On Saturday morning, Dr. Gallagher’s briefing welcomed all delegates to the real start of MUN MCB 08.  Following was possibly the most frequent use of metaphors in a single speech that I have heard in the last week‐ the Secretary General Aimee Muirhead’s stirring speech. Not that I appreciated being likened to garlic.
Still, it left an excellent opening for Lord Hannay’s talk‐ and also made him look really tall behind the podium.  Hannay’s speech on New World Disorder, related back to his recent book under the same name, and indeed,  his ability to discuss the issues which he has experienced first‐hand, concerned many of the topics which we were to discuss over the coming days; Hannay’s suggested manifesto of topics which it is necessary to resolve
had an obvious correlation with our own agendas. However, some of the questions he provoked were perhaps
less appealing or considered by the delegates; his claim that we cannot feel secure living in a world with poverty, disease and malnutrition is disconcerting, yet true, and just adds to his point that there is “no viable option other than to make international organisations work more effectively.” Echoing Sec‐Gen Muirhead’s sentiments that we need to be aware and make a difference, Hannay concluded that “we have a world in which some elements of order are discernible through the swirly clouds of disorder”, but only someunity is needed within every organisation, even our model version‐ but “if we do not hang together we shall be hanged  separately.” Lord Hannay’s experience made the opportunity to ask questions invaluable, a possibility
of which many delegates availed, eagerly hoping, I presume, to emulate his success in later life.
CHRISTINE MURPHY