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

15 December 2011

Message from DLSU Adjudication Team‏


Dear World Debating Community,

Last year, Worlds Council issued an advisory instruction to future CA teams to ensure that their motions did not replicate any topics debated in one region's major preparation tournaments. We, of course, intend to follow that guidance.
We're writing now to state how we plan to do this, to list the tournaments we're going to consider, and to invite any feedback or suggestions of tournaments we are missing out.
We have used criteria of majority and proximity to Worlds to draw up the following list of tournaments, which we will hereafter refer to as 'Worlds prep tournaments'. This is not intended to demean their importance in their own right; indeed, importance is one characteristic we looked for when including tournaments on this list. Rather, it is simply meant to indicate that they are the tournaments we are considering when implementing Council's guidance on Worlds prep tournaments:
 
Region Competition
Americas Hart House IV
Americas NorthAms
Americas US Universities
Americas Yale IV
Asia Asian BP
Asia Beijing Debate
Asia Hong Kong Debate Open
Asia Japan BP
Asia KFLDT
Asia NEAO
Asia Singapore Debate Open
Asia WUPID
Europe Birmingham IV
Europe Bristol IV
Europe Cambridge IV
Europe Durham IV
Europe English Mace*
Europe KCL IV
Europe Oxford IV
Europe Stuttgart IV
Europe UCU Open
ME & Africa Pan-Africans
Oceania ANU IV
Oceania Australs
Oceania Easters
Oceania Joynt Scroll
Oceania Melbourne Mini
Oceania NZ Easters
Oceania Sydney Mini
Oceania Victoria Wellington IV
 
* The English Mace is included where other feeder competitions to the International Mace (such as, say, the Irish Mace) are not in part because of its structure (i.e. it is a tabbed tournament in which all teams debate all the motions, making them more of an issue if some are repeated).
We're supplying this list firstly to be transparent, and secondly because we recognise that we don't know, or think of, all the debating competitions that are happening in the world. If you feel there is a tournament of equivalent a) majority, b) proximity to Worlds and c) size as one of the tournaments on this list, please let us know about it at sam.block@dlsuworlds.com by Thursday the 22nd of December at the very latest, though, naturally, sooner is better.
We pledge, as far as possible:
  • Not to set exactly the same motion as was set at one of these tournaments in exactly one region.
  • To weigh up with other factors such as interest, balance, importance etc etc the following factors when setting motions:
    • Not setting exactly the same motion as was set at multiple of these tournaments in multiple regions.
    • Not setting a motion on a very, very similar policy/value statement as was set at one or more of these tournaments.
Please note we are explicitly not planning to attach substantial weight to avoiding broadly similar topic areas as these motions have explored, as it is our view that this would be simply impossible, without reducing the standard of motions set at Worlds in a disproportionate way. To give you flavour of what we mean in distinguishing between 'a motion on a very, very similar policy/value statement as was set' and 'broadly similar topic areas as these motions have explored', if one of these tournaments had set the motion 'THW fund militias to fight Somali pirates', we would weigh up with other factors considerations against setting 'THW fund groups that fight pirates', but would not substantially weigh against setting debates broadly about Somalia, or debates broadly about piracy.
Many thanks for reading; we hope this clarity will ensure that participants and the adjudication team have similar expectations when coming to Worlds and prevent any misunderstandings. We also hope that we will receive some feedback on the particular list we have chosen to ensure that it best represents the realities of prep tournaments as perceived by participants.
 
Many thanks
 
The Adjudication Team
DLSU WUDC 2012

14 December 2011

Worlds mag 5th attachment‏

To the World Debate Community,
 
We are working hard to ensure that everyone will be enjoying their stay here in Manila for the 32nd World Universities Debating Championships.
 
Attached is the 5th Issue of the Worlds Magazine! enjoy! :-)
 
Dino S. de Leon
Convenor, De La Salle Worlds

13 December 2011

Sad news from PAUDC

Annual Pan- African Universities Debating Championships on Facebook:

Dear friends,

Our friends from Namibia have been in a serious accident when travelling home from PAUDC 2011. Grant Pesat and their Driver passed away, 19 others are seriously injured.

Let us all take it upon us to pray for God to intervene, such that the injured can have a speedy recovery and for him to comfort the berived families.

For those who are close or who can afford to travel, let us go there and give them moral support. For they are one of us.

regards,
Joseph Matamela

From Allafrica.com:

A HEAD-ON collision 16 km from Grootfontein claimed the lives of a Polytechnic of Namibia driver and a student yesterday.

According to Deputy Commissioner Ralph Ludwig of the Police's traffic division, the accident took place between 03h00 and 04h00 yesterday morning between Grootfontein and Mururani.

The bus in which the students were travelling crashed "almost head-on" into a truck, he said.

Grant Pesat, a student from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) and a Polytechnic driver, Edward Kamutjemo, were killed.

Eighteen people sustained injuries varying from serious to slight, Ludwig said.

Although no arrests have been made, a case of culpable homicide is being investigated, he confirmed.

Donovan Weimers, the Polytecnic's spokesperson, said the passengers included 12 students from the Polytechnic's Debating Society, among them SRC chairperson Gustav Nyambe.

"Six other Namibian students from other tertiary institutions were reportedly also on the bus. In addition, three staff members were on the bus: two drivers and a member of staff in the office of the Dean of Students, who acted as tour chaperone."

Weimers added: "It is with great sadness that we announce that one of the Polytechnic drivers, Mr Edward Kamutjemo, and a student from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Grant Pesatwere, killed in the accident.

"All the remaining passengers were admitted to the Grootfontein hospital for treatment or observation. Some have quite serious injuries, among them two Polytechnic students who were airlifted to Windhoek this afternoon for specialised treatment."

According to Edwin Tjiramba, the spokesperson of the University of Namibia (Unam), three Unam students were involved in the accident.

They are reported to be in a stable condition in the Grootfontein State hospital.

Tjiramba said the students were on their way from Zimbabwe where they had taken part in an international debating competition.

The Motor Vehicle Accident Fund said yesterday that 16 people have died between November 28 and Sunday.

In the same period last year, 12 people had died on Namibian roads.

12 December 2011

Sydney Mini 2011 results

The largest ever Australian British Parliamentary Debating Champs (Sydney Mini) finished yesterday.

Winners: Dominic Bowes & Sriram Srikumar (Sydney)
Runners-Up: Amit Golder & Kiran Iyer (Monash), Elle Jones & Daniel Swain (Sydney), Dave Stephens & Anthony Smith (Queensland)

Top 10 speakers:
1. Amit Golder (Monash)
2. Patrick Caldwell (Sydney)
3. Daniel Swain (Sydney)
4= Stephen Whittington (Victoria)
4= Chris Bisset (Monash)
6. Rob Chiarella (Sydney)
7. Bronwyn Cowell (Sydney)
8. Kiran Iyer (Monash)
9= Elle Jones (Sydney)
9= Paul Karp (Sydney)

Breaking teams were, in order:

1. Pat Caldwell & Paul Karp (Sydney)
2. Elle Jones & Daniel Swain (Sydney)
3. Chris Bisset & Madeleine Schultz (Monash)
4. Amit Golder & Kiran Iyer (Monash)
5. Udayan Mukherjee & Stephen Whittington (Victoria)
6. Rob Chiarella & Bec Barrett (Sydney)
7. Dominic Bowes & Sriram Srikumar (Sydney)
8. Kelly Butler & Steph D'Souza (Melbourne)
9. Steph Thompson & Ben Milsom (Auckland)
10. Jeremy Rich & Kristen Price (Composite)
11. Bronwyn Cowell & Meredith Prior (Composite)
12. Dave Stephens & Anthony Smith (Queensland)
13. Drew Cason & Sarah Carpenter (Alaska)
14. Seb Templeton & Richard D'Ath (Victoria)
15. Tim Blair & Monique Hardinge (Monash)
16. Alec Dawson & Paul Hunt (Otago)