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17 March 2011

WUPID: Team Sponsorship (Airfare) For The Top 30 Invited Institutions.

From http://thedebatingnews.wordpress.com/

All of us wants to go to WUPID – that’s what I was told. But when you actually come from an institution that is entitled to a zero registration fee policy, your determination is kind of slowed down a bit as the challenge of acquiring sponsorship for your airfare seems rather distant.



After organizing WUPID for four times, I have genuinely realized that the actual predicament for institution to send teams to the championship all lies in the cost of airfare, especially for teams outside the Asia Pacific. The solution is simple. Turning WUPID into an event very much like the Formula 1. And as students simply don’t have the time and perhaps the knowledge to look for their own team sponsor, we’re here to help you out. However, we need you to help us to help you. Therefore, we would simply need three documents:


The profile of the debating union / club / society;


The profile of the debaters that will be representing the respected institution; and


A formal letter requesting for funding.


Do not however imagine that this is some kind of charity. Under normal circumstances, sponsored teams would have to bear the title of the corporate sponsor i.e. CIMB Monash throughout WUPID 2011, furnish themselves with merchandises bearing the title and/or logo of the company and behave in a manner that does not disgrace and bring harm to the company’s name or brand.


For this initiative to work however, our sponsorship seekers would definitely need time. There is a lot of effort involved and absolutely far from the notion of falling asleep in the bath tub and waking up somewhere else. We intend to work closely with the organizers of DLSU Manila Worlds as well as the organizers of the Singapore Debate Open 2011. So please send us the information before May 2011 at wupidmania@gmail.com or yunus@hngsc.com.


I don’t know. I cannot promises or guarantee that we would be able to secure the needed funding for the airfare. But I do know this. It gets easier every year.


Click here to see the list of invited instutions to WUPID 2011.

Muhammad Yunus

14 March 2011

3rd Malaysia Debate Open report‏

The 3rd Malaysia Debate Open, held at Multimedia University, Melaka last weekend has been really amazing. Within a short time frame of three days, we had 96 teams from 11 countries debated in 7 prelims and 4 break rounds. The tournament had been exceptional well run with only an hour delay on each day despite having to accommodate a sudden increase of 20 teams that came on day 1, and an additional preliminary round.

I would like extend my utmost gratitude and thanks to the three deputy chief adjudicator (Skanda Prasad, Tasneem Elias and Ahyoung Kim), conveners (Sarah Quin and Sha-maine), tournament directors (Ila and Kumar), the tab team (headed by Latif), organizing and working committee for making all this possible. These individuals had sacrificed partying/sleep/classes to make this event a success. Also equally important, I was like to personally thank all the participants, both debaters and adjudicator for coming and made the past few days a really memorable experience.

The tournament this year saw a significant number of composite teams and incredibly strong pool of debaters/adjudicators. Hence, a big congratulations to team Powerpuff Girls (Shiveena, Gica and Ces) for winning the championship and to Logan from Dog Curry (Tate, Nam Chul, Logan) for grabbing both the best grand final and best overall speaker award.

The list of the breaking teams and the top 10 speakers:
Champions: Powerpuff Girls (Shiveena Paramanand, Gica Mangahas and Cecile Gotamco)

Finalist: Dog Curry (Tate, Nam Chul Kim, Logan)

Semi-Finalists: Sugarfree (Rolan Garcia, Dani de Castro, Jayson Maulit) and Team Sum ( Kanna, Reuban, Syed Arafat)

Quarter Finalists: IIUM 2 (Habib, Azrul, Azri), IIUM 3 (Irzal, Sarah, Senad), Ateneo X (Walter, James, Allan) and NTU 1 (Arvind, Rohan, Milind)

Octo Finalists: LAG (Groobie, Lavania, Timothy), MIDP 1Msia (Hafiz, Tubby, Sooch), NUS (Ashok, Sadhana, Aji), NLSIU 1 (Aniruddha, Anil, Dibyojyoti), Two and a half girls (Aina, Aerie, Mai), Obamamamas (Ain, Izzat, Atiq), Waseda (Kowa, Marie, Takeru)

Top 10 speakers:

1) Logan
2) Tate
3) Timothy Andrew
4) Dani De Castro
5) Tubby
6) Gica Mangahas
7) Rolan Garcia
7) Jayson Maulit
9) Iqbal Hafiedz
9) Suchar

The full speaker and team tabs are available at http://malaysiadebateopen.com/?page_id=15.

Motions:
Demo Debate:
THW prioritize military veterans for jobs.

Round 1: Malaysia Boleh!
THBT religious conversion should not be a pre-requisite for marriage.
THW allow political parties to announce alliances only before elections.
THW abolish unnatural sex laws (oral/anal sex).

Round 2: Food
THBT countries with overall food shortage should not join the race for bio-fuels.
THW ban speculative trading on food products.
THW penalize corporations that waste food.

Round 3: Animals
THBT PETA (People for Ethical Treatment of Animals) should only accept vegetarians as members.
THW ban the neutering of pets.
THW allow the sale of parts of endangered animals which die natural deaths.

Round 4: IR
THBT the West would recognize Palestinian attacks on Israeli settlements as legitimate.
TH supports military intervention in Libya.
THW reintroduce the Sunshine Policy towards North Korea.

Round 5: Movement
THW pay beggars to leave big cities.
TH rejects the confinement of refugees.
THBT countries should give open borders to traditionally nomadic groups.

Round 6: Religion
THBT fear should not be used as a means of propagating religion to children.
THW ban religious preaching in public places.
THW ban religious groups from lobbying.

Round 7: Adam and/or Eve
THBT governments of developed countries should incentivize overseas adoption from Least Developed Countries
THW introduce affirmative action for sexual minorities (LGBT)
THBT mandatory military service should include women

Octo finals: Media
THBT governments sponsorship of TV shows that promote its agendas is justified.
THW disallow the making of biographical movies without the consent of the subject or his legal heir.
THW not give awards to celebs who glorify or openly use drugs.

Quarter finals: Law
THBT states should remove diplomatic immunity for judicial fairness.
THBT states should pay compensation to criminals who are acquitted after appeal.
THW ban the media from airing opinions on ongoing court trials

Semi Finals: Health and Medicine
THW deny healthcare to those who engage in illegal organ trading.
THW allow drug companies to advertize their products only to doctors.
THW ban research on behavior modification.

Grand Finals: Culture and Society
THBT cultural compatibility is legitimate grounds for differential immigration policies.
THBT it is justified for governments to destroy historical evidence which can cause social unrest.
TH supports state initiatives to define a national cultural identity.

I hope everyone had fun here in Melaka. If there is a 4th MDO, we'll be looking forward to see all of you again next year!

Warm Regards,
Alexander Loh,
Chief Adjudicator,
3rd Malaysia Debate Open,
Multimedia University Melaka.

Strategy Competition‏

This post isn't strictly about a debating event but it could be a useful tool for people to practice their strategic thinking in debates.  Also debaters used to thinking strategically about proposals may be in with a good chance of winning.

Wikistrat is holding it's first International Grand Strategy Competition later this year and there's a strong crossover between the skills of debating and this tournament, despite being in a written format.


The whole event takes place online, there are no entry fees, and the team ranking #1 will receive a $10,000 USD as a cash prize.

Ideally participants will come from an international relations or political science background as they will be proposing country strategies and foreign policy.

More information and to register interest: http://about.wikistrat.com/strategy-competition/

Thanks again,

Daniel Green

ASDC III: First Phase of Registration‏

Ewha Debating Initiative Society (EDiS) and the Daewon Debate Team (DDT) invite your institution to Asian Schools Debate Championship 2011: Seoul. The tournament was found by De La Salle Debate Society (LSDS) to galvanize the Asian high school debate community by bringing them together for an agora of intellectual and cultural discourse.

Though the tournament is on its third year, this is the first time that it will be hosted outside of the Philippines. In 2011, the prominent tournament will be hosted in South Korea’s metropolis capital, Seoul from July 22nd to 28th. Already, more than a hundred participants from 23 institutions from 10 different countries have registered.

The debates will be in the Asians format with 7 preliminary rounds in a league format and the top 16 teams will compete for the championship in a tournament format. Furthermore, the tournament will include a culture banquet, break night and championship dinner, and a tour of Seoul.

Should there be any questions about the tournament, please contact us at asdc2011seoul@gmail.com. Also, please check our facebook page: ASDC 2011: Seoul. The official website for the tournament is on its way, but the organizing committee wanted to receive registration as soon as possible in order to deliver the best logistics possible by receiving the necessary information early.

Please join us in our efforts to support the empowerment of future Asian leaders and their development. We look forward to seeing your institution in Seoul this July for our competition.

Thank you,

Jeewon Yoo
 Convener
 Daewon Foreign Language High School ‘11