Class 2: Negotiations - Never forget the goal -

Water takes up 71% of the Earth's surface.

...and 75% of the human body. 

(Well actually, this is only for infants, the percentage in adults is more like 60%. I wanted to make some dramatic impact.)

I've never ever considered doing so until now, Juicy oranges might be a great snack after running.
After all, the orange that Ken gave us was really tasty.

But for me, nothing beats a glassful of water, maybe with some ice around this time.  

After all, water is vital for survival.
You'll get dehydrated if you lose more like 15% of your water.
You can't expect to live more than 2 to 3 days without water, wherease you might survive weeks without food.

Just think about it.
"I'm not going to eat anything a week" = Ok, you're fasting or going on a diet.
"I'm not going to drink anything for a week" = CRAZY
(→HowStuffWorks "How long can you go without food and water?")


And in Palestine, water is a pressing problem.

Palestine doesn't, as is obvious from its location, have much rain, and when it rains, it easily vaporizes.
Aquifers(underground water) and the Jordan River are their main water sources.

Yep, this is also something from the conference that I talked about in my last post.
But hear me out.

Israel is also rather on the water-shortage side. But it also cuts off Palestinian aquifer by building the Wall and thus creating a de facto border which includes more water in Israeli land. Israelis can water their lawns while Palestinians have to ask neighbors for drinking water.
Most Israeli people don't know about the water shortage of Palestinians, and there are some faults on the Palestinian side too. For me, and for this topic, though, I feel that the Israeli government is at fault.

Anyways.
With this topic, we did negotiations.
The basic situation: There are two states Nations "1" and "2" (we used much more sophisticated names in the camp). Nation 2 just earned its independence from 1.  There is also a river that is an important water source for both states, which originates in Nation 1. Nation 1 decides that it wants to build a dam for industrial use, to boost its economy, and thus, a negotiation between the states was held.
(Nations 1 and 2 were used so that we (mainly the Israeli and Palestinian participants) could keep a cool head about the whole process.)

I was in a State 1 group, namely, the one that has the "upper hand. " My team could basically ignore Nation 2 and build the dam. But that was while the whole situation was limited to the scope of States 1 and 2.

You can basically do anything. Build the dam no matter what the other says, force a hard bargain on State 2, etc.
An Israeli girl (though she is over 20 years old) had a different idea.

Her proposal: To negotiate a trade alliance with Nation 2, with a big bargain of about 50% trade in exchange for scrapping the dam plan.

After a few negotiations, the two nations came to an agreement.

The agreement: Nation 2 will reserve a 35% trade margin and Nation 1 10%, and the dam deal is off.

There were 2 of the same negotiations going on. Ours finished in a matter of seconds while the other went on in a heated discussion.

The plan's significance doesn't end there though. With a peaceful trade alliance, allies of Nation 2 will also be more willing to trade with Nation 1, which will surely increase its production ability and boost its economy.

"Never forget the ultimate goal, but change approach accordingly, be flexible" - Now that I think about it, this is the same as The advice of Chapter 1 of The Edge.

The girl told me she learned her way in a Negotiations Class at an Italian University, where she attended for one year as an OYR.
It wasn't something that I was used to, or something that I even considered. Some part of it is due to the fact that I can't help considering games as "games," something that I can't construct participants, players, situations, etc, outside of what I have been given as a prerequisite of the game.

Our proposal which looked into the future and not just this second, was fruitful.

(Picture from: Gizmodo [J])