Assignment
The United Nations (UN) is an organization that prides itself on the discussion of important topics related to world peace, security, development and others but accomplishes, essentially, nothing. The history of the United Nations as well as the actions of its Secretaries proves its ineffectiveness, and demonstrates that the organization occasionally engages in biased decision-making. This, in return, has made the general public lose their trust in the US.
In consideration, I would demand the United Nations Secretary General, currently Ban Ki-moon, to guide the UN in the regaining of peoples’ trust, which I am aware requires time, significant measures and the making of bold decisions.
In order to achieve this, the UN must become a fully independent organization as opposed to a channel for governments seeking to establish their own agendas. In other words, the UN’s actions must be unbiased. Secondly, the number of countries that have a representation in the Security Council must increase, as has the world’s population. Presently, the Security Council is composed of five permanent members and ten elected for 2-year periods, which is significantly low compared to the General Assembly’s 193 member count. To fairly distribute power and authority and become an inclusive body, the SC must be expanded or its members defined to accurately represent all races and religions.
Lastly, the very existence of the veto power, which allows any permanent member of the SC to reject any decision collectively taken, serves as evidence of the unequal power distribution of the organization. Fundamentally, the UN’s purpose is to make decisions that benefit the entire international community, even if these may not align with a specific country’s objectives and thus the veto power undermines the democratic principles by which the UN should act. Moreover, through the use of the veto power states assure that the decisions taken benefit them, and no compromise is actually taken on their part as they are given a one-sided advantage to promote their own political interests through the only UN organ that creates resolutions that are binding and mandatory for all member states. For these reasons, the reform of the SC to eliminate the veto power is an urgent need.
In conclusion, the UN has gained and preserved governments’ trust but at the expense of the people’s, which is of far more importance. This especially evident in the Middle Eastern region, as actions regarding problems in the Gaza strip, Syria, Iraq and Myanmar have been unquestionably slow, ineffective and, in occasions, biased. Therefore, I would only demand the UN’s Secretary General to regain public trust by making the United Nations an independent and fair organization, as was originally intended at the time of its creation.
C. Describe a time when you took a great risk. What was the outcome?
I temporarily lived in the United States while studying at the University of Tampa, Florida. During this time, I always desired to help my family by taking control of our family business. After graduation, in the summer of 2014, I moved back home to Kuwait with big dreams and plans to make our business more profitable. However, I always knew that I would need to convince my family that I had the required knowledge, skills and intentions to achieve this, in order for them to trust me and delegate more business responsibilities to me.
I began working with my family as soon as I arrived at Kuwait, and while my family was thrilled with my commitment, they did not give an important role in the business and my designated tasks were still few, given that they believed I was still unexperienced. Our business has several branches related to furniture, food and beverages, constructions, financial services, real state, among others. My specific field of work was in the retail of industrial and agricultural equipment. I knew I needed to strengthen the business by solving problems to prove my capabilities to my family.
This proved to be difficult, as by the time I completed national all degree-equivalence procedures required by the Ministry of Higher Education, which was approximately a month after returning home, I realized my family, specifically my father, expected me to look for a job to gain experience in a different field before joining the family business permanently. This, however, was the complete opposite of my intentions: I wished to devote my entire professional career to the family business.
Given that my father is the CEO of the holding group, and I needed his approval to pursue a career with the family, I convinced him of allowing me to look for an outside job as a financial advisor in a consultant firm but, in the meantime, keep my position in the family business for temporary work. I had the alternate motive of convincing them to allow me to stay there full-time and permanently. I fully dedicated myself to my temporary job in the business, working 6 days a week, 10 hours each day. I restructured the workshop, created a new department for renting equipment and developed and incentive system for the sales department.
Nine months later, KPMG offered me a position as an intern in their auditing department, which I did not want to accept, but family pressure to gain experience outside the business forced me to do so. Afterwards, I distributed my time between KPMG during weekdays and the family business on weekends. I later was transferred to the Deal Advisory Commission at KPMG, which helps clients to purchase, sell, fund or restructure their businesses. I performed well at this task, as I thoroughly enjoyed it: I was the first intern to successfully bring a new customer to KPMG according to their Managing Partner Mr. Ankul Aggarawl. After the completion of my internship I went back to the family business as a full-time job, but not a month passed when KPMG had offered me a permanent position. The decision of accepting this job offer or staying with my family was a difficult one, because while KPMG offered better economic benefits but my intentions to devote my career to the family business were still firm. For this reason, I ultimately decided to reject KPMG’s offer and stay with my family which was, certainly, a big risk to take.
I decided to take a straight-forward approach by explaining to my father that my personal goal was to work for the family business permanently, even if other opportunities offered me better economic prospects. He was definitely surprised, but accepted me in the business, which made me very joyous as in that moment I realized I had gained my father’s trust and pride.
Today, I am a Senior Sales Executive and work with a great team, and we have accomplished to increase company sales by 2%, even if the current trend in Kuwait is a decline in company profits.
There is a quote that inspires me in this regard: “We don’t grow when things are easy; we grow when we face challenges”. Undoubtedly, turning down KPMG’s offer was a big professional and personal risk, but it was the best decision I have ever made.
I. Show us an activity you enjoy doing. Tell us how you think it contributes to your personal and professional development.
I spend my time performing activities of different nature derive joy from them, but the one I find the most fulfilling is volunteering to help Syrian refugees in the hopes of improving their lives. This passion started in 2011, during the time of the revolution against the regime of Al-Assad. I watched photographs and video footage of highly strong content, of a nature that not even the darkest and most disturbing of Hollywood films would dare showing. The violence and human rights violations that could be evidenced in those images were unprecedented, and made a deep impact on me. In consequence, I decided to help my Syrian brothers and sisters, but living in the United States prevented me from making a significant difference.
At that time there was not a refugee situation yet, but by the time I graduated in 2014 and moved back to Kuwait, the refugee situation had arisen and grown to be serious and complicated. I applied to join the Shabab Al-Khair Team (SKT) because I wanted to contribute to humanity, and was accepted a few weeks later. The SKT is sponsored by the Abdullah Charity Organization, licensed by the Government of Kuwait. It is composed of young volunteers who provide humanitarian support and aid those made vulnerable by the Syrian crisis. Since its creation in 2012, it has grown to a member base of approximately 80 volunteers. The main projects undertaken by this non-profit organization are the construction of homes in the Ataa Safe Village and the Turkey-Syria border, creating and maintaining refugee camps for Syrians in Atama and sponsoring about 500 students in Lebanon to build a center for the rehabilitation and training of Syrian refugees in Jordan which is presently 65% completed. Additionally, the SKT works in the distribution of clothes, food and blankets for refugees in Syrian and surrounding territories.
Even though it is a difficult task, and there is a deep psychological impact derived from witnessing the unsettling situation thousands of Syrian families find themselves and the unfairness of the situation, I find great joy and delight in volunteering for this team, as I feel it allows me to give back to humanity that has given me many opportunities of which so many others are deprived. As Mairnela Lenka said: “Helping other people can be a cure not just for those who are I need, but for your soul as well”.
Moreover, helping the Syrian refugees has made me further appreciate my family and where I live, as I have met so many people who have lost their loved ones, their homes and even parts of their bodies. Lastly, this opportunity has represented a great way to make new friendships and establish connections. During my time volunteering with the Shabab Alkhayer Team I have met supportive and inspiring people that motivate me to work for a better life and pursue my goals. I believe that spending leisure time in activities such as this one, serves as a reflection of values and priorities.
