In Waffle House We Trust: Bush Administration 2005
topic i: the ENVIRONMENTAL disaster refugee crisis
TOPIC II: Louisiana & order
The year is 2005; the month is August. The category 5 hurricane named “Hurricane Katrina” has ravaged the Louisiana Gulf Coast. In this worst-case scenario, all businesses and state government facilities have been shut down. Only the eponymous Waffle House has been kept open to serve as a lighthouse in these trying times. People are missing; people are looting; people are starving. People also have no shelter, food, electricity, or healthcare. The lives of hundreds upon thousands of people are at stake. You, the delegates of the Bush Administration, have the chance to actually do something, given the immense amount of executive power the Bush Administration gained in the wake of 9/11. All the government has been able to accomplish so far is rounding up people into the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. As the people inside, much like the rest of New Orleans, have no resources, they have resorted to fighting each other. Will you care enough to do more than the federal government did in reality, or follow their footsteps and… not? (*Hint* you should care!)
co-chairs
Preston Bowden and Danial Butt
Preston Bowden is 2L law student at the University of Virginia School of Law. This will be his third time chairing for VAMUN. During his time as an undergraduate at UVA, he double majored in Political & Social Thought (PST) & History, and competed in eight collegiate model UN conferences on UVA's model UN travel team. Preston is also a first-generation student from out west; he comes from a small town nobody can pronounce—unless you're from the state—, Tooele, Utah. Outside of studying antiquated cases and living in the law school library, Preston spends time hanging out with his neighbors/friends on the Range, reading science-fiction, and playing virtual reality games such as VR Chat. He is incredibly excited to be your chair for this year's iteration of VAMUN.
Danial Butt is a UVA faculty member who studies as a sociopath -er, sociology major on the side. This will be his second time serving as Crisis Director for VAMUN. This year he is plotting his revenge against the delegates for last year's shenanigans in the Bush Administration, 2001 committee. When he's not playing Pokémon Showdown in class, he is dedicated to on the ground investigations for UVA's preeminent media outlet, the Global Inquirer (please listen to my podcast ...please). His other escapades include arts of the martial, digital, analog, and musical varieties (please download my mixtape ...please).
