Over the weekend I've made a few observations, the first being that kids could run the world. I've just spent the past three days at the Cairo American College Campus in Maadi, listening to teenagers solve the issues of the day, in a simulation called the Model United Nations (MUN). In this game, students play the part of diplomats, pretending to be sitting in the UN Security Council or General Assembly, battling their way through a diverse range of issues - drugs & sex trafficking, global warming, nuclear power stations, the Northern Ireland peace process - the usual stuff, we all know machinates in a teenager's mind. Having been around the United Nations in New York for two years myself, I am of the opinion kids could well run the world. It is not so much their imaginative solutions or crafty resolution drafting that I like, it is that they appear without prejudice or vested interest. In a world where there is less and less room, getting along on an international level couldn't be more important. A recent report from the UN Environment Program said that the global population was growing so fast that the available land per person in 2005 was 2.02 hectares, down from the 7.91 hectares available in 1900. Little wonder these kids are taking their resolutions so seriously and voting dispassionately, with global interests, not their own, at heart. On Saturday evening, Lawrence Pintak, from the American University of Cairo, addressed the conference on the topic of global perceptions in the media. "You can have the best policy in the world, but if it is perceived wrong, it undermines everything, he said. Mr Pintak observed that President Bush is the first American president to declare support for a Palestinian state. "US policy is we support a Palestinian state, but all their actions are telegraphing something different, Pintak said. During the students' debate in the MUN Security Council, one student observed: "Palestine and Israel are like two children fighting over a toy, on the issue of Jerusalem. The international community should treat them like children and take the 'toy' away and not give it back until they behave themselves. See, kids could - or maybe should - run the world. Kids never will run the world, but they do run with the trends. I've observed that the Rubics Cube is back from the 1980s along with a worrying number of mullet haircuts. Those were the days when I had hair to style. Watch out for Outlandish. They are a Danish band that is playing on Nov. 2 at Dream Park. The event is being sponsored by the Embassy of Denmark, and when I checked with my Danish friends in Copenhagen, they told me I shouldn't miss it. I've also observed that the older kids at the CSA Club are staging their fourth Annual Charity Golf and Dinner Dance at Mena House. It is set down for Nov. 9 and more information is available on www.livinginegypt.com Due to my commitment at the MUN, I couldn't get along to the British Community Associations Cricket Carnival. From all reports it was two days of high quality, fast paced six-a-side cricket. India A came out on top, beating Mofaddal Cricket Club in the final, 77 runs to 55. Pakistan A was third and India B fourth. I've observed from this that the British teams didn't have too good of a day with bat and ball. The teachers who accompanied the students to the MUN conference were certainly representative of the international nature of the gatherings philosophy. There was an Australian who teaches in China, Americans from South Africa, Azerbaijan and Istanbul. A Spanish teacher from Dubai, an Egyptian from Sudan and a Canadian couple from Tunisia. It was the South Africans who stuck out for me though at this conference. It was only just over a decade ago when the airline manufacture Boeing had to build special planes with large fuel tanks, so South Africa could keep open a few tenuous links with the world. Now you find South Africans everywhere around the globe and working in every industry. I know of two who are helping to build and design the new Saudi Arabian embassy in Cairo. Internationalism. It is a great concept; I think the old Soviets once tried to excite the workers of the world with the same concept. Probably best to leave it up to the kids though, they know what is going on, even though you can't understand their music. Did I say that, or was that my old dad?
