This Blog has now moved to idebate.org/worlddebating - all future posts will be made there!

6 December 2008

Dear debaters,
After opening the DCA applications phase for a further two days, we now have a far longer list of potential candidates. I realize that some people have already sent feedback about the earlier list of candidates and want to assure them that they can send another mail if they so wish! Again, thank you to everyone who has already written to me – I am learning a lot and want to make sure that we have the best possible team (on a number of different metrics) for Worlds in 2010.

Asia
Muhammad Abdul Latif (Malaysia/Bangladesh)
Sharmilla Parmanand (Philippines)
Mizanur Rahman (Bangladesh)
Suthen "Tate" Thomas (Malaysia)

Europe, Middle East and Africa
Adriaan Adringa (Netherlands)
Susan Connolly (Ireland)
Samir Deger-Sen (England)
Tiernan Fitzgibbon (Ireland)
Will Jones (England)
Eoin Kilkenny (Ireland)
Ýsabelle Loewe (Germany)
Daniel Schut (Netherlands)

North America
Josh Bone (US)
Ian Freeman (Canada)
Alfred "Tuna" Snider (US)

Oceania
Christopher Bishop (New Zealand)
Julia Bowes (Australia)
Fiona Prowse (Australia)

You can contact me at can_okar@hotmail.com with any feedback. I will only accept comments until 12th December 2008 and will announce before Council on 1st January 2008.

For those of you that have Bayram next week, I hope it is enjoyable. For everyone else, be well.

Can Okar
Chief Adjudicator (to be ratified), Vehbi Koc Worlds 2010

5 December 2008

CIMB WUPID ‘08 Central: And Now For Something Far More Important

From the the offical WUPID blog: http://mlysn.wordpress.com

An idiot would never know the value of debate because for one, he’s an idiot but most importantly he will never know until he begins to understand that here in the WUPID factory debating is not a tool. It is not a white good. It is not an alternative to weapons or a problem solving mechanism. We do not debate like we read the news or speak at a presidential debate. It’s not a decision made on practicality and it certainly has nothing to do with the environment.

The reason we don’t is that the skill of debating, here, is a status symbol, it is a penis substitute, a cherished member of the family, it is a heart-starter, it is art, sex, it is glamorous, it is cool, it is something you probably don’t need. But, my God, you want one so badly that it hurts. Giving up debating is like giving up an emotion. It’s like giving up love, or happiness. And that’s why people in WUPID factory will sell their children before they’ll sell their capacity to debate.

Working out why this is so does not take much time. It’s because here debating was exciting from the get-go. It was about wit and friendship. It was about glamour and sophistication. Every time you stepped into a debate venue you were only a heartbeat away from hurtling through the Woodstock of Intellects. We’ve always felt — and still do — that debating is a little bit decadent, a little bit Princess Grace. That every single WUPID debater has the soul of Wolfgang von Trips in its carpets.

And now for something far more important - deatils and updates:

Rego Payment

Any kind of payment shall and can be made upon registration (13th December 2008) at the official hotel - Impiana KLCC Hotel and Spa. Info on registration can be read here.

Grand Finals

His Royal Highness Dr. Raja Nazrin Shah will be gracing the event. The dress code for that night is strictly dark lounge suit. Warning: You may be restricted from entry if you do not or refuse to adhere to the dress code.
Please be aware, that the final debate will be broadcasted on Astro Awani (delayed).

Hotel / Accommodation

The official hotel - Impiana Hotel KLCC Hotel and Spa, is opposite the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre. It’s a walking distance from the Petronas Twin Towers and along a road call Jalan Pinang. For travel info, click here.

Upon checking in, the hotel will ask each occupant for a deposit of USD75. This deposit will be returned if the minibar is still full and the room does not look like Lucifer’s version of home.

The check-in time is on the 13th of December 2008 at 1300 hours (Malaysian time). However, for the ones who’ll arrive earlier, the hotel will check you in earlier upon availability.

Schedule

To get your hands on the latest version / update of the schedule, please email me (yunus@hngsc.com) with your name and institution.

Invitation for NSU Debate Festival 2008

From allasiansdebate list

Dear All,
North South University Debate Club (NSUDC) is going to organize its first ever "NSU Debate Festival" from 12th -21st of February 2009. NSU Debate Club being the leading debating institution of Bangladesh is planning to provide a fantastic debating platform for all the Schools and University students of Bangladesh. This tournament will focus on the development and enrichment of debate as a form of communication and intellectual argumentation.
For the first time since its establishment, in addition to the University tournament, NSUDC is going to host a School level Championship as well. We would like to provide the best of debating experience to the most talented young minds of Bangladesh.

Format
3 on 3 Asians Format

Venue
NSU Campus, Banani

Training and Workshops
North South University Debate Club will organize a series of debate training and workshops to enhance the debating standards of all the participants. Just to show how serious NSU Debate Club is about debate training and education, we have invited the world renowned debate coach and trainer Mr. Loke Wing Fatt from Singapore to be the official trainer for "NSU Debate Festival". Mr. Loke Wing Fatt is one of the most accomplished and experienced debate coach who has single handedly revolutionized the debate community of China. With more than two decades of experience in running debate workshops, Loke is certainly one of the best. NSU Debate Club believes in nothing less than the best quality training that we can provide and with Loke as the official trainer of the tournament, we will certainly be able to give the best that one can get. NSU Debate Club is proud to be affiliated with Mr. Loke Wing Fatt.

Adjudication Core
When it comes to maintaining the quality of debate tournament, NSUDC has always followed a ZERO tolerance policy. So, trust us, NSUDC will give you the best adjudication core possible. We will announce our Core VERY soon!!!

The website, facebook group and details of the tournament will be posted soon!

North South University Debate Club is one of the most successful debating institutions of Bangladesh since its establishment in 1993. NSU Debate Club has the history of providing the best of debate tournaments in Dhaka. "Inter University Debate Competition (IUDC)", NSU Dialogue, NSU Novice and other annual debate tournaments speaks of the dedication and perfection of NSUDC in organizing mindblowing debating events. NSU Debate Club has also hosted "15th All Asian Inter-Varsity Debating Championship" which consisted around 500 of the most talented debaters from entire Asia. These events clearly portray NSUDC's capability in pulling massive scale debate tournament.

Debaters of Bangladesh, you are all welcome to participate in this magnificent event. We promise you to provide nothing less than the BEST!!!

Thank you.
Cheers
Sinha Ibna Humayun Member,
NSU Debate Club
sinhahumayun@yahoo.com

Asian Debate Institute 2009 : Winter Edition!‏

From Allasianslist

Hello everyone!
We are pleased and excited to invite you to the Asian Debate Institute 2009! The ADI is now in its 6th year and since 2004 has educated hundreds of high school and university students in the art of persuasion and debate. This is the first time we are offering the ADI during the Winter!
The workshop will be hosted on the campus of Ewha Womens University, in Seoul, Korea from February 13th to 20th 2009.

The ADI is an intensive debate experience. Each morning will feature two sets of lectures by our outstanding faculty. The afternoon of each day will be spent doing critiqued practice debates, and activities to improve public speaking and critical thinking skills. A typical day will start at 9:30 am and end at 7 pm.

Registration will open on the 10th of December 2008 and last until the 20th of January 2009. The registration fee is 250,000 for domestic participants and 150,000 won for international participants. Registration includes tuition, texbook, t-shirt and grand banquet. Registration does not include accommodation, but we will provide you with a list of affordable housing options that we have used in the past.

For more details on the ADI, please visit www.asiandebateinstitute.com or email loganimal at gmail.com . We are still in the process of updating the website, so please don't get confused if all you see is information from the last ADI (held this August) - it's actually a good way to get a feel of what to expect at ADI 6!

We look forward to welcoming you to ADI number 6, in Sparkling Korea!

Cheers
Logan

4 December 2008

Worlds DCA Applications re-opened

Dear debaters,
After some discussion with various members of the debating community, we have decided to re-open the DCA applications phase for 2 days to last until 5th December 2008. We want to make clear that this does not mean that we believe that this is necessary because the current applicants are in any way inadequate. I understand that some people missed the applications first time round for legitimate reasons andwant them to be included in the discussion about who is best for the role. Having come to this conclusion, it is only fair that everyone has the same right to be considered.

I hope that this move is not misunderstood. Whilst we will be flexible where we can, this does not mean that we will be rollovers on other issues like registration!

So, if you would like to apply to be a DCA for Wolds in 2010, apply and do it before the end of 5th December 2008. I will then publish an updated list of candidates with the final day for feedback on 12th December 2008.

I also want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has written to me about the candidates. Every mail will be read and considered.

I hope you are all well and can't wait to see you in Cork,
Can
Koc Worlds 2010
can_okar@hotmail.com

WSDC 2008 Scrapbook

Alfred "Tuna" Snider has published a scrapbook from World schools 2008:


The 164 pages of the color scrapbook are now available online for downloading as a pdf. It documents the events in September 2008 as 39 nations at the World Schools Debating Championships gathered, competed, discussed important world issues, made friendships and established networks for the 21st Century.

Right click to download from http://debate.uvm.edu/dcpdf/wsdc08book.pdf

It was my honor to be able to put together the booklet in my role as director of tournament operations. My thanks go to our Convener Phyllis Hirth, Chief Adjudicator Aaron Maniam, Claire Ryan (for photos) and many, many more. Especially the awesome volunteers.

The booklet contains:
* An introduction and welcome
* An extensive page of photos. My apologies that some were cut between pages, but originals in an uncut form can be found at http://debate.uvm.edu/debateblog/wsdc/Photos.html<http://debate.uvm.edu/debateblog/wsdc/Photos.html>. The slideshow function works very well there.
* A page with photos and notes for each team.
* Reagan Building thanks (final round venue).
* Thanks to sponsors page.
* All blog entries from the tournament before and after.

The original website will remain at http://debate.uvm.edu/debateblog/wsdc/Welcome.html but cannot be altered in any way as the root file has been deleted.

The blog that carried the news of WSDC 2008 will remain at http://wsdc2008.blogspot.com/ <http://wsdc2008.blogspot.com/>for the immediate future, but it will be deleted sometime after the February 2009 WSDC in Athens.

Alfred C. Snider aka Tuna

2 December 2008

St. Andrews Day Debating Championships‏

Source: Britishdebate

Dear All,
Yesterday, The Scottish Government, Scottish Parliament and ESU Scotland organised the St. Andrews Day Debating Championships.

A three-round IV took place in the Committee Rooms of the Parliament yesterday and the final took place in the Chamber of the Parliament - the first time the Chamber has been used for a University debate.

We are very grateful to the Presiding Officer, Alex Fergusson MSP, for allowing us to use the Chamber and for chairing the final.

The teams in the final were: Oxford Alba (Cullen & Dewar), GUU A (Tait & Gray), St. Andrews A (Whitbread & Hawkins) and St. Andrews B (Wood & Beadle).

The winners were St. Andrews A (Hawkins and Whitbread) and the runners up were GUU A (Tait & Gray). The best speaker on tab was Rachael Whitbread. The judges for the final were John Duncan, Director of ESU Scotland, Kenny Fleming, Kenny MacAskill MSP,

It was a great turn-out in the final, with well over 100 people, attending. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank The Scottish Parliament for providing events staff throughout the day and for feeding and watering us very generously and The Scottish Government for expanding the one-off debate last year into a tournament. Hopefully, this association will grow over the coming years.

Thank you also to all the judges who helped throughout the day, the audience for the final which helped the ESU make a great impression and, finally, to the speakers who were great throughout.

Best wishes,

Rob Marrs

Asian Unity Tournament‏

Source: more or less every mailing list

Hello Asia,
The Voices MMU debate society is proud to invite the Asian debate community to the inaugural Asian Unity Tournament hosted in Multimedia University (MMU), Cyberjaya, from the 29th of April 2009 until the 7th of May 2009.

Multimedia University has successfully hosted multiple international debate events, including the All-Asians in 2000, Australs in 2003 and Worlds in 2005. We are looking forward to continuing this tradition with the Asian Unity Tournament. The tournament will be convened by myself, Andrew "Ips" Gnananantham. The chief adjudicator for the tournament is Suthen "Tate" Thomas, Grand Finals adjudicator at the Worlds 2008, AUDC 2008 and Australs 2008 as well as Deputy Chief Adjudicator for the Australs 2008. Tabulation will handled by Edwin "Clansman" Law, Tabulation Director (and tab software author) for the Manila Australs 2008, MMU Worlds 2005 and MMU Australs 2003.

We believe a tournament in Malaysia presents a unique opportunity in terms of accessibility and also as a stopover to other destinations; the following prices are for a return ticket to Kuala Lumpur from various locations in Asia:

Singapore-77.00 SGD (AirAsia)
Manila (Clark)-5,385.00 PHP (AirAsia)
Bangkok-5,465.00 THB (AirAsia)
Dhaka-663.76 USD (Singapore Airlines)
Shanghai-1,066.00 CNY (AirAsia)

Do continue to watch this space, as we will be announcing the adjudication policy and DCA application process for the Asian Unity Tournament as well as the registration timetable and fees very soon. The tournament web site will also be up by the end of this week.

We look forward to seeing all of you here in Malaysia.
Regards,
Andrew "Ips" Gnananantham
Convener,
Asian Unity Tournament 2009
President, Voices MMU Debate Society
email : anthrex_13@hotmail.com

Call for adjudicators WSDC 2009‏

From Britishdebate & schoolsdebate lists

Dear debate community,

It is with a great deal of excitement that I am looking forward to the forthcoming XXIst World Schools Debating Championships in 2009. The tournament will be held between 9 and 19 February in Athens, ancient birthplace of democracy and now a fascinating, beautiful and fun city, with some of the best infrastructure and nightlife in the Mediterranean. The organising committee, led by convenor Effie Giannakouri, has secured excellent accommodation that could not possibly be more central to Athens’ major shopping, eating and entertainment districts, and world class venues for the debate rounds, including some of the most famous and important buildings in all of western culture.

The tournament also expects to see a continuation of the trend of the last few years towards larger and larger competitions. We now expect to exceed the record of 39 teams set in Washington DC in September. As chief adjudicator that makes me acutely aware of the importance of getting a large pool of qualified judges. Confident as I am that the obvious attractions of Athens and the prospects of seeing old friends again will be a powerful draw, I want to make it clear that in the past few years the tournament has suffered from not having enough judges, and so every application is both gratefully received and much-needed. With the support of the ever-growing debate community worldwide, I know that we can make Athens 2009 the best-judged tournament yet.

Applications to judge are welcomed from all experienced debate judges, not just from those who have previously adjudicated at World Schools. The application form can be found at http://www.schoolsdebate.gr/Adjudicator%20application%20form.pdf, and contains more information about the expectations we have of adjudicators. The registration deadline for the tournament was 1 December, but because we need more good international judges you can still register if you get your form in as soon as possible.

I would also be grateful if you could forward this message to any other people you think may be interested in coming to judge at the championship. Together we can reach many more national debate networks and many more potentially valuable judges than I can.

I look forward to seeing you in Athens in February. Let’s make World Schools’ twenty first birthday one to remember!

James Probert
Chief Adjudicator, XXIst World Schools Debating Championships, Athens

30 November 2008

Victoria IV Results

The New Zealand British Parliamentary Debating Champs (the Victoria IV) has just concluded. 44 teams from around NZ and Australia competed.

The winners are:

Victoria University of Wellington 8 (Stephen Whittington and Polly Higbee)

The runners-up are Sydney University (Julia Fetherston and Tim Mooney), Victoria University 6 (Richard D'Ath and Kathy Errington) and Victoria 7 (Paul Smith and Udayan Mukherjee).

Beaten semi-finalists were Sydney University 2, Auckland University 5, Victoria University 4 and Victoria University 5.

Top Ten speakers:

1. Tim Mooney (Sydney)
2. Polly Higbee (Victoria)
3. Julia Fetherston (Sydney)
4. Stephen Whittington (Victoria)
5. Hugh McCaffrey (Victoria)
6=Jordan Ward (Auckland)
6=Yogesh Patel (Victoria)
8. Clodagh O'Connor-McKenna (Victoria)
9. Richard D'Ath (Victoria)
10. Felicity Wilson (Macquarie)

The best novice speaker was Ella Edginton (19th).

Topics:

1. This House believes the gay community should "out" gay celebrities
2. This House believes the military should overthrow governments which have lost popular legitimacy
3. This House would criminalise individuals and organisations who do not recycle
4. This House would abolish all forms of affirmative action
5. This House would allow parents to cast proxy votes on behalf of their children
6. This House believes the Palestinians should give up the Right of Return
Semis: This House would make insulting religion a crime
Final: This House believes freer markets, rather than more government intervention, are the solution to the current economic crisis