Best of luck to all regardless of party allegiance . Hopefully we'll have some debaters doing British Parliamentary for real next week.
6 May 2010
Best of luck to former Debaters in UK Elections
Best of luck to all regardless of party allegiance . Hopefully we'll have some debaters doing British Parliamentary for real next week.
Galatasaray win Turkish Nationals
The 2010 Turkish National Debating Championships were held recently. Here are the results:
Winner: Galatasaray B (Akın Egemen-Seda Palanduz)
Finalists:
Galatasaray A (Leyla Orak- Kerem Çelikboya)
Koç A (Ozan Mert Öndeş- İsmail Cem Hot)
Bilkent A (Önercan Kılıç- Gökhan Yalçın)
Best Speaker: Leyla Orak (Galatasaray A)
Motions:
THBT people living in extreme poverty and hunger should conduct terrorist activities.
THW ban all restrictions on meat import in Turkey.
THW stop selling TV rights of football games on a collective basis.
THW establish single sex schools.
THW not allow big companies to unemploy workers during crisis.
THW allow prisoners to choose to decrease their sentences by accepting harsher prison conditions.
THW allow individuals to shorten mandatory military service through payment.
THW legalise cigarette and alcohol advertisements.
THW legalise the right of free movement of workers.
THW legalise death penalty.
Winner: Galatasaray B (Akın Egemen-Seda Palanduz)
Finalists:
Galatasaray A (Leyla Orak- Kerem Çelikboya)
Koç A (Ozan Mert Öndeş- İsmail Cem Hot)
Bilkent A (Önercan Kılıç- Gökhan Yalçın)
Best Speaker: Leyla Orak (Galatasaray A)Motions:
THBT people living in extreme poverty and hunger should conduct terrorist activities.
THW ban all restrictions on meat import in Turkey.
THW stop selling TV rights of football games on a collective basis.
THW establish single sex schools.
THW not allow big companies to unemploy workers during crisis.
THW allow prisoners to choose to decrease their sentences by accepting harsher prison conditions.
THW allow individuals to shorten mandatory military service through payment.
THW legalise cigarette and alcohol advertisements.
THW legalise the right of free movement of workers.
THW legalise death penalty.
First Setswana Debate Tournament a success
Botho College (NIIT) has emerged as the winners of the inaugural Setswana Debating Championships hosted over the weekend at the University of Botswana. The College triumphed over teams from the University of Botswana, Limkowing University of Creative Technology and 1 Independent team. The motion for the finals was: Go fitlhelelweng Tekatekanyo ya banna le bomme a bomme le bone ba duele Bogadi (To achieve gender equality women should pay bride price).
The Setswana Debate Championship was organized by the Debate Masters Association. It has been developed to revive and sustain the Setswana language and to prepare a platform for students to speak and communicate in Setswana. It is also meant to promote debate through one of African’s popular languages. This comes as part of an initiative to echo Botswana’s national identity particularly the use of classical-standard Setswana by cooperating with Setswana speaking schools in Botswana and South Africa. More than 50 Setswana debaters participated in this tournament. The tournament comprised 16 debate teams from 4 tertiary institutions in Botswana. It was support by the House of Chiefs, the University Of Botswana Department Of African languages and literature and the Department of Youth and Culture.
More teams from Mafikeng and Setswana speaking group in Namibia and Zimbabwe will receive an invitation next year with the aim of increasing participation and involving more countries. Other motions at the tournament were on the existence of witch craft in Africa, the role of chiefs in a democracy and gender roles in an African context.
Below is brief history of the Setswana language.
Setswana is a southern African language spoken predominantly in South Africa and Botswana. It is the national and official language of Botswana. It is also spoken in some regions in Namibia, Lesotho, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Since 1994, Setswana was one of nine indigenous languages to obtain official recognition in South Africa’s first post-apartheid Constitution. The 2001 South African census estimates the number of Setswana speakers to be 3,677,010. At 8% of the population, Setswana speakers make up the fifth largest language group in South Africa. In South Africa most of the speakers of this language are situated in the North West province, which borders Botswana. There are also significant numbers of speakers in the Northern Cape and Free State provinces.
Setswana forms part of the “Southern Bantu” group of African languages, which in turn forms part of the larger Niger-Congo language family. The Central subgroup is further subdivided into geographical regions, each designated by a letter. The S-Group covers much of southern Africa and includes the two major dialect continua of South Africa: the Nguni and the Sotho-Tswana language groups. Setswana forms part of the Sotho-Tswana language group and are therefore closely related to the other major languages in this group, Sepedi and Sesotho. Linguists commonly drop the language prefix when referring to these languages. Hence Setswana is also commonly known as “Tswana” In many older publications this language is referred to as Western Sotho.
Setswana was the first of the Sotho-Tswana languages to be codified. The standardized language is based on the Sehurutshe dialect. In 1806 Heinrich Lictenstein produced the book “Upon the Language of the Beetjuana” – under British rule Botswana was known as Bechuanaland. Dr Robert Moffat, of the London Missionary Society, arrived in Bechuanaland in 1818 and some years later began translating the Bible into Setswana. Moffat’s Bible was completed in 1857. The different spellings of “Setswana” reflect the various missionary attempts to codify the language spoken in different regions.
The development of the Setswana language in education has proven to be useful to Setswana speakers. The language is taught as a subject at all levels in government schools in Botswana and in schools in South Africa. It is also used as a medium of instruction in schools from standard 1 to standard 7 and at university both in South Africa and Botswana. Increasingly parents have been opting to have their children educated in English. The language is however fairly well represented in the media and text books. Setswana shares a television channel with other Sotho-Tswana languages and is used on two radio stations, Motswedi Radio and Radio Mambatho in South Africa. It is also used on Radio and Television in Botswana and in some newspapers in both Botswana and South Africa. The most famous Setswana speaker was the intellectual, journalist and writer Sol T Plaatje. In addition to his other achievements, Plaatje translated some of the works of Shakespeare into Setswana.
Justice Motlhabani
The Setswana Debate Championship was organized by the Debate Masters Association. It has been developed to revive and sustain the Setswana language and to prepare a platform for students to speak and communicate in Setswana. It is also meant to promote debate through one of African’s popular languages. This comes as part of an initiative to echo Botswana’s national identity particularly the use of classical-standard Setswana by cooperating with Setswana speaking schools in Botswana and South Africa. More than 50 Setswana debaters participated in this tournament. The tournament comprised 16 debate teams from 4 tertiary institutions in Botswana. It was support by the House of Chiefs, the University Of Botswana Department Of African languages and literature and the Department of Youth and Culture. More teams from Mafikeng and Setswana speaking group in Namibia and Zimbabwe will receive an invitation next year with the aim of increasing participation and involving more countries. Other motions at the tournament were on the existence of witch craft in Africa, the role of chiefs in a democracy and gender roles in an African context.
Below is brief history of the Setswana language.
Setswana is a southern African language spoken predominantly in South Africa and Botswana. It is the national and official language of Botswana. It is also spoken in some regions in Namibia, Lesotho, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Since 1994, Setswana was one of nine indigenous languages to obtain official recognition in South Africa’s first post-apartheid Constitution. The 2001 South African census estimates the number of Setswana speakers to be 3,677,010. At 8% of the population, Setswana speakers make up the fifth largest language group in South Africa. In South Africa most of the speakers of this language are situated in the North West province, which borders Botswana. There are also significant numbers of speakers in the Northern Cape and Free State provinces.
Setswana forms part of the “Southern Bantu” group of African languages, which in turn forms part of the larger Niger-Congo language family. The Central subgroup is further subdivided into geographical regions, each designated by a letter. The S-Group covers much of southern Africa and includes the two major dialect continua of South Africa: the Nguni and the Sotho-Tswana language groups. Setswana forms part of the Sotho-Tswana language group and are therefore closely related to the other major languages in this group, Sepedi and Sesotho. Linguists commonly drop the language prefix when referring to these languages. Hence Setswana is also commonly known as “Tswana” In many older publications this language is referred to as Western Sotho.
Setswana was the first of the Sotho-Tswana languages to be codified. The standardized language is based on the Sehurutshe dialect. In 1806 Heinrich Lictenstein produced the book “Upon the Language of the Beetjuana” – under British rule Botswana was known as Bechuanaland. Dr Robert Moffat, of the London Missionary Society, arrived in Bechuanaland in 1818 and some years later began translating the Bible into Setswana. Moffat’s Bible was completed in 1857. The different spellings of “Setswana” reflect the various missionary attempts to codify the language spoken in different regions.
The development of the Setswana language in education has proven to be useful to Setswana speakers. The language is taught as a subject at all levels in government schools in Botswana and in schools in South Africa. It is also used as a medium of instruction in schools from standard 1 to standard 7 and at university both in South Africa and Botswana. Increasingly parents have been opting to have their children educated in English. The language is however fairly well represented in the media and text books. Setswana shares a television channel with other Sotho-Tswana languages and is used on two radio stations, Motswedi Radio and Radio Mambatho in South Africa. It is also used on Radio and Television in Botswana and in some newspapers in both Botswana and South Africa. The most famous Setswana speaker was the intellectual, journalist and writer Sol T Plaatje. In addition to his other achievements, Plaatje translated some of the works of Shakespeare into Setswana.
Justice Motlhabani
Review of Security in Bangkok for UADC
From the UADC Mailing list.
Dear members of the Asian Debate Community,
The UADU EXCO has decided to conduct an inspection of the sites for the 1st UADC to ensure the safety of our participants. EXCO representatives to the said trip were Gica Mangahas and Luang P.
Attached is the take of Gica in particular. I thank Gica, Lp, and the organizers for making this inspection possible.
See you all in Bangkok!
Cheers,
Dino de Leon
Convenor, De La Salle Worlds
Acting Chair, United Asian Debate Union
Like many other members of the debate community, I have also been concerned with the political developments in Thailand in recent weeks. Accompanying this concern was a degree of uncertainty regarding the ability of Assumption's organizing committee to handle a large event in the midst of a messy scenario, particularly in ensuring the safety of all the participants. Thankfully, today they were gracious enough to bring myself and LP on a visit of their venues and answered some of our questions about their plans. After today's six-hour site visit and discussion, I feel very assured that the tournament will be safe for everyone.
The Chaleena Hotel
Just to illustrate the distance a little better, to get to Chaleena I needed to get down at the terminal station of the Bangkok LRT/Sky Tain Siam Line, about seven stops from the city center. Once at On Nut Station, we took a 35 minute taxi ride (without traffic) even farther away. Although this point about distance has been stressed in the past by the organizers, I understand better why this is their main defense; from a metropolitan Thai/foreign perspective the hotel is in the middle of nowhere. Not only has the area never been targeted by protesters by the past, I can see why this will continue to be the case: there is nothing much of interest here to catch the public or government's attention. The area is not home to any government ministries, commercial hubs, elite mansions, or military bases.
There is a police station ten minutes away by car, and a hospital ten to fifteen minutes away. The military bases are on the completely opposite side of town, in the Don Muang area (which many of you will recognize as the site of a clash last week). Being far from the military base in this situation is a good thing, as it makes the area that much less likely to be a hotspot.
Apart from its positioning, the hotel itself is in a compound of its own. The new wing that will house most of the debaters is set back behind the main hotel, separated from it by an alley. All social events - the opening dinner, break night, and championship dinner - will be held in the hotel. From break night onwards, all events will be held in the hotel. I fully expect that upon arrival, participants will be more entertained by the bright gold and hieroglyphic-laden interiors of the new wing (it's Egyptian themed!!) than concerned for their safety.
The Route from Chaleena to the Airport
The hotel isn't far from the highway to the airport. It's about another thirty to forty minutes drive away. You'll pass 2-3 military checkpoints on your way there and on your way back to the city, so evidently the army is taking extra precautions with those entering and exiting the city. There has been no apparent interest at all for protesters of any color to head in this direction. As for the road itself, there is nothing much to say about it. You will mainly see some low buildings and a lot of grass.
This was my third visit to the airport in the past six days. There has been absolutely no disruption in services, and no disruption appears to be forthcoming. In the very unlikely event that your flight is cancelled due to any disruptions, or your plane reroutes or returns home instead of landing, the organizing committee in Thailand wont be able to help you. If, however, because of this disruption you wont be able to leave Bangkok immediately after the tournament, the organizing committee are committed to finding you a place to stay and helping you as much as they can.
The Route from Chaleena to the Debate Venues
Getting from Chaleena to Assumption is similar to the route from Chaleena to the airport. There is a different route to Assumption that can also be taken should the main highway for some reason be shut down. The trip from Chaleena to Assumption is about an hour. Because the hotel area is already on the edge of Bangkok proper, the trip to Assumption does not pass by any protest sites, major monuments, government offices, or (again), anything of note. Most of the time spent on the road will not be in the city. As the route to the airport is similar, at a certain point pretty much all you will see is grass.
On my route from Chaleena to the airport and to Assumption, I didn't see a single identifiable protester. If you are very cautious and only stick to these three locations, there isn't a bad chance that you will come to Thailand and never see a red-shirt.
Assumption University
For those who saw Assumption Bang-Na in Worlds 08, the place is as grand as ever. The school is 5 km from the highway. There are security guards posted all along the exits and main buildings of the school. Any meals served while we're there will be on-campus. There is an in-house 7/11 and mini-mall with restaurants, so there should be no need for any participants to wander around outside. If participants do wander about, there is also not very much to see apart from grass and some dormitories. The school is also 15 minutes away from a hospital, but it also has its own 15-bed infirmary.
Neither of the hospitals I've mentioned so far are likely to be housing wounded soldiers from clashes, given their considerable distance away from the protests and bases, and thus subsequently be the site of a red-shirt raid.
As a whole, I do not believe that any participants coming to UADC have anything to fear from the situation in Thailand. In recent news, the protests are beginning to thaw at last. Hopefully this positive trend will continue, and the need for concern be dispelled altogether.
Gica Mangahas
IV AB Social Sciences, AB Development Studies
Ateneo de Manila University
Dear members of the Asian Debate Community,
The UADU EXCO has decided to conduct an inspection of the sites for the 1st UADC to ensure the safety of our participants. EXCO representatives to the said trip were Gica Mangahas and Luang P.
Attached is the take of Gica in particular. I thank Gica, Lp, and the organizers for making this inspection possible.
See you all in Bangkok!
Cheers,
Dino de Leon
Convenor, De La Salle Worlds
Acting Chair, United Asian Debate Union
Like many other members of the debate community, I have also been concerned with the political developments in Thailand in recent weeks. Accompanying this concern was a degree of uncertainty regarding the ability of Assumption's organizing committee to handle a large event in the midst of a messy scenario, particularly in ensuring the safety of all the participants. Thankfully, today they were gracious enough to bring myself and LP on a visit of their venues and answered some of our questions about their plans. After today's six-hour site visit and discussion, I feel very assured that the tournament will be safe for everyone.
The Chaleena Hotel
The Chaleena Hotel is a large but modest hotel in a quiet part of town. It is not on a main avenue, but on a side street off the Ramkamheng thoroughfare (Soi 65). Across the hotel is mechanics shop, a little way down they have chicken wings and other things on sale. There is nothing amazing about the location, as it is definitely out of the way of any major monuments or tourist locations. This is a less-wealthy, middle to lower-middle class part of town. Over my numerous visits to Thailand in the past ten years, this was my first time to go anywhere near this area.
There is a police station ten minutes away by car, and a hospital ten to fifteen minutes away. The military bases are on the completely opposite side of town, in the Don Muang area (which many of you will recognize as the site of a clash last week). Being far from the military base in this situation is a good thing, as it makes the area that much less likely to be a hotspot.
Apart from its positioning, the hotel itself is in a compound of its own. The new wing that will house most of the debaters is set back behind the main hotel, separated from it by an alley. All social events - the opening dinner, break night, and championship dinner - will be held in the hotel. From break night onwards, all events will be held in the hotel. I fully expect that upon arrival, participants will be more entertained by the bright gold and hieroglyphic-laden interiors of the new wing (it's Egyptian themed!!) than concerned for their safety.
The Route from Chaleena to the Airport
This was my third visit to the airport in the past six days. There has been absolutely no disruption in services, and no disruption appears to be forthcoming. In the very unlikely event that your flight is cancelled due to any disruptions, or your plane reroutes or returns home instead of landing, the organizing committee in Thailand wont be able to help you. If, however, because of this disruption you wont be able to leave Bangkok immediately after the tournament, the organizing committee are committed to finding you a place to stay and helping you as much as they can.
The Route from Chaleena to the Debate Venues
Getting from Chaleena to Assumption is similar to the route from Chaleena to the airport. There is a different route to Assumption that can also be taken should the main highway for some reason be shut down. The trip from Chaleena to Assumption is about an hour. Because the hotel area is already on the edge of Bangkok proper, the trip to Assumption does not pass by any protest sites, major monuments, government offices, or (again), anything of note. Most of the time spent on the road will not be in the city. As the route to the airport is similar, at a certain point pretty much all you will see is grass.
On my route from Chaleena to the airport and to Assumption, I didn't see a single identifiable protester. If you are very cautious and only stick to these three locations, there isn't a bad chance that you will come to Thailand and never see a red-shirt.
Assumption University
For those who saw Assumption Bang-Na in Worlds 08, the place is as grand as ever. The school is 5 km from the highway. There are security guards posted all along the exits and main buildings of the school. Any meals served while we're there will be on-campus. There is an in-house 7/11 and mini-mall with restaurants, so there should be no need for any participants to wander around outside. If participants do wander about, there is also not very much to see apart from grass and some dormitories. The school is also 15 minutes away from a hospital, but it also has its own 15-bed infirmary. As a whole, I do not believe that any participants coming to UADC have anything to fear from the situation in Thailand. In recent news, the protests are beginning to thaw at last. Hopefully this positive trend will continue, and the need for concern be dispelled altogether.
Gica Mangahas
IV AB Social Sciences, AB Development Studies
Ateneo de Manila University
3 May 2010
Haifa University's Sci-Fi tourny
On May 2nd, Haifa University’s Debating Society hosted Israel’s (And arguably the world’s) first Science-Fiction debating tournament. The A Team consisted of Victor Chernnov from the Technion and Michael Shapira from Haifa University.
We congratulate the tournament’s winners:, Team Capitan JO : Jordon Olivero and Ori Noked of Ben-Gurion University.
The Motions were (roughly translated from Hebrew):
1) THB Governments should hide from the public any contact with Extraterrestrials.
2) THW burn moral values in to the minds of humans.
3) THB It is better to swallow the blue pill and live in a virtual world.
Final:
4) THW severe our dependence on robots before it is too late.
We thank all the subjects in this successful experiment!
Michael Roy Shapira
We congratulate the tournament’s winners:, Team Capitan JO : Jordon Olivero and Ori Noked of Ben-Gurion University.
The Motions were (roughly translated from Hebrew):
1) THB Governments should hide from the public any contact with Extraterrestrials.
2) THW burn moral values in to the minds of humans.
3) THB It is better to swallow the blue pill and live in a virtual world.
Final:
4) THW severe our dependence on robots before it is too late.
We thank all the subjects in this successful experiment!
Michael Roy Shapira
Flashpoint celebrates 400 episodes.
For the past 18 years the Lawrence Debate Union of the University of Vermont has had a series of videos where Debaters and coaches from the LDU pick a topic and research it intensively and then discuss it on the show.
This series reached it's 400th episode over the weekend. Congrats to Alfred and all the people involved in the show over the last 18 years.
You can view the videos at http://flashpointtv.blogspot.com/ or http://www.uvm.edu/~debate/watch/
This series reached it's 400th episode over the weekend. Congrats to Alfred and all the people involved in the show over the last 18 years.
You can view the videos at http://flashpointtv.blogspot.com/ or http://www.uvm.edu/~debate/watch/
Red Sea Open
The Ben-Gurion University of the Negev is proud to announce the Red Sea Open!
BP debaters and adjudicators from around the world are invited to join us this summer for an open tournament that is all about fun, sun and beautiful people. Eilat is THE vacation resort of Israel, and for a lunatic cheap price, you can enjoy 5 days there alongside some of the best debating ever.
A world class A-Team that needs no introduction has been assembled: With Can Okar and Will Jones as DCA and Anat Gelber as CA – you can be sure to have some of the best motions and adjudication panels ever.
Registration begins on the 1st of May at 20:00 Jerusalem time (+2 GMT, get use to it). In the Holy Land, we love “I was here first” competitions, and so the first Team to register will receive a bottle of Vodka from the org com. The bottle is nice and shinny and actually has Vodka in it.
All the information you need is our website at www.redseaopen.com or on our facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=114480475252150
Come join us!
BP debaters and adjudicators from around the world are invited to join us this summer for an open tournament that is all about fun, sun and beautiful people. Eilat is THE vacation resort of Israel, and for a lunatic cheap price, you can enjoy 5 days there alongside some of the best debating ever.
A world class A-Team that needs no introduction has been assembled: With Can Okar and Will Jones as DCA and Anat Gelber as CA – you can be sure to have some of the best motions and adjudication panels ever.
Registration begins on the 1st of May at 20:00 Jerusalem time (+2 GMT, get use to it). In the Holy Land, we love “I was here first” competitions, and so the first Team to register will receive a bottle of Vodka from the org com. The bottle is nice and shinny and actually has Vodka in it.
All the information you need is our website at www.redseaopen.com or on our facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=114480475252150
Come join us!
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