TAIMUN 12th Press 2014

Intro to the International Court of Justice Chairs

By: Jeffrey Chen, International Bilingual School at Hsinchu Science Park

 

     This year, the ICJ committee is making a break into the TAIMUN scene with personalities, Connor Lin as char from Taipei American School and Jeffrey Chen as co-chair from American School in Taichung, at the lead.

 

     Perfectly seasoned, Connor Lin has been to NYUMUN, TASMUN, TAIMUN, IASAS MUN, and THIMUN Singapore, citing THIMUN as the most memorable. What he loves most about MUN is “meeting all these interesting people from around the world, having fun, and trying to act all fancy.” It would explain why he loves MUN so much, as “acting all fancy” coincides with his guilty pleasure of “dressing up all fancy to go to nice places. I think it's so fun to act all posh and stuff.” For many, MUN is an inspiring event, and to Lin it is no exception. He looks forward to seeing MUN alumni utilizing their skills and knowledge derived from the conference and applying to world issues and making a difference. He declares that “MUNers all research and know so much about global issues” that it would be exciting for them to put this knowledge to use. Lin’s admirable work ethic is inspired by the quote “The only way to do great work is to love what you do”. When he is not hustling away for the upcoming Taiwan Model United Nations, he likes downloading apps in a perpetual hunt for ones that may make his life easier or happier. He also likes pandas, the doge meme, and names the Silver Linings Playbook as his favorite movie.

 

     As a chair, he admits to being less experienced. However, his resume is supplemented with experiences like debating at the 2012 Mini-MUN, being secretary at TAIMUN X, and delegating at TASMUN. He even dabbled in journalism in TAIMUN XI, writing articles on debate issues and interviewing the guest speaker, Dr. Mednick of Teachers Without Borders. He states that his favorite part of MUN is “getting acquainted with new people. I'm not a very popular and socially-outgoing person but MUN gives me the chance to expand my network of connections.” He insists that he was “very passionate as a delegate of DPRK, and I enjoyed getting into the communist "Death to America, all hail our supreme president!" character. It would get to the point where I would blare the DPRK and Soviet anthem (truly a masterpiece, search it up) on the bus ride to Taipei.” His most memorable MUN experience was when he attended THIMUN Singapore as the delegate of Azerbaijan back in November last year. His reasons include the particular brilliance of the delegates in the Security Council, the absence of his parents, and the modernism and cleanliness of Singapore.

 

     Aside work, Chen enjoys “flight-simming” (flight simulation), and watching Cosmos, Air Crash Investigation, Friends, and Monty Python in his down time. He advises delegates to “try to be humorous. If you're funny, people will like you. If you people like you, you will gain more support for your resolution... but the funny ones really have the advantage in a conference because they've made more friends. But stay off using jokes that are overly explicit, as somebody got expelled from THIMUN Singapore for doing so. If you're bad at humor, order pizza for your committee for lunch. Who doesn't like pizza?”