The Politics of Character Assassination
So its been like two weeks since I've had time to make a livejournal entry, this is surely some kind of terrible terrible record. And even now I don't have much time at all. So just a quick update here.
MUNgate: recent developements on the MUN front: Under-Secretary-General Rinaldi resigned upon the discovery that former Secretary-General Myung and others were maliciously spreading rumours about her with intent to bring about her utter character assassination. Character assassination like the bombing of the UN HQ in baghdad -- if it had been done by the unfortunate mission director's best friends. While doing so Myung notes* that she must appear uninvolved so she can count the MUN ballots and congradulates co-conspirator Shemek on similarly avoiding suspicion while gaining the other ballot counting position. Go team!
But to be fair, two current law students, former members of MUN, have come out in support of the current MUN administration. Read their perspective here. In addition to these weighty counter-arguments, Myung herself commented, and, possibly doing more damage to their cause than help, member and former SG Janet Rossi made an amusing comment. Rossi argues that the fact that $20 dinners have only about a fifth of the turnout of lower cost dinners may be not because the rest can't afford it, but because only those who are friends with the others on Secretariat go to the expensive dinners. Yes Janet, you might be right, that might have something to do with it, but I think that portrays it a lot worse than the simple "only those who can afford it" theory.
In Other News
Yesterday the BBC called me to ask about a US Supreme Court case. True story. It was because I'm listed as a contact for the AGnostic & Atheist Student Assn (AGASA), and it was the 10 Commandments case.
Currently one of my papers about Chechnya is being discussed at an international relations conference in Texas. I feel special.
Previously on Emosnail
Two Years Ago Today: UCBMUNC '03 - and IHOP adventures. Missed the first day of Berkeley because I had work. Learned today actually that some people thought I forgot about UCBMUNC the first day. Yeah not so much, I'm the only one who actually spends the whole time in committee. Who was the only one of our 37 people to win an award this time? Yeah that would be me, and I don't forget about MUN conferences.
*source: an accidently intercepted AIM conversation. Seriously if you are planning on backstabbing someone, don't leave the conversation up on a computer they use. Excerpt about the fraudulent election aspirations:
amazonjedimaster: no
amazonjedimaster: then i might be tainted
amazonjedimaster: for the election-ness
PrzemekP: yeah, well, I worked on her and Priya on the way over
amazonjedimaster: so far there is not a peep from gena about getting you on the elections -vote counting-ness