Delegations swung on a continuum between ridiculous and sublime while discussing cultural erosions.
Over the years, the voluntourism industry has taken a variety of forms. While it traditionally started as a non-profit, community-oriented organization, it has been capitalised upon by underground organisations to bring in billions of dollars in profit annually.
The World Tourism Organisation entered a slow-moving debate on the specifics of voluntourists during the first council session of the day. While the delegates started off on the right track, they eventually devolved into dallying over ridiculous motions and caucuses. They wasted precious debating time and the session came to very little conclusion.
Several delegations attempted to raise motions for lengthy 15 to 20-minute unmoderated caucuses throughout the entire plenary, which were thankfully veto-ed by the chairs in favour of a progressive debate. Plenty of the absurd unmods raised were for the sake of sheer comedy purposes and entertainment. Most ridiculous of all was when a delegate decided to vote against his own motion, which resulted in disruptive, raucous laughter from the floor.
Lacking in careful deliberation, these senseless decisions clearly show the lack of understanding of and consideration for the flow of debate in the council. By engaging in such tomfoolery during council proceedings, their session was naturally far from fruitful.
Moreover, after the initial excitement the nonsensical unmods had created, the delegates were reluctant to speak or even be added into the general speaker’s list and had to be prompted several times by their chairs. If no one is willing to speak up and steer the debate in a certain direction, will the topics the UNWTO are supposed to tackle even be resolved?
Later, the delegates continued their march down the path of error. They veered sharply off their agenda of cultural erosion to discuss whether the gifting of contraband items such as drugs and cigarettes to the needy was appropriate. An intense debate ensued, with several countries pointing out that the parley had long gone off the framework for the day.
Yesterday, the council had already been unable to move forward with their chosen topic of debate, and today, history repeated itself once more. Do the delegates of UNWTO even have a clear objective for what they’re doing? It appears not, and neither do they seem to understand the rules of procedure. Will their debates ever reach a viable conclusion?
Over the years, the voluntourism industry has taken a variety of forms. While it traditionally started as a non-profit, community-oriented organization, it has been capitalised upon by underground organisations to bring in billions of dollars in profit annually.
The World Tourism Organisation entered a slow-moving debate on the specifics of voluntourists during the first council session of the day. While the delegates started off on the right track, they eventually devolved into dallying over ridiculous motions and caucuses. They wasted precious debating time and the session came to very little conclusion.
Several delegations attempted to raise motions for lengthy 15 to 20-minute unmoderated caucuses throughout the entire plenary, which were thankfully veto-ed by the chairs in favour of a progressive debate. Plenty of the absurd unmods raised were for the sake of sheer comedy purposes and entertainment. Most ridiculous of all was when a delegate decided to vote against his own motion, which resulted in disruptive, raucous laughter from the floor.
Lacking in careful deliberation, these senseless decisions clearly show the lack of understanding of and consideration for the flow of debate in the council. By engaging in such tomfoolery during council proceedings, their session was naturally far from fruitful.
Moreover, after the initial excitement the nonsensical unmods had created, the delegates were reluctant to speak or even be added into the general speaker’s list and had to be prompted several times by their chairs. If no one is willing to speak up and steer the debate in a certain direction, will the topics the UNWTO are supposed to tackle even be resolved?
Later, the delegates continued their march down the path of error. They veered sharply off their agenda of cultural erosion to discuss whether the gifting of contraband items such as drugs and cigarettes to the needy was appropriate. An intense debate ensued, with several countries pointing out that the parley had long gone off the framework for the day.
Yesterday, the council had already been unable to move forward with their chosen topic of debate, and today, history repeated itself once more. Do the delegates of UNWTO even have a clear objective for what they’re doing? It appears not, and neither do they seem to understand the rules of procedure. Will their debates ever reach a viable conclusion?
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