STUDENTS SAY IT IS the most fun you can have in a suit, but the fancy clothes are just part of an elaborate two-day diplomatic role play that tests their knowledge of world affairs and sharpens their debating skills.
The suit, of course, is the easy part of the Hong Kong Model United Nations (HKMUN), which marked its 18th anniversary this year. The knowledge and the skill come a little harder.
Late last month the West Island School auditorium was transformed into a mock UN General Assembly in which more than 200 student-diplomats from 19 different Hong Kong secondary schools did their best to solve some of the most intractable problems our world faces today: poverty, human rights abuses, failed states and nuclear proliferation. The session also involved an 'emergency' scenario in which anger over Israeli treatment of the Palestinians conflates with outrage over recently published cartoon depictions of the Prophet Mohammed to spark a spate of violence that culminates in mass hostage taking.
With a rainbow of national flags suspended above the proceedings, the sessions ran from 9am to 4.30pm each day. Students from six local and 13 international or English Schools Foundation schools took part. A high-powered delegation from the University of Hong Kong was also present, often adding a heightened eloquence and passion to the debates.
Although not without comic relief, the atmosphere in the auditorium was generally as serious as the issues addressed, and the rules of order highly formalised. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, played by Daniella Mak of Island School, repeatedly admonished delegates to rise above the UN's reputation as a 'toothless talk shop', while the president of the General Assembly - Ashwin Bhat of Sha Tin College - presided over the simulation with a firm voice and an even firmer wooden gavel.
No delegate was allowed speak unless recognised by the president, and any delegate who spoke longer than their allotted time, which usually ranged from 30 seconds to four minutes, was cut off by a bang of the gavel. Students learned quickly not to mince words.