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

21 July 2007

IDC English cup results

This Thursday IDC held a preparatory English cup for 2007 euros in IDC.

Winners: 1 prop, RRIS A (Tammy Varkony and Yuval Biggs)
Best speaker: Ruvi Zigler (Mixed A)

Teams in the final: 1 opp Technion C (Alon Altman and Mark Berlin), 2 prop IDC A (Jonathan Braverman and Daphna Geniger), 2 opp Mixed A (Ruvi Zigler and Rinat Gershfeld)

Motion for the final: THB in an immediate withdrawal form Iraq

Motions for preliminary rounds
THBT any weapon is legal for warfare
THW abolish all trade in diamonds, with no exceptions,
THBT it is the government's role to decide where ethnic minorities should live

CA was Avihu Tamir, along with Klaas van Schelven and Ori Harel as DCA's

20 July 2007

Nottingham Debating Union Tournament

Nottingham Debating Union Euros Warm-up Tournament

Friday 27th July to Sunday 29th July

The ONLY Euros warm-up tournament within a month of the actual event: a must for judges and teams traveling to KoƧ this August.

2 full days featuring 5 rounds, breaking to quarters. Euros-style motions along with the standard 7 minute speeches.

The Final to be contested in the historic Great Hall of the Trent Building (Grade II listed building). Formal attire to be worn.

World class judges – former WUDC winners already confirmed – under the direction of Chief Adjudicator Rhydian Morgan. n-1 rule will be enforced, though there may be some flexibility.
Socials on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evening

Crash available from Friday 27th July to Monday 30th July

Trophy for best team along with best speakers on tab and in the final

Team cap of 60 so register now to avoid disappointment.

Entrance fee, payable on the day:
£30/€45 per team for UK teams
£20/€30 per team for non-UK teams

Contact Tom Jackson (mzyatjj@nottingham.ac.uk) for more details

19 July 2007

All-India Debating Championships 2007


The Frank Anthony Debate, organized by the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CICSE), held this year at the Frank Anthony Public School, Kolkata. This debating championships is the most prestigious debating contest in India. Approximately 1600 schools take part in the preliminary rounds and zonal qualifications to reach one of 7 places in the Final round.

This year, the Dubai Modern High School, competed in the finals with a number of other prestigious schools such as the Doon School, Dehradun, St. Xavier’s, Kolkata, and St. James’, Kolkata, and eventually emerged champions.

Modern High’s Debate team, still celebrating from their win at the Chuckerbutty debates in Doon, as a result, completed a clean sweep by winning the two most prestigious debates in India. The team, comprising Kaushik Iyer and Shrivats Iyer, were accompanied by Aditya Srinivasan, Rajiv Naresh and Mr. Michael James.

The Motion before the House read:
“This House believes that the foundation of a healthy society needs the presence of a woman.”

Kaushik Iyer spoke for the motion, whilst Shrivats Iyer spoke against the motion.
Kaushik Iyer was named the 2nd Runner-Up Best Speaker, and through the efforts of both speakers, Modern High emerged triumphant at the Frank Anthony Memorial All-India Debate.

WSDC Speaker Tab



The Top 50 Speakers from the World Schools Debating Championships in Korea have been published. See http://www.schoolsdebate.com/blog/ for more details.

18 July 2007

Debating in China has lots to offer

Very recent debating movements in China shows it is gradually becoming debating power house in the North East Asian region. It is true that, some of the obstacles like Proper Training Facilities were not there before, but organization like World Debate Institute and Society for Associated Inter-Tertiary Debaters (SAID) of Singapore is providing that helping hand for its debating journey. Alfred C. Snider Aka Tuna; Director of World Debate Institute and with him many other debating contributors actively participating with this English Debating Movement in China. Some of the outcomes of these movements are summarized here.

for more Asian Debating News Visit
Asian Debating Website

Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU) Debate Education Programmes

Recently a series of British Parliamentary (BP) debate education workshops were conducted by Loke Wing Fatt for 60 freshmen, 250 sophomores and 6 professors of the School of English & International Studies (SEIS) at the Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU).

Providing excellent guidance and facilitation as Co-Trainers were Ms Liang Hong, Debate Coach & Lecturer at the SEIS and her 8 senior debaters from the BFSU Debate Team.

During this time lunch-time debate workshop was also conducted for over 120 members of the Beijing Language & Culture University English Debating Society (BLCU EDS) to bust the confidence of English Debating in China.

Macau University (MU) Debate Workshop

24 members of the Macau University English Club attended a 2.5-day Debate Workshop recetly. The university students were introduced to the major varsity debate formats and taught the basics of good debating. An American Parliamentary Style Exhibition Debate was staged by 4 debaters for the student body of Macau University.

Tianjin City Universities American Parliamentary (AP) Style Debate Workshop

In Tianjin, the sister city of Beijing ( about 3 hours away), Hewlens Wong, Anthony Paul and Loke Wing Fatt from SAID conducted a 5-day American Parliamentary (AP) Style Debate Workshop at Nankai University for over 60 university students from Nankai University, Tianjin Foreign Studies University and Tianjin University.

Public lectures on debating cum exhibition debates were also staged for the students and lecturers of these 3 major universities of this famed seaport city of China. The 3 SAID trainers also held a lunch-time exhibition debate at the renowned Tianjin Experiment High School.

Source: Beijing Foreign Studies University website
Society for Associated Inter-Tertiary Debaters (SAID) website

WSDC Individual tab

The Top 50 speakers from WSDC should be posted on the World Schools site by the end of the week.

See http://www.schoolsdebate.com/blog/2007/07/individual-top-50-tab-and-final-team.asp for more details

Annual Kuwait Debate League 2007

Al-Bayan Bilingual School will host the Kuwait Debate League. 2007, the debate league invites all English language curriculum schools within Kuwait to attend and participate in its upcoming season which will culminate in the combined BIT/KFSAC Kuwait junior varsity and varsity championship.

This Season's Resolution

"Resolved that the United States should substantially change its policy towards energy."

Kuwait Issues
1. Alternative forms of energy
2. Political Energy Policies
3. Conservation
4. Increased Supply

Foreign Policy Issues
1. Nuclear power generation
2. Conflicts with specific nations over oil supply

Kuwait Debate League 2007 will determine the Kuwait National Debating Champion, Last year Al-Bayan proved victorious, winning their fourth national championship in the six years of the League's existence and fighting off an extremely strong challenge from arch-rivals, Fahaheel Wataniyieh Indian Private School, who came in a very strong second.

The Kuwait Debate League invites the best English-curriculum schools, whether English or American, bilingual or monolingual, Pakistani or Indian, CBSE, EMAC, ISAAC, or KFSAC to participate in American-style policy debates. Over seventy schools received invitation to participate in the League this year for upcoming league participation.

Junior Varsity Result of Last Debate League
Top School: BBS Varsity

Junior Varsity Debaters Ranked by Score
1. Mishal Karam
2. Sulaiman Al-Khaled
3. Dana Khader
4. Ahmad Abdulmugni

Varsity Ranking
1 BBS Varsity
2 FAIPS

Top Debaters Ranking
1 Sonal Sharma
2 Abdullah Mdaires
3 Manu Hedge
4 Sarah Fakrhral-Deen

Source:The Daily Kuwait Times

17 July 2007

WSDC Blog & SA Nationals

You may have noticed that I've removed the feed from the World Schools blog. The championships are over so I've decided to take down that feed but if you are looking for it then click on "World Schools" in the list of links. As other tournaments come up and if I come across (or are notified about) a blog which is providing good coverage I'll look at putting up a similar temporary feed to direct traffic to that blog.

On a similar note does anyone know any details about the South African Nationals currently going on in Rhodes? I've had a query about them but couldn't find any updates.

15 July 2007

Tallinn's bid for EUDC 2008

Dear everyone,

Tallinn is proud to present you with its bid to host European Universities Debating Championships 2008 in Tallinn, Estonia. Please find our bid here.

You will also find our homepage at http://www.debate.ee/eudc2008

In a nutshell:

What: EUDC 2008
When: June 23rd-27th 2008 (arrival June 22th, departure June 28th )
Where: Tallinn University, Tallinn, Estonia
Who:
- Conveners: Helina Loor and Triin Sikk
- CA: Neill Harvey-Smith

Teamcap: 160, possible expansion to 180
Participation fee: a maximum fee of 250/person.

In case of any questions, please don't hesitate to contact the conveners:

Helina Loor: helina.loor@debate.ee; +372 52 08 549
Triin Sikk: triin.sikk@gmail.com; +372 55 21 432

On behalf of the Tallinn EUDC 2008 team,

Allan-Hermann Pool
VP for the Northern and Western European Region at EUDC
+372 55 476 41

Treasures of Tibetan Monks Debates in Himalayan


Some people might think the formal part of debating based on the winning of the battle. But Himalayan replies with its own Tradition. From thousands of years Tibet has always offered us so many mysteries and drew the attentions for its secrecy.

Recently in a rare occasion in Tibetan community, Buddhist monks and nuns took part in an interschool Tibetan Debate Competition organised by Srongtsen Brikuti Boarding High School (SBBHS) in Nepal. .

The motion‘Character is more important than Education’.

The debate competition is part of the series of year-long events being organised by the Srongtsen School to mark its 25th founding anniversary.

All together five teams participated in the debating event. Although the monks and nuns of Kopan did not succeed in securing the winning positions, this could well be one of the rare cases where monastic and nunnery educational institutions has participated in an interactive debating event with modern educational institutions.

Srongtsen Bhrikuti School, one of the most prominenet Tibetan schools in Katmandu valley in Nepal will be organizing First Tibetan English debate competition this coming August.

The Physicality of Tibetan Traditional Debates
According to the Tibetan Monks, Debating is their integral part of religious practice. One of the striking features of Tibetan debates is that they are quite physical. They are marked by emphatic gestures, such as the clapping used by the questioner to punctuate each question.

Tibetan debate involves prescribed modes of behavior. The debate starts, with a ritual invocation of Manjushri in a loud and high-pitched tone. The debater then puts his questions in a very low voice barely audible to the audience.
The Tibetan tradition is quite aware of the dangers of debate but sees them as counterbalanced by its benefits. Because debates are intensely physical, participants can give vent to considerable energy.

Tibetan scholars love debate for their internal clarity. They become excited when they talk about it and miss it once their training is finished. Older scholars often advise students to savor their times as debaters: “This is the best time in the life of a scholar. After this, all fades in comparison.”

I am not sure what to make of this last comment, for its description, its also captures the essence of good sporting competitions. But it does convey the overall atmosphere of debates, which are veritable intellectual sports.

Some You TubeTibetan Traditional Debating Video Links

Tibet: Debate with the eye of an Explorer
Tibetan Monks Debate in Dharamsala
Monks Debate: Lhasa,Tibet
Courtyard debate in Tibet

"Isn’t it great to have all these people displaying such engagement and even aggression within such a peaceful atmosphere?"