Irish Blog Awards

Nominations for the Irish Blog awards are open for 2008. If you would like to nominate this blog then visit http://awards.ie/blogawards/nominations/.

I think this blog best fits in the "Best Specialist Blog" category. You don't have to nominate in every category but if you know of any other Irish run blogs then feel free to nominate.

Full Results from Worlds 2008

I have just been sent the "official" full set of results. Many of these were already known but in some cases (comedy, public speaking etc) it provides much more detail.

28th World Universities Debating Champions are:Oxford A (Lewis Iwu and Samir Deger-Sen)

The Runner-ups are:
Cambridge B (Daniel Elijah Warrents and Mhairi Murdoch)
Monash A (Tim Jeffrie and Fiona Prowse)Sydney A (Dom Thurbon and Chris Croke)

Speaker of the House
Kylie Lane, Deputy Chief Adjudicator

The judges for the Grand Finals of the 28th World Universities Debating Championship are:
1. Deirdre O’Donohoe University College Dublin, Law
2. Diarmuid Early from Harvard
3. Suthen 'Tate' Thomas from Multimedia University
4. Neil Harvey-Smith, Independent
5. Ian Lising from University of La Verne
6. Ciaran Lawlor, Deputy Chief Adjudicator
7. Beth O’Connor, Deputy Chief Adjudicator
8. Joanna Nairn, Deputy Chief Adjudicator
9. Rajesh Krishnan, Chief Adjudicator (Chair)

The Top 10 Speakers are:
Best Speaker: Sam Block from Cambridge A with 790 points
2nd Place: Samir Deger-Sen from Oxford Union A with 781 points
2nd Place: Joshua Bone from Yale A with 781 points
4th Place: Adam Bott from Cambridge A with 779 points
5th Place: Kitson Symes from Oxford Union D with 757 points
5th Place: Lewis Iwu from Oxford Union A with 757 points
5th Place: Naomi Oreb from Sydney Union C with 757 points
8th Place: Andrew Rohrbach from Yale A with 756 points
9th Place: Richard Lizius from Hart House B with 754 points
10th Place: Fiona Prowse from Monash A with 750 points

ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE (ESL)
The Winners of the ESL category are:
Amsterdam B (Reinier de Adelhart Toorop and Anne Valkering )

The ESL Runner-ups are:
IIUM D (Danial Abdul Rahman and Ahmad Lutfi Torla)
Tilbury A (Assen Kochev and Kai Menzel)
IIUM C (Yasat Sarwar and Khalidah Nazihah Muhammad Abdull Jamil)

The Top 5 Speakers for the ESL are:
Best Speaker: Catharine Kho Tjing Yiing from Malaya A with 693 points
2nd Place: Zuliana Razali from Malaya A with 689 points
3rd Place: Siti Astrid Kusumawardhani from Indonesia A with 684 points
4th Place: Kai Menzel from Tilbury A with 682 points
4th Place: Haran Pilpel from Hebrew B with 682 points

The judges for the ESL Finals are:
1. Elizabeth Sheargold from University of Melbourne
2. Nicholas James Long from Cambridge University
3. Gavin Illsley from Oxford Union
4. Alex Hill from Oxford Union
5. Tom Chapman from Monash University
6. Jess Lopez from Ateneo De Manila University
7. Ivan Ah Sam from Sydney Union (Chair)


ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE (EFL)

The Winners of the EFL category are:
Keio A (Yoko Sako and Yui Miyaichi)

The EFL Runner-ups are:
Tsuda College B (Arisa Narisawa and Yukari Yamaguchi)
Shanghai Fudan A (Wang Chengying and Huang Cheng)
DAE B (Dami Park and Youngjun Hur)

The Best Speaker for the EFL is:
Best Speaker: Leung Ching Man Fiona from Macau B

The judges for the EFL Finals are:
1. Sam Greenland from Sydney Union
2. Anna Garsia from Sydney Union
3. Deirdre Millner from University College Cork, Law
4. Stephanie Co from Ateneo De Manila University
5. Steve Johnson from University of Alaska (Chair)


MASTERS
The winners for the Exxon Mobil Masters is:
Winners: "Guinea – Bissau" (Will Jones from Oxford Union and James Dray from Oxford Union)
The judges for the Masters Final are:
1. J Scott Rodriguez from CALIFORNIA STATE University
2. Adam Bott from Cambridge University
3. Can Okar from Koc University
4. Tom Chapman from Monash University
5. Ian Lising from University of La Verne (Chair)



PUBLIC SPEAKING
The 2008 World Public speaking champion is: Jason Joseph Rogers from University of Toronto, Hart House
1st Runner-up: Sharon Ohayon from University of Alberta
2nd Runner-up: Josh Gross from Portland State University
Finalists: Daniel Berman from Bates College
Nathaniel Ware from the University of Sydney Union

The judges for the Public Speaking Final are:
1. Loke Wing Fatt from SAID
2. A. Piyanart Faktorngpan from Chulalongkorn University
3. Evan Green-Lowe from Brandeis University
4. Nick Long from Cambridge University
5. Allen Ewalt from Harvard University


COMEDY NIGHT
The Best speakers for the Comedy Night Category are:
Best Speaker: Patrick Bateman University of Sydney Union
1st Runner-up: Josh Gross from Portland State University
2nd Runner-up: Monica Ferris from Hart House

The judges for the Comedy Night are:
1. Giles Robertson from Cambridge Union
2. David Janzen from Macquarie University
3. Rut Charaslertrangsi from Assumption University
4. Ruchir Jain from Nanyang Technological University (NTU)


MOTIONS:
Preliminary Rounds:
Round 1: This House would allow the use of torture.
Round 2: This House believes that Taiwan should declare independence now
Round 3: THW not allow local government to pay for the relocation of homeless people.
Round 4: This House believes that the European Union should only direct aid to nations that pursue environmentally sustainable development.
Round 5: This House believes that every criminal defendant should be required to use a government provided defense lawyer.
Round 6: THW subject foreign political contributions to greater restrictions than domestic contributions.
Round 7: This House would assassinate Vladimir Putin.
Round 8: THB that governments should never rescue failing private industry.
Round 9: This House would deny scarce medical resources to terminally ill patients.

Break rounds
Octofinals: THB that governments in the developing world should invest in sex tourism.
Quarterfinals: This House would force religious adoption agencies to place children with homosexual couples.
Semifinals: THB that extreme economic need should be grounds for asylum.
Final: THB that people who give HIV to others must pay drug support.

ESL
Octofinals: This House would support the use of mercenaries by the United Nations.
Quarterfinals: This House would force religious adoption agencies to place children with homosexual couples.
Semifinals: This House would require doctors to report all cases of suspected domestic violence.
Final: This house believes that the Turkish military should stop enforcing the separation of church (mosque) and state

EFL
Final: This house would eliminate all non state-run schools

Masters
Round 1: This house regrets the passing of Bhutto
Round 2: This house would stop the search for the gay gene
Round 3: This house would let them eat whale
Final: This house would put an age limit on debating

World Rankings

I've had a query on the world rankings and when they will be updated.

I'm working on the rankings and hope to have them updated later today or tomorrow.

I don't maintain the speaker database any more. I handed responsibility for that over to the council at the meeting in Dublin.

Worlds 2008 Tab Released

The Tab has been released on http://www.smoothtournament.com/showcase/wudc_2008/

Note from Klaas:

These are the UNOFFICIAL results of the WUDC 2008.At least the following exception conditions apply (i.e. have happened in reality but are not reflected here). None of these conditions influenced the break:

• ESL Status of many teams is not recorded correctly
• Some speakers spoke for both the positions and speaker scores got recorded as normal
• Some teams converted to swing and decided to go with a different speaker for a few rounds
• The swing data is completely inaccurate.

Oxford Win World Championships

Oxford A (Lewis Iwu & Samir Deger-Sen) are the 2008 World Championships.

Sam Block (Cambridge A) was the best speaker on the tab.

Amsterdam B won the ESL

Keio A won the EFL

England (Will Jones & James Drey) Won Masters

Still waiting to hear who won Comedy

Top 10 Speakers
1. Sam Block (Cambridge A)
2. Samir Deger Sen (Oxford A)
2. Josh Bone (Yale A)
4. Adam Bott (Cambridge A)
5. Lewis Iwu (Oxford A)
5. Kitson Symes (Oxford D)
5. Naomi Oreb (Sydney C)
8. Andrew Rohrbach (Yale A)
9. Richard Lizius (HH A)
10. Fiona Prowse (Monash A)

Thanks to Derek Lande and Oisin Collins for the updates.

World Championship Final

Motion: THB that people who give HIV to others must pay drug support.

1st Gov: Monash A (Tim Jeffrie & Fiona Prowse)
1st Opp: Cambridge B (Daniel Warrents & Mhairi Murdoch)
2nd Gov: Oxford A (Lewis Iwu & Samir Deger-Sen)
2nd Opp: Sydney A (Dom Thurbon & Chris Croke)

Final Adjudication Panel: Ian Lising (La Verne), Deirdre O'Donoghue (UCD), Diarmuid Early (UCC), Ciaran Lawlor (UCD), Beth O'Connor (Yale), Neill Harvey Smith (Ind), Suthen "Tate" Thomas (MMU), Joanna Nairn (HH UoT), Rajesh Krishnan (SIM).

Apparently the procession into the final involved three elephants
The debate started around 7:55pm Thai time.

Thanks to Oisin Collins for the info

Worlds 2008: Videos from Worlds

One thing I forgot to post yesterday is that Tuna at globaldebate has filmed a number of the rounds at worlds and should have them on the web in a week or so.

They will be on the site: http://debatevideoblog.blogspot.com/

ESL Final

The ESL Final motion: This House believes that the Turkish military should stop enforcing the separation of church and state.

1st Gov: Amsterdam B
1st Opp: IIUM D
2nd Gov: Tilbury A
2nd Opp: IIUM C

England vs Australia in the final

The 2008 World Debating Championship Finalists:

Oxford A (Lewis Iwu & Samir Deger-Sen)
Monash A (Tim Jeffrie & Fiona Prowse)
Sydney A (Dom Thurbon & Chris Croke)
Cambridge B (Daniel Warrents & Mhairi Murdoch)

The Semi Final motion was: THB that extreme economic need should be grounds for asylum.

Worlds Day 9: Final

Agenda for today (Friday 4th)

• Breakfast


• Semi-Finals


• EFL Finals


• Lunch


• ESL Finals


• Grand Final


• Farewell Party

Worlds 08: ESL Semi Finals

ESL Semi Finals
Motion: This House would require doctors to report all cases of suspected domestic violence.

Semi 1
1 Gov: Malaya A
1 Opp: Amsterdam B
2 Gov: IIUM E
2 Opp: Tilbury A

Semi 2
1 Gov: IIUM D
1 Opp: IIUM C
2 Gov: Koc A
2 Opp: Hong Kong B

Source: http://globaldebateblog.blogspot.com/

Worlds 08: Semi Finalists

Qtr Final motion: This House would force religious adoption agencies to place children with homosexual couples.

The Semifinalists:
Oxford A
Monash A
St Andrews A
Sydney A
Cambridge B
Queensland E
Yale E
Brandeis B

Source: http://globaldebateblog.blogspot.com/

Worlds 08: ESL Octo Results

ESL Octo final Motion: This House would support the use of mercenaries by the United Nations.

And the Qtr finalists:

Hebrew B
Tel Aviv A
Amsterdam B
Tilsbury A
IIUM E
Botswana A
Malaya A
IDC-Herz
IIUM B
EDIS A
IIUM D
IIUM C
Zagreb B
Hong Kong D
Koc A
Hong Kong B

Source: http://globaldebateblog.blogspot.com/

Comment on the judge break

I have noticed on a couple of sites that there are judges at Worlds complaining about a preference for "white" judges in the break. Now I'm not in Thailand. I don't know which judges feel hard done by (they seem to be reluctant to go on the record). But I do dislike the bad habit among lazy debaters to play the race card when things don't go their way. I think it is unfair in the extreme to someone to trot out allegations of racism. That’s the sort of allegation that sticks even if not true. Therefore I'm going to outline some observations about the process for the judge break from my years at worlds.

The judge break is the hardest decision for the adjudication team. It is often said that no debater ever believes she/he gave a bad speech. Well it can also be said that no judge ever thinks she/he gave a bad decision.

There is no points system for judges. No such thing as a win, second third etc. Instead the adjudication team have to go by subjective feedback from other judges and from the teams. The adjudication team should read every test, experience and feedback form. I know we did that when I was a DCA and I assume this happened in Thailand. Judge ranks are adjusted across the 9 rounds based on the feedback.

If a judge's feedback stands out (for good or bad) then the adjudication team might follow up with another judge on the panel or might talk directly with a team to get clarification. They can also have the judge "watched" by a member of the adjudication team or by a trusted judge.

You will, of course, have a list of trusted judges who will break because they have years of experience and a proven ability. You don't think too long about breaking Ian Lising or Derek Lande (unless the break is made up of 16 La Verne Teams and 16 Cork teams).

However after all that it is still a very subjective thing. Most of the discussion will be about the last 10 places. For the 10 happy judges there will be 20 unhappy. At my first couple of worlds I was one of those 20 unhappy judges. Having broken as a judge a number of times since and having been a DCA I can now look back and realise that the decision not to break me was probably the correct one as I didn't have the level of experience of other judges. Nothing wrong with the decision then (though I might be a bit miffed if it happened now but I’d seek clarification and quietly disappear with my tail between my legs rather than bitch and moan on the web).

However there are some judges who you simply cannot break because of their feedback. In a couple of cases at Stellenbosch we had very serious allegations made against judges. One of the judges who we did not break and was then one of the most vocal critics on break night had a number of complaints against them which had been confirmed by other teams and judges. We could not break that judge. The rules of natural justice say you should allow the judge a chance to respond to the allegations and perhaps even address their accusers. However when you are in the middle of worlds you simply do not have the time to hold this sort of full investigation. If you get feedback from a number of rooms that the judge’s behaviour is out of order then you just dump them and move on to the next issue.

Some qualified judges may be left out of the break for completely valid reasons and it isn's always that they were dumped. There is a rule at Worlds that you have to judge a minimum number of preliminary rounds. If you don't judge those then you can't break. People asked me why I didn't break at Dublin worlds. Well I had to work during the knock out rounds so I wasn’t going to be there but I only judged 3 preliminary debates so even if I turned up at break night Paul couldn't have added me to the list (assuming he would have wanted to). I believe there is a similar potential issue next year at Cork but I won't name the person in question in case it was resolved (hopefully I won't be in the position as I plan to be there for the 9 rounds and then throw myself on the mercy of Derek's good graces along with all the other judges)

Also, to be honest, some experienced judges may be left out because they just piss off the adjudication team. The adjudication team is having a very tough week and adding to their misery is the fastest way to get binned on day three when fatigue boosts vindictiveness among the DCAs. We had one judge in that position. She was a chair judge but not a high ranked one so didn't see a lot of good debates. Every round she complained to us about the quality of debates she was seeing. We hated to see her coming up the steps to us but still had her as a chair and in the break. Finally in round nine she went back to her room without handing in the ballot. We had to send someone from the tab room to the accommodation to get the sheet. That delayed the whole process and resulted in us getting to the break night at 11:30 AFTER all the food was gone. That was the final straw and we dumped her from the break slotting in another judge from her country. She then went to worlds council and lodged a complaint against us over the "racist" decision not to break her.

There are also political considerations. Do you break the best judges or do you balance regional considerations. Personally I think you break the best judges. At WUPID recently we didn’t even consider where the judges came from. We broke on their ranking, experience and feedback. We had a smaller pool of judges to pull from so I don’t think too many regions/countries were disappointed. At Worlds it is a very large pool and if you break the best judges then some regions who sent their best people as speakers and only sent first years as judges will lose out.

Also there are political issues within countries. There are some countries where the politics of debating is cut throat. I once was asked by one guy I didn't know to be videoed with him, and say hi to all the people in his home country. I was later told that that was used as my “endorsement” of him in some internal political battle for supremacy in his national debating association. Insane!

This political aspect means that you can have the head of a national association as a judge at worlds and he/she is seen as the big fish from their area. But based on experience and feedback they are no where near the break (national championships often get a higher rating locally than at worlds). They are in their position of power based on ego and political ability and that does not translate automatically into judging ability. However in order to protect their national position they have to claim that the decision not to break them was based on racism rather than the fact that they are a crap judge. There is nothing more dangerous to an adjudication team than a bad judge with a big ego and a local fan base.

And finally to say that the adjudication team is only human and sometimes they do get it wrong. At Stellenbosch we had one judge that none of us knew anything about and we had him as a panellist. His country rep (who we all knew and respected) came to us and said that he was a good judge and we should look at him again. We pulled his file and found that he had listed very little experience and his adjudication test was not good (both in result and more importantly in reasoning). But based on the advise from his rep we bumped him up to second panellist and had him watched by a trusted experienced chair. The feedback from that was that he was a sound judge but not spectacular and not really up to the break standard. That was it and we forgot about him. The following year I was watching the video of the final and there he was on the final adjudication panel. For the life of me I can't remember his name but he had really impressed the adjudication team that came after us and went all the way to the final. That can happen. It happened in Stellenbosch with one judge who I knew but didn't think he would break. I did not judge with him until the final but the rest of the adjudication team had and they insisted on putting him through at each stage from break through to the final where he contributed well and deserved his place. If it was down just to me he wouldn't have broken but the others insisted and it turned out they were right and I was wrong.

OK that’s a long and rambling post. I don’t know who the judges were that lost out at Thailand. However I wanted to explain why, in my experience, the accusations of racism and a preference for “white” judges may be unfair to the adjudication team.

Update: Just in case anyone misinterprets the article and thinks I'm talking about Tuna at globaldebate as one of the complaining judges. I'm not. He didn't break but it's clear in his article that he accepts that he didn't break and is only reporting what others said. I judged with him a few times at WUPID (including the final) and hold him in very high regard (hence the reason why I want to make sure I have not inadvertently caused him any offence) . I would have no problem judging with him on a panel in the break rounds of Worlds. I have seen the issue raised on a few blogs and sites and just thought I would put in my view.

Worlds 08: Octo Final Results

The Teams advancing from the Octo Finals to the Qtr finals are:

Oxford A
Middle Temple A
Monash A
Yale C
Yale A
Queensland B
Yale E
Brandeis B
Queensland E
Queensland A
Cambridge B
Duke A
St. Andrews A
Melbourne C
Auckland A
Sydney A

Second seeds Cambridge A are out as are all Irish teams.

The motion was: THB that governments in the developing world should invest in sex tourism.

Worlds Day 8

Agenda for today (Thursday 3rd)

• Breakfast


• Octo-Finals


• Lunch


• Quarter-Finals


• ESL Semi-Finals


• Tea & Coffee Break


• Masters Final


• Championship Dinner


• Public Speaking Finals

Cork Worlds 2009 Website

Worlds 2008 might still be in full swing but Cork have already unveiled their website for 2009.

Visit http://www.corkworlds2009.com/ for further info.

Worlds Day 7

Agenda for Today (Wednesday 2nd) was supposed to be

• Breakfast
• Buses leave for Pattaya
• ESL Quarter-Finals
• Tea & Coffee Break
• EFL Semi-Finals
• 2009 Host's Night

However as there are now ESL Octos and only 4 teams broke in EFL I suspect today will be all about ESL Octos and Qtrs. However that is subject to confirmation.

NHS is the new Chair of council

As had been announced at last years council Ian Lising was not going to stand for chair of council again this year. The Worlds community owe Ian a huge debt of gratitude and he will be a very hard example to follow.

The person given that task is one of the few capable of living up to the standards set by Ian. Neill Harvey Smith has been elected chair of council. He is a long serving member of council, a former Worlds finalist and DCA and I'm sure will do an excellent job.

Worlds Council awards.

Worlds Council have awarded their distinction award (now re-named World Council Member Emeritus) to Ian Lising, Dr, Omar Salahuddin bin Abdullah and Ray de Cruz. Congrats to all three and welcome to the club.

For a full summary of proceedings at council please see http://globaldebateblog.blogspot.com/

Koc to Host Worlds 2010

At Worlds Council Today Koc in Turkey were awarded the right to host Worlds in 2010.

They defeated Botswana by 51 points to 30 in the final vote.

A full account of the bid and voting process can be found at http://globaldebateblog.blogspot.com/

The Draw for the Octo Finals

This is the draw for the Octo Finals:

OK I've discovered the problem. Lazy checking in excel. I had a V-lookup that pulled the teams into their Octo finals. All well and good for the first 7 octos. The 8th octo which was just off the bottom of the screen did not have the v-lookup and was locked with date from Worlds in Dublin. That probably explains why I had the same problem last year when I used the file. Instead of checking all the way down I flicked through a few at the top and saw that it was working and in a rush accepted that. When I glanced at my e-mail last night and saw a flood of complaints I checked what was wrong saw two files (in different directories) one of which looked to be correct (at the top) and one which was last years data and thought that might be the problem. Thankfully I had some doubts so didn't assume that was the issue and so didn't post until today when I found the issue with the v-lookup. See below for what I mean.

I have verified the draw from others posted on boards and e-mails and it lines up.

I will delete the old file and my apologies for any confusion caused.

(fingers crossed as I click on Publish post)

Worlds Day 6

Agenda for Today (Tuesday 1st)

• Breakfast


• Council Meeting I


• Lunch


• Council Meeting II