On the 9th of February 2005, at the very kind invitation
of His Excellency David Fall, Ambassador representing the United Kingdom in
Thailand and Laos, the St. Andrew’s Model United Nations (MUN) team
visited the British Embassy in Bangkok to study how the Embassy works and
how the British government interacts with Thailand and its neighbouring
countries.
The St
Andrews MUN team at the British Embassy.
The MUN team is an organisation which looks at worldwide
issues such as HIV/AIDS, Nuclear disarmament and the environment through
discussion, research and debate. We also learn to be tolerant towards
others and learn how the real United Nations works.
This visit proved popular with British and International
students alike as firstly we are very eager to learn more and secondly, it
was our first MUN field trip!
Light-hearted
relief with Colonel Sanders on the way back home.
At the Embassy, we were greeted by Mr. Ian Proud, First
Secretary of the Political Section, who escorted us to the Ambassador’s
residence. We introduced ourselves, and then we put questions to Mr. Proud.
One of the big issues was the tsunami. We learnt that the Embassy managed
to field staff at Phuket within 36 hours of the tragedy with reinforcements
coming from Kuala Lumpur and other cities in the region. Mr. Proud and the
Ambassador himself had to work 18 hours per day which included identifying
the victims.
An important question was about the history of the
Embassy. We learnt that it was built in 1926 and its main purpose is to
promote a relationship between the government of Thailand and the U.K,
while at the same time it helps British people with issues such as passport
renewal or getting help with Thai law. It can also help arrange for Thai
people to visit the U.K. and serves as an Embassy for Laos too!
For people who are looking for scholarships, don’t
miss this! There is a Chevening scholarship for people aged 25-35 years old
who already have a Bachelors degree and want to study a Masters in the UK.
Moving on, we were surprised to see that the Embassy
also deals with other serious issues such as terrorism, drugs, crime, sex
offences, health issues and the environment. Regarding the economy, the
Embassy has a branch which deals with promoting fair trade.
Internationally, the U.K has a policy on improving the conditions in poor
countries and relieving debts.
After the question & answer session, we were given a
grand tour of the Embassy by Mr. Proud. It was definitely very nice to see
the people working when we had just heard stories about them before! It was
very interesting to see how the Embassy works and how many people it has to
deal with. We looked at the Visa, Consular and Tsunami disaster sections.
When we arrived back at the Ambassador’s residence, we
were greeted by the Ambassador and his wife. And funnily enough, we asked
him some more questions. This time we learnt that the relationship between
the U.K and Thailand is very strong, which has resulted in an increasing
amount of trade and investment. For example, in the educational sector,
around 5,000 Thais go to study in the U.K every year whilst in the tourism
sector we welcome around 750,000 British tourists to Thailand each year.
In the investment sector, we see a variety of British
companies investing, for example Tesco (Lotus). And in the U.K, Beer Chang
sponsors Everton F.C. and has just brought a new Whiskey Distillery!
The Ambassador post is a non-stop job. There is so much
to be done and so much waiting to be done! I came to realise that to be an
Ambassador, you have to love the job and His Excellency David Fall clearly
loves his job. The lives of many people in the region depend on an
Ambassador and he has to interact with people informally and formally on
all kinds of occasions. They are representing their country,
professionally,
St. Andrew’s Model United Nations team would like to publicly thank
Gill Keen at the embassy for her help in arranging the trip and Mr. Ian
Proud and His Excellency David Fall and his wife Gwendolyn, for sharing
their schedule with us. The students were true Ambassadors for the school.
We had a great day, and look forward to visiting UNICEF and UNESCAP next
term.
