ISB to host Borneo global issues meet

ISB Borneo Global Issues Conference V 2007 participants will get to meet Professor David Bellamy OBE, a world-leading scientist and conservationist when he comes to Brunei.

To celebrate the fifth year of this annual conference, the International School Brunei (ISB) has also invited other guests including Nobel Prize winner Professor Wangari Maathai; Habiba Hassan Sultan Al Mar'ashi, chairperson of the Emirates Environmental Group; Dato' Dr Mikaail Kavanagh, Executive Director of WWF Malaysia; and representatives from Sabah-based environmental groups Red Ape Encounters and Scubazoo.

The student-run conference has grown steadily due to the support and sponsorship of BLNG and Dato Hj Hamdillah Hj Abd Wahab, Deputy Minister of Industry and Primary Resources since its inception in 2003. Professor Bellamy is famous for his appearances on the BBC where he brought environmental issues and scientific morality into light. He first came to public prominence as an environmental consultant at the time of the 1967 Torrey Canyon disaster.

He has been the writer and presenter of some 400 television programmes on botany, ecology and environental issues and is the author of over 40 books.

ISB BGIC V invitations have been sent to all schools in Brunei, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, China, Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines. Student participants will interact with the invited guests in panel forums.

Student leaders will be assigned leadership roles of the secretaries general and various committee chairs. Delegates demand will represent the views of their assigned country to debate some of the world's most demanding problems assigned to the following committees: political committee, human rights committee, ECO/SOC committee and the environment committee.

The committees will debate resolutions focussing on the eight UN millennium goals: eradicating world hunger and poverty, universal education, gender equality, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, combating disease, environmental sustainability and developing global partnerships for development.

The ISB BGIC is a student conference that brings together secondary school students from the Asean region to discuss major global concerns in a mock United Nations (UN) simulation. It provides them with real experience encouraging international cooperation, understanding and world citizenship among young adults at a time of increasing globalisation.

The students themselves manage and run the conference, with teachers as supervisors and advisors.

Students will work closely together in committees to share their ideas and develop their ability to empathise with other viewpoints.

The skills of working as a team, effective leadership qualities, time management, research, writing and public speaking are actively developed. For information, contact Sera Goh at 2330608/2337445.

Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin