My name is Filippo Bobel, I’m seventeen years old and I will have the honor to serve as Secretary General in this year’s conference.

My first MUN experience was GeminiMUN 2018, as the delegate of Italy in the Disarmament and International Security Committee, followed by GeMUN 2019, as the delegate of Israel in the Special Political Committee. Then, I took part in two conferences abroad: SPiMUN 2019 in Saint Petersburg, as the delegate of Georgia in DISEC, and RosMUN 2019 in Jerusalem, as the delegate of the Russian Federation in the Security Council. The latter experiences have been possible thanks to the school I’m currently attending, Liceo Linguistico Internazionale Grazia Deledda, where I study English, German and Russian, and they have truly shaped me as a person, broadening my cultural horizons. Finally, I decided to continue my MUN career not as a delegate, but as an officer, specifically as a Chair in GeminiMUN 2019 and, last but not least, as President of the Security Council in GeMUN2020.

In my personal experience, at GeMUN or any other conference that I have had the pleasure and privilege to partake, my fellow delegates and I have often discussed about crises: the question of nuclear weapons or drones, economic crises, climate change and so on. However, none of these has impacted our daily lives, as far as to radically change our very own daily routines, as the Coronavirus outbreak, which has had and still has extremely serious geopolitical and economical consequences, some of which are still unfolding. However, instead of passively laying down we should think critically, both analyzing the quality of the response so far and working harder and harder in order to get back on track. It is extremely serious, and we must tackle it with the utmost seriousness.

This is what the focus of GeMUN 2021 will be: “Rethinking our Future”, and it will not only be about restoring our pre-covid normality, but also about critically thinking of how we want our future to look like, tackling the so-called “ordinary” problems (the sheer fact that some refer to them as “ordinary” should really make us reflect on how catastrophic problematics such as malnutrition are so cemented in our cultural substrata, and therefore so often overlooked). The burden on your backs is remarkable, and this will surely be a challenging year, first and foremost for those “behind the scenes” who will have to organize the conference, set up a brand new digital platform, and make sure that everything will go smoothly. You too are strongly urged to stand up for this challenge, researching your topics so as to have a sufficient degree of competence to come up with and debate impactful solutions.

Do not feel in any way intimidated by this challenge, it is perfectly within your reach if you take these three simple actions: be prepared, be active and (last but not
least) have fun. It would be absolutely priceless if GeMUN 2021 were to be even a tiny bit as important for you as some MUN conferences have been for me, and it is thanks to your precious input that we can make this MUN a truly memorable experience, together.

Yours sincerely,
Filippo Bobel
Secretary General