[red.]: traditiegetrouw publiceren we de openingstoespraak van de IMUNA-conferentie. Dit jaar werd deze verzorgd door Ingrid Visser, conrector en plaatsvervangend rector van onze school.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Welcome at the IMUNA conference at the Murmellius Gymnasium in Alkmaar. Having started in 1994, this year the conference is organised for the 31st time. The IMUNA conference has become an important yearly event for our school. Various students of ours from the first to the final grade have organised this conference and are participating in it. We are proud of them, of course. A lot of students are gathered here to join this international meeting. Once again several countries sent delegates, so we can truly say this is an international conference. A warm welcome to the foreign guests coming from Norway, Germany, Turkey, Georgia, France, Spain, the UK, Pakistan and Poland. And naturally also a warm welcome to the delegations from schools from the Netherlands. All together you are more than 400 this year!
The theme of this year’s IMUNA conference will be: Open Minds, Open Doors. Literally, we open our school doors for everyone, no matter your background, religion or identity. Not only during IMUNA of course, but during every day of the year (except, strictly speaking, during school holidays, of course!). We open our minds to others, we listen to one another and we respect other opinions. One of our current goals is to create more diversity in our school community. This month, Pride month is celebrated, illustrated by the rainbow flag on top of the building.
Open minds, open doors is also a beautiful metaphor to illustrate the ideal relation between different generations. Teachers open invisible doors to their students, and vice versa. Every day, we learn from each other. Only together we can bring solutions to all the problems and challenges we are facing. Empathy and curiosity are indispensable for that.
How alarming therefore it is to see the world being ruled by often 70+ white men with closed minds, taking all the important decisions for you, the future generation! In many cases, these politicians want to turn back time: a frightening thought.
In two weeks’ time, the NATO summit will be taking place in The Hague. World leaders will meet each other in the World Forum building, where many of you were earlier this year for the THIMUN conference. Hopefully, the solutions they bring to the mayor problems in the world during this summit will be as constructive and creative as yours were in January.
In the debates that will follow during the next few days you will be a paragon of open mindedness. You will empathize with people from foreign countries and learn from their points of view. You will make new friends and hopefully have a lot of fun as well. Together you will open many visible and invisible doors.
I sincerely hope that you will come up with some fresh and new ideas and that the way you open your minds to each other will inspire the decisionmakers and politicians.
Don’t give up hope that your ideas lead to a solution in the near future. In time, when some of you will yourselves be in places where they can make decisions, it would be fantastic to use the thoughts and experiences you had during this conference to achieve a better, fairer and a more open-minded society than we have today.
I wish you a profitable conference.
