MUN Mannheim in Crisis

This year’s edition of TICS (Tübingen International Crisis Simulation) took place from 31.10. – 3.11. in, you guessed it, Tübingen. Especially excited about the Halloween Social, six members of MUN Mannheim took the speed train to make it just in time to be early for the early registrations. Well, good thing we had Prosecco to endure the wait. Missing the first workshop on “Diplomatic Speech” (we are all experienced MUNers here, right) we all made it to the second one where we got an introduction into the topic (Gulf of Guinea), directives, and the crisis software MoD. The opening ceremony was, for once, not dull but instead gave us another insight into the crisis. After that, it was time to get ready for the long-awaited Halloween social, dressing up in our meticulously planned delegation outfit of a murdering and murdered 80s aerobic group.

Day one of sessions started slowly. Still in the “getting to know your committee” phase, a U.S. oil tanker got attacked, an American was kidnapped, and Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana were facing environmental disasters, while a Chinese oil platform was attacked by terrorists. At the end of the day, Cameroon and Nigeria were at the brink of war, the U.S. was basically where they started off, only one military captain short, and no one knows what the rest of the cabinets did for the whole day. For the evening there was a committee dinner. Mannheim admittedly performed quite weak as most of us went home at 11 to get some much-needed sleep.

On day two, the crisis really hit off. While the backroom tried to push an education issue (which was resolved by throwing money at it in the U.S. and was used to promote a teacher migration in African countries), the cabinets managed just fine by creating their own problems. While most African countries enhanced their tourism infrastructure (financed by a money-throwing China) and fought internal conflicts, the U.S. made a deal with terrorists which backfired on them in the worst possible way. The evening was reserved for a Gala event. The evening was used to further some personal connections and drink some cheap booze while the music was mediocre and the dance floor basically empty. Due to this, the Mannheim delegation decided to move on at some time in the morning and went clubbing in their fine evening wear.

Having had barely 2 hours of sleep, day three of the crisis went as expected. And while some cabinets still tried to save the world (i.e. solve the problems in the Gulf of Guinea), bless them, other cabinets just went batshit crazy, coup d’etat-ing everyone and deploying U.S. tanks in Nigeria’s capital. Jana used this last day to eliminate her biggest competition (okay, he was hungover and didn’t show up), being rewarded “Best Delegate” for her efforts. After a surprisingly short closing, the Mannheim delegation made their way through heavy rain to the train station, everyone looking forward to their cosy bed after a long and eventful, but also happy and fun weekend.