Model United Nations carried out in Aymara Language
Calamarca, Bolivia, 9 October 2007
UNIC La Paz and the representatives of the Universidad de Aquino, Bolivia (UDABOL) organized a Model UN session for the indigenous peasant students at an experimental programme at UDABOL in Calamarca, Bolivia, on 9 October 2007.
The motto of Model UN was: Aruskipt’asipxañanikasakipunirakispawa, which is a concept of dialog and consensus of the Aymara culture that means “let’s talk, let’s listen, let’s analyze and let’s discuss until we reach an agreement”. UNIC La Paz invited the UN Resident Representatives to attend the Model UN. Ms. Cristina Albertin, UNODC, attended the session.
In Calamarca, a small Aymara town with a beautiful old church filled with colonial paintings, the students had prepared rooms with commissions to discuss four broad issues:
Democratization of the state and policies of rural development
Policies of rural development
Autonomies
Migration Countryside-City and creation of jobs
Creation of Jobs
Labor exploitation
Gender equity and reproductive sexual health
Reproductive sexual health
Male chauvinism
Policies for the infancy and Food Security (“Seguridad Alimentaria”)
Sexual exploitation of children
Food Security (“Seguridad Alimentaria”)
The students had also elected a male Secretary General, and, according to their custom, his female counterpart. Both chaired the inauguration of the sessions with respective speeches. The inaugural ceremony counted with the presence of the indigenous, municipal and education authorities of Calamarca.
All the speeches, interventions and negotiations, either in the inauguration ceremony, or in the commissions, were carried out in Aymara language. To the foreign ear, the most persistent word of al was “Aruskip”, which is the root word for “negotiation”. It was also repeatedly pronounced when a group of “terrorists” kidnapped two “enemy” delegates who were finally released after painstaking “Aruskip”.
In all, the exercise followed al the formalities of a UN Model, and it ultimately proved that today’s Aymara
is an open community that shares values with the world and reaches out with generosity and genuine curiosity.
