned. Everyone was assigned to groups in which they would focus on a specific aspect of the conference, on debate, public speaking or on research. I was assigned with the Vice-President of GA2, to the conference procedure and format.
I was assigned to help with the Souvenir and with the EXCO t-shirt design. For the souvenir I am to play apart in the layout and design as well as getting the written content from the other committee members. Each of the Committees were given T-shirt colors. The President, Kaveen, and I asked that ECOSOC be given green as it is the color of money. Then plans were made to discuss the specific designs on the T-shirts.
I found out that the ICJ meeting on Monday was cancelled since the Vice-President, Taryana, had fallen ill.
The workshops, in which new delegates will be taught the about MUN and how to make the most of it, was planned. Everyone was assigned to groups in which they would focus on a specific aspect of the conference, on debate, public speaking or on research. I was assigned with the Vice-President of GA2, to the conference procedure and format.
Monday, September 10, 2012
Friday, September 7, 2012
Habitat Meeting - 6th September
This was the first Habitat meeting for this year. The new members were briefed about the basics and workings of Habitat for Humanity. We discussed Fundraisers and the the overnight build planned for the 6th and 7th of October. the site is in Galle and this would be the first overnight build we have done. We would arrive at noon, work the rest of the day, go to bed, wake up and work through the morning leaving at noon the next day. In foresight, i expect this build to be really hard. the previous builds, being less than half a day in length, had still been such exhausting experiences, so a full days work in Galle should be extremely arduous. this trip should count towards action in that respect as well as a service project.
COMUN Meeting 5th September
During this meeting, sponsorship was discussed and the each member made clear what progress had been made. Although some had found companies agreeing to sponsor us, overall there had been little development, and it was stressed that we needed to make progress soon. In the previous week i had approached Unilever and received confirmation from them, i had just needed to relay the information about the sponsorship packages to them.
The council's finalized their mandates and gave them in. ECOSOC's mandate and structure had little change from last year. However i felt that we should try and improve it further. I suggested that it work with more current affairs and try to get the delegates to work with data and information from events happening at the very moment they are having the conference. For example having Stock Market Ratings and Government Budget Info available to them during the conference and having topics closely related to the info. Although i think this would spice up the conference, it does pose some problems. First is actually getting the data, secondly it is very technical and new delegates might find it difficult to get involved with the debates, though all the technical stuff could be taught during the workshops and practice debates.
The President and Vice-president of the International Court of Justice had a few problems with finalizing the procedure of their conference since it is a new committee and therefore needs to be planned out properly. It is also the most technical committee and works quite differently from the others. Some agreements were made on it but there were still a few things to be settled so an extra meeting was scheduled on Monday for to Specifically discuss the ICJ. On a separate note, i suggested that we get actors to play the defendants and witnesses during the conference in ICJ just to make it a bit more interesting, i also volunteered to play a war criminal.
The council's finalized their mandates and gave them in. ECOSOC's mandate and structure had little change from last year. However i felt that we should try and improve it further. I suggested that it work with more current affairs and try to get the delegates to work with data and information from events happening at the very moment they are having the conference. For example having Stock Market Ratings and Government Budget Info available to them during the conference and having topics closely related to the info. Although i think this would spice up the conference, it does pose some problems. First is actually getting the data, secondly it is very technical and new delegates might find it difficult to get involved with the debates, though all the technical stuff could be taught during the workshops and practice debates.
The President and Vice-president of the International Court of Justice had a few problems with finalizing the procedure of their conference since it is a new committee and therefore needs to be planned out properly. It is also the most technical committee and works quite differently from the others. Some agreements were made on it but there were still a few things to be settled so an extra meeting was scheduled on Monday for to Specifically discuss the ICJ. On a separate note, i suggested that we get actors to play the defendants and witnesses during the conference in ICJ just to make it a bit more interesting, i also volunteered to play a war criminal.
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Colombo Model United Nations 2013
For the COMUN Conference of 2013, i have been appointed as the Vice-President of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). In addition to facilitating and moderating the MUN conferences i also play a role in its organization. The responsibility of these leadership role i am undertaking counts towards the creativity part of the CAS Requirements.
Participation in MUN both directly and indirectly contributes towards tackling an issue of global importance. The conferences themselves are based around finding solutions to many of the of the worlds problems including poverty, sustainability, the financial crisis, disarmament. Besides the conferences themselves, COMUN also gets involved in many service projects around Sri Lanka. Already partnered with Green Lanka Youth Platform, who help in promoting sustainable development, we are trying to extend our reach in helping the country.
I have attempted to partner up Habitat for Humanity with COMUN as it can be a new source of volunteers for the building projects and can also build awareness among the delegates of COMUN.
Participation in MUN both directly and indirectly contributes towards tackling an issue of global importance. The conferences themselves are based around finding solutions to many of the of the worlds problems including poverty, sustainability, the financial crisis, disarmament. Besides the conferences themselves, COMUN also gets involved in many service projects around Sri Lanka. Already partnered with Green Lanka Youth Platform, who help in promoting sustainable development, we are trying to extend our reach in helping the country.
I have attempted to partner up Habitat for Humanity with COMUN as it can be a new source of volunteers for the building projects and can also build awareness among the delegates of COMUN.
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Goal for September
To teach myself to learn moonlight sonata on the piano, one movement at a time.
i will work on the 1st movement this month
i had already taken peiano calsses when i was younger and i have kept practicing irregularly. but now im going to make a commitment to learn a whole new piece - Sonata no.14 by beethoven.
i will practice for 3 hours a week and by the end of the september i should have learnt at least the first movement
i will work on the 1st movement this month
i had already taken peiano calsses when i was younger and i have kept practicing irregularly. but now im going to make a commitment to learn a whole new piece - Sonata no.14 by beethoven.
i will practice for 3 hours a week and by the end of the september i should have learnt at least the first movement
Sunday, June 10, 2012
My Goal for the Summer
for the summer my goal is to learn how to "Ollie" properly on a skateboard, an learn some new tricks as well.
an ollie is a jump performed with the skateboard in which the skateboard "jumps" with you, it is the basic trick that is needed to perform most other ones
in terms of my current skateboarding expertise, i think i am very good at riding around, considering that is the only thing i can do, i should be good at it. previously i could do very mediocre and amateur Ollies, and i would land them very rarely. i tried to an Ollie recently and failed miserably because i have completely forgotten how to do it, so resolved to teach myself how to ollie again, and from there learn some tricks as well.
an ollie is a jump performed with the skateboard in which the skateboard "jumps" with you, it is the basic trick that is needed to perform most other ones
in terms of my current skateboarding expertise, i think i am very good at riding around, considering that is the only thing i can do, i should be good at it. previously i could do very mediocre and amateur Ollies, and i would land them very rarely. i tried to an Ollie recently and failed miserably because i have completely forgotten how to do it, so resolved to teach myself how to ollie again, and from there learn some tricks as well.
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Habitat Build - March 17th
For this build, we went to a house in dehiwela to cement the floors of the families newly built house. Most of the house was built and the floors were the last thing to be done. although it may sound easy, cementing involves much carrying, shoveling and mixing.
The first step is to collect the sand and mix it up with the cement using shovels. The ratio is about 18 buckets of sand to one bag of cement. a bucket here really means a sort of tray in which stuff is carried about. The technique used to mix them efficiently is to shovel underneath the pile and the turn it over on the same spot until it reaches the sand and cement becomes sort of dark gray color. Afterwards the mixture is arranged in a sort of crater shape in which gravel and water is put. the last time i worked with cement, it was for walls and only water was added, but this time we had to mix about 15 buckets of gravel in with the cement.once the water was added the same technique was used to mix up the gravel and cement/sand, however it is much harder with the gravel present. The mixed cement was then carried into the house where it was laid down by 2 workers. This was a new skill which i learnt through this experience
It was extremely hard work and what made it worse was the extreme heat that we had to work in. it was not the shoveling that was the most difficult task, but carrying the sand, gravel and mixed cement to where it was needed, and the cement mixture really is rather heavy. Despite being exhausted, i still tried to carry as much cement as I could and i think this showed perseverance and commitment. However, halfway through, we decided to abandon our old strategy in which anyone did whatever job was available, and took an assembly line approach. 2 people would shovel and the other three would pass the buckets to each other. this method turned out to be much more efficient and much less strenuous. and is an example of when i worked collaboratively with others. in the end we had made enough cement for 2 rooms.
Overall, i think that the goal we were striving towards when building the house, was the problem of poverty, which in my opinion is an issue of global importance.
Overall, i think that the goal we were striving towards when building the house, was the problem of poverty, which in my opinion is an issue of global importance.
Monday, March 5, 2012
COMUN 2012 - 2nd - 4th March
The 2 conference topics for Ecosoc, in which i was the delegate of Japan were: The risks of nuclear energy to environmentally sustainable development, and The sustainable usage of resources in the developing and developed world.
The committee i was in - the UN economic and social council, discusses and coordinates financial and social work through UN agencies. since the theme for this COMUN was energy, the topics were chosen to reflect this.ecosoc has 51 members, and so is reasonably smaller than the general assemblies which have around 180, but is bigger than the security council which has 17. ecosocs mandate falls only with economic issues and delegates cannot call on the military as in the security council, and cannot focus on other issues like human rights or demilitarization.
on the first day which was at school, the topic to be discussed was the issue of nuclear power. After the fukushima daichi nuclear plant accident, japan has become very anti-nuclear, and so my stance in the debate would be to move against the building of nuclear plants. To start with, the floor was opened for speeches, and it became very obvious that most of the house was pro-nuclear. therefore i tried to make my speeches less anti-nuclear but more pro-renewable, however the arguments against this were that nuclear produced much more power that renewable sources. So in retaliation i had to make clear the dangers and risks of nuclear power. during the moderated caucusing - which is essentially a debate within a debate - many solutions were brought up to make nuclear safer, as well as concerns about whether we can actually make it safe, whether uranium will last us into the future and the issue of radioactive waste. during the practice debates one of my arguments against using nuclear was its extremely high cost and how it was unrealistic for LIC's to use it, but since the topic was about environmentally sustainable development, its viability for developing countries really didn't come into effect. afterwards the house moved into un-moderated caucusing in which resolutions for the topic were drafted. the house split into three groups - 2 pro-nuclear groups and 1 anti-nuclear group of which i was the main sponsor. with few anti-nuclear countries in ecosoc i tried to convince the poor countries, with no real nuclear agendas to join my resolution, however my group was still significantly smaller than the other 2. Therefore i would have to make my resolution less anti-nuclear than i wanted so that countries in the other groups might vote for it. rather than forcing countries to stop nuclear expansion, the resolution stressed shifting the emphasis onto renewable and also included clauses encouraging research into nuclear safety. after the resolutions were typed up the house moved into debate about my resolution, and although it didn't have that many flaws, and could have been a viable resolution - it was still too anti-nuclear for most countries to vote for it and so it failed. the second resolution discussed was sponsored by the delegate of china.
The committee i was in - the UN economic and social council, discusses and coordinates financial and social work through UN agencies. since the theme for this COMUN was energy, the topics were chosen to reflect this.ecosoc has 51 members, and so is reasonably smaller than the general assemblies which have around 180, but is bigger than the security council which has 17. ecosocs mandate falls only with economic issues and delegates cannot call on the military as in the security council, and cannot focus on other issues like human rights or demilitarization.
on the first day which was at school, the topic to be discussed was the issue of nuclear power. After the fukushima daichi nuclear plant accident, japan has become very anti-nuclear, and so my stance in the debate would be to move against the building of nuclear plants. To start with, the floor was opened for speeches, and it became very obvious that most of the house was pro-nuclear. therefore i tried to make my speeches less anti-nuclear but more pro-renewable, however the arguments against this were that nuclear produced much more power that renewable sources. So in retaliation i had to make clear the dangers and risks of nuclear power. during the moderated caucusing - which is essentially a debate within a debate - many solutions were brought up to make nuclear safer, as well as concerns about whether we can actually make it safe, whether uranium will last us into the future and the issue of radioactive waste. during the practice debates one of my arguments against using nuclear was its extremely high cost and how it was unrealistic for LIC's to use it, but since the topic was about environmentally sustainable development, its viability for developing countries really didn't come into effect. afterwards the house moved into un-moderated caucusing in which resolutions for the topic were drafted. the house split into three groups - 2 pro-nuclear groups and 1 anti-nuclear group of which i was the main sponsor. with few anti-nuclear countries in ecosoc i tried to convince the poor countries, with no real nuclear agendas to join my resolution, however my group was still significantly smaller than the other 2. Therefore i would have to make my resolution less anti-nuclear than i wanted so that countries in the other groups might vote for it. rather than forcing countries to stop nuclear expansion, the resolution stressed shifting the emphasis onto renewable and also included clauses encouraging research into nuclear safety. after the resolutions were typed up the house moved into debate about my resolution, and although it didn't have that many flaws, and could have been a viable resolution - it was still too anti-nuclear for most countries to vote for it and so it failed. the second resolution discussed was sponsored by the delegate of china.
Monday, February 27, 2012
3rd MUN practice debate 25th Febriary
Topic - Acheiveing sustainable development in developing countries
2rd MUN practice debate 10th february
the topic for this practice debate was "the rising food prices and its impact on the poor, with special emphasis on women
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Week Without Walls
WWW was muy muy fun. and we did muy work. i painted the climbing frame, thy see saw aand the fence. in the process i learnt about emulsion paint and the ratios of thinner and stuff and how to use it.
i also repaired many of the playground stuff and did sawing and hammering and stuff. i also improved my tree climbing skills while climbing the tree in the middle of the ground. the femce that was put up and painted was really helpful for the school becasue it bordered a new highway and made the school safer for the children
i also repaired many of the playground stuff and did sawing and hammering and stuff. i also improved my tree climbing skills while climbing the tree in the middle of the ground. the femce that was put up and painted was really helpful for the school becasue it bordered a new highway and made the school safer for the children
Monday, January 30, 2012
Monday, January 16, 2012
My Goals for Week Without Walls
Being in the maintenance group in week without walls what i mainly want to do is maintain stuff. including building a fence, which would be fun becaue i like manual labour. i also like gardening so i guess that is also something which i would do, because putting life into the ground is pretty cool for me. pulling life out is also rather cool.like weeds and stuff
Monday, January 9, 2012
Goals for the New Year
As a change in this new year i am going to spend more time on my blog and put more effort into posting all the stuff i did. this semester i will continue with MUN and Habitat for Humanity which fall into the creativity and service sections respectively. I also plan to tryout for either basketball or football in school in order to fulfill the action segment of CAS.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)