Dear World Debating Community,
Many thanks to all who have been involved in the application process for the final DCA for DLSU WUDC 2012, whether as applicants, or as contributors of feedback. We were again struck by the subtlety and insight of much of that feedback.
We are pleased to announce that Joe Roussos will be joining, and completing, our team. We are very much looking forward to working with him.
Many thanks,
Sam Block & Lucinda David
Chief Adjudicators
DLSU WUDC 2012
It would seem that unless you are recognised by name by participants in either North America or the UK - you are, for all intents and purposes, unknown and by extension - a bad judge.
ReplyDeleteThis is not only presumptious, arrogant and condescending - it's stupid. I would suggest that before anyone decides to relaunch a 'tokenism' hissy fit (as was the trend with the post on regional DCA candidates) that they consider this:
Joe is not only the current South African National champion but he has been to many international tournaments (including Worlds - where he was a Grand Finalist judge for two years), he is also considered, within the African region, as being not just one of our best speakers but one of our best judges too.
So for Africans, he is a pretty big deal. It is unfortunate that this apparently does not count but I will end by saying this - Worlds happens to be just that, a global tournament. It is important that ALL participants feel represented. I can assure concerned members of the international debating community that the African debting community is VERY happy with Joe's appointment. I am also sure that many international participants share this sentiment.
I don't mind him being relatively unknown, it's not being relatively qualified that is annoying. Many debaters are unknown. Then they go to IV's, and their talent is known. You say he was a GF judge at worlds, but that's a decision which is based on all sorts of factors, from politics to institutional representation. How did he do at Worlds as a debater? How has he performed at a debater at a meaningful tournament? If I say I'm the top debater in Iraq or Madagascar, it doesn't mean I'm good enough to DCA worlds, that's just dumb. Being a big deal in Africa doesn't mean he reaches the high benchmarks that being a DCA ought to entail, because Africa doesn't have the same debating quality and talent depth as other areas do. We know this because of Africa's teams performance at IV's like Worlds.
ReplyDeleteWhat you seem to be saying is he is a good choice because he's from Africa, and the arbitrary region of Africa should have a DCA. That's tokenism by definition, because you've all but conceding he's not one of the best candidates, even if he's the best candidate Africa could offer. It's impossible to give every country/region/arbitrary-place-with-their-own-style a DCA, I'd rather they stopped trying to do so. Certainly Africa seems an area less in need of a DCA though, since given their performance at Worlds I'd have to imagine the potential number of breaking adjudicators is very small. It'd be just as easy for more qualified DCA's to ask Joe (and others) their opinion of local judges, and it would mean people'd registration fees weren't going to pay for the attendance of someone who is not even close to the best candidate, except on token grounds.