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10 February 2007

KZN WINS SA NATIONAL DEBATING CHAMPIONSHIPS 2006

Local debaters, representing the Phoenix and Newlands Debating Leagues, have won the national competition for the second consecutive year. In addition they scooped best overall speakers of the tournament; most number top ten SA debaters and 11 debaters selected as trialists for the SA national teams.

The National Schools Debating Championship took place at St Patrick’s College, Kimberley, from 3rd to 7th December. This prestigious event involved 36 provincial teams as well as a team from Namibia. KZN was represented by 4 teams and a total of 20 debaters from leagues all over the province. The competition involved 36 Open teams and 16 Development teams. The open category caters for all learners at the competition. Some of the open teams are also given development status to reflect the disparity in education levels and access to English teaching. At quarter finals the top 8 Open and top 8 Development teams ‘break’ to their respective Quarter-finals.

All four KZN teams broke to Quarter finals in their respective sections, KZN A breaking first in the Open category and KZN D breaking first in the Development category.
The final results were KZN C winning the development category while KZN A was the runners up in the open category. Krelin Naidoo and Matthew Butler-Adams, of the Phoenix and Durban league respectively, were best overall debaters of the tournament in their categories.

The Phoenix Debating League was represented by 8 debaters: Krelin Naidoo; Quintin Moodley; Renita Balgobind; Jolene Duleep; Simone Mavaparsad; Kreshalen Govender; Karishma Maharaj and Zia Maharaj. All 8, who feature in the National Top Ten Debaters, have now been selected as trialists for the South African teams to next years international debating competitions in South Korea and Czech Republic. Quintin and Krelin were selected as trialists for the Open teams. The KZN teams were coached by Daniel de Kadt; Fabio Zoia; Lerushca Smit and Shakila Kooblal.

Michelle Govender, of the Phoenix Debating League, was full of praise for the KZN teams. “We have certainly proved that a lack of resources is not an obstacle to attaining success. The teams trained very hard, sacrificing every Saturday and Sunday to prepare on a range of local and international issues. We are also elated that all 8 Phoenix debaters are in the country’s Top Debaters list as well as being SA trialists. It is an honour to have won the finals for the second year in a row. The standard of the national competition is very high and all provincial teams were just as determined to take the trophy back to their province.” She also acknowledged the North Coast Durban Diwali celebration committee and UKZN for their sponsorships that enabled the teams to travel to Kimberley.

KZN’s achievements illustrate that it is far and away the best debating province in South Africa.

Courtesy, Shakila Kooblal
Source http://www. poenixza.com

Regards,
Rashedul Hasan Stalin

9 February 2007

10 years old today

Back in 1996 some of the committee of the University of Limerick Debating Union shared a house over the summer. One of the housemates rented a book from the Library on HTML and the DebU website was born out of many nights of 4 or 5 management, business and Law students trying to understand a book written for IT students.

After that first experience with web design I was left with a number of pages that I had written but which had not made it into the final version of the DebU site. I modified these and on sometime in early February 1997 I posted them on FortuneCity. At more or less the same time I added a counter from the tools provided and the record on the counter said it first started on 9th February 2007. Therefore today is the 10th birthday of the site.

Over the years it has gone through a number of changes. The first version was very basic. More details can be found at http://flynn.debating.net/5year.htm.

The biggest change came with the move to http://www.debating.net/. That happened in October 1999 after meeting Lion Van Koppenhagen at the European Championships where he was Tab Director. Lion offered me space on a new server he was setting up to provide free webspace to debate related websites. Lion and his team at debating.net are the unsung heroes of this site. They have provided the space free of charge for 8 years. Any time there has been a break down in the server they have always been quick to fix it. I am extremely grateful to them for all their work over the years.

Over the next 6 years the site continued to evolve and go through a number of designs. However updating required editing in frontpage and was time consuming. In 2005 I moved the site to a blogger format and used blogger.com to update the news section of the site. At that stage the site evolved from just being primarily an archive of results and tutorials to being a site where news from around the debating world could be posted.

The functions within blogger allowed me come to the latest evolution. After 10 years of solo maintenance I have opened the site up to posting by other people. I asked people to apply if they wished to be given access to update the site and I am delighted to announce that the following people have agreed to join the team.

Ian Lising – USA: Chair of Worlds council. The most experienced judge and best coach in the history of the world championships.

Logan – Malaysia: Current Asian Champion. CA of Worlds in 2005 and also of Australasians and DCA of Asians.

Derek Lande – Ireland & IONA. DCA at worlds in UBC, CA for Worlds in 2009 in Cork. Winner of pretty much everything. He finished 3rd best speaker at Worlds in 2006.

Chris Bishop – New Zealand & Australasia: President of AIDA and also of Victoria Debating Society. Three time participant at Worlds breaking in 2005.

Manos Moschopoulos – Will cover Europe but in particular Balkans & East Mediterranean, Manos is President of Deree College and has attended EUDC in 2004, 2005 and 2006 along with WUDC in 2006 and many many European Tournaments

Kenneth Flemming – South Korea & All Asians. Kenneth is a former GUU debater and was a member of the top breaking team at EUDC in Cork and also an International Mace Finalist.

Justice Motlhabani – Botswana & Southern Africa. Chair of University of Botswana Debating Society and Public Relations officer of Botswana Debating Council. Participant at Worlds in 2007 and the driving force behind the Botswana bid for Worlds.

Vinay Kumar Mysore – Canada. Member of the McGill team that broke 6th at Worlds this year and a finalist at Yale.

Rashedul Hasan Stalin – Bangladesh & South Asia. Chair of BDC, Founding member of AUDC. Participant at WUCD in 2004, 2005 and 2007. Maintains the website
http://debatebangladesh.tripod.com

Mark Dowling – Canada/Ireland: He wasn’t one of the original housemates in 1996 but he was certainly involved in the development of the Deb Union site and helped me many times with this one. A debater and judge of great experience even though he hasn’t been around the debating circuit for some years I offered him a spot on the team in recognition of the help he gave over the years and to represent the many people who have helped behind the scenes over the years.

I am of course open to other people joining the team so if you are interested send me an e-mail giving a little bit of your debating background and what area you can cover. In particular I would like more input from the US & Australia.



With the establishment of this team the site ceases to be “Colm Flynn’s Debating Website” and truly becomes the “World Debating Website”. I welcome all the new members of this team and look forward to reading their posts and updates from around the world.

Thanks for visiting this site over the last 10 years. I’ve enjoyed running the site and making many friends through it. Hopefully the next 10 years will be just as good.

DCA Nomination for Bandung AUDC

A Clarification Email from the AUDU Executive - on DCA Nominations(Important but Long!)

Hi everyoneAs you all might know, the members of the adjudication team of everyAUDC needs to be ratified by the union members. To that end, thereplacement for Eleanor Uy in the Bandung Adj team needs to beratified through an online vote, and if needed, again during thepre-union meeting in May.The AUDU Executive were initially thrilled to receive WilfredSegovia's nomination as Len's replacement. But we came across aconstitutional hiccup. Article 13 of the AUDC Constitution requiresthe members of an Adj Core to have debated/adjudicated in a majorinternational tournament in the last two years.

The wording of thisarticle does not specify two years as counted from when - and hence,we were unsure if Wilfred (who last judged in Sydney '04) cleared theconstitutional requirements.After discussions with all parties concerned, we finally decided thatit would be wrong for the Executive to interpret the constitutionwithout an open discussion. And since it was our duty to ensure theconstitutional validity of the nomination, before we ask you to vote,we suggested that Ateneo suggest another name in order to eliminateany confusion or impropriety.To that end, we are happy to announce the nomination of Stephanie Cofrom Ateneo for the DCAship of Bandung AUDC 2007.Steph was a Grand Finals judge in the 2006 Wellington Australs, andadjudicated in the Quarter-finals of the 2005 & 2006 AUDC (she wasconflicted out of the higher rounds due to Ateneo's presence) and the2005 Australs. As a 3-time Philippine National Best Adjudicator (2005& 2006 Inquirer, 2005 National Championships), she is well qualifiedfor both the DCAship and to represent the Philippines.

Her nomination was put up by Leloy Claudio of Ateneo and has beenenthusiastically accepted by the Adjudication Team for Bandung 07. TheExecutive is happy to announce that her nomination is constitutionallyvalid. Also,

1. We would like to thank both Wilfred and Steph Co for accepting thenomination. Further, we would like to thank Wilfred for hisunderstanding and patience.

2. We request all the union representatives from the 2006 Manila UnionMeeting to consider the above nomination of Steph. We will get back toyou on how and when the online ratification will be conducted soon.

3. We would like to inform you that the clarification of the wordingof Article 13 will be on the agenda for the Union Meeting in Bandung.We hope to hear your views and any proposed amendments then.

If there are any concerns or issues, please email me or post in thisgroups as is appropriate.Thank you for patiently reading this.

Vikram, NTU (Vice-Chair of the AUDU Executive 2006).

Courtesy AUDC List

8 February 2007

BDC Bangladesh National Debating Ranking 2007

University Ranking - English
1. Independent University Bangladesh
2. Institute of Business Administration-IBA
3. (2 up) North South University
4. (1 down) East West University
5. (1 down) Islamic University of Technology

University Ranking - Bangla
1. (2 up) BUET
2. (1 down) University of Dhaka
3. (1 down) East West University
4. North South University
5. Islamic University of Technology

Best Championship Organizer - University
1. Institute of Business Administration-IBA
2. Asian University of Bangladesh
3. United International University
4. Agriculture University Dhaka
5. University of Dhaka


School and College Ranking - English
1. (1 up) Mastermind Dhaka
2. (1 down) Manarat International School
3. Mapleleaf International School
4. Notre Dame College
5. Sunbeams International School

7 February 2007

IUB Open 2007 Results

The IUB Open 2007 took place in Bremen, Germany on February 2-4. The finals' motion was "THW put children of long-term unemployed parents up for adoption." These are the results:

Winning Team: London/Leeds (Keir Howie & Zayab Al Nasser)

Best Speaker of the Tab: Daniel Grotzky, DCM Blue

Best Speaker of the Final: Aurora Simionescu, DCM Blue

Updated 9 Feb: The team tab and speaker tab can be found here (PDF). For more information check the official website.

16th ICU-Tournament

Hello, I am Tsuyoshi Sato, a member of International Christian University
Debating Society in Japan and Tournament Director of 16th ICU-
Parliamentary Debate Tournament (ICU-T). This is the letter to inform you
about 16th ICU-T.

This year, we are going to hold the 16th ICU-T on March 10th and 11th. The ICU-T is regarded as one of the most prestigious and is the biggest tournament in Japan. It is the only tournament in Japan that invites debaters from overseas.

In previous tournament, more than 50 teams participated, including 3 foreign teams. Many Japanese want to debate and talk with you fellow Asian debaters. We hope ICU-T will be the first step to become familiar with Japanese culture
and to create friendships with Japanese debaters.

General information about the 16th ICU-T is as follows.

If you are interested in this tournament, please send an E-mail to me at h091368@yamata.icu.ac.jp. I would then send you an invitation letter. However, sadly, we will have team cap due to limited accommodation. Therefore, if you are interested, please contact us as soon as possible! =)

Registration DEAD LINE is Feb.20th.2007

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask me!

[General information about the 16th ICU-Tournament]
Date : 2007 March 10th & 11th
Place : International Christian University in Tokyo
Debating style : All-Asian style (3 on 3)
Motion system : 3 motions system (same as All-Asians)
Registration Fee : 60,000 Yen (accommodation, transportation fee, lunch for two
days included)

The 16th ICU Tournament organizing committee
Tournament director: Tsuyoshi Sato
International Christian University Sophomore
E-mail: h091368@yamata.icu.ac.jp

6 February 2007

WUPID discount airfares

Dear All ~

For all the teams and delegates that are interested to fly into Langkawi for WUPID, Malaysia Airlines has given us amazing discounts from selected points of departure (POD). Below are the list of PODs and the cost for return airfares. If you would like to take advantage of any of these airfares, please inform us as bookings would be done via the organizing company.

POD Approved Fare

Melbourne ) AUD 950
Sydney)
Adelaide )
Brisbane )

Perth AUD 810

Los Angeles USD 800
New York USD 770

Dacca USD 350

London GBP 420

Delhi INR 15, 884

Tokyo ) JPY 46, 000
Osaka)
Nagoya)

Departure on Sat / Sun JPY 51, 000

Incheon KRW 550, 000

Please take note that the above special fares are for economy class and exclude airport tax, fuel and other surcharges.


Muhammad Yunus
Event Director
WUPID 2007

Amsterdam Open

Dear Debaters,
This is something you cannot miss!

On the 27th and 28th of April the first AMSTERDAM Open Debating Tournament will be held and registration is now open. If you are up for a competitive tournament and great parties then this is definitely the place to be.

Anat Gelber will be CA and Will Jones and Daniel Schut are the DCA's. So a good adjudication pool is guaranteed. The convenors are Gijs Schumacher and Anne Valkering.

You pay:Per debater 30 euro (before April 1)
Per adjudicator 15 euro

You get:
5 preliminary rounds BP-style
Competitive tournament in the historic city centre of Amsterdam
Crash accommodation
Lots of food &
Lots of parties

Apart from getting high on weed and visiting prostitutes we also offer you to stay an extra day and enjoy Queensday. the most extravagant public holiday in the Netherlands.

Check our website for registration and information: www.ao2007.nl. Or email us at amsterdamopen@asdvbonaparte.nl.

Hope to see you in the city of sin,
Gijs Schumacher