Amsterdam Open motions analysis

Dear all,
After a while of radio silence, we are proud to present the statistical analysis of the Amsterdam Open (AO) 2009. This is an initiative from last year's AO CA-team and we are happy to continue it as we believe it increases transparency of judging results and hopefully helps fighting the good fight against the infamous motion-bias.

We are happy to inform you that there was no significant bias in this year's Amsterdam Open as a whole, although some motions showed an inclination to bias. The full analysis can be found here in a google doc. We hope you'll enjoy reading it.

With kind regards,
The Amsterdam Open 2009 CA team
Leela Koenig, Jonathan Leader Maynard, Kirsty Russel, Ross Reid McGuire and Anne Valkering

Iraq Debate Appeal for Funding

Iraq Debate wishes to continue spreading debate in Iraq as a positive initiative in this country during a transition period of instability.

We are starting from the north and our destination is the farthest South of Iraq but the nature of our situation is currently somewhat difficult. There is a lack of understanding of the role debate can play in creating and stabilizing a complex and multi-ethnic society. In a time of many challenges it is difficult for people to accept the need for training Iraqi youth for a better tomorrow -- a time when disagreement can be used constructively to solve problems and not just to divide people.

Now, we are facing a problem of a lack of funding as the income of students in Iraq is very low. We are seeking funds to partially cover our trip to Turkey for the World Universities Debating Championship. Each student who can attend the World Universities Debating Championships can return as an ambassador for debating and have a huge impact training and sharing with others.

Iraq Debate has several teams now registered to attend the World Universities Debating Championships to be held in December-January in Antalya, Turkey. We have teams and enthusiasm and some financial support, but we are just a bit short and the time draws near to pay up or drop out.

Please help us improve Iraqi Society through making people familiar with tolerance and understand the power of diversity, love of free speech, and appreciate the value of fair dialogue and informed decision-making procedures.

Help us improve the lives of Iraqi citizens by supporting our efforts to instill passion for learning in the hearts of Iraqi students. Students will go further in life with the ability to think logically, the ability to present complex ideas clearly, a keen ear to listen well to the words of others, a wide but deep knowledge of the Iraqi society, a proactive desire to solve both Iraqi and world problems, and confidence to do all that, and keep on moving ahead. Students of debate find new reasons to make the most of their education and strive to become better, more informed people in an imperfect world.

Please help us to replace conflict with constructive debate. The lives of debaters, the people in their lives and the future of Iraqi leadership and of Iraqi society will only benefit from any financial help you can give now .

If you could help Iraq Debate students debaters it would be greatly appreciated.

For donation please visit this page www.iraqdebate.org/donate.htm

Thank you for your cooperation.

Muhammad Duhoki

Director, Iraq Debate

Note: please send an email to donate@iraqdebate.org when you are donating to save your name in our database and keep it.

JoziSpeak 2009 results

Results from JoziSpeak 2009 (South African Universities Champs), hosted by Wits University last week, from Richard Stupart's blog:

Winners of the EFL (English First Language) category:
Chris McConnachie and Michael Anderson from Rhodes University
Winners of the ESL (English Second Language) category:
Ayanda Siyuyu and Bonga Malewa from the University of Cape Town
Best EFL Speaker:
Daniel de Kadt from the UNiversity of KwaZulu Natal
Best ESL Speaker:
Albert Titus from the University of Namibia
Best New EFL Speaker:
Michael Anderson from Rhodes University. Incorrectly announced originally as Razina Thokan from Wits University, as the committee – in great excitement – never thought to consider that the winning team might have a first-year debater in it.
Best New ESL Speaker:
Mhlanganisi Madlongolwai from the University of the Free State
Best Public Speaker:
Leon Jamaine Mithi from Wits University
Best New Adjudicator:
Nezi Ndamasa from the University of the Free State
Best Adjudicator:
Deborah Nixon from The University of Pretoria

Australs 2009 Full Results

2009 Australasian Intervarsity Debating Champions: Monash University 1(Amit Golder, Tim Jeffrie, Fiona Prowse)

Runners-Up: Victoria University of Wellington 1 (Polly Higbee, StephenWhittington, Ella Edginton)

Grand Final Topic: "That Palestine should accept demilitarisation inreturn for a guaranteed sovereign state"

Martin Sorensen Cup for Best Speaker: Amit Golder

Jock Faneslow Cup for Best Speaker in the Grand Final: Amit Golder

The Top 10 Speakers:
1. Amit Golder (Monash University)
2. Claudia Newman-Martin (Australian National University)
3. Tim Jeffrie (Monash University)
4. Chris Croke (University of Sydney Union)
5. Fiona Prowse (Monash University)
6. Sam Greenland (University of Sydney Union)
7. Max Harris (University of Auckland)
7. Viv Jones (Monash University)
9. Su-Min Lim (University of New South Wales)
9. Steve Hind (University of Sydney Union)
9. Tim Mooney (University of Sydney Union)

Grand Final Adjudicators:
Leloy Claudio (Ateneo de Manila) (DCA) (Chair)
Suthen "Tate" Thomas (Multimedia University Cyberjaya)
Sharmila Parmanand (Ateneo de Manila)
Logan Balavijendran (Chung Ang University)
Art Ward (University College, Cork)
Harish Natarajan (Cambridge University)
Julia Bowes (University of Sydney)
Jason Jarvis (Korea Development Institute) (DCA)
Sadhana Rai (National University of Singapore)

Defeated Semi-Finalists: University of Sydney Union 1 (Tim Mooney, Steve Hind, Chris Croke) and Monash University 4 (Viv Jones, Ravi Dutta, Nita Rao)

2009 Australasian Intervasrsity Debating Champions – ESL DIVISION: University of Indonesia 1 (Tirza Reinata, Intan Hadidjah, Freida Siregar)

ESL Runner-up: The Chinese University of Hong Kong 1 (Doriane Lau, Dominic Yang, Mary Jean Chan)

ESL Grand Final Topic: "That ASEAN should establish a Human Rights Court"

The Top 5 ESL Speakers:
1. Tirza Reinata (University of Indonesia)
2. Melanie Tedja (Monash University)
3. Aishwarya Nair (Assumption University)
4. JiSoo Kim (Korea University)
5. Freida Siregar (University of Indonesia)
5. Minjae Matthias (Underwood International College)

ESL Grand Final Adjudicators:
Jacob Clifton (Monash University) (CA)
Duncan Campbell (University of Melbourne)
Chanelle Carr-Janif (Australian National University)
Masako Suzuki (Kanagawa University)
Mabroor Wassey (Bangladesh Debating Council)
Clodagh O'Connor-McKenna (Victoria University of Wellington)
Zid Niel Mancenido (Australian National University)
Pam Chan (Ateneo de Manila)
Brad Ward (University of Auckland)

Defeated ESL Semi-Finalists: University of Tokyo (Dai Oba, Ryotaro Tanaka, Atsushi Inutsuka) and International Christian University 1 (Miyuki Nozu, Ayana Shimizu, Keiichi Ishiwata)

Adjudication team:
Chief Adjudicator: Jacob Clifton (Monash University)
Deputy Chief Adjudicator: Jason Jarvis (Korea Development Institute)
Deputy Chief Adjudicator: Leloy Caludio (Ateneo de Manila)
Deputy Chief Adjudicator: Sayeqa Islam (Victoria University ofWellington)

Tab Director: Michael Ciesielski (University of Melbourne)

TOPICS:

Round 1: Education
That extra fees or donations above the actual cost of education should not be used to gain admission into university.
That talented students should be taught separately from their peers.
That indigenous people should have free and unqualified access touniversity

Round 2: Global Financial Crisis
That Governments should bail out homeowners directly.
That trade unions should have their power restricted during times of economic crisis.
That Governments should obtain a majority stake in companies that they bail out.

Round 3: Sexuality
That the gay rights movement should not support the institution ofmarriage.
That we should recognise the right of religious groups to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation.
That sexual education classes at school should include, but not be limited to: sexual orientation, anal sex, mutual gratification andmasturbation.

Round 4: The Environment
That population control should be part of any global approach to tackle climate change.
That protection of the environment should be considered a mitigating factor when sentencing eco-terrorists.
That the developed world should not sell contaminated material to the developing world for processing.

Round 5: Borders
That soliders who have fought for foreign countries should be granted citizenship within the country that they fought for.
That this house would open all borders.
That the US should grant citizenship to all Guantanamo detainees regardless of guilt.

Round 6: Latin America
That the United States should stop funding the Columbian Government.
That Latin American countries should take action against countries whose leaders took power through military coups.
That the United States should stop buying Hugo Chavez's oil.

Round 7: Law
That single parents in prison should be provided special treatment to allow them to raise their young children from behind bars.
That parliamentarians should receive no compensation beyond their base salary.
That employees of the United States Government who authorised or carried out "enhanced interrogation techniques" during the Bush administration should be prosecuted.

Round 8: The "STOP" round
That we should ban celebrities from participating in political campaigns.
That we should ban mail-order brides.
That we should ban the use and development of all unmanned offensive military weaponry.

Quarter Finals
That businesses should refuse to comply with China's internet restrictions.
That the hiring and firing by employers should not be influenced by information found on social networking sites.
That the Government should subsidise print journalism.

Semi-finals (wording TBC)
That we should not privatise water
This House supports a global free market in drugs
This House supports buying babies

Grand Final
That Palestine should accept demilitarisation in return for a guaranteed sovereign state.
That we should grant the Roma (Gypsies) a sovereign state.
That we should divide Sudan.

Australasians tab

The speaker tab, team tab and debate results from Monash Australs 2009 can be found at: http://muds.whypsloven.net/australs/

A more formal summary and along with the results will appear at http://www.monashaustrals.com/ later today or tomorrow.