UNODC: Where Chaos Meets Incompetence

Day 2 Summary – or, as some call it, “Survival of the Clueless”

The second day of UNODC has come and gone, and shocker — we’ve still seen ZERO upward movement in the committee's collective competence chart.

Starting with a fan favorite: the Delegate of Mexico. A major stakeholder in global drug policy, and yet somehow managed to pull a Houdini act for the second day in a row. At this point, we’re wondering if this is a diplomatic boycott or just a really long coffee break.

Meanwhile, delegates showed off their impeccable misunderstanding of the Rules of Procedure, treating “Point of Personal Privilege” like a magic spell for anything and everything. A highlight: the Delegate of Russia, confidently saying, “Point of personal privilege, can I use my phone?” — as if the dais was holding them hostage from replying to Snapchat streaks. Please, by all means, text away — just do it quietly, and stop turning every minor inconvenience into a floor-wide production.

In another plot twist, a delegate even confused a POI (Point of Information) for Point of Personal Privilege — leading to a gentle correction by the dais and a collective facepalm from the rest of us. Reading the ROP is literally step one, not optional homework.

And then there was the Delegate of India — a major stakeholder who confidently marched up to the podium during the General Speakers List, ready to “eat it up,” as Gen Z would say. Did she deliver a powerful, policy-rich speech? Well… not quite. After an enthusiastic start, things quickly spiraled into “We have laws. Many laws. Very law-abiding.” All that confidence, just to fumble on basic awareness of your country’s real issues. A reminder: saying “we have laws” is not a strategy, it’s a syllabus point.

So, what did Day 2 leave us with? A committee full of misplaced confidence, forgotten procedures, and the eternal question — how is this the UNODC? Because if anything’s being smuggled here, its logic, structure, and the last remaining bits of common sense.

Seymour Cox

CNN