#position paper

Anarchists are materialists. We understand that there is a real and concrete basis for the way society is organised right now:why here are rich and poor, why there are order-givers and order-takers, why there is starvation and misery on a massive scale — and we understand how this can be changed. Religion sees such things as “God given” and acceptable, the poor being rewarded in the afterlife for accepting “their lot” in this one. This means that anarchism and religion stand diametrically opposed to each other.

Religion, by its nature, must be authoritarian — whether to a greater or lesser extent. It must be based on “faith”, on obedience. The reality we face is of churches that play a particular role in the oppression of women, of gays and of all who seek to change the traditional authoritarian family. They play a very real role in the repression of sexuality. It is no coincidence that fundamentalists of all religions, from Iran to Ireland, are in the vanguard of the movement to push back the the gains made by women in the workplace and in the “sexual revolution”.

The strong hold religion has in Ireland cannot be seen just as a result of historical factors, today it offers something that many people want. It “explains” all sorts of natural and personal disasters as the “will of God”. It offers hope in a world of misery, ignorance, ‘poverty, frustration and alienation — the promise of a better world in the hereafter is a powerful addition. The way to take away this basis for religion is to provide a much better life, not in any “hereafter” but now.

To break the power of the churches we need a strategy that combines our vision of a better world in the here and now with struggles that bring people into conflict with clerical power and show up religion as a prop for the status quo that stands in the way of their needs and desires. The authoritarianism and hypocrisy of the churches have to be confronted.

We support the demand for separation of Church and State. It is wrong to say “....but we oppose the State as well”. Of course we do. It is a tactical question dictated by the sort of society we are living in right now. We oppose the wages system but that doesn’t stop us fighting for higher wages. This means fighting against clerical control of hospitals, schools, youth clubs funded by the taxpayer, community groups, etc. It means fighting for the best possible secular laws in the areas of divorce, contraception, sterilisation, abortion, etc. These struggles force the churches to come out openly against what many people desperately want, and so weaken their support. A victory on any of these issues both lessens church influence and proves that the clerics can be beaten; which in turn creates the possibility of involving more people in the next battle.

We regard religion as a private matter, within society s a whole. It should enjoy no special privileges, tax reliefs, powers, influence, etc. Membership of a church should carry no more of the above than would membership of a sports or drama club. We stand for equal rights for religious, non-religious and anti-religious views.

Within the revolutionary organisation — which is a specifically materialist body — it is not a private matter. It is part of our programme to take up the battle against the power and influence of the churches. This does not mean that we deny membership to religious believers. We do not. But they must understand that our politics will inevitably bring them into conflict the clerics. They will, for example, be publicly selling our paper which calls for divorce, abortion, an end to religious control of education, etc.

            Corruption has become one of the major problems in the Philippines, the government is still fighting the increasing level of corruption, but the problem is, corrupt people is in the public office; to local government up to national government. As a matter of fact, those corrupt politicians also belong to an oligarch. Political dynasty stops the emerging politicians who have an exceptional vision for the country, and it continues the corruption which worsen everything. According to one professor, political dynasty is the cancer of history. The Philippine Government ranked 113th of 180 countries in 2019, this study shows that corruption only worsened. It may take time to find a solution but removing political dynasty will be the best solution to reduce corruption in the Philippines.

           Dynastic culture in politics is not a surprise here, a member of a family will succeed to the position left by the other family member, it is not unusual in election when two family clans to fight over a certain position example mayoral, governorate and senatorial. It left the voters with no other choice but to vote which of the candidates that both belong to different political dynasty. Another problem is, if that political clan is corrupt and has been in different government positions for a long period of time, then the corruption perpetuates. Example of families that has been in a different government position for a long time up to present are the Aquino family, Cojuangco family, Binay family, Marcos family and Duterte family. First reason why the congress needs to consider to pass a bill that will limit the influence of powerful families in politics is that, it compounded the ubiquitouness of corruption in government and corrupt the check and balances, example is the former Vice President Binay who had been under investigation of Senate Blue Committee for alleged corruption, many will question the investigation because two daughter of former Vice President Binay were members of the congress, this question the effectiveness of the investigation. Second reason, it widens the gap between the poor from the rich, to privileged to the unprivileged. Corruption just lowers the economic growth and increases the poverty, some political clan put the money or funds of government to their own business, or in government projects that is irrelevant, pointless and useless to society and economy. Third reason, even they face criminal charges they can still have the power by having spouses and children reign on their seats, to make sure that the power will remain in their family. For the last reason, the emerging politicians who have good intentions are dissuade because of continues success of some political families despite corruption charges, it leaves the position open to those who just want more wealth and power. I believe, a change in political culture will help to lessen the corruption which hinders development in our economy and society. On the other hand, many still believe in those family of politicians who has a track record, good governance, and good name that is why the legacy of the family remains. One of the advantages of political dynasty according to the article by Professor Jensen Mañebog, it continues the implementation of institutional and government projects, if the dynasty is pro-service.

           A consideration in removal of political dynasty in the system will help to improve our country, because it will also lessen the problems about corruption which rooted from the rule of few rich families. Others might think that it is not necessary if the other family of politicians have good governance and clean intention, but we need to look on different aspects. We need to evaluate what is good and what is bad for our country, because it can affect the economy and society. Some knowledge about politics doesn’t make us less human, in fact it helps us to vote wisely and to become a good citizen in our country.

21•01•2022 | research day "N"

Committee: Economic and Financial Affairs Council - C2 Agenda: Economic Resonance during COVID-19 Goals: Overcome the economic crisis impact Delegate of: Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Represented by: _______

COVID-19 crisis has created extraordinary circumstances which have an impact on various areas. The Ethiopian government moved swiftly to implement containment measures, first responses have been the scattering national policy initiatives leading to severe limitations with regards to freedom of movement and an overall increased concentration of power in the hands of the executive branches which largely turned to govern by decree in order to legislate the lockdowns. As an extraordinary step, the government pardoned more than 4,000 prisoners to prevent the spread of the virus through the prison system.

The lockdown measures put in place by the Ethiopian government are rapidly causing the unraveling of an economic crisis which has the potential to be of bigger proportions than the recession of 2008. The paralyzation of most economic activities translates into a simultaneous business and employment crisis. The unemployment Rate in Ethiopia has increased to 2.08%. National Bank of Ethiopia set aside a 15-billion-birr ($450 million) liquidity facility for private banks to support their clients, especially businesses adversely affected by Covid-19.  Ethiopia’s financial sector is in its infancy, dominated by the state-owned Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE), with about 57% of deposits and 45% of profits from the total of 18 lenders.

Furthermore, due to the difference in loaning abilities between countries, there is a risk of an asymmetric financial crisis that would disrupt Ethiopia’s integrated monetary and economic cohesion for decades to come. Ethiopia has a substantial amount of debt: external debt and domestic debt account for approximately 30% and 27% of the GDP, respectively. Servicing external debt was already a stretch for the government’s budget prior to the pandemic. The constraints on the country’s balance sheet have been exacerbated in the last few months. Unless crushing debt payments are delayed, the International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s emergency funding of $411 million and the World Bank’s $82.6 million are a drop in the bucket. The country’s foreign exchange is weak and poses a significant near-term challenge to its economy. Already, the exchange rate has fallen to 33.53 Birr/$1 at the end of April 2020, representing a 15-17% depreciation from the same time last year, according to conversations with the Ethiopian Ministry of Finance officials. The country’s foreign exchange status can be attributed to its poor-performing sectors, particularly its national airline, agricultural exports, hospitality sector, and production targets.

Ethiopian Airlines, the country’s largest foreign exchange earner, saw a decline in revenue of over $550 million between January and April 2020. This is particularly worrisome as the airline supports over 1 million jobs and contributed over 5% of Ethiopia’s GDP in 2019.

Ethiopia’s agriculture exports— 60% of total exports in 2019 have also been dealt a major blow as demand slows in major European and North American trading partners. The agriculture sector is the largest employer in the country and generates significant foreign exchange for Ethiopia, particularly coffee and oil seeds. According to Deloitte, Ethiopia’s agricultural exports as of April 2020 were only at 20% of their usual volume, translating into a year-to-date (YTD) loss of about $132 million. In addition, a significant amount of Ethiopia’s cropland and pastures have been impacted by a locust invasion, pushing over one million people into hunger.

Ethiopia’s hospitality sector has collapsed as travel bans have gone into effect around the world. The collateral damage is significant as hospitality accounts for over 8% of the total employment in the country. At the same time, Ethiopia’s manufacturing sector—a key focus of the government in recent years—has weakened due to the disruption in supply chains worldwide. Ethiopia’s textile and apparel industries, in particular, have been affected by supply shortfalls in China, as well as the slowdown in demand in Europe and North America.

However, numerous governments are promoting measures aimed at alleviating the situation for businesses and employees. Using peacebuilding networks of the project’s boundary partners, and collaborating with the EU funded Resilience Building and Creation of Economic Opportunities in Ethiopia project (RESET II) and Woreda Administrations. SEEK (SELAM EKISIL) project is raising awareness of Covid-19 and cholera as well as distributing sanitary items, personal protective equipment (PPE), and hand washing containers to households, health facilities, and local markets. With a small grant from SIPED II, the land rehabilitation effort aimed to restore 310 hectares to improve local livelihoods. Based on past experience and the area’s topography, the project used “level soil bund construction” to reduce soil erosion, degradation and deforestation.

The situation led the then-Ministry of Federal and Pastoral Development Affairs, the current Ministry of Peace and USAID to select the area for a project to build community-government engagement to reduce land degradation through the SIPED II program. Funded by USAID and implemented by Pact, SIPED II is increasing the resiliency of Ethiopian communities to manage and respond to conflict.

While liquidity has been made available to the banks, the impact of such measures can only be assessed in terms of their positive effects on the businesses they were intended to reach. It is also critical to engage and encourage private sector creditors to participate in debt relief efforts. The government plans to sell 40% of the state-controlled telecommunications monopoly as it moves to open up the industry to international operators for the first time. The government should press ahead in these efforts to bring about much-needed investment, job growth, critical revenue in the government treasury, and much-anticipated mobile money efficiencies for customers.

The Ethiopian government has considered subsidizing with the Development Assistance Group (DAG) $1.6 billion of emergency funding to help keep them afloat during this crisis. The U.S. Embassy has a variety of funding opportunities available to Ethiopians and has granted $4.3 million to 300 projects that benefited more than 7 million people in all regions of Ethiopia. The government is also currently formulating a 10-year prospective development plan with the UN for the period 2019/20 to 2029/30 which is fully aligned to the 2030 agenda and SDGs. The World Food Programme (WFP) supports this goal through a range of lifesaving and resilience-building activities, targeted at vulnerable populations experiencing acute and chronic food needs (including refugees and IDPs) and those at risk of malnutrition.

I think the government should see this as an opportunity to investment in public goods such as welfare, education, research and healthcare, thereby came up with Recovery Action Plan: A Green Deal based on disinvestment on carbon-intensive sectors and investment in carbon-neutrality of production, transportation and delivery of energy and goods. The economic crisis resulting from the current health crisis must not become an excuse to delay the action on climate and environmental sustainability – this would only create even more severe problems in the future both for the economy and public health. Instead, Ethiopians must see the synergies between the massive investments that will be necessary to boost the economy and the urgently needed investments in the green transition. When thousands of Ethiopians lose their jobs due to COVID-19, let us make sure the new jobs we stimulate are green jobs, for example by investing in energy renovation of buildings and electrification of the transportation system.

To finance this plan, new resources need to be at disposal of the Union. The Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) needs to be bigger than the currently negotiated proposals. New forms of autonomous resources for the country should be developed while envisaging the possibility to use a new common financial instrument, directly managed by the Union and targeted on the member’s states’ implementation of the objectives and the measures as set out in the Action Plan. _______________________________________

Sources:

Position papers can sometimes determine whether you win an award or not. Position papers are the way that if you don’t speak so well, you get to showcase your research, you get to show off. Do it RIGHT.

First, make sure you know what the conference rules are, some conferences only allow one page, some require two, some require four. If the rules aren’t present anywhere on the website, send an email to your dais. Your dais will probably be one of the most helpful resources you have, especially if you’re in a crisis.

Second, double check your facts. Especially your numbers. Wrong numbers are wrong facts which isn’t so great for you in the eyes of your dais. Not just that but if you refer to the wrong numbers, someone is going to attempt to double check and if they find out that you’re wrong, you’re in trouble. It’s likely that they’ll publicly call you out.

Thirdly, you won’t always end up using your position paper, but having it printed out as a quick reference as your country’s stance can help you from staying relatively on track with your country’s position. Also, like mentioned above, you can refer to it.

hi anon! when writing a position paper, i usually divide it to 4 parts:

(1) introduction to the issue. in this part you have to describe the issue generally and explain why this issue matters to your country. i recommend providing data to strengthen your argument.

(2) country’s view of the issue and problems that emerged regarding the issue. here, you should state your country’s stance regarding the issue. explain how the issue affect your country, and the world. if there’s problem that emerged, explain that too. you can also provide a case study to further explain how the issue affect your country.

(3) how country deals with the issue. after you explain the previous part, you need to tell what have your country done to tackle the issue. is it by government project? international cooperation? making a regulation? or participating in international agreement? is these actions has been successful to tackle the problem? if not, why? provide review on past actions and what can be learned from them.

(4) country’s suggestion on possible resolutions for the issue. of course, the issue is not only affecting your country, so you need to list possible solutions that can be implemented to tackle the problem. you can read past UN resolutions or reports for inspirations. do not forget that these suggestions has to be in line with your country’s stance.

this is an example of a position paper (it’s mine, i’m sorry if there’s any grammatical errors):

Committee     :United Nations

Topic               : Preservation of Marine Life

Country           : Kingdom of Norway

Delegates        : Handayani Lintang Purwaning Ayu

             The ocean has become an irreplaceable part of our dailylife since ancient times. It becomes one of our main sources of food. In 2010alone, commercial fisheries are able to harvest 88.6 million tons of aquaticanimals captured in wild fisheries. But, it leads to an unsustainable fishing.According to WWF, 32% of the world’s fisheries are overexploited. In addition, theworld’s fish stocks are not only under threat from intensive legal fishingactivities; they are also at risk from illegal, unreported and unregulated(IUU) fishing. IUU fishing is a major problem, because unlessthe IUU share is factored into the calculations, the legal catch quotas for agiven maritime region cannot be determined correctly. Therefore, preservation of marine life cannot be executeseffectively. If this situation continues, stocks of all species currentlyfished for food are predicted to collapse by 2048. Kingdom of Norway believesthat this problem has to be solved, because in addition that it threaten marinehabitats and species, it may also threaten health, way of life, and security ofthe humankind.

           IUU fishing often occurs in developing countries withcertain situations, such as weak governance. IUU fishermen tend to operate inthose countries because these countries generallycannot afford to establish effective fisheries control structures. Personnel in therelevant authorities are inadequatelytrained, not to mention thepurchase, maintenance and operational costs of patrol boats and aircraft arevery high that the country couldn’tafford it. That is why IUU vessels areable, in many cases, to operate with impunity. But, IUUfishing is not limited in developing countries. Several cases of IUU fishingalso found in Barents Sea of Norway. IUU fishingoften targets high-value demersal species,and Barents Sea contains the world largest remaining codpopulation, as well as an important stocks of haddock and capelin. Kingdom ofNorway tries to tackle down IUU fishing in Barents Sea by forming TheJoint Norwegian-Russian Fisheries Commission.This particular commission has been successful so far, referring to TheNorwegian Seafood Council (NSC) statementthat there have been no instances of illegal, unreportedand unregulated (IUU) fishing in the Barents Sea for three-plus years. Still, battle against IUU fishing continues. Thereare still many problems remaining, and also possibilities of new problemsemerging should keep all the countries in the world aware of this problem.

           In order to solve this problem, Kingdom of Norway wouldlike to propose some solutions to be considered, such as:

1.     Build effectivefisheries control structures, startingfrom increasing the authorities’ motivation to invest inrelevant personnel.

2.     Holding a jointtraining to increase personnel’s ability, also holding joint operation in thebigger coastal area.

3.     Cooperate withnon-governmental organizations such as WWF and Greenpeace to conduct studyabout the danger of IUU fishing and giving information to local people aboutlegal fishing.

4.     Promote MSC-certifiedseafood products. MSC-certified seafood could encourage legal fishing.

5.     Cooperate withall countries in the world to form solid joint personnel to help developingcountries protect their sea area.

           Referring to the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheriesand its overall objective of sustainable fisheries published by FAO, the issueof illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the world fisheries isof serious and increasing concern. This may lead to the loss of both short andlong-term social and economic opportunities and to negative effects on foodsecurity and environmental protection. Protecting the sustainability of theocean is not only the task of coastal and archipelagic states, it is everyone’stask to maintain and protect our ocean. Kingdom of Norway urges not onlycoastal and archipelagic states but also landlocked states to contribute,because maintaining the ocean also means maintaining health, way of life, andsecurity of the humankind.