Cambodia English-Language Debate Competition 2007

From
http://asiandebating.blogspot.com/2007/07/cambodia-english-language-debate.html

Cambodia English-Language Debate Competition 2007


Dear all,

U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia, Joseph A. Mussomeli, and his counterparts Canadian Ambassador Donica Pottie and Australian Ambassador Margaret Adamson recently served as judges for an English-language debate competition at the Don Bosco Technical School Phnom Penh for 34 female students in the school's vocational training program. The students, ranging in age from 18-23, were divided into groups of six.

Motions
That Television Does More Harm Than Good
That Computer Games are Bad for Kids
That Over Population is the Problem

Half of each group was assigned to argue for the group's debate statement, while the other half argued against. The competition was organized by Mrs. Sharon F. Mussomeli and Mrs. Chona Correa, who volunteer as English teachers at the school.
After the completion of the presentations, the judges praised the participants for both the high level of their English skills as well as their debating ability.

The scores were remarkably close for all the teams, with just a few points determining the winning teams. The judges complimented the first place team for good eye contact and for interacting with the audience, while the second place team was singled out for not revealing personal feelings on the debate topic. The winners and the topics they debated were:

First Place
Topic - "That Education is the Key to Success"
Team Members - Hong Kungkear, Chun Channa, Sem Chandany, San Kimheng, Neang Sopheap, and Teuk Kimkhun

Second Place
Topic - "That Women's Place is in the Home"
Team Members - Tith Sreyno, Eng Rotha, Svath Phalla, Lanh Phally, Sek Chanleakena, and Sim Sokkhim

Third Place
Topic - "That the Rich are Very Different from Ourselves"
Team Members - Oeun Dany, Sok Sileang, Phalla Chenda, Chet Namonynith, Yean Kethya, and Khom Sodavy

Regards,
Rashedul Hasan Stalin

Source: http://phnompenh.usembassy.gov/don_bosco.html

USA Republicans Dodge YouTube Debate

From http://www.debatescoop.org/story/2007/7/29/202258/012

Mitt and Rudy's Bad Argument: The YouTube Dodge
By Ross Smith 07/29/2007 08:22:58 PM EST

Application of debate skills to the debate about the September 17 CNN/YouTube Debate reveals that the Giuliani and Romney campaigns are making the worst possible argument for dodging the debate.

Mitt Romney's spokesman, Kevin Madden, cited a heavy fund-raising schedule and a Giuliani source was reported saying, "We have serious scheduling issues. That's prime fund-raising time."
The worst argument to make is one that can be easily turned around -- and the argument that the debate would interfere with fund raising is backwards. Debates can be powerful fund-raising devices, especially if the campaign makes an effort to leverage the high visibility with meet ups, debate watches, and other forms of events and communication that use the debate as a vehicle for solicitation. Plus, free national TV time is "priceless." There is also a very high opportunity cost to ignoring or alienating a source of millions of dollars and volunteers.

The scheduling argument makes even less sense when you consider that the supposed alternative might be December, a month that also falls at the end of a fund raising quarter, is already crowded with holiday activity, and may include a mid-December Iowa caucus. Even a high school novice debater should be quick to say, "Not unique and turn: scheduling difficulties are an ever present fact of campaign life and only increase the closer you get to an election day."

Toss in the basic debate, life and campaign skill of rescheduling less important conflicting events, and the link between schedule problems and the YouTube debate is completely severed.

If application of elementary debate technique reveals that the "reason" these campaigns gave for dodging the debate was actually a pathetic excuse, the question then becomes, "What's the real reason Giuliani and Romney want out?"

The speculation that has filled every nook and cranny of the left and right blogospheres and political debate media the last couple of days has centered around a fear these candidates might have, either of the questioners, the question selection process, or the way the debate would be spun and reported by the "liberal media." Because of the explosion of pixels discussing this angle I will simply refer you to del.icio.us where, if you search for "debatescoop youtube GOP" (if you use del.icio.us please add those tags to any stories on the subject that I have not cataloged) you will find documentation of the following: the debate, even within the GOP blogosphere, is being won by those arguing that, even if there is risk in appearing, the greater risk is in being perceived as afraid to stand up to critics.

There is likely to be at least as much opportunity for rhetorical gain as there is risk in a YouTube debate. The questions in the last Monday's Democratic YouTube debate were no more pointed or difficult than those Britt Hume and the FOX panel asked of the GOP candidates in May. Furthermore, CNN and YouTube have nothing to gain by trashing the GOP candidates. They want their format to be seen as successful and friendly enough that people from both parties participate, watch, submit questions and debate. They have an investment in this approach and they need for it to pay off in the long run. Plus, the chances are that the controversy over GOP participation will have a further "moderating" effect on CNN's question choices. Heck, a week from now ABC will use viewer video questions in the GOP debate from Des Moines and ABC is even letting your vote influence which questions they will use much to the delight of the quite liberal Jeff Jarvis. The YouTube user community is slightly more Republican than Democratic, too. Finally, "liberal" questions, or questions the left would love to ask are just an opportunity for GOP candidates to throw red meat to their primary voters. Candidates who can play along with a "24" episode question set and advocate waterboarding or that we "double Guantanamo" should have no unique problems with a citizen video.

To find the real explanation for Romney and Giuliani's campaign strategy I suggest looking at what is not being said. That brings us right back to scheduling, fund-raising, free media, and fear -- but from a different perspective.

September is end of quarter fund-raising time for Giuliani's and Romney's opponents, too. The two biggest threats, Fred Thompson and John McCain, need a big September. Fred Thomson's campaign has a September launch date. He may make it into the September 5 FOX debate in New Hampshire, but the front runners might prefer that Fred rely more on reruns than on new episodes every couple of weeks. If the McCain campaign turns around, it won't likely be until September since the public and the media are in vacation mode until after Labor Day.

Evidence suggests that the fund-raising boost of debates is relatively greater for "lower tier" candidates, too. Underdogs also get a relatively bigger boost in coverage and stature from free network media than do front runners. Giuliani and Romney get plenty of free media without debates. The media might love the chance to make their narrative "fresh" with the plot twist of a McCain comeback or the storyline of a fast "start" by Fred Thompson. McCain did well in the earlier debates according to the media. It will be easy for them to declare him a winner if they are so inclined. Stories describing how Fred Thomson's debating style is polished by his acting experience also write themselves.

It's fear of falling, not of debating, that usually motivates front runners to dodge debates. Strategically, they may have a good argument. It's just not one they dare make in this debate about the YouTube debate. Instead they point to schedulers and snowmen.

UN To Sponsor Full-Scale Debate Among Climate Experts

From http://www.rttnews.com/FOREX/gblnews.asp?date=07/31/2007&item=6

UNGA To Hold First Informal Debate On Climate Change []

7/31/2007 2:53:46 AM The UN General Assembly is set to begin Tuesday its first ever plenary session on climate change to lay the groundwork for upcoming high-level international meetings in August on how to tackle the burning issue.

The New York meeting is being touted as "carbon neutral," since emissions from air travel to bring experts and the entire carbon-dioxide emissions of the UN headquarters will be offset by investment in a biomass fuel project in Kenya.

A UN statement said that the informal debate brings together prominent scientists, business leaders and UN officials "to consider how to translate the growing scientific consensus on climate change into a broad political consensus for action."

Another major climate change conference is scheduled for December in Bali, Indonesia.

President of General Assembly, Sheikha Haya Rashed while calling the issue as the greatest concern of our time, said that the debate highlights the political importance of addressing the issue of Climate change.

"We will need political action if we are to protect our environment, secure our planet and safeguard our future, for our children and generations to come," she added.

Debate Euros One Of World's Biggest Student Events

From http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=79589

European youth rallies to Turkey for Euro-debate

Monday, July 30, 2007

ISTANBUL - Turkish Daily News

Turkey's Koç University is to host European Universities Debate Championship (EUDC) 2007 between August 5 and 10 in Istanbul. Koç University Debate Club (KUDC) will organize the event.

EUDC is one of the 20 biggest student organizations in the world and EUDC 2007, will be the biggest non-sport student organization in Turkey. 500 participants from 80 universities including Oxford, Cambridge, The London School of Economics and Political Science will be debating the most recent and multi-dimensional issues of the time, including European Union, international law, human rights regime, economic globalization and environment.

Chairman of the KUDC Rıza Işık said that they wanted to host the championship in Turkey to create a debate culture in the country. “Debate is a very important platform for social and political policy making. However, in Turkey, it has a past of only 10 years. We are trying to establish a serious policy debate environment here as well,” Işık said.

President of Istanbul Greater Municipality Kadir Topbaş, European Parliamentarian Joost Lagendijk, Brussels Representative of Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen's Association (TÜSİAD) Bahadır Kaleağası are expected to observe the debates as guest members of the jury.

The championship will be organized with the support of Vehbi Koç Foundation, Istanbul Greater Municipality and private companies including Banvit, Efes Pilsen, Foster's, Doluca, Cola Turka and Golf Ice Cream.

New "Tabbie" Tab Program for WUDC Format

From klaas@vanschelven.com

Hello debaters,

First of all, sorry for cross posting. I think the subject of the mail actually does cross the different lists and can be justified as such.

In this email I'd like to:

• Introduce Tabbie BP Debating Tab Software
  
• Introduce its history
  
• Call to participate and share
• Claim the best current draw algorithm in the world
  
• Announce Tabbie 1.2
  

Tabbie is web based BP Debating Tabulation Software. It can be found and freely downloaded at:
http://tabbie.sourceforge.net/ . Promo snipplet of properties:

• Official. It uses the official WUDC rules to calculate its draw.
• Safe and stable - It's been tried in practice at a tournament as large as NTU Worlds 2004 with great success.
• Fair. Tabbie currently has the best known implementation worldwide of the draw algorithm, giving the most balanced distribution of positions in the debate to the teams. (More info)
• Scalable for large tournaments: It is web based, you can use multiple computers for inputting data.
• Easy. Things like customized adjudication sheets for the tab can be created in one click.
• Open and Free. Its source code is freely inspectable. You can inspect any file (like the Draw Algorithm), and modify or add anything you like. Download is free.
• Alive. As of July 2007 changes are being made to make it work even better.

History, State of the art, Uniting Tab Software I found Tabbie on Flynn's site when looking for a piece of software to run the IDC tournament we had last week and which ran very smoothly, partially thanks to Tabby (this message is strangely unrelated to IDC's bid for Euros today). I was looking for something stable, adaptable ( i.e. open) and cool (nice forms etc.). Tabbie turned out to have these properties, though installing it required more than average computer skill (i.e. fixing the whole thing up).

Looking around I noticed the following: The amount of different pieces of Tab Software that are produced once by some wizard and then left by the roadside after the wizard leaves is unfortunately quite high. As far as I know (based on googeling and flynn.debating.net) the current state of the art is such:

Cragie Tab - Excel - used a lot. (I personally don't want to mess around with excel)
Tournaman - Delphi - used a lot in Germany. (I didn't want a closed source system)
Zorro - online system - I have no idea how to get in
...
other systems seem even less maintained. However, I may miss some important systems here and would love to have them pointed out to me (and the community). In general, there are a lot of important tournament of which I have no idea which software they are using.

Tabbie seemed to fit into the "left by the roadside" pattern - it dates back to the NTU / Singapore Worlds 2004. I have no idea if anyone used it since. (I would like to thank Colm Flynn for preserving this excellent piece of software, when the original source had already long gone.) Anyway, I've dusted it off, provided some easier installation module and changed some things to my liking / understanding. The result can be inspected (live) at http://tabbie.sourceforge.net/run/

More importantly, I'd like to try to finally break this pattern of "use once" tab packages. This has been a bit of a spare-time activity and I am definitely not planning on monopolizing development. I have, therefore, created a repository at sourceforge.net (an open source platform). Anyone who wants to join - send me a mail and I'll put you on the developers list.

Participation - Specifically
Specifically, there is a lot that can still be done:

• I'm very interested to hear who is actually using Tabbie. Feedback of all kinds is very welcome.
  
• Tell us how easy/hard Tabbie was to install on your system. (Since Tabbie is Web Based, installation is more complicated than downloading an excel sheet or exe file. An installation guide is provided, but I would very much like to hear if people have trouble installing to get into contact with me so we can have a truly easy to install system.)
• Report any bugs
• Fix any bugs
  
• Request a feature
• Add nice pictures and colours
• Add stuff that you use in mail-merge like ways (powerpoints, pdf's etc)
  
• Add a feature yourself, and upload it
• Become a developer

As you can see, many of these things do not require either a long time commitment, or much programmers knowledge, so join in....

The Draw Algorithm:
To open up the debate I would like to claim the following: Tabbie currently possesses the best algorithm world wide that complies to WUDC rules. More about this claim can be found at http://tabbie.sourceforge.net/draw_algorithms.php (high technical level). I would like to invite anyone with a better algorithm to present it to the debating community. Also, I know that there are algorithms out there that are specifically not WUDC but could be interesting for some users. I'd love to see their source code.

Version 1.2.:

Specific changes for the newest version.

• The print module has been reorganized (cleaned up)
• The live demo now supports "one click pdf": ( http://tabbie.sourceforge.net/run/rest.php?result_type=pdf&function=adjudicator_sheets&param=1)
  

regards,
Klaas van Schelven


p.s.
Anyone who wants to use (parts of) this announcement on his/her debating site may do so.

International Debate Academy AND Tournament in Slovenia in November

See the website at http://debate.uvm.edu/idas2007.html

FIFTH INTERNATIONAL DEBATE ACADEMY SLOVENIA
IDAS 2007

THREE EVENTS:

WORKSHOP FOR UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

WORKSHOP FOR TRAINERS, COACHES AND TEACHERS

AN INTERNATIONAL TOURNAMENT

For university students and trainers/teachers
17th – 25th November 2007, Ormož, Slovenia

Organized by:
ZIP – Za in proti (ZIP), Pro et Contra, Institute for the Culture of Dialogue, Slovenia
WDI – World Debate Institute, University of Vermont, USA

Webpage, registration form, scholarship form: http://debate.uvm.edu/idas2007.html

What is it about?
It is the most international British Parliamentary Debate Training in the world with a distinguished training group. Attendees have come from over 26 different debating nations. The program involves a rigorous combination of lectures, skill exercise sessions and two practice debates per day. A major tournament will take place at the end. This year the tournament at the end of the Academy is open to all interested university debaters, so everybody who does not have time to come for the whole week, can join us only for the tournament.

FACULTY FOR 2007

Alfred C. Snider, University of Vermont, USA, Director, World Debate Institute
Loke Wing Fatt, SAID, Singapore, WUDC breaking judge
Jens Fischer, Berlin Debating Union, Germany, Europeans DCA
Neill Harvey-Smith, UK, Former WUDC Finalist (invited)
Jessica Harvey-Smith, UK, 2006 World Masters Champion (invited)
Branka Josimov, ACCD, Serbia
Branka Marušic, HDD, Croatia
Rhydian Morgan, UK, CA Euros Warm-Up
Sam Nelson, Cornell University, USA
Steve Llano, St. Johns University, USA
Bojana Skrt, Za in proti, zavod za kulturo dialoga, Slovenia
More announced later… LOOK FOR ADDITIONAL UK FACULTY!

Dates for the whole Academy
Arrival: Saturday, the 17th, opening of the Academy at 5 p.m.
Departure: Sunday, the 25th late afternoon

Dates only for the tournament
Arrival: Thursday, the 22nd evening
Departure: Sunday, the 25th late afternoon

Who can apply?

Students: For the whole Academy, everybody interested in debating is welcome, and can be beginners or they can be very experienced. The training will be divided into different tracks, based on the participant’s needs and experience, but reflecting realistic pedagogical needs.

Students: For the tournament only. Come and join us for spirited competition and fellowship. For the tournament only you apply as a team. One judge per 1 or 2 teams, 2 judges per 3 or 4 teams.

Trainers and Teachers: We will also have a track for trainers, coaches, team organizers and club trainers that will be far more flexible. See how debate training is done by those experienced, attebnd seminars on materials and technique, learn adjudication and a lot more.

Participation fee
The whole Academy (it covers 8 days full board – accommodation/food, training and materials) 200 EURO
Tournament only (it covers 3 days full board – accommodation/food, tournament expenses) 100 EURO
The payment should be made in cash on arrival.

Scholarships
There will be some scholarships available. The scholarship application procedure will be announced in the next months. Scholarships will not be available for travel.

Application deadline: October, 15th 2007
Spaces are limited. If there is too much demand selection will be made based on regional diversity and experience.

Organizing committee:
Director of the Academy: Bojana Skrt, ZIP, bojana.skrt@siol.net
Head of the Training: Alfred C. Snider, World Debate Institute, University of Vermont, alfred.snider@uvm.edu

To Register and For Information:
Director of communication and registration: Sintija Dobrotinšek, ZIP, sintijadobrotinsek@yahoo.co.uk

APPLY NOW - DO NOT GET LEFT BEHIND!

APPLICATION FORM

SCHOLARSHIP FORM (COMING SOON)

Korea University Open Mini IV

From mail@kudc.org

Champion: Team "D", composed of Soo-hyun Yoo, Sumi Park, and

Sungkwan Jung

Runner-up: Team "B," composed of Heejin Ahn, Mikyoung Kim, and Jieun
Yoo

Best Speakers

1. Youjin Chung

2. Sumi Park

3. Taehyun Kim

Motions:

Rd. 1: Justice & War

THW reject the current global ban on the use of cluster bombs.

THBT terrorism is a legitimate means of warfare.

THBT every country should have the internationally recognized right
to take unilateral military action.

Rd 2: Sports & Entertainment

THW require corporate sponsorships for sporting events to be
proportionate to its sponsorship for a comparable women's sporting
event.

THW punish the teams for their fans' misbehaviour.

THS boycotting sporting events on political grounds.

Rd 3: Children & Education

THW spank other people's children.

THBT children's stories should have happy endings.

THW ban books featuring gay parents from elementary school
libraries.

Final Round: History & Reflections

THW require Turkey to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide as a
condition for its accession to the European Union.

TH regrets the demise of the Soviet Union.

THBT Africa's wealth in valuable natural resources has been more of
a curse than a blessing.

Micronesia Stages "Law Day" Debate

FSM stands for "Federated States of Micronesia"

From http://www.fsmgov.org/press/pr07270f.htm

Kosrae team wins Law Day debate 2007

Palikir, POHNPEI (FSM Supreme Court): July 27, 2007 - The 2007 FSM law day was successfully held in Colonia, Yap on July 12, 2007. Kosrae State won the 2007 national debate, Chuuk was the first runner-up and Pohnpei and Yap tied for third position.

The FSM law day was first organize and held on July 12, 1991 to commemorate the first ten years of existence of the supreme court of the FSM. It has since become an annual activity of the court. Each year, a coordinating committee is appointed comprising employees of the court and one member is appointed by the President of the FSM and one appointed by the Speaker of Congress.

Also each year, the committee explores a number of possible topics of national significance to be debated by high school students throughout the Federated States of Micronesia. This year the topic selected by the committee was: "be it resolved that the FSM Constitution be amended to provide for an office of special prosecutor for the Federated States of Micronesia."

Each year a state championship debate in held in each state to determine which school should represent that state in the national debate championship. The state champion debaters representing the State of Kosrae were Ms. Evangeline Ching and Ms. Sepe Waguk from Kosrae high school and Ms. Martha Timothy was their coach. Representing the state of Pohnpei were Mr. Hetler Ham and Mr. Darwin Shelten from Madolenihmw high school and Ms. Mayumi Albert was their coach. Representing the State of Chuuk were Ms. Lorraine Enlet and Ms. Adina Ruben from Berea Christian high school and Mr. Joe Enlet was their coach. And representing the host state of yap were Ms. Valynna Gippen and Ms. Jerica Buthungligorad from Yap high school and Mr. Joselito Despi was their coach. Each of the student debaters in the national debate will receive from the FSM court not less than $1,000.00 in scholarship for their post secondary education at a higher institution of their choosing.

The national debate held on July 12 of each year is important because it gives the high school students an opportunity to involve themselves with the legal system and it also gives an opportunity to the general public to get involve in issues of national significant for the FSM. For a nation of law there is no title higher than that of citizens.

The President of the Federated States of Micronesia, His Excellency Manny Mori proclaimed July 12, 2007, in recognition of the significant events that have occurred in the history of this country on the 12th of July, a nation founded on the principals of democracy, as law day in the FSM and urged all citizens, residents, government agencies, and other organizations to join in recognizing law day 2007 as another historic event in our nation's history.

The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the FSM, the Honorable Andon l. Amaraich, Governor of Yap State, the Honorable Sebastian Anefal, Speaker of the Yap State Legislature, Chief Justice of the Yap State Court, Chief Justice of the Kosrae State Court, and the Republic of Palau Ambassador to Taiwan, the Honorable Johnson Toribiong were among the dignitaries attended the 2007 FSM law day activities. The Governor of Yap delivered the welcoming remarks followed by a special remark by the Vice Speaker of the Seventh Yap State Legislature, the Honorable Sabino Sauchomal. The Honorable Martin G. Yinug, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the FSM in Yap, delivered the closing remarks concluding the opening ceremony. The first semi-final debate followed the opening ceremony between Pohnpei for the proposition and Kosrae against the proposition. The second semi-final debate was between Yap for the proposition and Chuuk against the proposition. In the final debate in the afternoon, Chuuk argued for the proposition while Kosrae again argued against the proposition. Debaters representing Kosrae won the 2007 national debate, Chuuk was the first runner-up and Pohnpei and Yap tied for third position.

In addition to the debate this year, the embassy of the United States of America in collaboration with the Supreme Court of the FSM sponsored an essay contest of all high school students in the FSM on the topic of "why should I vote in elections?" The winners of the essay contest was Mr. Vincent Neth of Xavier High School in Chuuk and the winning essay was read out on national radio on July 12, 2007 in Colonia, Yap.

For further information on this release, please contact:

FSM Office of the President
Public Information: Press, Radio, Video
P.O Box 34
Palikir Station, Pohnpei, FM 96941
Tel.: (691) 320-2548/2092
Fax.: (691) 320-4356
e-mail: fsmpio.fm
http://www.fsmpio.fm/

Debating and Filipino Youth

From
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2007/july/15/yehey/career/20070715car3.html

Sunday, July 15, 2007

NOTE VERBALE
By Jaime N. Soriano

Debating and the Filipino youth


School debate or debating is a formal method of interactive argumentation in which two opposite parties engage each other to present their side either for or against a proposition within a predefined framework and rules of interaction.

Debate is about critical thinking and every debater knows that he or she is under obligation to present his or her side of the proposition regardless of personal belief, bias or opinion. Critical thinking in debate consists of the intellectual process of analyzing propositions that have been offered as true, reflecting upon the specific definition or meaning of the statements, providing evidence or examining offered evidence, and advancing structured reasoning to form a judgment that could very well support a case.

Debate is also about persuasion. And every debater should know that he or she must master the art and science of public speaking particularly in a competitive environment, also known today as “forensics.” The term was derived from the Latin word “forensis,” meaning “of the forum.” As in any form communication, a debater should put into heart five basic elements in his or her manner and style of speaking, which experts express in this wise—”who is saying what to whom using what medium with what effects?” A good case oftentimes falls because of the inability of the debater to persuade.

School debating trains, molds and cultivates in students the essential characteristics that would prepare them to properly deal with the own lives in their adulthood. And these are a good sense of confidence, a vibrant personality, the ability to express one self well and clearly, the sense of working with a team, and most of all the love for learning and knowledge. A debater is always, and needs to be, well-informed of the goings-on in the real world.

Unfortunately, only a handful of the Filipino youth today are attracted to debating. They probably think that it is an elite club for intellectuals or perhaps they tend to underestimate their personal capabilities conveniently forgetting that school debate could be an important part of learning, which they would never learn and imbibe inside the confines of the classroom.

In the recently concluded and the prestigious World Schools Debating Championship (WSDC) in Seoul, South Korea, 156 world-class high-school debaters from 35 countries competed for the crown to be the 2007 world champion, which was dominated by Australia since 2003. In the final match, Scotland unanimously won over Singapore.

The Philippine team composed of James Soriano and twin brother Carlo and Joey Felizardo representing Ateneo High School, Peterson Poon of Xavier School of Quezon City, Jeanina Tee of Immaculate Conception Academy, and Pia Ranada of Miriam High School entered the octofinals as the fourteenth best team of the world before it lost to Hong Kong in a knock-out match. The team was also adjudged as third place in the English as a Second Language (ESL) Category of the tournament. In the 19-year history of the tournament, the country had its best performance this year thus far.

In this year’s Australasian Championship held at the Universiti Teknologi Mara in Malaysia held almost simultaneously with the 2007 WSDC, college debaters Charisse Borromeo and Leloy Claudio, both of Ateneo de Manila University, ranked as the sixth and tenth best speakers, respectively, of the competition. The last time the best speaker award was held by the Philippines was in 1998 by Praba Ganesan of De La Salle University-Manila.

The Ateneo de Manila University though is the undefeated champion of the Asian Universities Debating Championship since 2005 with Filipino college debaters, Roland Glenn Tuazon, Leloy Claudio, Charisse Borromeo, Miko Biscocho and Jess Raymond Lopez as tournament best speakers.

Debating is certainly one of the various school activities that the Filipino youth could very well excel in the global arena. And when that happens, it is not only good for the country but more importantly to the future of the Filipino youth.

(www.soriano-ph.com.)

Korea Wins Karl Popper World Title 8-1 Over South Africa

From http://idebate.blogspot.com/

The KPDWC is over. The new World Champion in Karl Popper Debate is South Korea! The actual team in question is Korea 1, consisting of Woon Joon Jang, Habin Chung and Yunsieg Paik Kim. The win was a decisive 8 - 1 in favor of Korea 1 over South Africa.

Congratulations to both teams for a splendid job!

Scotland Salutes Its Own World Champion Team

From http://www.thecourier.co.uk/output/2007/07/12/newsstory9983689t0.asp

Debating triumph for young Scots

The young debaters celebrate their success, (front) Neil Dewar, Joanna Farmer, Netan Dogra, (back) Calum Jones and Stuart Cullen.

By Kirsty Russell

FIVE YOUNG Scottish debaters received the ultimate accolade after triumphing in the grand final of the World Schools Debating Championships.

The pupils, who were selected from across Scotland, beat Singapore in the final of the championships in Seoul, South Korea, yesterday morning.

The team, comprising Neil Dewar (Dundee High School) Netan Dogra (Grove Academy, Dundee) Joanna Farmer (Robert Gordon’s College, Aberdeen) Stuart Cullen and Calum Jones (both George Heriot’s School, Edinburgh), had a gruelling route to the final, having debated in eight preliminary rounds to determine their place in the knock-out stages, from where they proceeded to defeat the US, Hong Kong in the quarter-final and England in the semi-final.

Last night First Minister Alex Salmond said, “Congratulations to the Scottish Schools Debating Team on a fantastic victory. It shows that having a guid Scots tongue can lead to success on the world stage.

“It’s exciting to see young Scots raising the standard, and winning at the very highest level of international competition.

“Their talent is one of Scotland’s great strengths, and I hope that more young people will be inspired to make the most of their potential.”

The World Schools Debating Championships is the most prestigious debating tournament in the world for young people.

Each year up to 40 nations meet in a tournament that challenges both their abilities to research topics and to think on their feet.

The young Scots had to debate a diverse range of topics including holocaust denial, the extent to which governments should be able to limit scientific research, US military bases in Asia and, in the final, nuclear proliferation, with the motion that ‘This house would scrap the nuclear non- proliferation treaty’.

In the final, which was described by one of the co-chief adjudicators as “a great contest, and one of the best finals I’ve seen”, the Scots successfully defeated the motion, securing the win on “a close but clear decision”.

A Scottish team last reached the final in 2001, but the last Scottish win was recorded in 1999.

Neil said, “We did far better than we thought we would here—we’re absolutely delighted and we’ve had a brilliant time.”

The win is particularly notable for Grove pupil Netan Dogra, who earlier this year successfully debated in the House of Lords with Grove partner Kenny Nicoll, winning the International Mace in the House of Lords—a competition for the Scottish, English, Irish and Welsh national champions.

For Neil, Netan and Joanna, this win is a continuation of a debating career in which The Courier’s own Junior Schools Debating Competition has played a part.

Netan won the competition in 2004, Joanna reached the final in 2005, and Neil spoke in the competition in 2003.

Brunei National Tournament for Schools

From http://www.brunei-online.com/bb/fri/jul27h20.htm

BEnA debate competition for schools

By Sonia K.

The Brunei Energy Association (BEnA) will be holding the BEnA debate Competition 2007 opened to all schools in Brunei Darussalam. Since its formation in 2002, BEnA has been active in the actualisation of its objectives through activities and organised events and plays a major role in especially in the development of the energy industry and in dissemination and giving emphasis in energy conservation and efficiency to the nation.
BEnA also aims to enhance the understanding of the public about the conservation and efficient utilisation of energy to the nation. Spearheading the team of Council Members of the Brunei Energy Association (BEnA), the organiser of BEnA Debate Competition 2007, is BEnA's President Haji Zainal Abidin bin Haji Mohd Ali, supported by all BEnA Corporate Member Companies representatives and individual members, and BEnA's Honorary Advisor, Pehin Orang Kaya Seri Utama Dato Seri Setia Awang Haji Yahya, the Minister of Energy.

Each year BEnA included in its activities and events, a competition involving all schools and colleges in Brunei Darussalam. This is meeting with some of BEnA's objectives, the advance knowledge and learning, and stimulate research in the areas of energy technology in collaboration with higher learning institutions, to enhance the understanding of the public and its representatives about the conservation and efficient utilisation of energy to the nation.

The theme for this Debate Competition is "Renewable Energy" for which debaters are encouraged to research and debate on the various topic headings in this context. Championing this event are the BEnA Council Members, Mr Mohd Suffian Hj Zainal Abidin of Brunei Shell Marketing and Mr Law Xiao Song of Adinin Works and Engineering, in which both companies are corporate members of the Brunei Energy Association. The judges shall be BEnA council members, along with Dr Lim Chee Ming of Universiti Brunei Darussalam.

More than 48 students from various schools have submitted Debate Competition entry forms. 12 teams from various schools have been selected into the Qualifying Round which will be held on July 28, 2007, Quarter Final Round on August 4, 2007, Semi-Final Round on August 13, 2007. The Debate Competition will be held at the Institut Perkhidmatan Awam (IPA), Kg Rimba, from 8.30am until 12.20pm. It is anticipated that the debate competition would attract more than 120 guests at every round of competition.

The Grand Final Debate Competition will be held on August 25, 2007, at the Indera Kayangan Ballroom, The Empire Hotel and Country Club. All debaters will be presented with an Appreciation Award, and finalist teams and the champion school shall win attractive prizes, sponsored by the Brunei Energy Association and its corporate members.

Entrance to the Debate Competition at IPA is free. For further information, contact BEnA Secretariat Office at 2650117 or email Brunei.energy@gmail.com.

International Physics Tournament Uses Debate Techniques

"It's every bit as much a debate tournament as it is a physics tournament."

From http://www.sheboygan-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070727/SHE0101/707270592/1973

Posted July 27, 2007

Einstein in training: Sheboygan's Evan Fulop one of the world's best young physicists
By Belia Ortega
Sheboygan Press staff

Evan Fulop of Sheboygan is among the top high-school physics students in the world.


Fulop, 17, competed with the 2007 USA Young Physicists' International Team in Seoul, Korea, earlier this month and helped the team take fourth place in the 20th International Young Physicists' Tournament competition.


Australia won first place in the competition.


"Yeah, we did pretty good. We had a few random problems that you can't really predict, but on the whole I think we did better than the U.S. team's ever done before," Fulop said.


The U.S. team placed seventh last year.


The five members of the U.S. team were from schools in Los Angeles, Westchester County in New York and Woodberry Forest School in Virginia, from which Fulop graduated in June.


Fulop and other members had to solve two high-level physics problems in February in order to be chosen for the team, said Greg Jacobs, U.S. tournament director and a physics teacher at Woodberry.


The team members spent the rest of the year at their school researching 17 physics problems with their teacher. The group met for training sessions throughout the school year and its members were coached on how to present, support and debate their results.


The problems were selected for the international competition by officials a year in advance of the competition, and all the teams presented their results during the competition, Jacobs said.


"It's every bit as much a debate tournament as it is a physics tournament," Jacobs said. "You have to be prepared to defend yourself against these other nations and these other teams as well as jury of professional physicists."


Fulop and his teammates competed in five rounds over four days. After each round, the group would reconvene each night to strategize, Jacobs said.


During the fifth round, the team tied for third with Korea, but Korea moved on to the semifinals and went on to place second, followed by New Zealand in third.


"I'm very proud of them. It was amazing that they did so well," Jacobs said. "I think they maximized their potential. I couldn't have done any better when I was in high school."


For Fulop, one of the hardest things about being in a country where most of the population doesn't speak English was ordering authentic Korean food.


"I'm not really good at language. I had to learn the language of pointing and grunting," Fulop said. "I wanted to get some really good Korean food, but they always tried to serve us American-style food that wasn't really that good."


Tim Fulop, 46, Evan's father, said he's proud of his son for his accomplishments.


"We very much appreciate the hard work that he put into it," he said. "I think with all training and the time at school, I think it was about three or four weeks, so it was a big investment on his part. In some ways we think it was his way of kind of giving back to the school."


Besides being at the top of his game and ready for physics at Dartmouth in the fall, Evan Fulop said he also took away some life lessons. A big part of the physics competition was about how he presented himself and communicated with others, he said.


"A lot of it comes down to interpersonal stuff, like how well you can present your work and how receptive people are to it because of your manner and that kind of thing," he said. "It's just a thing to keep when in mind you're dealing with people. There are more levels that come into play than you realize at first."

Korea vs. South Africa in KPDC Final of IDEA Youth Forum

From http://idebate.blogspot.com/

South Africa and Korea in the Finals!

Well, it is official. Hours before the dawn of the last day of the KPDC, here are the results from the eliminations. South Africa and Korea hit it off in the finals.

Koreans Dominate at IDEA Youth Forum Tournament

Three of four semifinal teams are from Korea with the other from South Africa.

From Arminda Lathrop sent by Marjan stojnev@gmail.com

"Water, Water Everywhere, But Not a Drop To Drink"

We've just entered the semi-finals at the Karl Popper Debate Championships, and the above statement is the resolution for semis. The teams advancing to the semis are Korea 1, Korea 4, Korea 6, and South Africa. It has been an intense day of debating, but we're looking forward to the Country Expo tonight. I heard a rumor that Ukraine brought good vodka for the expo…

I'm at the IDEA Youth Forum in Trest, Czech Republic. People here refer to Trest as a small village, but, coming from Duino, small is relative! The weather here is actually cool, which is kind of nice after being in Duino. Today, we're wrapping up the quarter and semifinals and holding the finals in Prague tomorrow. For the latest on the Youth Forum, go to idebate.blogspot.com, see materials on our Wiki at www.idebate.org/wiki, and listen to IDEA radio. ~Arminda

Gay Rights Group Explores New Aspects of Gay "Marraige" in Public Debate

From http://www.ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=2027

E. Bay gays to debate marriage
NEWS
Published 07/26/2007

by Seth Hemmelgarn

A debate on gay marriage in Berkeley Monday, July 30 will feature two longtime gay civil rights activists arguing on a side that may surprise some people.

Tom Brougham, whom many credit with establishing the concept of domestic partnerships in the 1980s, and Leland Traiman, the founder of Rainbow Flag Health Services and Sperm Bank, will argue against pushing for gay marriage. Representatives of Marriage Equality USA will argue for it. The debate will be held at the East Bay LGBT Democratic Club's membership meeting. Both Brougham and Traiman are past officers of the club.

PHOTO: Leland Traiman.

Traiman and Brougham said they support equal benefits for same-sex couples, but simply using the label "marriage" doesn't grant additional rights.

"There's a psychological and emotional benefit, but in terms of real, tangible changes in benefits and assumptions under the law, nothing is going to really change," Brougham said. In California, same-sex couples already have all the rights the state has the power to grant them, and now it's up to the federal government to grant more rights, he said.

Pamela Brown, national policy director for MEUSA, said the word marriage does make a difference. "We're fighting for ... same-sex couples to have the same rights, the same dignity, and the same respect as any other couple. The only way we get that is through marriage."

Brown referred to an alimony case in Orange County, where a judge this week decided domestic partnerships are cohabitation, not marriage. The case is "a perfect example of the lack of equal rights and respect that we get," she said.

Traiman, who uses the term "husband" rather than a "partner" to describe the man he's raising his two children with, said he supports marriage "philosophically," but said having same-sex marriage in California would hurt.

"If we re-label it 'marriage,' a political hurricane will hit this state," he said. Families across the state would lose benefits. California's domestic partner law covers hospital visitation, health care coverage, inheritance and adoption, among other issues.

Brougham said much of the progress that's been made since the 1980s has been lost as the push for marriage has energized opponents. "The strategy of directly going for it has been a great disaster," Brougham said.

Christopher Edelson, state legislative director for the Human Rights Campaign, said 45 states have constitutional amendments or statutes prohibiting same-sex marriage. In addition, New York, New Jersey, and the District of Columbia have had court cases holding that marriage may only be between a man and a woman. New Jersey has established civil unions, but some businesses refuse to honor the state law when it comes to offering benefits for the partners of gay and lesbian employees. Some of the state constitutional amendments have been interpreted to deny rights to people in "a same-sex relationship similar to marriage," he said in an e-mail.

Kriss Worthington, the president of the East Bay LGBT Democratic Club and a Berkeley City Council member, said he supports the push for marriage.

According to Edelson, two of the Democratic presidential candidates – Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel – support same-sex marriage, and the rest support civil unions. Brougham and Traiman said more energy should be spent encouraging the federal government to grant full rights to same-sex couples, even if that's not called marriage.

For more information, visit http://www.equalitywithoutmarriage.org, which Traiman created, or http://www.marriageequality.org. The debate will take place at Plearn Thai Cuisine, at 2050 University Avenue in Berkeley at 5:30 p.m. All are welcome to attend, but only paid-up members may vote on club matters. For more information, contact Worthington at (510) 548-8796.

"Rocket Science" Movie Features Debate Setting

From http://www.fangoria.com/fearful_feature.php?id=4662

I have no idea what ROCKET SCIENCE, my first movie at the Hall on Thursday, is doing in Fantasia, as this oddball youth comedy has to do with high-school debating, not space travel. But I’m very glad it’s here; this is, to quote a couple of fellow Fantasians, the sort of quietly eccentric and exceedingly charming film Wes Anderson used to make before he lost his bearings in recent years. Young female lead Anna Kendrick previously stood out in the ensemble of CAMP, and she’s marvelous here as Ginny, a driven, fast-talking student who recruits socially awkward stutterer Hal Hefner (Reece Daniel Thompson) to partner with her on the debate team. No one like Ginny has even paid this kind of attention to Hal before, and he inevitably falls for her, with ramifications that neither he nor the audience can see coming.

The terrific and distinctive lead performances by Thompson and Kendrick are surrounded by a wealth of distinctive supporting characters and details, among them some of the more unique instrumental song covers you’ll ever here. Writer/director Jeremy Blitz previously explored the precocious intellectualism of youth in his hit documentary SPELLBOUND, and here he draws on his own teen past—as a debater and stutterer—to create a world and a scenario that seem wholly fresh. Check ROCKET SCIENCE out when Picturehouse opens it theatrically next month. The feature is preceded by LA MINE, a blackly amusing short by French filmmaker Sébastien Le Gallo about a young man who gets an unexpected and potentially deadly surprise when he goes for a walk in the woods.

Students Organize Middle School Debate Training

From http://news.mywebpal.com/news_tool_v2.cfm?show=localnews&pnpID=351&NewsID=824563&CategoryID=11091&on=1

Photo: Middle school students at NJFL tourney

Camp offers rebuttal to a vapid vacation
07/25/07
By Scott Weybright

While summer camps evoke images of sports, campfires and fun and games, Anna-Lisa Macon decided to offer a different sort of camp this summer.

The rising senior at Catonsville High School founded the Catonsville High School Summer Debate Institute, a week-long day camp for middle school students to learn about speech and debate while improving their reading, writing, research and public speaking skills.

Macon, a member of the school's debate team the past three years, started the project to earn a Girl Scout Gold Award.

The 17-year-old has been in the Scouting program since age 5.

To earn a Girl Scout Gold Award, a project must meets a need in a Girl Scout's community, can be continued in the future and creates change, according the Girl Scouts Web site.

Macon said she wants the camp's participants to get an idea of what speech and debate entail.

She said students will practice with each other in classrooms at the school, work on group projects and hear guest speakers such as Tom Durkin, director of the Baltimore Catholic Forensics League, and Ron Bratt, founder of Capitol Debate, a high school debate institute.

"The campers are really going to get a taste of everything," Macon, 17, said.

The camp runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Aug. 6-10 at Catonsville High.

Campers will practice the three competitive types of debate, go to a dinner theater one evening and on the camp's last day enjoy a few hours in the pool at the nearby Western Family Branch of the YMCA on Rolling Road.

Macon wants to enroll a maximum of 15 students and 12 students from Baltimore and Anne Arundel counties as well as Baltimore City, had already signed up as of July 21.

The camp costs $25 for the week.

Macon said she visited several middle schools in the region to recruit interested students.

She also recruited a few members from Catonsville High's debate team to help out during the camp.

Rising senior Colin Stanton and rising sophomores Sam Gruber and Rebecca Paris will be counselors.

Rising junior Kelly Jordan will be the assistant director.

Jordan, 16, said she's excited about her role in the new camp.

She said Stanton talked her into joining the debate team early in her freshman year, although she said she's been a natural since childhood.

"I was very argumentative," said Jordan, who qualified for the state tournament last year in Lincoln-Douglas debate.

Macon was the state champion in Lincoln-Douglas debates and earned a trip to the national competition in Houston in April.

Lincoln-Douglas debates are one on one on a pre-determined topic and involve giving a prepared speech and attacking and rebutting the opponent's point of view.

"Sometimes it's hard if you agree a lot with one side and then you have to switch and do the other one," she said.

"I think it's actually helped me think because usually I just had one opinion and I would stick to it."

Macon said the camp should help students even if they don't continue with debate when they get to high school.

"The whole point of my camp and my gold award was to bring reading scores up," she said.

"I think debate can be used by anyone to improve writing and speaking."

Adult supervisors at the camp include Catonsville High School speech and debate coach Carl Klein; Macon's mother, Ava-Lisa, and Anna-Lisa's grandmother.

Pakistan Students at World Debate Institute

On a grant from the US Department of State seventeen young Pakistani students are at the University of Vermont for four weeks attending the Study of the United States-Institutes for Student Leaders. After a rigorous selection process these students were brought to the USA and are at the University of Vermont while other groups at at eight other colleges and universities. Find more information at https://sharepoint.uvm.edu/sites/ce/global/isi/_layouts/viewlsts.aspx

This week they are attending a special World Debate Institute session held just for them. The goal is to sharpen communication skills as well as familiarizing them with some of the discourse habits of Vermont, including small group discussion and larger town meeting simulations. The instructors are Alfred Snider, director of WDI, and John Meany, director of forensics at the Claremont Colleges in California.

After one day of instruction in public speaking and argumentation on Monday, students delivered critiqued speeches on Tuesday morning and then after lunch formed small group discussion pods and began working on their presentation for the next day. On Wednesday morning the entire crew was at Vermont Community Access Media http://www.vermontcam.org/ . They were there to tape three episodes of the local television program "Flashpoint," offered by the University of Vermont debate program, the Lawrence Debate Union.

The students staged three 28-minute discussions on three topics: Stereotypes of Muslims and Americans, Modern role of the United Nations and finally Justifications for intervention. The program tapings went very well and they will soon be available at the Flashpoint website http://flashpointtv.blogspot.com/ .

Tomorrow the students will have their town meeting simulation, but the topic of it will be an international one and they will have some assigned roles.

Follow the Action with the World Debate Institute Blog

Find it at http://worlddebateinstitute.blogspot.com/

Updated every couple of days.

Thus site will also provide updates for WDI-related sessions in Europe and Asia.

World Debate Institute Underway in Vermont

HIGH SCHOOL POLICY VIDEOS NOW AVAILABLE

A happy team at WDI

The lectures providing background as well as debate ground for the 2007-2008 national high school debate topic about public assistance to sub-Saharan Africa are now available online.

Go to http://www.uvm.edu/~debate/watch/?M=D and look for files like

http://www.uvm.edu/~debate/watch/wdi07hspoltopic1.m4v
http://www.uvm.edu/~debate/watch/wdi07hstopic2.m4v
http://www.uvm.edu/~debate/watch/wdi07hstopic3.m4v

You will find three-part lectures about the topic by Gordie Miller and Jackie Massey.

Watch them all. Check back here for more links.

WORLD SCHOOLS LECTURES NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE

This is a lecture by Bojana Skrt of Slovenia. It was the opening lecture of the World Schools Debate Workshop at the World Debate Institute. Others will follow. The World Schools format is rapidly becoming more and more popular for competition outside of the championship itself.

There are two sizes, one fairly small (36.9 MB) , and the other fairly large (podcast 399 MB).

Right click to download, click to watch while downloading, best viewed with QuickTime or iTunes.
Small file: http://www.uvm.edu/~debate/watch/wdi07wsdc1format.mov
Large file: http://www.uvm.edu/~debate/watch/wdi07wsdc1format.m4v

WORLD SCHOOLS DEBATE WORKSHOP

Senior faculty members: Peejay Garcia, Korea National Coach, James Probert, Head of the Center for Speech and Debate at the English Speaking Union in London and Bojana Skrt, workshop director and Slovenia National Coach

As you may or may not know the World Schools Debate format uses a mixture of prepared topics and impromptu topics. Half of the topics are announced in advanced and it is assumed that the students will do substantial research and brainstorming in building their cases. For the impromptu topics they get a dictionary, one almanac and one hour to, among the team, decide what to argue and which strategies to employ.

The topics for this session are listed below, and they are picked day by day, and not all of them will be used.

IMPROMPTU
This house would ban the serving of junk food in the schools.
This house would lower the voting age to 16.
This house would introduce 21 years as minimum drinking age.
This house would ban elective cosmetic surgeries.
This house believes that current media portrayal of women does more harm than good.
TH would broadcast executions.
This house would have harsher sentences for celebrity criminals.
TH would ban religious symbols in state schools.
TH believes cultural artifacts should be returned to the countries of origin.
TH believes marriage is an outdated concept.

PREPARED
This house would negotiate with terrorists.
This house would apologize for colonialism.
This house would make reparations for slavery.
This house should abandon civilian use of nuclear power.
This house believes hate speech should become a crime.
This house believes that civil liberties must be restricted in the interests of security.
This house believes free trade harms more than helps developing countries
This house would substantially decrease agriculture subsidies.
This house would tie world bank aid to women's rights.
This house believes Jerusalem should become an independent city.
This house should send armed forces to stop Darfur crisis.
This house should support a Kurdish state.


HIGH SCHOOL POLICY DEBATE CAMP USES ACADEMIC RIGOR


Here at the World Debate Institute the High School Policy Debate Workshop has achieved their goals of producing an excellent set of evidenced arguments for the first wave. Gordie Miller's group was first in the race to the finish line with his Agency for International development good/bad file was a basic one people need to have. Others followed, including a huge critique of development discourse argument produced by her students, David Register's group finished their female genital cutting affirmative, and Jackie Massey's group finished their affirmative case on providing therapy for sub-Saharan African victims of landmines.

We had an exceptionally long practice debate on Friday. We decided that we would devote the entire afternoon to a "stop-and-go" debate where at each stage of the debate you advise students, give guidance and then repeat some speeches. The results seemed to be excellent as the student felt it was a strong learning experience -- learning by doing and cooperation.

The students deserved the afternoon excursion to downtown Burlington they got on Saturday.

Debate Coach Scores Presidential Candidates Debate

From http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ross-smith/a-debate-coachs-perspect_b_57487.html

A Debate Coach's Perspective on Tonight's "Winners and Losers"
Posted July 23, 2007 | 07:03 PM (EST)

My task tonight is to assess the debaters from the perspective of a debate coach and professional academic debate judge. But most of the focus is on the questions tonight, the "YouTubification" of the candidate debate process. Count me in the camp that argues that tonight's biggest winner will prove, in the long run, to be the public in our democracy. My proof is before my eyes as I sit in a room with 80 teen-aged students from across the United States and Europe, gathered to watch the debate and assess the quality of the questions. Some of them have submitted their own questions and all have been learning about debate and the art of asking good questions.

Tonight's questions were actually tougher than many of the softballs and generalities in the earlier debates: slavery reparations, gay marriage and religion, and whether troops are "dying in vain" are tough. The comparative questions, requiring candidates to address a distinction between themselves and an opponent are also tough tests. Good questions make the job of the critic easier since they demand more of the debaters.

Caveat Emptor:
However, my job has been far from easy. Usually I would be joining my students and fellow coaches in the DebateScoop liveblog and then taking my sweet time to write up a judgment piece for posting much later in the night or the next day. So, consider this a reaction piece, as opposed to a final judgment. Please engage me in the comments and debate about the debate with me. It's what I love and the best way for us to learn together to do our jobs as citizen debate judges in a democracy.

Criteria:
To judge the answers as a debate coach means two very different things and I'll try to do both here. First, coaches teach debaters to artfully employ certain techniques. So, we can rate the candidates in technical categories. The second, more important and challenging, lesson is to focus on the "big picture." In rhetoric and argumentation, the metaphor more useful than the visual of the "big picture or the "forest and the trees" is actually the narrative, the story. A winning debater must recognize what the story is, where it is, and where they want to take it.

Summary judgment:
Before diving into the details (and because many may already be so impatient to know who I thought "won") I will summarize, without evidence, my judgment. The best technical performances was by Richardson. Next I would group Hillary and Kucinich. Obama and Edwards were next. Then Dodd, then Biden. I confess I paid little attention to Gravel as an answerer. His role was more that of one more YouTube questioner.

In terms of the narrative, Richardson and Edwards were the biggest winners. Kucinich actually helped himself by moving away from his role as part iconoclast, part class clown, and sounding more moderate and serious. Hillary did not let the narrative move against her. Obama may have reinforced both the positive part of his role in the story as well as the negatives. Dodd had to change the story that casts him as an earnest and genial Senator. He did not. Biden needed to add "leader" and "mature" to his "straight talker" role, but went overboard by essentially calling a citizen insane. Topping it off with a sexually charged reference to Kucinich's wife just brings the story of Biden the bombastic guy who talks before he thinks roaring back. He turned a potential win into a loss. In competitive debate we teach students that the last rebuttals are key, and that a debate is never over until the last opportunity to lose it is gone. The debate needed to end sooner for Biden.


Technical categories:
1) Debate coaches call it "front loading." Get to the meat of your answer early in your response. Start with what you must fit into the short time alloted then add as many supporting details as you have time for. Journalists might say, "Don't bury the lead." Richardson reversed his earlier performances 180 degrees. He went straight to the answer and then added detail, support, and links to other issues. Obama had a little difficulty as he often does in this category . He started at "Tuskegee Airmen" to get to national service, for instance. But he was good on the question of talking to enemy leaders, starting with "Yes . . ." before talking about JFK. Edwards should have answered first and then linked to other subjects instead of frequently seeming to dodge questions.
2) Seize opportunities. Capitalize on your chances when the ball is in your court and grab the momentum when you can. The flip side is to avoid making arguments that favor your opponents. Kucinich grabbed the chance he had on reparations. He also squeezed in his text message ad. Biden did well with Darfur -- he too had been there and he knew the stakes.
3) Be responsive. "Actually answer" as the introductory video asked. Here Kucinich never dodged nor did Biden. Dodd and Edwards were most conspicuously caught seeming to dodge. Hillary was an artful dodger, as was Obama.
4) Control the ground and terms of the debate. Campaigns try to "stay on message" and debate advisers tell candidates to link issues in a way that brings the debate to issues on which you are strongest. This is the tactic I pay very close attention to.

One cannot make absurd links as Biden almost did linking "In God We Trust" to the Violence Against Women Act or Kucinich with "Warming" to "Warring" but in general, links are almost always good. Richardson made good use of links, for instance, when he gave a frontloaded answer on health care coverage and then moved to research, cancer, and other health issues. He straightforwardly said he was for background checks on guns and then linked to poverty and other issues associated with crime. In previous debates Richardson just linked to his New Mexico governor experience. In this one his links were much more powerful and showed a command of the issues.

There is a fine line between good links and repetition of talking points. I am sure Obama, Edwards, and Hillary, the three who have been heard and reported about most often will be criticized for just repeating parts of stump speeches. But that's their ground, that's their narrative, and they do well when they can tell their story. Obama repeatedly tied his answers to a politics that rejects cynicism and unites people behind major change. Hillary repeatedly linked her answers to a record of fighting for causes (of every interest related to a question). Edwards tied every argument he could to the plight of people who represent the populist emotion.

5) Emphasize solutions. Here is where Dodd continues to have trouble. He focuses on problems of No Child Left Behind and of Katrina, and energy, with very little in the way of solutions until he gets to the carbon tax. Hillary lists many past policies but is relatively thin on actual plans that match up to the size of the problems. Unfortunately the eight candidate quick answer format is not a good test of this very important criterion so there is little more to be said than that dwelling on how bad a problem is wastes our time and Dodd remains the biggest offender.

The narrative:
Richardson moved the story about his resume to a story about his strong answers. He should also be able to benefit from having answered so quickly and completely when in previous debates he was often slow to get to the point. He also challenged the others on certain issues and created a story line that can persevere and that might accompany horse race poll tracking that shows him rising.

Edwards did as good a job as anyone could refuting the story that he is shallow or hypocritical on his key issue, poverty. He really was convincing when he said he was "outraged by these stories" and the presence of the young woman in the audience with his wife was living proof that his connection with people is real.

Hillary and Obama are continuing to extend the narratives that currently favor them, but I think Hillary's wonderful humor in answer to the question about having two families occupy the White House for twenty years was just the sort of of thing that's needed to change the storyline that casts her and her campaign as a humorless political machine.

Obama needs to show he is "experienced". The debate did little to allow him to do so. But he did advance the connection between traditional values and progressive politics in a way he had not in previous debates, especially as when spoke on religion.

Dodd needs a story. Any story. His story is historical in all of its references, especially to his ability as a Senator (not a President), but this is a change election.

Biden, as I noted above, moved the story back to the one he periodically tries to put behind him: a man whose mouth is a liability.

And Gravel? People who argue for his inclusion in the debates say he is useful for "keeping the others honest." He should submit his questions via YouTube.

America Focuses on YouTube/CNN Debate

From http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/07/23/debate-prep-what-to-look-for/

July 23, 2007, 6:19 pm

Debate Prep: What to Look For

By Katharine Q. Seelye

So far, all the discussion about the YouTube debate, which starts at 7 p.m. (Eastern) on CNN, has been about the questioners, those 3,000 or so citizens who have sent in questions for the presidential candidates via their homemade on-line videos.

But shortly, those citizens will share the stage - or rather the screen - with the Democratic candidates, who have assembled at The Citadel in Charleston, S.C., for the first question-by-video debate in presidential politics. (Come back to the Caucus, where we’ll be live-blogging the debate.)

Some of the campaigns have been combing through the video submissions to get their candidate in the right frame of mind for the two-hour forum. Others say they are not doing anything special because the candidates go through a similar exercise all the time at town hall meetings, where the public, not the media, ask the questions.

The previous debates have not done much to shake up the political order on the eight-person roster, and despite the fresh format this time, it is not clear that this debate will do so either.

Senator Hillary Clinton of New York has used the earlier debates to project a sense of command and inject some charm into her persona. She will no doubt try to do more of the same tonight.

“Hillary seems to have this down pat,” said an operative for a rival campaign, who was granted anonymity for obvious reasons.

But Senator Clinton should also be prepared for challenges from her rivals, precisely because they have not been able to move the needle forward, at least in the polls, since the debates started a few months ago.

Senator Barack Obama of Illinois plans to “step up his case for change,” a spokesman said. “Watch for Obama to deliver a forceful call for change, contrasting other candidates’ focus on old fights and yesterday’s news,” he said.

Former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina will no doubt use his experience as a litigator in front of a jury to make his case. He intends to highlight what his campaign believes is his leadership on various policies _ addressing health care and poverty, for example, and raising the minimum wage _ that other candidates have followed.

After the forum, Mr. Edwards will continue the conversation with voters by going into a holding room with a camera and using his Web site to respond for an additional 30 minutes to more online video questions.

Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut also plans a post-debate live chat. And his Web site will continue its by-now traditional “talk clock,” which keeps track of how much time each of the candidates gets to speak.

Bill Richardson has squeezed in a few minutes between campaign stops to preview a sampling of the video questions. His aides said he was “very hip” to the nature of this debate format and was looking forward to the opportunity “to touch a voter.”

And after tonight, who knows? Perhaps the next debate will take place on Second Life.

Our colleague Michael Falcone has been scrolling through the videos and has picked out a few for viewers to sample:

On education, from Michael V. Drake, chancellor of the University of California at Irvine: “In an increasingly knowledge-driven world, a college education is critical. Unfortunately, for all too many students college is out of reach,” he said. “How would you assist us in making the dream of a college education a reality for all Americans?”

On Darfur, from Scott Sutton, who grew up in Chad, but now lives in North Carolina: “These young men and their families are currently being slaughtered and starved in the Darfur crisis,” Mr. Sutton said. “My question to the future most powerful person in the world is this: How are you going to stop genocide?”

Debaters Stage Presidential "Debate Watch" at Wake Forest University

From http://www.wfu.edu/news/release/2007.07.23.d.php

Advisory: Debate watch to be held at Wake Forest tonight

July 23, 2007

Tonight, debate professionals and students will explore how the CNN/YouTube Democratic presidential debate changes the character of presidential debate questions with visiting students from across the United States and Europe at a debate watch event held in Carswell Hall Room111, from 6:30 – 9 p.m. at Wake Forest University.

Most debate watch events focus on the candidates, but in tonight’s forum, students will watch the debate and rate the questions chosen by the CNN/YouTube team, using a 20-point scale.

Wake Forest’s prominent national debate program has worked with the U.S. State Department to bring talented teenagers from across the United States and Europe for the Ben Franklin Transatlantic Fellows Initiative. Those teenagers have joined high school students on campus for the Policy Project Summer Debate Program, and tonight’s debate watch event is the culmination of courses that focused on citizenship, blogging and the art of questioning. In group projects, students worked on their own video questions for the debate, several of which have been submitted to the CNN You/Tube debate organizers for possible inclusion in the debate.

Ross Smith, director of debate at Wake Forest, started the ball rolling by submitting his own question and encouraging the students to do the same. Gordon Mitchell, associate professor of communication and director of debate at the University of Pittsburgh, and Damien Pfister, a teaching fellow at Pittsburgh, followed up by creating the curriculum that culminates in tonight’s debate watch event.

These efforts have been noted by the Huffington Post’s new “Off the Bus” citizen journalism site and at least one campaign debate advisor, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson’s own debate coach, Jeff Parcher.

"This debate and the tremendous participation by young people all across this nation has been a huge win for democracy,” said Parcher. “These videos literally have the effect of putting voters’ voices and faces in the middle of campaign war rooms across the country.” According to Parcher, “Participation like this has real impact – it shapes the political dialogue in very positive ways by infusing grass roots perspectives into debates that are too often governed by the perspectives of a very narrow spectrum of America’s media elite.”

Additional contacts: Ross K. Smith, director of debate, Wake Forest University, 336-251-2076 (cell) or e-mail: smithr@wfu.edu. Allan Louden, director, Ben Franklin Transatlantic Fellows Initiative, Wake Forest University, 336-406-8451 (cell) or e-mail: louden@wfu.edu.

More resources for the debate watch include:

http://www.debatescoop.org/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ross-smith/my-question-for-the-youtu_b_56673.html for Ross Smith’s original post about the value of submitting a question
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ross-smith/youtube-debate-questions-_b_57125.html links to what the Ben Franklin Transatlantic Fellows program did to teach students and submit their questions
http://www.debatescoop.org/story/2007/7/23/44842/4497 Gordon Mitchell has the most recent analysis of the significance of the fact that questions come from the public.

From Korea: Debate Is Closer To An Art Than A Science

Pardon the unusual punctuation marks.

From http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2878015

Tips: Expert says debate is closer to an art than science
July 14, 2007

Joshua Park has written a debating book. Provided by the organizer
Joshua Park, president of the Korea Debating Association, offers a few suggestions for winning debate.
¡°A good debater has well-grounded arguments,¡± said Park. ¡°The preceding elements include assertion, reasoning and evidence.¡±
First, for all arguments presented, a clear and accurate assertion is needed based on reasoning. This is called the ¡°because statement.¡±
For example, if you say that bananas are better than tangerines, you must state why.
However, said Park, it is not enough to state that bananas are better because they are sweeter.
You need evidence.
¡°You have to back the statement of why bananas are sweeter compared to tangerines,¡± said Park.
Presenting scientific substantiation or survey results that bananas have a higher sweetness than tangerines is an example.
In terms of refuting of what the opponent has said, Park outlined four stages.
¡°First, summarize briefly what the opponent believes, then state your own position, and present why you support that position.¡±
According to Park, if the opponent states that bananas are better than tangerines because bananas have more potassium, the first step is to repeat the opponent¡¯s argument.
¡°The opponent argues that bananas are better than tangerines, but I disagree because tangerines are better than bananas.¡±
Then comes the ¡°because¡± statement.
¡°Tangerines are better because they contain more Vitamin C,¡± Park said. ¡°Though bananas have more potassium, it can be ingested through other types of food. Vitamin C is scarce.¡±
Then would come the final statement: ¡°Therefore, tangerines are better than bananas.¡±
Park said that the two American leaders, Martin Luther King and John F. Kennedy, had different public speaking styles but both were excellent speakers.
¡°What¡¯s most important is finding your own debating style. Debate is closer to art than science.¡±
Park, 29, graduated from Harvard Law School and is currently a Professor at Inha University.

For more information on debate, here are three books.

On That Point: An Introduction to Parliamentary Debate (English) Written by John Meany and Kate Shuster. Published by the Central European University Press.

Introduction to English Language Debate in Asia (English) Written by Brenden Howe, an English Professor at the Division of International Studies, Ewha Womans University.
Debate, the answer to Global Leadership (Korean) Written by Joshua Park. Published by the Nexus Book.

By Lee Eun-joo Contributing Writer [estyle@joongang.co.kr]

Debate Grows as Korea Hosts World Event

The Korean national team beat Peru in Round 3 on July 5. Provided by the organizer

Please pardon the unusual punctuation marks.

From http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2878016

Case closed: Debate grows as Korea hosts world event
Debate may help with assertiveness and critical, logical expression
July 14, 2007

Margaret Thatcher, the former prime Minister of the United Kingdom, said she loves argument and debate.¡°I don¡¯t expect anyone just to sit there and agree with me, that¡¯s not their job,¡± she said in a speech.
Among the many who may agree with her are 158 students from 35 countries who recently participated in the 19th World Schools Debating Championships in Korea.
It was the first time the event was held in Northeast Asia.
Scotland beat Singapore in the finals, held at the Imperial Palace Hotel on Wednesday.
¡°This is a historic occasion,¡± said Joshua Park, the tournament organizer and the President of the Korea Debating Association.
¡°Considering that Korea first participated in a competitive debate tournament four years ago, hosting a global event in such a short time is a great improvement,¡± Park said.
Competitive English-language debate for secondary school students in Korea dates back to 2004 when five students from Daewon Foreign Language High School participated in the world championships. although they were severely outclassed.
That year Korea ranked 25th out of 29 countries with only two wins and six losses. Among the top 16 teams were Singapore, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Australia, the 2004 winner.
¡°After the students came back from the 2004 tournament, they were shocked,¡± said Park, the coach at that time. However, the misfortune turned out to be a blessing.
¡°Challenged by other foreign debate communities, students formed debate clubs and held workshops,¡± said Park. In addition, they created debate organizations.
Following Korea¡¯s efforts to create an English-language debate community, in 2006 a Korean national team was formed for that year¡¯s world championships through a domestic tournament called the Korea High School Debating Championship.
In Wales, Korea ranked No. 8 and reached the quarterfinals.
¡°English debate in Korea is starting to grow,¡± said Peejay Garcia, Managing Director at Paragon Academy and coach of the 2007 Korean national team.
¡°Though debate is new and English is not their mother tongue, Korean students work hard to improve their weak points year after year,¡± Garcia said.
Garcia said that for this tournament, five members of the Korean national team practiced six hours every Sunday for seven months.
Team members are Chung Ha-bin, Chang Hoon-ik, Im Seo-hee, Jang Won-joon and Albert Hong.
Their hard work paid off, as they ranked 11th this year.
During a match against Lithuania, Jang, a senior at Hankuk Academy of Foreign Studies said, ¡°Free trade rather than protectionism creates an export-based economy.¡±
Korea was debating the idea that free trade harms the developing world.
¡°Countries like South Korea and India prove that free trade provides more opportunities,¡± Jang added.
¡°Compared to other Western teams, Asian members are passive, except for Singapore,¡± said Chung, a Korean participant from the Korean Minjok Leadership Academy.
¡°Even though we have prepared plenty of information, when opponents toss us a statement that we don¡¯t expect, we become discouraged,¡± she added.
One of the three judges during that match noted that the Korean team lacked style ¡ª particularly the use of humor ¡ª which is sometimes needed to make a speech more enjoyable for the audience.
¡°Debating leads to more assertiveness training,¡± said Kim Nam-hee, the Director of YBM Center for Educational Content Development.
¡°It allows students to fluently express ideas and have a critical and logical approach to a subject.¡±
The traditional Confucian Korean culture repressed free speech. Instead of asking why, students randomly accept things as they are, Kim said.
As an example she used a book. ¡°Reading itself is important, but what¡¯s even more important is how you read it.¡±
Though the number of debaters and tournaments are growing in Korea, Kim noted that a debate culture does not exist in the country yet.
¡°Gradually, Koreans should be more open to debating, either in Korean or in English,¡± said Kim.
In English-speaking societies, competitive debate is encouraged in high schools and colleges.
It also shares a longer history than the non-English speaking countries.
The world championship was founded in 1988 by Australia.
The teams in the first competition were Australia, Canada, England, Hong Kong, New Zealand and the United States.
Ji Nan-young, president of the Mapo YBM Academy, contributed to the development of a debate community in Korea.
Last Sunday, Ji led 19 elementary school students and visited Seoul English Village in Suyu-dong. They observed the Korea vs. Lithuania match.
¡°Though these primary students hardly understand what the debaters are arguing about, they get a chance to observe public speaking, as well as the gestures and attitude of the debaters,¡± Ji said. ¡°Watching firsthand motivates the students.¡±
In addition to the children, about 150 student volunteers watched the event and some say debating has become part of their everyday lives.
¡°As a time-keeper, I observed debate matches several times a week,¡± said a volunteer. ¡°I was motivated by the strategy used by the debaters and their well-informed content.¡±
¡°Compared to the past, more Korean parents now seem to emphasize logic, reasoning and thinking in the education they want for their children,¡± said Park. ¡°Competitive debate motivates students to enhance these three elements.¡±



By Lee Eun-joo Contributing Writer [estyle@joongang.co.kr]

Debate Workshop in Venezuela

Rita Moncada of Venezuela forwards this message from Sandra Maroska who just completed a debate workshop in Venezuela. Congratulations to all!

It's wonderful to hear that there was good feedback about the workshop. But even more, the workshop wouldn't have been great without great debate and great participation - it's the group of students you have identified and the work that you have done in laying the foundation for their interest that is really the success story, I think.

..........................................................

I really do want to thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to work with this very special group of students - they are inspiring. I hope they stick with it because they have so much potential, not just in the competitive sense but in the sense that they have some serious roles to fill in the coming years as leaders and critical thinkers. I truly enjoyed working with all of them and would do it again in a heartbeat.

........................................................................

PS: Top speakers:
#5, Anita
#4, Tomas
#3, Pancho
#2, Alicia
#1, Bernardo
1st place team: Pancho y Noel
2nd place team: Eduardo y Tomas

Film Explores Youth Debate Experience

From http://www.screendaily.com/ScreenDailyArticle.aspx?intStoryID=33669

Rocket Science
Tim Grierson in Los Angeles
22 Jul 2007 19:24


Dir: Jeffrey Blitz. US. 2007. 98mins.
After the success of his Oscar-nominated documentary Spellbound, writer-director Jeffrey Blitz takes a shaky first step into features with Rocket Science. A deadpan high-school comedy about a misfit trying fruitlessly to court the object of his affection, this indie-minded effort suggests a film-maker too enamored by his influences and struggling to establish a cogent vision of his own.

Opening in limited release Stateside on August 10, Rocket Science (which debuted at this year's Sundance Film Festival to an ecstatic reception) doesn't have marquee names to attract audiences. Instead, positive reviews and Blitz's track record will be the film's main draws.

Spellbound brought in almost $6m domestically, a considerable tally for a documentary not helmed by Michael Moore (whose Bowling For Columbine beat it out for the Academy Award). Distributor Picturehouse is betting that Rocket Science's offbeat tone will help distinguish it among discriminating art-house patrons during the mostly insipid summer-blockbuster season.

The film's international rollout will probably be an even trickier challenge than the domestic release. Spellbound managed to pull in around $1.7m in foreign territories, but the new movie's dialogue-heavy humour may not translate as well as the documentary's big-competition narrative structure did. With many higher-profile, Oscar-hungry movies dominating the fall schedule, it seems unlikely Rocket Science will get much attention at awards time, limiting its ancillary possibilities.

Introverted Hal (Thompson) suffers from a paralysing stutter, which makes his high-school existence horribly awkward and lonely. But his life becomes considerably brighter when assertive, pretty Ginny (Kendrick), the fiercely competitive queen of the school's debate club, recruits him to join the team.

She believes that the best debaters are those with something to prove, and she suspects that her tutelage can help break Hal of his speech impediment and tap his unrealised potential. Hal decides to take part in the team, mostly as an excuse to be near this bewitching creature.

Rocket Science won Blitz the dramatic directing award at Sundance, an acknowledgement of the movie's tightly controlled ironic tone and detached air. Unfortunately, the film shares these qualities with many recent school-age comedies such as Rushmore, Election and Thumbsuckers that all deal with unhappy, unpopular adolescents trapped in messy home lives and battling tumultuous hormones.

In particular, Blitz's feature debut owes a significant debt to director Wes Anderson's pokerfaced brand of humour. Like with Anderson's Rushmore, Rocket Science enjoys highlighting the peculiarities of its socially-maladjusted antihero for comedic effect.

But whereas Anderson's visual acumen and satiric wit felt innovative, Blitz's similar stabs come across as clichéd. This is most noticeable in a running bit involving Hal dragging a cumbersome suitcase on wheels behind him wherever he goes. The forced gag adds nothing to the story other than allowing Blitz an opportunity to make Hal appear even more uncomfortable than he already is.

The performances are solid, although the lack of chemistry between the romantic leads proves to be a problem. While Ginny's puzzling confidence in the stuttering, homely Hal is meant to arouse the audience's suspicion, Anna Kendrick's portrayal of this unhealthily driven young woman overemphasises her tough-as-nails demeanor and neglects any hint of softness underneath.

Meanwhile, Reece Daniel Thompson nicely plays Hal as a sympathetic wallflower, but as the character works harder and harder to overcome his impediment (and, in the process, win Ginny), Thompson is unable to make his character's increasingly erratic behavior poignant.

Both actors' struggles can be traced back to the film's overdependence on a mannered, quirky atmosphere. As an attempt to honor his characters' oddness, the incidents in Blitz's screenplay are motivated purely by Hal and Ginny's unpredictable antics, no matter how foolish or illogical.

But while this risky strategy also provides a few surprising moments, the film's inability to see beyond its characters' quirks keeps them from being relatable.

Perhaps the most incisive criticism of Rocket Science can be made by comparing it to Blitz's first film. Like Rocket Science, Spellbound focused on unconventional young people trying to find themselves through intellectual competition, but in the documentary, Blitz allowed his oddballs to become real people, honing in on their humanity so that the viewer cared passionately about their unusual quest to be the nation's top speller.

But with Rocket Science, rather than understanding his characters, Blitz now just wants to see how self-consciously weird he can make them. His new film is significantly more clever than his first, but it doesn't feel nearly as special.

Production companies/backers
HBO Films
Duly Noted
B&W Films

US distribution
Picturehouse

Producers
Effie T Brown
Sean Welch

Screenplay
Jeffrey Blitz

Cinematography
Jo Willems

Production design
Rick Butler

Editor
Yana Gorskaya

Music
Eef Barzelay

Main cast
Reece Daniel Thompson
Anna Kendrick
Nicholas D'Agosto
Vincent Piazza
Margo Martindale
Aaron Yoo

Former Debate Coach Preps Presidential Candidate

Jeff Parcher is not the only one doing this. More to come. Here is a column by Ross Smith

From http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ross-smith/inside-the-richardson-deb_b_57312.html

Inside the Richardson Debate Prep Room
Posted July 22, 2007 | 07:32 PM (EST)
Read More: Breaking Off The Bus News


Although I am "Off the Bus," I am privileged by having a long friendship and professional relationship with Jeff Parcher, Senior Communications Advisor to the Richardson campaign. I first met Jeff when he was a national caliber debater for Western Washington University and I was a judge. Jeff went on to be the Debate Coach at Georgetown University where his team was always one of the best prepared in the nation and won the National Debate Tournament in 1992.

Jeff will do another interview with us comparing and contrasting candidate debate prep with the college debate activity after the non-stop intensity of preparing for tomorrow night's CNN/YouTube debate, but for now we are grateful he found the time to tell us about the unique challenges posed by prepping for a debate in which all of the questions are viewable in advance and are submitted by the public:

Q: How do you sort the questions? Do you have some criteria and assistance going through and pulling out the higher priority questions for practice and research? Parcher: We had research staff watch every video and put each question in a database. Priority was given to questions we hadn't had before and/or those that seemed to have a high probability of being chosen (based on newsworthiness, articulation, incisiveness, etc)
Q: I would guess that the CNN people will pick questions that have some visual or audio originality. Other than making sure you have good answers to tough (in terms of Democratic primary) politics or new (not covered in previous debates) questions do you make predictions about what questions might be used based on their production value?
Parcher: To some extent, yes. But at the end of the day the job of a staff is to make sure the Governor is briefed on everything that is relevant to being President of the United States.

Q: Have you used the Community Counts site where people can vote for their favorites questions?
Parcher: Not directly - although communication staff was made aware of what videos seemed hot.

Q: Most of the questions seem to "for all of the candidates" -- have you found very many that are directed to Governor Richardson?
Parcher: Four as of Sunday morning.

Q: The Biden campaign is urging supporters to challenge the other candidates on how they would affect a political solution in Iraq with his own submission portal. The RNC also is encouraging Republicans to submit. Do you pay any special attention to these sources of questions?
Parcher: No. We looked at each question based on its merit and not its source.

Q: Do you compile some of the video and load it onto a device so the Governor can practice when he has spare time on the road?
Parcher: No. But the Governor has seen many of the questions.

Q: Does having citizen submitted video make it more enjoyable for the Governor to practice?
Parcher: Yes. The Governor favors retail campaigning - his favorite events are town halls where he can engage voters directly without media filters and pundits. He also has a great sense of humor and many of the videos are funny.

Q: Are there any other aspects of the prep for this debate that are unique because of the YouTube format?
Parcher: The breadth of the questions and especially the involvement of so many young Americans has made this quite different, unique and potentially a great new addition to the debate process.

Q: Hillary and Biden are planning debatewatch events associated with the debate and Edwards is offering to answer questions live after the debate if people submit them via his portal.. I do not yet see any special use of the debate at the Richardson website. Are there plans to leverage the event in any way?
Parcher: One thing we like to do is put the Governor himself into the media room after the debate rather than surrogate spin doctors. Few, if any, of the other candidates have been as accessible. We also have debate watch events being done on the grass roots level in most of the key early states.

Final WSDC Team Standings

http://www.schoolsdebate.com/blog/

FINAL RANKINGS – W.S.D.C. 2007

FINALRANK
TEAM


FINAL POSITION PRELIMINARY ROUND WINS
PRELIMINARY ROUNDS RANK

1 Scotland Champions 7 6
2 Singapore Runners-Up 7 5
3 England Semi-Finalists 7 2
4 Canada Semi-Finalists 5 9
5 Hong Kong Quarter-Finalists 7 3
6 Australia Quarter-Finalists 7 4
7 Pakistan Quarter-Finalists 6 7
8 South Africa Quarter-Finalists 4 16
9 Ireland Octo-Finalists 8 1
10 Slovenia Octo-Finalists 6 8
11 South Korea Octo-Finalists 5 10
12 United States Octo-Finalists 5 11
13 Israel Octo-Finalists 5 12
14 Argentina Octo-Finalists 5 13
15 Philippines Octo-Finalists 5 14
16 Greece Octo-Finalists 5 15
17 Kuwait Preliminary Rounds 4 17
18 Indonesia Preliminary Rounds 4 18
19 Germany Preliminary Rounds 4 19
20 Estonia Preliminary Rounds 4 20
21 Lithuania Preliminary Rounds 4 21
22 Wales Preliminary Rounds 3 22
23 Bermuda Preliminary Rounds 3 23
24 Sri Lanka Preliminary Rounds 3 24
25 Peru Preliminary Rounds 3 25
26 Malaysia Preliminary Rounds 2 26
27 Czech Republic Preliminary Rounds 2 27
28 Netherlands Preliminary Rounds 2 28
29 Romania Preliminary Rounds 2 29
30 Hungary Preliminary Rounds 2 30
31 Bangladesh Preliminary Rounds 2 31
32 Japan Preliminary Rounds 1 32
33 Slovakia Preliminary Rounds 0 33
34 Mongolia Preliminary Rounds 0 34
– India* – 1 –

* Non-breaking team made up of debaters from India and other countries

Students Pose Questions for USA Presidential Candidates

Debatescoop is a project to bring debating expertise into popular analysis of political debate performances. It is, as you will see below, a broad based coalition of USA debate educators led by Ross Smith and Tim O'Donnell.

http://www.debatescoop.org/story/2007/7/20/145352/590

YouTube Debate Questions Go Global
By Ross Smith 07/20/2007 02:53:52 PM EST

In my first post for Off the Bus I mentioned that, in addition to persuading myself that submitting a question to Monday's CNN/YouTube debate was a worthwhile endeavor, I also made the argument to students in the Ben Franklin Transatlantic Fellows (BFTF) program. Inspired in part by my Off the Bus post, my colleagues and students at the BFTF created an entire curriculum that produced a great collection of submitted questions.

The questions range from global warming to Kosovo and include graphics and voice overs. But what most interests me is the idea of a Norwegian student asking a likely future president of the United States about global warming while noting that Italy and Australia are committed to doing more than the U.S. is. Or the Andoran student asking candidates how to resolve inconsistencies between the U.S. human rights record at Guantanamo and the war on terrorism.

My class was about media criticism and politics in the age of the internet. We compared and contrasted Ben Franklin's pamphleteering, often pseudonymous, with contemporary blogging. Another class was on globalization. The YouTube project is a great fusion and application of this otherwise abstract knowledge. Instructor Damien Pfister's blog is a treasure trove for people who want to learn how to ask the most effective questions in this debate format. The YouTube debates, if they accomplish nothing else, have created an opportunity for the next generation of leaders from around the globe to learn how to begin to think about and participate in the politics of the twenty-first century.

The U.S. president is often referred to as the "leader of the free world." Perhaps the YouTube debate will help us see how our candidates respond to the next generation of leaders from around the world.

Because some might not click through (and because I can), I'll end with one of my favorite questions:



Founders
Ross Smith conceived and co-founded DebateScoop and the Open Source Debate Foundation. He coaches debate and teaches Debate and Advocacy at Wake Forest University, and was a candidate for the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Board of Education.
send e-mail to Ross Smith

Tim O'Donnell is co-founder of DebateScoop and the Open Source Debate Foundation. He is the Director of Debate at the University of Mary Washington. As a faculty member in the English, Linguistics, and Speech department, he teaches courses in rhetoric, public address, and argumentation.

send e-mail to Tim O'Donnell


DebateScoop
DebateScoop is a one-stop cyberspace source for electoral political debate coverage in the United States. Scholars in debate and communication studies will bring their insights to bear on political debates in real time for the purpose of improving public understanding of debate. A team of expert debate judges will contribute regular commentary to a Scoop-based weblog to track candidate debates.
Contributors will write substantive commentary before, during, and after house, senate, and gubernatorial debates and will contribute meta-analysis regarding what counts as “good debating” plus commentaries on formats, strategies, negotiations, and post-debate spin.


The Open Source Debate Foundation
The Open Source Debate Foundation’s (OSDF) mission and purpose is to promote debate as a method for producing, organizing and assessing knowledge and as a method for sound decision making. To that end we support projects which: build networks of skilled debaters, support teaching of debate skills, use debate as a method for educating the public, and which in any way enhance the role of debate in society and the public sphere. The more prominent the role of debate, the stronger the progressive force of better argument.
The OSDF is a nonprofit organization that serves as a bridge between students, educators, academics, policy professionals, politicians, the media, and the public at large. DebateScoop is our first major project.


Experts
Principle Academic Partner
Allan D. Louden, Wake Forest University

Fellows

William Benoit, University of Missouri-Columbia

David Birdsell, CUNY Baruch

Warren Decker, George Mason University

G. Thomas Goodnight, University of Southern California

Ronald Greene, University of Minnesota

Dale Herbeck, Boston College

Steve Mancuso, Miami University

Kelly McDonald, Arizona State University

Mitchell McKinney, National Communication Association

John T. Morello, University of Mary Washington

Theodore Sheckels, Randolph Macon College

David Steinberg, University of Miami

Contributors

Adrienne Brovero, University of Mary Washington

Chris Burk, University of Texas at Dallas

Allan Coverstone, Montgomery Bell Academy

Sherry Hall, Harvard University

James Lyle, Clarion University

Eric Morris, Southwest Missouri State

Will Repko, Michigan State University

M.L. Sandoz, Vanderbilt University

Alfred Snider, University of Vermont

Sarah Spring, Wake Forest University

Doyle Srader, Stephen F. Austin State University

Professional Political Debate Coaches

Michael Jablonski, General Counsel for the Democratic Party of Georgia and Georgia State University

Brett O’Donnell, Advisor to Senator John McCain and Liberty University

USA College Policy Topic Announced

From Jeff Jarman jeffrey.jarman@wichita.edu

The results of the election are now in. Resolution #1 won. All six amendments passed. The wording and vote totals are below.

2007-2008 Resolution

Resolved: that the United States Federal Government should increase its constructive engagement with the government of one or more of: Afghanistan, Iran, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, and Syria, and it should include offering them a security guarantee(s) and/or a substantial increase in foreign assistance.


73 ballots were received.

First place votes
Resolution 1: 53
Resolution 2: 8
Resolution 3: 5
Resolution 4: 7

Resolution #1 wins with a majority on the first round of voting.


Amendment #1 passes 53-7.
Amendment #2 passes 55-10.
Amendment #3 passes 54-11.
Amendment #4 passes 54-12.
Amendment #5 passes 49-15.
Amendment #6 passes 55-9.

Liberty University Is First in All Three USA Policy Debate Sweepstakes

From http://www.liberty.edu/index.cfm?PID=13208&newsid=178

LU debate sweeps debate rankings championships for the second consecutive year
April 17, 2007

For Immediate Release
April 16, 2007
Liberty University Debate Team

Last year the Liberty University Debate Team made history by becoming the first school to win the rankings championships of each of debate’s three governing organizations, the American Debate Association (ADA), the Cross Examination Debate Association (CEDA), and the National Debate Tournament (NDT). Led by seniors Amanda Costa and Glen Koch, the 2007 edition of the Liberty Debate Team repeated this impressive feat, once again claiming all three championships in a single season, raising Liberty’s national championship count to 21 championships in 13 years. Liberty claimed the ADA Championship with a total of 489 points, outpacing second place Mary Washington who finished with 297.5 points. The CEDA Championship came down to the final tournament with Liberty narrowly edging Binghamton University and the University of Oklahoma. Liberty finished with 187 points, while Binghamton and Oklahoma finished with 174 points and 165 points respectively. The NDT Championship race ended with Liberty eclipsing Oklahoma, 577 points to 528 points.

Liberty demonstrated remarkable strength from top to bottom, winning tournaments in all three divisions, novice, junior varsity, and varsity. Liberty won at least one division at every full-squad tournament they attended. In all, nine different two-person teams from Liberty won tournament championships.


National Debate Tournament Final Rankings

1. Liberty University 577
2. University of Oklahoma 528
3. Binghamton University 515
4. U.S. Military Academy 496
5. Wake Forest University 478
6. Whitman College 462
7. Wayne State University 452
8. Boston College 448
9. University of Kansas 447
10. Emory University 435
11. University of Georgia 429
12. Harvard University 427
13. Cornell University 421
14. Mary Washington University 420
15. Northwestern University 408
16. Missouri State University 403
17. University of Rochester 398
18. John Carroll University 389
19. Wichita State University 385
20. Kansas State University 385
21. Gonzaga University 383
22. U of California-Berkeley 381
23. Dartmouth College 380
24. Cal Poly SLO 373
25. U of Southern California 371

Cross Examination Debate Association Final Rankings

1. Liberty University 187
2. Binghamton University 174
3. University of Oklahoma 165
4. U.S. Military Academy 151
5. Wake Forest University 151
6. Whitman College 149
7. University of Kansas 137.5
8. Boston College 137
9. Wayne State University 134
10. Mary Washington University 133
11. Emory University 127
12. Wichita State University 124
13. Cornell University 124
14. Harvard University 123
15. Missouri State University 122
16. University of Georgia 119
17. Cal Poly SLO 115
18. U of California-Berkley 115
19. Gonzaga University 114
20. Dartmouth College 111
21. Northwestern University 110
22. University of Rochester 109
23. John Carroll University 107
24. Kansas State University 105
25. Cal State University-Fullerton 104

American Debate Association Final Rankings

1. Liberty University 489
2. Mary Washington University 297.5
3. John Carroll University 238
4. Wayne State University 226.5
5. Wake Forest University 167
6. Clarion University of Pennsylvania 162.5
7t. Boston College 159
7t. U.S. Naval Academy 159
9. George Mason University 150
10. James Madison University 148

Students Debate Merits of Reality Television in the UK

From http://www.newspostleader.co.uk/latest-news?articleid=3024196

Congratulations to Durham University for working with these students.

Pupils debate the role of reality TV

By ELEANOR GREGSON
Wansbeck reporter
A HEATED debate took place at an Ashington school as part of an annual event in Wansbeck.
Two teams from Hirst High School took to the stage to argue whether reality TV has a negative impact on the way we behave in society.

The Headteacher's Debate is held once a year and is a highly popular fixture in the Sixth Form school calendar.

This year, for the first time, the event was opened up to include talented youngsters from Years 9 and 10.

The discussion touched on areas such as freedom of choice, racism and negative role models.

Newcomers to

debating from Years 9, 10 and 11 also took joint second place in an inter-school debating competition held at King Edward VI High School in Morpeth.

Joe Robson, 14, from Hirst High claimed best individual speech at the competition.

Laura Kinnair, coach of the debating teams, said: "This was our first debating competition and I couldn't have asked for more.

"It's been hectic having both the Headteacher's Debate and the competition on the same day, however, the students all rose to the challenge."

Lesley Craig, headteacher at Hirst High, said: "It was a successful event that was enjoyed by everyone present.

"The debate allows students to develop and express their thoughts in a pressured situation."

Following the success of both debates, Hirst pupils will be joining forces with the other three Northumberland schools to receive monthly debate training from Durham University.

Kenya Interschool Debates

From http://www.coastweek.com/3029-03.htm

COAST STUDENTS ENJOY INTER SCHOOL DEBATES

.

Coastweek - - Al-Aqmar Hassan is seen [from left] together
with Ron Nyambee, Debate Team Leader Ms. Milka Areba,
Elikana Akali and Sumeiya Baradia.

Further proof to saying: 'it's not
what you say, but how you say it' !

Coastweek - - Interschool Debate - Host School: Jafferey Academy, Level: Class Five.

Competing Schools: Mombasa Primary, Star of the Sea, Loreto, Coast Academy, Jafferey Academy, The Aga Khan Primary School

On Tuesday 22nd May, the Aga Khan Primary School debate team competed with Loreto School, opposing the motion: Sports is a waste of time and money.

Though a first experience for the team members, they were victorious, and proceeded to the semi finals.

Best Speaker: Sumeiya Baradia 5G

Team: Sumeiya Baradia 5G, Elkana Akali 5Y, Al-Aqma Hassan 5B, Ron Nyambee 5B.

On Tuesday 29th May, the debate team, now known as the 'dream team', competed with Coast Academy in the semi final, opposing the motion: Women make better leaders than men.

Once again the team was victorious and captivated the floor with the presentation and quality of their argument.

Best Speaker Overall: Elkana Akali 5Y

Best Male Speaker: Elkana Akali 5Y.

Best Female Speaker: Sumeiya Baradia 5G

Team: Sumeiya Baradia 5G, Elkana Akali 5Y, Al-Aqma Hassan 5B, Saumu Hashim 5R.

On Tuesday 12th June the 'dream team' competed against Jafferey Academy for the Interschool Debate trophy, proposing the motion: Wealth is better than Knowledge.

Dressed as 'wealthy' people, the team took the floor by storm, and convinced all that indeed wealth is better than knowledge, imagine!

Further proof to the saying: 'it's not what you say, but how you say it' !

Finalist Team: Sumeiya Baradia 5G, Elkana Akali 5Y, Al-Aqma Hassan 5B, Ron Nyambee 5B.

Debating Expands in China

From http://asiandebating.blogspot.com/2007/07/debating-in-china-has-lots-to-offer.html

Wednesday, July 18, 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.

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.

Regards,
Rashedul Hasan Stalin
Source: Beijing Foreign Studies University website
Society for Associated Inter-Tertiary Debaters (SAID) website

Debate Rages On - Did China or Spain "Discover" America?

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-07/19/content_5439124.htm

Columbus or Zheng He? Debate rages on

By Chen Zhiyong (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-07-19 06:45

Top: Chinese lawyer and art collector Liu Gang. Bottom: The map purported to date from 1418 and collected by Liu Gang suggests a Chinese fleet sailed to America decades before Christopher Columbus. [Reuters]

Like all famous historical figures, Zheng He, the greatest navigator in Chinese history, has not escaped controversy. The size of his fleet ships and the routes his voyages took continue to ignite heated debates worldwide.

At last week's first international forum on Zheng He's voyages held in Qingdao in East China's Shandong Province to mark the country's third Navigation Day, which coincided with Zheng's historic maiden overseas voyage 600 years ago, scholars and some diplomatic officials to China from the countries which Zheng He's fleet visited, sat together to explore the historic resources of his voyages.

1421, The Year China Discovered The World, a controversial book published in 2003 outlining the voyages of Zheng He during the time of Emperor Zhu Di of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), made Gavin Menzies, a retired British Royal Navy captain, known to the world. The book put forward a theory that Zheng He discovered America 70 years before Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) did in 1492.

Now the old man is preparing his next book about Zheng He's visits to Europe. "He sailed all around Europe. It is all there in European records," he says.

He presented at the international forum a piece of powerful evidence he has collected, an Italian record of the Pope meeting Zheng He's representatives, which was drafted by a friend of the Pope.

Menzies believes Zheng He led three major expeditions to Europe and brought maps, mathematics, architecture, art and steel weapons to Europeans.

Menzies' book has been sold in 135 countries and is even taught in American and English schools.

Every single day, there are about 3,500 visits to his website (www.1421.tv) and he gets hundreds of thousands of emails from all around the world, 99 percent of which, he claims, says it is obvious that Menzies is right.

"Actually, there is nothing new in what I am saying. I am just incredibly lucky with the timing of my book's publication as everyone had begun to show interest in China, a booming and fascinating country. If I'd written it ten years earlier, nobody would have been interested in it," he says.

Menzies' conclusions that Zheng He's seven voyages reached all corners of the world did win some support from Chinese scholars.

In early 2006, Liu Gang, a Chinese lawyers who spent a lot of time collecting ancient Chinese maps, unveiled to the public a world map in the form of double hemispheres that he bought in 2001. He believes it to be a 1763 copy of a 1418 Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) original, after he read Menzies' book. The map gives credence to Menzies' theory that Chinese sailors traversed the globe long before their European counterparts.

However, although carbon dating has shown that the paper is real, many people doubt modern technology could have identified the date of the ink put on the map and believe it a 21st-century fake as many of the names of places recorded on it began to be used only in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

But Liu Gang still believes the bi-hemispherical, world map originated in China and even concludes that the first map of the kind was made by a scholar named Zhu Siben in the early 14th century during the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368). He says ancient Chinese scholars already knew the world was round and later Zheng He sailed the oceans and mapped the world.

However, Menzies' opinions are not accepted by mainstream Chinese historians, who believe all of his conclusions are based on subjective deductions.

Now a dominating opinion shared by most scholars is that from 1405 to 1433 Zheng He commanded seven voyages mainly around the Indian Ocean region ranging from India, Sri Lanka and Arabia to East Africa.

"Menzies' logic in the whole book is wrong. How could he draw the conclusion that the world's geographic knowledge must have come from Zheng He's fleet since Europeans did not have the knowledge at that time? He ignores the fact that Arabians had better navigation techniques than the Chinese for quite a long time before the Ming Dynasty," says Ge Jianxiong, professor of Fudan University and chairman of the Committee for Historical Geographic Studies under the Geography Society of China.

Du Huan of the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907), once captured by the Arabs for 11 years, clearly recorded when he came back to China that he boarded an Arabian commercial boat, which shows that the Arabs had opened a navigation line from the Indian Ocean and Arabian Peninsula to China much earlier, Ge says.

According to Ge, Zheng He was a descendent of the Hui nationality (Chinese Muslim), whose ancestors migrated to China during the Yuan Dynasty. At that time, Quanzhou of East China's Fujian Province had become a city of Arabian migrants and culture. His grandfather and father had been to the holy place of Islam, Mecca, on a pilgrimage. So Zheng could have had access to Arabian geographical and navigational knowledge.

"As far as we know, no navigating lines and places Zheng He's fleet had been to on the Indian Ocean went beyond Arabian areas," says Ge.

He agrees that Zheng He could possibly have reached east Africa, but those areas were actually within the areas covered by Arabian navigation.

As for Menzies' theory that Zheng He's 1418 world map enabled Columbus and Magellan to reach the New World, Ge believes that including certain places on the map did not necessarily prove that Zheng himself had been there as knowledge of the map could have been obtained from the Arabs.

It is believed that apart from the emperor's support, Zheng He's voyages at that time were largely opposed by officials and the common people as each voyage cost a lot. So after Zheng died, most of his records were destroyed by the ministers for fear that the new emperor would demand a new voyage.

"That adds to current difficulties of understanding that period of Chinese history. I have observed that despite more and more people enthusiastic in studying Zheng He, there has actually not been much progress in past decades," says Ge.

He believes that scholars with a sound history and culture knowledge as well as navigation techniques are the need of the hour.

He welcomes more scholars such as Menzies to join the research on Zheng He, searching for more evidence on his voyages.

Though the arguments on how many places Zheng He actually reached continue to rage in academic circles, scholars worldwide share exactly the same view of the peaceful and friendly nature of the voyages.

According to Ge, Zheng He's seven voyages carried a political mission from the emperor to parade the glory of the Ming Dynasty or to ally with Arabian countries to strike the surviving forces of the Yuan Dynasty, rather than to discover new continents, rob overseas wealth, establish colonies and extend foreign trade as the early Western navigators had done.

Chinese people had long regarded their place of residence as the center of the world and believed that those who did not belong to the Han nationality were "barbarians". So the rulers of China in the Ming Dynasty did not have an ambition of expanding the territory, notes Ge.

This can be seen on the deeds of Zheng He's fleets, which simply gave rewards to local people and accepted their gifts to the emperor.

Menzies believes that Zheng He took rice from China to America, brought back maize from America, took sweet potato from South America to New Zealand and Australia, and took Indian cotton to America and then brought a better strain of cotton to Europe. Besides, all sorts of fruits and animals were also transferred from one country to another.

Zaman Mehdi from the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan says the most noteworthy aspect of these voyages is the religious tolerance, cross-cultural understanding and respect for local traditions shown by Zheng He.

Indonesian scholars credit Zheng He for building many mosques in Java and Malacca. There are also Zheng He temples in these islands, where festivals are held to commemorate his visit. In Sri Lanka while making offerings at a Buddhist Temple in 1410, Zheng erected large prayer inscriptions to Lord Buddha, Allah and the Tamil god Tenayari Nayanar in Chinese, Persian and Tamil languages, which was a remarkable show of religious tolerance.

"It is this spirit of harmonious socio-cultural globalization about Zheng He's maritime voyages that has to be understood," says Mehdi.

Kuwait Debate League 2007

From http://asiandebating.blogspot.com/2007/07/annual-kuwait-debate-league-2007.html

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

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 19
2 FAIPS 13

Top Debaters Ranking
1 Sonal Sharma 24.6
2 Abdullah Mdaires 24.3
3 Manu Hedge 22.9
4 Sarah Fakrhral-Deen 22.1

Regards,
Rashedul Hasan Stalin
Source: The Daily Kuwait Times

New Asian Debate Website

Dynamic international debate organizer and chair of the Bangladesh Debating Council Rashedul Hasan Stalin has sent this in.

Asian Debating Website

Debating with the eyes of Asia

The largest Continent in the World with lots of Debating Opportunities and Success plotted the Asian Debating Website launching story. While working with the dynamic World Debate Website contributor Team, I felt the essence of having an Asian Debating News platform where four region of Asia : Middle East , South Asia, South East and North East Asia will be plotting their Debating Stories. This is just a beginning of our vision for Asian Debating road map.

Asia has many Debating Legend and Power House from whom this site can be benefited.

Fell free to post your news in this web. My e-mail address is stalinhasan@yahoo.com . I will be announcing the Latest Updates when it will be available.

Visit Asian Debating Website

http://asiandebating.blogspot.com/

Regards,

Rashedul Hasan Stalin

Contributor World Debate Website

Chair, Bangladesh Debating Council-BDC

Michigan-Dearborn Debate Program Loses Funds, But Students Fight On

We covered an original story about this team, see
http://debate.uvm.edu/debateblog/doctortuna/Blog/5D691E20-37E5-4DF8-AE28-153A527AC5F3.html
but now there are new and encouraging developments.

http://media.www.themichiganjournal.com/media/storage/paper255/news/2007/07/17/News/Debate.Team.No.Longer.Uso.Under.New.Leadership-2924477.shtml

Debate Team no longer USO, under new leadership
Summar Saad

Issue date: 7/17/07 Section: News

After the University of Michigan-Dearborn's Student Activities Office made the decision to cut funding for the Debate Team last year because of a lack of participation and leadership, UM-D students Ian Tran and Kurt Edelbrock have taken the initiative to take over and start planning ahead for a year of tournaments and fundraising.

"We are doing our very best to reassert our presence and goals on campus through open disclosure, strong communication and proactive leadership," said Tran, the former USO's director of organization and logistics. Although their financial future is still unknown, the debate team has already met two times this summer to discuss fundraising options for upcoming tournament expenses.

"They (SAO) have been indirect with us. We can still continue as an organization, but the funding will not be the same," said Director of Competitive Debate, Edelbrock.

"We are hoping to increase student membership to 25 and hopefully we will be able to get some funding."

There are currently eight members and the organization is hoping to add more during the Freshman Orientations.

Along with increasing student membership, the Debate Team is also planning on increasing their activity by attending three tournaments this year at Wayne State, Northwestern University and John Carroll in Ohio.

They are hoping to cover their travel expenses by raising money from bake sales and other events.

Besides travelling out of town to tournaments, the team also plans to become more involved in campus events.

"On July 6, we held a meeting and thoroughly discussed many ways for us to hold events that would successfully benefit multiple organizations," Tran said.

"There are currently over 14 events which we are planning and in the process of sequencing into the upcoming semesters."

Despite the disappointment of last years events and their lack of funds, the Debate Team is looking forward to an eventful and successful future.

They will be meeting July 18 at 7 p.m. in the Mardigian Library and would like to invite anyone interested to come along and bring their friends.

Two Texas Sisters Dominate USA Lincoln-Douglas Debate

From http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-ndfocus_13met.ART.West.Edition1.43ddf96.html

Hockaday sisters inarguably at top of their debate game
08:20 AM CDT on Friday, July 13, 2007
By ELIZABETH LANGTON / The Dallas Morning News
elangton@dallasnews.com




<== Taarini (left) and Shivani Vohra of The Hockaday School won first and third respectively in this year's Lincoln-Douglas debate at the National Forensic League national tournament in June.

Taarini and Shivani Vohra argue at the dinner table. In the car. At school. But this isn't your typical sibling rivalry.

Taarini, a 2007 Hockaday School graduate, is a national debate champion. She won first place in the Lincoln-Douglas debate at last month's National Forensic League national speech tournament in Wichita, Kan.

Shivani, a Hockaday junior this fall, took third place in the same contest. Her only loss was a forfeit to her sister. (Double-elimination rules forced the girls, the only remaining undefeated competitors, to face off. But Hockaday has a policy that teammates don't debate each other.)

"It's incredible that Shivani came in third as a sophomore," 18-year-old Taarini said. "Shivani is definitely going to be someone to look out for."

Shivani, 16, pushed the spotlight right back to her sister.

"But it's amazing that you won," she said. "There are only two debaters who end their careers on a high note – the one who wins the Tournament of Champions and the one who wins nationals."

Both girls, who live in Highland Park, started debate as freshmen. Their father was a debater, and the class fulfills a Hockaday fine arts requirement.

"And I'm just not artistic at all," Shivani said.

They like the competitiveness of the debate circuit and the character strengths that debating builds.


"It allows you to face whatever fear you have or whatever trepidations you feel," Taarini said.

"You have to believe in yourself and project an aura of self-confidence."

Shivani said: "It's a very intense environment. There are moments when you're successful and on top of the world, and there are moments when you fall flat on your face."

Hockaday's prominence on the national debate circuit has been rising for the past three years. The National Forensic League championship is a pinnacle achievement, said Hockaday debate director Stacy Thomas, who has been a competitor, judge and coach for more than 20 years.

"We got down to the last three, and two of them were my girls," she said. "It was amazing."

The league sponsors several speaking and debate events. The Lincoln-Douglas debate pits two speakers and emphasizes logical argument rather than factual recitation.

The championship round saw Taarini arguing the affirmative of "On balance, violent revolution is a just response to political oppression" before a crowd of hundreds. Assistant coach Tom Evnen drove from Nebraska, where he was on vacation, to watch.

Debaters research and otherwise prepare weeks in advance, delving into history, economics, politics, philosophy and other subjects. Fifteen minutes before a round, they learn which side they will argue.

"Debate integrates a lot of things that students need across the curriculum," Ms. Thomas said. "It brings together the entire educational experience in a very unique way."

Taarini will attend Columbia University this fall. She is considering studies in political science, international relations and pre-med. She won't participate in competitive debate, but she plans to help coach at a New York high school.

"Debate really took over high school," she said. "Not that it's not great. It was. But I want to try some new things."

Shivani plans to continue debate as a junior and senior. This week she is attending a debate camp in California where her sister is instructing.

Shivani "has an amazing two years ahead of her. She is definitely a rising star," Ms. Thomas said. "I really feel like this is just the beginning of our success."

Baltimore College Debate Project Links Debate & Hip Hop

From http://bmoredebate.blogspot.com/2007/07/grassroots-hip-hop-baltimore-college.html

Monday, July 16, 2007

Grassroots Hip Hop & Baltimore College Debate

Andy Ellis

Today at 2:00 PM on the Baltimore Debates internet radio show i will discuss the emergence of the Baltimore Chapter of the Hip Hop Congress. Tune in live or listen to the archives. But whatever you do listen.

In the 30 years since hip hop was articualted as a 4 part culture, it has become much more multifaceted than that, it no longer simply music, art, or even cultural expression, now in addition to the original components, hip hop has a history, a politics, an economics, a pedagogy, and many other trends that hint toward a culturally nationalist movement as opposed to simply a form of artistic expression.

But as the power and reach of hip hop grow, so do the problems that grow out of that reach. Many have turned against hip hop because of its constant presentation of negative images of drugs capitalism violence and misogyny.

Incidently, Hip Hop or Rap has never been without many of these aspects, but as hip hop has become more mainstream over the last two decades it has found its projections and reflections of urban life resonating with an entirely new customer base. Many think the game and the art is done , because "white folks have their hands on it".

But there is proof all over the world, that hip hop is alive and well and growing, and people like the students and educators in baltimore, are working toward a transformative project which begins to engage and change all aspects of the society.

There are debates to be had all over the spectrum, within baltimore, within hip hop, and with the genrals and people in power, and hip hop has about been about debate from the begining. It has confronted challenged and argued with other music, yet appropriated, deconstructed, and rebuilt the whole way.

But its important to highlight the role of debate in hip hop and to teach it as part of the process of living in an oppositional and transformative culture.

Listen today as we discuss debate, hip hop, rap and education, politics and everything else....but it wont be all talk, at least half the show will feature organic and home made baltimore hip hop...freestyle cipher style...and a few prepared things...

IDEA Stages Global Debate Contest -- Winner Goes to UN in NYC

From http://www.idebate.org/thepeoplespeak/

IDEA TPS Global Debates: Participation Has Its Privileges

IDEA is offering you a chance to earn something extra when you participate in the TPS Global Debates. The UNF is holding a Global Debate contest, with a grand prize trip in July of 2008 to the United Nations in New York for six international (non-American) schools. Your school could be one of the lucky six. To enter the Global Debate Contest and to earn UNF points, be sure your school is properly registered at: http://globaldebates.thepeoplespeak.org/tpsgdform.asp.

On your way to the UNF grand prize, you can earn also an array of prizes from IDEA. All international schools that register in the UNF Global Debate contest AND also register on IDEA’s DebateTracker will get greater value for their UNF points earned, because IDEA is offering a points-for-prizes trade-in.

IDEA member NGOs can also share in the prizes in two basic ways. One, all IDEA member NGOs that recruit ten or more schools to participate in the TPS Global Debates will receive a special award. Two, when schools that register on DebateTracker indicate their chief association with your NGO, then your NGO earns the equivalent number of points that each of their registered schools earn.

Want To Learn – and Earn – More? Keep on Reading!

What is the TPS Global Debate Contest?

The People Speak Global Debates

In October of 2007 and March of 2008, The People Speak will hold a global debate contest. Young debaters must research the selected topic and prepare clear, persuasive arguments for both sides of the issue. Then, debate teams need to organize an event at their school that will attract a large audience of students, who can watch the teams present their debate. In other words, the audience of students will become judges; they need to decide which team makes a stronger case in the debate. All of the students who watch the debate will vote for the team that they believe won the debate. The votes will be counted and the results will appear on the TPS site in early November.

The First Global Debate Motion

October 2007: Let it be resolved! Market mechanisms are preferable to regulatory approaches in reducing carbon emissions.

Time Frame: Debate teams must organize debates at their schools within the following ten days: October 12th to October 22nd, 2007.

The Second Global Debate Motion

March 2008: The March 2008 topic will be announced in September of 2007.

Debate Preparation and Curriculum Help

Debate clubs and their schools can find useful resources through the official TPS site (www.thepeoplespeak.org) and through the International Debate Education Association (IDEA) site (www.idebate.org). Teachers may find such resources especially useful and include them as a part of their regular curriculum to teach students about a variety of issues, including, but not limited to the following:

The ecological effect of carbon emissions.
The value of environmental responsibility.
The tension between balancing environmental responsibility with economic growth or stability.
Differing approaches (market or regulatory) to controlling carbon emissions.
Differences between motivations from and the effectiveness (strengths and weaknesses) of economic forces and motivations from governmental enforcement.
The chemistry of carbon emissions.
The value of debating issues from both sides, in order to understand an issue, and in order to reach a solution.
How To Earn UNF Points

Each TPS Global Debate activity listed in the UNF chart earns you a certain number of points. Those schools with the highest number of points are eligible to win the grand prize, a team trip to the UN in New York.

The actual UNF point chart is included in the Global Debates Toolkit.

UNF Registration


UNF Point System Reminder

Each school will receive a four-digit ID number when they register for the Global Debate Contest. You need to make sure that this number is included in all of your submissions, so that your school will receive points for all relevant activities. All online forms will require you to include your ID number. If you forget your number, please contact info@thepeoplespeak.org.

Grand Prize: A Trip to the United Nations!

Each participating international (outside of the United States) high school (grades 9 to 12) is eligible for one of six trips to the July 2008 United Nations Foundation (UNF) Student Youth Summit at the United Nations in New York. A great and prestigious opportunity for schools around the world, those schools which earn the most points can send one of their debate teams to the United Nations.

The trip will cover the cost of a four student debate team with two adult chaperones/teachers to travel to New York for the UN summit. Held in New York, in July 2008, this four-day event is an amazing opportunity to meet UN officials, to learn more the UN, to meet experts in the areas related to the debate topics, and to participate in unique activities, including a special UN tour! Make your school and your country proud, become one of the six international schools to earn the most UNF Global Debate points and you can go to the UN!

Note: Individual winners are responsible for securing visas, as required by international law.

Deadlines

For the Fall Global Debate, you must submit all of the documentation of your activities to the UNF by November 30th, 2007. For the Spring Global Debate, you must submit all of the documentation of your activities to the UNF by April 30th, 2008.

For More Information, Please Check Out the Following Links:

http://www.thepeoplespeak.org/peoplespeak/ http://www.thepeoplespeak.org/peoplespeak/About/highscho/

The Global Debates topic for The People Speak 2007 is:
Market mechanisms are preferable to regulatory approaches in reducing carbon emissions.
The topic for the next Global Debate will be announced in March 2008.

*On-line resources are housed on www.thepeoplespeak.org

Florida Student Wins National Title and $6000

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/seminole/orl-sdebate1507jul15,0,3740423.story

Winter Springs grad wins war of words

WINTER SPRINGS HIGH SCHOOL, July 11, 2007

<== Kenneth Colonel (left), his debate coach Luke Kupscznk (middle) and his brother Robert Colonel (right) play around in a corn field before the National Forensics League debate competition in Kansas.

Tammie Wersinger | Sentinel Staff Writer
July 15, 2007


When the word forensic comes up in a conversation, many people think about a crime-scene investigation or a recent episode of CSI: Miami.

When the letters NFL flash on the screen, it usually means a football game is being played.

But Kenneth Colonel thinks of forensics and the NFL in a whole different light.

The forensics he has mastered is the word's first definition in the dictionary: "The art or study of formal debate; argumentation."

The NFL he competes in is the National Forensic League.

The 2007 Winter Springs High School graduate won first place, as well as a $6,000 scholarship, during the league's national championship in June in Wichita, Kan.

"To be completely honest, I'm still in shock," said Colonel, 18, who will head to Vanderbilt University in the fall after graduating with a 4.10 grade-point average. "Going into the competition, I knew it would be my last chance at winning, so I was determined."

In the event known as the Student Congress, students were divided into two legislative bodies -- the Senate and the House -- where bills were debated.

Three others qualified from the Florida Panther District, which encompasses counties from Gainesville to West Palm Beach.

Joey Martin of Trinity Preparatory School in Winter Park debated in the House, while his teammate, Charles Nadd, debated in the Senate.

Varun Hippalgaonkar of Lake Highland Preparatory School in Orlando also debated in the Senate and won third place.

Colonel competed in the House, debating about 20 topics for a total of 27 hours.

Although he is adept in a plethora of current issues, he considers foreign policy to be his strength.

The subject that sealed Colonel's national win was "why the United States should continue to support the United Nations."

"Winning this tournament brought a lot of self-fulfillment," Colonel said. "It was not just a win for me but was a win for my school and my community."

He attributed his debating success to his parents' support, to his coach, Luke Kupscznk, and to his debate-club sponsor Kathi Wells.

He said Wells gets students started on the road to forensics success by teaching them "the art of speech and debate," and then assigns them specialized coaches to focus on specific areas.

"It's all about being confident in yourself and in your speaking abilities," Colonel said. "You also need to really know your current issues and have the ability to think quickly on the spot."

Mastering those qualities has helped Colonel win several local and district events that led to his invitation to the NFL congress in Kansas.

Not only was this Colonel's first national win, but it also was the first national title brought home by a member of the Winter Springs High School debate team, which Wells formed eight years ago.

"This is a once-in-a-career accomplishment. There's nothing bigger than this in debate," Wells said. "I told Kenneth that I could quit now and I'd be content."

But she has no plans to quit and can even foresee another win for the school.

Kenneth's brother, Robert, is coming up fast on his heels and is already making a name for himself on the national scene.

Just a few weeks earlier, the Winter Springs High sophomore placed seventh in the National Catholic Forensic League Grand National Tournament in Houston.

"Kenneth told me how proud he was of his brother," Wells said. "Then, he looked at me and said, 'Just wait till next month, I'm going to get us the national title.' "

Schematic: CUNY Debaters Do Podcasts

http://web.mac.com/schematic1/iWeb/Site/Schematic/Schematic.html

That is the web address of a series of podcasts from two City University of New York debaters.

Grab some debaters, put them on the mic. It is bound to be awesometastic, spifferific good times with your dog. Because all we want to do is have a little chat.

To bug us with your comments - e-mail us @: schematicdb8@gmail.com

Wanted: More Nations for World Schools Debate Championship

From Bojana Skrt (photo above from Koper Conference 2006) at bojana.skrt@siol.net She provides a report for the debate-l listserv maintained by IDEA. She asks for more nations to contact her and then asks questions about the IDEA office in Korea.

New nations should contact her about Washington 2008. Congratulations to Slovenia for such a strong showing.

Just a short info about the Worlds Schools Debate Championship which finished
a few days ago in Seoul. There were teams from 35 countries competing, everybody
debating 8 debate rounds, 4 on the prepared motions and 4 on the impromptu, the
best 16 teams than debating in octos, which was followed by quarters, semis and the
finals. This year Worlds was won by Scotland.

I must admit I am very proud and happy because Slovenia did it really well: after
8 rounds we had 6 wins and were ranked 8th, which is the highest achievement
for the English Foreign Language team ever, we lost in the octos against Canada.
Slovenia also won the English Foreign Language best team award and Slovenian
debater Filip Dobranič won the English Foreign Language best speaker award.
More about the Worlds at http://www.schoolsdebate.com/blog/
We also have a Slovenian national TV crew with us, which was filming debates and other activities and they will make a 50 minutes documentary for the TV. Will be available also in the English version on DVDs.

The Worlds 2008 will happen in Washington, between 7th and 17th of September.
If you want more information, please, contact me. I am a member of the Worlds
Schools executive committee and  one of my responsibilities are also contacts with
new countries.

I would also like to use this opportunity to give the first announcement about the
International High School Debate Tournament we are organising the third weekend
in October in Ljutomer. More details follow in a week. Hope you will be able to attend.

Furthermore, I will appreciate a lot if somebody can tell us  about IDEA office which is planned to be open in Seoul, like what is the purpose of the office there, what it is planned to be done, why Seoul, such things.

And, of course, I hope everybody is enjoying their summer holidays!

Best,
Bojana 

Tallinn, Estonia Bids for 2008 Euros

From http://www.debate.ee/eudc2008/

Introduction

We are delighted to welcome you to our homepage of Tallinn's bid to host EUDC 2008. Below you will find our our idea to bring European Universities Debating Championships 2008 to Tallinn, Estonia.

Our organising committee is an experienced team with great ideas and a strong will to make them happen. Our goal is to make this event memorable and enjoyable to everyone by offering a unique atmosphere, unforgettable entertainment, and unparalelled debating and adjudication.

Kindly Yours,

Helina Loor and Triin Sikk
with EUDC 2008 Tallinn team

==========

Bid

On this page you can download our initial bid for the European Universities Championships 2008 in Tallinn. The final bid will be released and introduced at this year's EUDC in Istanbul.

Feel free to ask any questions concerning the bid and contact either Helina Loor at helina.loor@debate.ee or Triin Sikk at triin.sikk@gmail.com. We will be delighted to answer and give as much information out as we know so far.

We hope you will enjoy our bid and give us the chance to bring it to life.

Click HERE to download the bid in the PDF format (size 377 KB).

===========================

Adjudication Team

We have the honour of having the best of the best on our adjudication team – they are highly experienced, have worked together several times and give us the confidence that the adjudication is going to rock in Tallinn!

As the Chief Adjudicator we have Neill-Harvey Smith , the Worlds finalist in 2001, English Mace winner in 1999, Scottish Mace winner in 2002 and Worlds Masters winner in 2006.

As the three Deputy Chief Adjudicators we have the honour to present:
Diarmuid Early
Marie Isabelle Loewe and
Sam Block
Diarmuid reached the semi-final of Europeans in 2004 and the quarter-final of Worlds in 2006.
Isa is the current European Champion (ESL), Worlds semi-finalist (ESL) in 2007 and Worlds quarter-finalist (ESL) in 2006.
Sam was 2nd best speaker at Worlds and winner of the International Mace. He also won the LSE Open and reached the final of Oxford.


The other confirmed independent adjudicators are:
Alex Deane
Andrew Marshall
Colletta Smith
Connie Grieve
Daniel Schut
Dave Whelan
Derek Doyle
Jens Fischer
Jeremy Brier
Jessica Harvey-Smith

===================

Organising Commitee

EUDC 2008 organising committee is an experienced team, who successfully convened Tallinn Intervarsity 2007. We also have people joining us from the organising team of IDEA’s (International Debate Education Association) Youth Forum Estonia 2004 ja LatEst 2005.

Debaters, judges, aficionados – meet co-conveners Helina Loor and Triin Sikk – the team of power running EUDC 2008 with lots of other cool people behind the curtains.

Helina is an experienced tournament director with significant experience under her belt – she’s been a part of the teams for IDEA Youth Forum Estonia 2004, Tallinn IV 2007 and a number of domestic tournaments. She has worked in different organisations, last being the Oracle Corporation, but still she came back to her roots and works currently as a training manager at Estonian Debating Society. Just before EUDC 2007 she’ll be the tournament director at IDEA Youth Forum 2007 in Czech Republic.

Triin is an audit consultant at Ernst & Young Baltic, and was the financial manager of Tallinn IV 2007. Triin has been debating for 2 years, having participated in several and won one international Baltic tournament.

Fundraising
Uve Poom

Accommodation, registration, arrival, departure
Liina Naaber

Logistics Coordinator
Allan-Hermann Pool

Catering
Ilja Mitrofanov

Entertainment Team
Team Sikurein: Andero Uusberg, Kajar Kase, Matti Laarmaa

PR Coordinator
Kajar Kase

Tournament Director
Robert Nimmo

Equity Officer/ Mascot
Rhydian Morgan

Personnel manager
Gabriel Mastico

Web Solutions
Margo Loor

Volunteers Coordinator
Martin Kõiva

Regional judges pool Coordinator
Anna Karolin

Design Solutions
Tajo Oja

Tibetan Monks Debate in Traditional Style at Tournament

Photo: Tibetan monks debate, from China Daily.

Story from Rashedul Hasan Stalin, Chair, Bangladesh Debating Council-BDC, stalinhasan@yahoo.com

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 prominent 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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWAEkOyzG8s&mode=related&search=

Tibetan Monks Debate in Dharamsala

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEN7kWJzL1g&mode=related&search=

Monks Debate: Lhasa,Tibet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtvVL3kPWiE

Courtyard debate in Tibet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9_6K-xvsMA&mode=related&search=

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

Regards,
Rashedul Hasan Stalin,
Chair, Bangladesh Debating Council-BDC

Winning Cayman High School Debater Becomes a Government Minister

Photo: Nickolas DaCosta (centre in blue shirt) with a group of students at Cayman Prep.




From: http://www.caymannetnews.com/cgi-script/csArticles/articles/000159/015911.htm

Cayman Brac High School student, Nickolas DaCosta is a young Caymanian to watch. Among his many academic, musical and extracurricular achievements, Nickolas is the current Junior Minister of Tourism, a title he earned for being the speaker with the highest points in the Ministry of Tourism’s Inter-School Debate Tournament in October 2006.

Taking time out of his busy schedule recently, Nickolas talked with Cayman Prep & High students on what it took to become Junior Minister of Tourism, how it has changed his life and what he will take away from this experience.

Pakistan Holds National Debate Tournament

From Rashedul Hasan Stalin stalinhasan@yahoo.com

King Edward Medical University Debating teams have lifted both English and Urdu trophies in the GCU Style Pakistan Parliamentary Debating Championship-2007. The English team comprised of Shaheer Zulfiqar and Humayun Sher Khan, whereas the Urdu debating team comprised of Sheikh Bilal Khalid and Ms. Poonam Melani. However, Muhammad Umer Farooq of Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute NWFP was declared the Best Urdu Speaker whereas Shaheer Zulfiqar was awarded the Best Speaker award in the English category.

The topic of Urdu debate was `The clash of civilization is just a
hypothesis' while English debate was held on `West needs to change
its approach towards Islam'. The debates were adjudicated by Dr.
Farhan Ebadat Yar Khan, M. Siddique Awan, Zia-ur-Rehman, Umer
Mehmood Khan, Salman Haider, Waleed Iqbal, Rana Abdul Aziz and Ata
Ali Malik.

The 3-day event was one of the biggest Debating Championships in
Pakistan in which 32 educational institutions from all over Pakistan
sent their teams for debating battle.

Regards,
Rashedul Hasan Stalin
Chair, Bangladesh Debating Council
Source: Government College University Lahore Pakistan

"Debate Survival" Television Program in Korea

From http://specialkinkorea.blogspot.com/2007/04/yesterday-i-was-tv-star.html

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Yesterday I was a TV star.

Well not really. However, I was at a taping for a Korean TV show called 'debate survival.' The premise of the show is that Korean High School students debate against each other, and the winners get to survive, and the losers have to wrestle wild Siberian tigers to the death. No actually, the losers only suffer the shame of losing on Korean TV. This is in effect the social equivalent of the wild tigers. The show was supposed to be a tournament format with the winners progressing through the knockout stages.

There was quite a set up for the entire affair. We were taken into make up before filming began. Unfortunately, the budget could not extend to some liposuction and eyelifts. Nevertheless, I walked out feeling like a socratic Christopher Biggins. There was an elaborate if not tasteful set, with a sort of faux Ancient Roman?Greek set up with big columns and pedestals. There was a big 'debate survival' sign in the middle of the set. The debates themselves were actually of pretty good actually, with the second one on 'internet censorship' particularly. Indeed, that is a pretty easy motion to botch up, but the kids did really quite well. The format featured 'cross examination', where the speakers get to directly question each other after the speeches. It got pretty confrontational and it reminded me of the ugly scenes when I debated at Northwestern University on the US tour. At one point in the first debate, I saw a scene which should make a certain Korean father a tad disconcerted. The first debate was on corporal punishment and the questioner was attempting to draw parallels between corporal punishment:

“So how would you feel if your father used violence against your mother?”

“Well you know it happens.”

“Sorry.”

“You know he hits my mother, sometimes he hits me, I mean it happens.”

The questioner, as indeed were we all, was a bit stunned by this admission of seeming domestic violence. I think he might have been kidding and I hope he was, because if he is not, it might spoil a proud family as they gather round the TV.

After the debate I had to give record a brief comment on one of the speakers. I had to analyse the PM and I combined some heartwarming encouragement with some Alan Hansen like criticism. “Well this schoolgirl just made a schoolboy error. She has brought up her teams mechanism or policy and then she has left that to her partner to analyse. You just cannot do that at this level. The opposition should have murdered her on that point, but instead he squandered his chance. You have got to finish your chances in those positions.” I was somewhat appalled by how big I looked on the TV monitors as I was filmed. I remembered of course that the camera adds about ten pounds, so on my reckoning, I must have had about twenty five cameras filming me at all times.

It was however a very enjoyable experience and featured the sort of debating standard that I thought I would frequently run into during my time here. Apparently, appearing on this TV show could make me 'famous' amongst Korean debating/teaching circles. Indeed, I am sure that I will be well known as the incomprehensible chubster very soon.

Motions and Tab from Australs 2007

Iqbal Hafiedz hafiedz@gmail.com reports:

MOTIONS

ROUND 1: DEMOCRACY
1. That presidential democracies should change to parliamentary democracies
2. That the media should be required to cap political advertising by
candidates and parties during elections
3. That Tonga should abandon its absolute monarchy

ROUND 2: BIOETHICS
1. That the West should not recognize clinical trials conducted in the Third
World
2. That governments should abolish patent protection and instead establish a
fund that guarantees payments for the development of new medicines for Third
World diseases
3. That we should have a moratorium on genetically modified foods until they
are proven to be safe

ROUND 3: MALAYSIA … TRULY ASIA
1. That segregating universities on the basis of ethnicity should be
abolished
2. That all Malaysians should come under the same civil code
3. That Malaysia should abolish compulsory national service

ROUND 4: The Dismal Science
1. That governments in the Third World should reclaim ownership of basic
services
2. That the WTO should enforce fair trade instead of free trade
3. That growth in happiness, not growth in GDP, should be the measure of
success in developed countries

ROUND 5: LANGUAGE AND CULTURE
1. That new citizens should be required to pass a language and values test
2. That we should strive to prevent endangered languages from becoming
extinct
3. That the membership of the United Nations Security Council should
represent the world's major 'civilizations'

ROUND 6: SECURITY IN ASIA PACIFIC
1. That we should lift trade sanctions on North Korea as soon as it shuts
and seals its nuclear facilities.
2. That Sri Lanka should grant the Tamils statehood.
3. That Australia should recruit soldiers from Pacific Island States


ROUND 7: THE NANNY STATE
1. That democratic states should adopt Singapore's law regarding oral sex
2. That the state should compel the parents of obese children to sponsor a
child in the Third World
3. That 'emo' youths should be placed in state care

ROUND 7: THE GREATEST MARKET FAILURE IN HISTORY
1. That we should use biofuels as the solution to 'peak oil'
2. That the developed world should institute a policy of zero population
growth
3. That we should abandon the Kyoto Protocol in favour of the Asia-Pacific
Partnership on Clean Development and Climate (AP6)


ROUND 8: MIDDLE EAST
1. The West Bank should become a part of Jordan
2. That the West should overtly support pro-democracy movements in Middle
Eastern states
3. That only 'soft power' can achieve America's goal of democratisation in
the Middle East

OCTO FINALS: LABOUR
1. That host countries of guest workers should pay a tax to the country of
origin
2. That the Members-States should grant free movement of labour in EU
3. That South America should cease coca eradication programs

ESL Semi-Final: HEALTH AND EDUCATION
1. That the United States should establish a system of universal health care
2. That religious schools should be forced to teach comprehensive sex
education
3. That Southeast Asian Governments should provide condoms in prisons

WOMEN'S DEBATE
1. That the election of Hillary Clinton would be good for women

QUARTER FINALS: WHATS COLD IS HOT AGAIN
1. That we should suspend Russia's G8 membership pending democratic reforms
2. That NATO should support the unilateral declaration of Kosovo's
independence
3. That the US should accept Putin's request to modify its plans for missile
defense

SEMI FINAL: SIZE DOES MATTER
1. That male circumcision should be banned
2. That we should decriminalize prostitution in Southeast Asia
3. That cock fighting should be banned

ESL FINAL: GENDER
1. That we should legalise abortion in Southeast Asia
2. That there should be gender quotas for Executive positions in Fortune 500
companies
3. That doctors should be required to report suspected cases of domestic
violence

Grand Final: Mental Health
1. That governments should pay for treatments that seek to 'normalise'
autism

Also, we have downloaded the full tab, and it can be found at
http://debate.uvm.edu/tabs/
just look for the tab you want, and this one is australs07 in two documents.

Students Save Iowa High School Debate Program

Photo: Roosevelt debaters who went to nationals are, front, from left, Susan Crane, Amelia Martin, and Adele Crane, all 14 and of Des Moines; in back, from left, are Sam Fairfield, 18, of Runnells and Billy Strong, 17, of south Des Moines.

From http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070712/NEWS/707130302/-1/SPORTS06

Roosevelt debaters get high marks
Five students saved the debate team from extinction and the team recently returned with national wins.

BY CLAIRE HAWS
REGISTER CORRESPONDENT

July 12, 2007
Add comment


The Roosevelt High School debate program was on the verge of extinction four years ago, when budget cuts forced the school to sharply curtail the activity.

But through the dedication of five students - Judy Crane, Sam Fairfield and Anna McDermott, who all graduated this spring, and Olivia Sandbothe and Billy Strong, who will be seniors in the fall - the team flourished and saw one of its most successful seasons come to an end last month.

"The determination of those five kids literally salvaged the program," said Harry Strong, who has served as the head coach for the past year and is Billy Strong's father. "We're blessed with five kids who put the program back on the map."

Debate used to be offered as a class during the school day. But after budget cuts four years ago, the class was cancelled, the teacher in charge of debate moved on, and the program had to continue as an after-school activity with a Drake University student stepping in to coach.

But a handful of students decided that they weren't going to give up on debate. Fairfield, whose family moved to Runnells during high school, said one of the primary reasons he opted to open enroll at Roosevelt was because he wanted to stick with the bare-bones debate program.

"I wanted to see if we could get the team growing, and see how far we could grow it over the next three years," said Fairfield, who plans to attend Grinnell College in the fall. "I wanted to help rebuild the activity, and keep it going."

And the efforts of those students have paid off. Two years ago, there were only seven students involved in debate. This year, 38 students were on the team.

"We had to create an atmosphere where students wanted to participate," said Strong, who owns Stitzell Electric Supply Co. along with his wife, Ginny, a school board member.

Roosevelt competes in the National Forensic League with about 98,000 students nationwide. Students are awarded league points based upon participation and how well they do in competitions.

Billy Strong wrapped up the season ranked 54th in the country in points, followed closely by Fairfield at 56th. The two led the state's all-time debate point leader list as well. Strong finished the season with the most points in Iowa, and Fairfield was second.

"They've fought tooth and nail to leave their name in Iowa debate history," said Harry Strong, who participated in debate when he was a student at Fairfield High School.

Billy Strong, 17, and Fairfield, 18, were two of only about 250 students in the country to be named Academic All-Americans by the league, based upon their grade-point averages, standardized test scores and number of accumulated league points.

And the future looks bright for the team. Chris Oman, who will be a junior, and Bianca Flores, who will be a sophomore, teamed up to win the novice national championship in the public forum debate category. The novice championship is for students in their first year of debate.

"We're really excited," said Harry Strong, whose assistant coach is Nate Fredericks, a Scavo speech teacher. "We've got a strong sophomore class returning, and a sizeable freshman class coming in. Our numbers are going to grow, and we've finally got this program pointed the right direction."

The team travels around the state and country throughout the year for weekend contests. They compete in about a dozen speech and debate categories, including Lincoln/Douglas debate, public forum, extemporaneous speaking, humorous interpretation and dramatic interpretation.

Strong described public forum, essentially a town hall discussion of an issue such as casino gambling or the influence of lobbyists, as the team's specialty. In this competition, the topic changes each month, and participants work in pairs.

At the beginning of the contest, a coin flip determines which side of an issue the team will argue.

Oman, 16, said the key to public forum is being able to be "persuasive and be passionate about each side without seeming extreme. You have to be able to argue both sides."

Billy Strong and Fairfield have competed as a public forum team for the past three years.

"The respect they have had for each other is amazing," Harry Strong said. "They've worked extraordinarily hard to be successful, and they've always represented Roosevelt in a first-class manner."

Amelia Martin, who will be a sophomore, said being involved in debate has made her a better listener. She's turned from a person "who waits for a turn to talk, to a person who listens," the 15-year-old said.

Several team members said debate has made them better students.

"It teaches you to think critically, to pick apart arguments and to find connections," said Susan Crane, 14, who will be a sophomore.

And it's made the students more informed citizens.

"I've learned so much over the year in so many different areas - world events I knew nothing about, I now care about," said Adele Crane, Susan's twin. "I like getting passionate about a topic I didn't know anything about."

Plus, there's the excitement of traveling to competitions, and meeting other students from all over the country.

"And I just love the competition, and trying to win," Billy Strong said. "There's a thrill from it."

California State High School Tournament Makes it Hard for Jews to Participate

From http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=17917

2007-07-13
Complaints 'too late': California scholastic debate tournament still set for first night of Pesach


Tournament Schedule Stifles Debate

Like many Jewish students, Jenny Lester likes to argue -- so she joined the debate team at Taft High School in Woodland Hills. But even if she qualifies for next year's statewide tournament, the junior won't be able to compete because it begins on April 19 -- the first night of Passover.

Lester's debate coach at Taft, Doug Lasken, has been trying since early June to get the tournament moved from seder night -- an important family rite and the most observed ritual on the Jewish calendar. But letters from the Los Angeles and San Francisco Jewish Community Relations Councils have not convinced the California High School Speech Association (CHSSA) to change the date, which has been on the calendar since last September.

The tournament, scheduled to take place this year at Santa Clara University, attracts thousands of students, coaches, parents and judges, who stay in area hotels for three days of competition in impromptu speaking, debates and prepared speeches.

CHSSA President Sharon Prefontaine says the group is already locked into contracts with the university and several area hotels. In addition, CHSSA's bylaws require the state tournament to be held on one of the last two weekends in April, and the Santa Clara venue was not available on the later date.

"It is not CHSSA's reluctance, but its contractual and ethical commitments that are the key factors preventing it from changing the dates of the state tournament," Prefontaine wrote in a letter to The Jewish Journal.

Prefontaine says no one on the committee objected to the dates when they were finalized over three meetings last year, when it would have been procedurally appropriate and change may have been feasible.

"I feel very responsible for this," said Neil Barembaum, CHSSA's treasurer and a debate coach at a downtown L.A. high school. "As the Jew most active on the council, I certainly should have caught the problem back in September."

Barembaum has given CHSSA a long-term calendar, and says the issue may arise again in 2016.

"The fact that we have made the CHSSA aware of the issue, and they have noted the dates of Pesach in future years in order to avoid future conflicts, is a success," said Caron Spector, associate director of the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles.

Spector, along with Jackie Berman of the San Francisco JCRC, sent letters to Prefontaine in early June, hoping to get the dates changed, but CHSSA, which operates on an academic calendar and shuts down for the summer, never responded.

Spector said that while it seems clear the dates will not be moved, the Jewish community should still make its voice heard.

Lasken doesn't think that will be a problem.

"I think there is going to be so much more outrage in the fall when we get back to school and everyone sees the schedule," Lasken said

-- Julie Gruenbaum Fax, Education Editor

Snape's Morality to be Debated in Harry Potter Event

From http://www.chronicle-tribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070712/NEWS01/707120311/1002

Debate to focus on good vs. evil
Public invited to vote on issue at North Park Mall


From staff reports

Local Harry Potter fans have just gotten their first glimpse at the latest movie in the series. Now, it's time for them to gear up for the seventh and final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

This weekend, seven days before the new book comes out, Grant County fans have the chance to attend an engaging wizarding event at North Park Mall.

Waldenbooks and the Chronicle-Tribuneare sponsoring a debate over what will happen in Deathly Hallowscalled The Great Snape Debate, focusing specifically on the character Severus Snape and the questions surrounding his morality after the events of the sixth book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

"I thought it was a neat way for us locally to get involved in an international debate on this fictional character. It's really about the true essence of good and evil," said David Wolcott, marketing specialist for the C-T.

The event is at 1 p.m. in the concourse by Waldenbooks. Ten county teenagers have been chosen to lead the discussion - five who believe Snape is good, five who believe Snape is bad - and C-T and Waldenbooks employees will moderate.

Audience participation also will be a key element of the debate. After the discussion is completed, the audience will have the chance to vote on which side is most compelling - whether they've decided Professor Snape is evil or not.

The crowd also will have the chance to ask questions of the participants. Waldenbooks will have information on Deathly Hallowsavailable along with their usual selection of Harry Potter merchandise and books for purchase. The store currently is taking reservations for the book, which will be released July 21.

World Schools Debate Championship Elects New Officers

From http://www.schoolsdebate.com/blog/

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

WSDC Executive 2007/8
President: Chris Erskine (Australia)
Vice President: Mark Gabriel (Singapore)
Secretary: Claire Ryan (NZ)

6 committee members;

Taimur Bandey (Pakistan)
Martin Pollard (Wales)
James Probert (England)
Sixto Ramos (Peru)
JJ Rodriguez (USA)
Bojana Skrt (Slovenia)

posted by Kiwi Claire at 4:11 PM 0 comments

North American Debating Championships 2007

From martinpoirier@shaw.ca

North American
Debating Championships
Calgary, Alberta
October 19th to the 22nd 2007

Convener: Martin Poirier
Vice President, Alberta Debate and Speech Association
Address: 3009, Morley Tr NW, Calgary, Alberta, T2M 3G9
Phone: 403-289-2551
Fax: 403-777-7079
Mobile: 403-608-3322
Email: martinpoirier@shaw.ca





Dear Debating Colleagues,
We are inviting you to the third annual North American Debate Championships which will be held at William Aberhart High School in Calgary, Alberta, Canada from Friday Oct 19th to Monday Oct 22nd.

The event will once again be held in British Parliamentary Style.
This is to ensure that neither Canadian nor American team gets an unfair advantage from their National Style. It is also a good preparation for those debaters that will go on to University Debating at the World Level.

This year's event will, for the third time, serve as the qualifier for the Oxford Schools Tournament in Oxford, England. Each year Canada is invited to send two teams to this event, which is tentatively scheduled for Saturday, March 8th, 2008.

Motions:
All topics will be impromptu, and teams will be given 20 minutes to prepare. Students should expect topics to be on substantive and broad based issues, and are expected to prepare without assistance from coaches. No electronic devices are allowed. Teams cannot prepare with other teams even if they are from the same school.

Speaking Times:
All speeches will be five minutes in length for the preliminary rounds
All speeches will be seven minutes in length for the break rounds
A guide on BP debate can be found at :
http://www.compusmart.ab.ca/adebate/resources/debate/UBC-NUS_manual.pdf

Judging:
The judging will mainly be done by University of Calgary and University of Alberta debaters who are very experienced in BP Style. The Chief Adjudicator will be Jessica Robertshaw, from the University of Calgary Debate Union. Jessica has been the CA at the University level and her deputy is Chris McMillan, also from the U of C Debate Union.

We welcome any coaches who are comfortable judging in this style. There will be a briefing on Saturday morning. Judging, as is standard in BP Style, will by done by consensus. Two or Three judges will be in each room. The ballot and
scoring guideline will be made available on the website.

Tabs:
British Parliamentary Style has four teams debating in a round. Teams are ranked first to fourth, and given 0, 1, 2, or 3 points. Teams are bracketed based solely on number of team points, ignoring speaker points. Every effort will be made to give all teams all four table positions, but this can not be guaranteed. The tabs director will be Michelle Zalmanowitz from the U of C Debate Union.

Oxford Schools competition:
The top two Canadian teams from two different provinces will advance to the Oxford Union Schools Tournament. Teams must advance as they were entered at this event _ no substitutions allowed. The coach of the winning team has first right to chaperon the teams, and is provided with a sum of money to offset expenses.

Registration:

Initially we will accept five teams (of two people) per province and 30 teams from the United States. We will also be extending invitations to teams around the World and reserving 20 spots for them. However, only Canadian teams may qualify for Oxford. We are aiming for a cap of 100 teams.

For teams outside of Canada
Registration will be accepted on a first come first served basis until September 7th or when the 50 spots are filled.

For teams from Canada
Provincial organizations have until Friday, June 1st at the latest to officially decide whether they will or will not nominate teams and indicate how many you will send. Please indicate your decision to Martin Poirier at martinpoirier@shaw.ca. After that, we will decide whether we can ask provinces to send additional teams. While there is not officially a limit on teams per school, we would hope provinces do make an effort to involve as many different schools as possible. Hybrid teams are allowed to enter, but are ineligible to advance to any break rounds (but may win individual awards). Friday Sept 17th is the deadline for Canadian Teams to register

Cost of Registration
The cost per debater will be c$250. This will include accommodation for the 4 nights (quadruple occupancy), all breakfasts (continental), 3 lunches and one supper (the banquet). This will also include a tour of Banff (the Canadian Rockies), and activities on Saturday night. In addition, some of the funds collected will be used to offset the costs of the chaperone to Oxford.

The cost per debater/coach who which to have double occupancy is: c$400
The cost per debater/coach who which to have single occupancy is: c$550
The cost for parents willing to judge is: c$500
(Assuming they will be sharing the room with their child)
The cost for parents that are observers is: c$600
(Assuming they will be sharing the room with their child)
The Cost per debater who will not stay at the Hotel is: $130

To register
please go to nadc2007@gmail.com before September 7th 2007 for team outside of Canada or before September 17th for Canadian Teams.
See p. for registration information required.

Cheques should be made payable to the "Alberta Debate and Speech Association" and sent to:
Elisa Frank,
2820 9th Avenue SE, Calgary, AB, Canada
T2A 0B9

Accommodation:
Best Western Village Park Inn
1804 Crowchild Trail N.W. Calgary Alberta T2M 3Y7
Telephone: (403) 289-0241 Fax: (403) 289-4645 Toll free 1-888-774-7716
The room arrangement will be done by our committee, make sure to include your preference when you register.

Schedule:

Thursday, October 18th
Delegates arrive throughout day

Friday, October 19th

9:00a.m. Bus departs from the Hotel for Banff
10:30a.m. Tour of Banff (lunch not provided)
3:30p.m. Depart Banff for Calgary
5:00p.m. Supper on their own and free evening

Saturday, October 20th
8:15a.m. - 8:45a.m.
Judge Registration at Bishop Carroll High School
(or other school)
8:30 a.m. Bus depart from hotel
9:00a.m. Judges’ Briefing
Stampede Breakfast
10:40a.m. Topic and Pairing for Round One announced
11:00a.m. Round 1
12:20p.m. Lunch
1:00p.m. Topic and Pairing for Round two announced
1:20p.m. Round 2
2:50p.m. Topic and Pairing for Round three announced
3:10p.m. Round 3
4:30p.m. Bus depart for Hotel
Supper on own times
6:30p.m. Bus departs for evening activities
10:30p.m. Bus returns from evening activities

Sunday, October 21st

8:00a.m. bus depart from Hotel
8:30a.m. Check in at William Aberhart High School
Re-briefings for judges
9:00a.m. Topic and Pairing for Round four announced
9:20a.m. Round 4
10:50a.m. Topic and Pairing for Round five announced
11:10a.m. Round 5
12:00p.m. Lunch
1:00 Topic and Pairing for Round six announced
1:20p.m. Round 6

2:30p.m. bus depart for downtown
2:45p.m. Shopping in Downtown Calgary
5:30p.m. Debaters dropped off at Aberhart for Banquet
6:00p.m. Banquet
7:00p.m. Keynote Speaker
Entertainment: Skadzilla and the Blues Witness
9:00p.m. Break announced
Return to the hotel

Monday, Oct 22nd

08:15am Check out of the Hotel
08:45am Departure from Hotel
09:30a.m. Check in at Bishop Carroll HS
09:45a.m. Topic announced
10:15a.m. Semi-Finals
11:45a.m. Lunch
12:00 Positions and topic announced for the finals
12:15. Departure from Bishop Carroll
12:45p.m. Arrival at William Aberhart HS
13:00p.m. Grand final
14:15p.m. Medal Ceremony
14:45p.m. Bus departs for the airport

Background Information

The Host City

The city of Calgary is situated where the impressive Canadian prairies meets the rugged, snow-capped peaks of the Rocky Mountains. Its glittering skyscrapers rise out of older suburban neighborhoods
and seem oddly superimposed on this stunningly diverse landscape. Calgary continues to grow at the confluence of the Bow and Elbow rivers. Its population is now over 1 million citizens and continues to grow by about 3% per year. While Calgary is the fourth largest city in Canada, it is the second largest in number of head offices and one of the best standards of living compared to other major cities in Canada.
Its landmass covers over 5,000 square kilometers making it the single largest metropolitan city in North
America . The major industries in Calgary reflect that of the whole province. Oil & gas is the top job creating industry, followed by technology, agriculture and tourism.


Organizing Committee

Convenor: Martin Poirier

Chief Adjudicator: Jessica Robertshaw

Deputy Chief Adjudicator: Christopher McMillan

Coordinator and Logistics: Elisa Frank

Deputy Coordination: Siobhan Kirkland

Social & Cultural Activities: Michelle Zalmanowitz

Admnistration: Oliver Peplowski

Public Relation: Peggy Buzzard

Fundraising: Debra Miko

Adjudicators:

Calgary has large pool of qualified adjudicators who have experience in debating at the World level, the university level and the National High School level. Most adjudicators for this event will be University debaters from U of C and U of A.


Best Western Village Park Inn
Social and Cultural Activities

Visit to Banff National Park

Banff Upper Hot Springs
All the amenities of a modern facility are featured in this splendid, historic spa and bath house – against a backdrop of spectacular alpine scenery. You will luxuriate in the comfort of soothing hot water where travelers have come to “take the waters” for more than a century. Banff’s premier attraction features:

Sulphur Mountain Gondola and Weather Observatory
Follow the 1 km boardwalk trail that leads from the upper terminal of the Sulphur Mountain Gondola to the mountain’s peak. At the summit, take a glimpse into the windows of the restored 1903 weather observatory, and into the life of meteorologist Norman Bethune Sanson. Along the way, interpretive displays tell some of the stories behind the amazing scenery. Wear comfortable shoes and bring a jacket. You may experience some typical mountain-top weather!

Tour of Calgary

Devonian Gardens is one of the world's largest indoor parks, housing 20,000 plants from more than 135 varieties of flora.Right in the heart of downtown Calgary you can follow meandering flower-banked pathways to the Quiet Garden – a secluded woodland setting nestled in the Gardens' north west corner; stroll along tree-decked plazas, past waterfalls and fountains into the Sun Garden; feed the fish and turtles; enjoy the artwork and sculpture displays or let the kids burn off energy in the playground.





Debater Registration Form
2007 North American Debate Championships
The information in this form is required for the organisation of the 2007 North American Debate Championships and will be retained only for the period of the tournament and any follow-up actions.

Name: ___________________________________________
Age: ____________Gender: _________________Grade: ___________
School: _________________________________________
Province/State/Country: __________________________________________
Home Mailing Address: ______________________________________________________
Home Phone: _________________________ e-mail address: ___________________
Debating Partner: ________________________________


Arrival Details (Airline, Flight #, and time):
__________________________________________________

Departure Details (Airline, Flight #, and time):
__________________________________________________

Registration fee: (indicate with an x)
___Quadruple occupancy: c$250
___Double occupancy: c$400
___Single occupancy is: c$550
___Not Staying at the Hotel: c$130

Hotel Accommodation

We would like to accommodate you with people with whom you feel comfortable. Please indicate three names of other debaters you feel comfortable sharing a room.
_____________________________________________________________________________

For double Occupancy
Please indicate the name of the other debater you feel comfortable sharing a room.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Choice of Activities for Saturday Night: (indicate with an x)
___ Bowling
___ A night of games(diplomacy, Risk, settlers of Catan)
___ Laser tag
___ Leisure Center (Wave Pool, Gym, etc)
___ I ll spend the evening on my own
Emergency Contact
Name: ______________________________ Phone: _______________________________
Relationship to Debater: ___________________________

Medical
Health Care Insurance Number: _______________________________
Province or insurer: ________________________
Allergies or other medical conditions: _________________________________________
Dietary Restrictions: __________________________________________________________

Please send completed form to : nadc2007@gmail.com
Adult Registration Form
2007 North American Debate Championships
The information in this form is required for the organisation of the 2007 North American Debate Championships and will be retained only for the period of the tournament and any follow-up actions.

Name: ___________________________________________
Gender: _________________
Province/State/Country: __________________________________________
Home Mailing Address: ______________________________________________________
Home Phone: _________________________ e-mail address: ___________________

Registration fee: (indicate with an x)

___ Coach not staying at the Hotel: c$130
___ Coach who which to have double occupancy: c$400
___ Coach who which to have single occupancy: c$550
___ Parents willing to judge: c$500
(Assuming they will be sharing the room with their child)
___ Parents as observer: c$600
(Assuming they will be sharing the room with their child)
___ Parent observer not staying at the Hotel c$200

Arrival Details (Airline, Flight #, and time):
__________________________________________________

Departure Details (Airline, Flight #, and time):
__________________________________________________


Hotel Accommodation

Please indicate the name of an other adult you feel comfortable sharing a room, or for parents; the name of the debater you will be sharing the room with:

_____________________________________________________________________________

Choice of Activities for Saturday Night: (indicate with an x)
___ Bowling
___ A night of games(diplomacy, Risk, settlers of Catan)
___ Laser tag
___ Leisure Center (Wave Pool, Gym, etc)
___ I ll spend the evening on my own
Emergency Contact
Name: ______________________________ Phone: _______________________________
Relationship to Debater: ___________________________

Medical
Allergies or other medical conditions: _________________________________________
Dietary Restrictions: __________________________________________________________

Please send completed form to : nadc2007@gmail.com

Scotland Wins WSDC, Pakistan Wins ESL, Slovenia Wins EFL Titles

From http://www.schoolsdebate.com/blog/

Wednesday, July 11, 2007


And the winner is.........
The WSDC champion for 2007 is........TEAM SCOTLAND!

In a close but clear decision, the adjudicators agreed that the Opposition analysis prevailed. It was a great contest and one of the best finals I've seen. Both times I've judged Singapore in a final, they have set up a fantastic debate and the Lima 2003 and Seoul finals are for me the apex of school debating.

Individual prizes:

ESU Korea prize for the best speaker from a new team:
Itaru Hiromi

Prize for best EFL speaker:
Filip Dobranic from Slovenia

Prize for best ESL speaker:
Anser Aftab from Pakistan.

<== Best EFL team:
Slovenia

Best ESL team:
Pakistan.

Best 3 WSDC debaters 2007:

3 Jamie Susskind from England
2 Jeremy Rich from Australia
1 Kaerlin McCormick from Australia


More details later. The final dinner is about to start but as the rain softly falls in Seoul, I thought I'd get these results to you first.

Love to all the debating whanau all over the world, esp to all the Kiwis.
NEXT YEAR IN WASHINGTON DC.(7 -17 September 2008.)

Kiwi Claire

WSDC Final: Singapore vs. Scotland - Abolish the NPT?

Signing of the NPT

From http://www.schoolsdebate.com/blog/

The final
THW abolish the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

Proposition: Singapore
Opposition: Scotland

Time 3 pm, Seoul time tomorrow (11 July)
Venue: 7th floor ballroom, Imperial Palace Hotel.

Judges: we select these on the basis of competence, performance during the competition and geographical representation where possible. My co-chief Adjudicator Mark Gabriel can't be on the panel as Singapore is in the final. There have been a number of very good judges in this competition and we couldn't select them all so here is the panel of 9 for tomorrow:

Ryan (NZ), Ade (Canada), Bandey (Pakistan), Erskine (Australia), Giannakouri , (Greece), Jumin Lee (South Korea), Pollard (Wales), Probert (England), Rodriguez (USA).

Afterwards, there will be prizes for winning team, runner up team, top 3 speakers, best ESL speaker, best EFL speaker, ESU Korea award for best speaker from new team.

South Dakota High Schools Wins Over 950 Others

From http://www.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070623/NEWS/70623010/1001

Lincoln wins national speech and debate championship

By Jon Walker

Argus Leader

Published: June 23, 2007

Sioux Falls Lincoln excelled with words this week by winning the national high school speech and debate championship in Wichita, Kan.

Lincoln earned the National Forensic League’s Bruno Jacob trophy as the top team in the country by finishing ahead of 950 other high schools in the competition that ended Friday.

Lincoln senior Renugan Raidoo was seventh in original oratory, and teammate Wade Werner was seventh in dramatic interpretation. Janessa Nickells and Dan Dahlquist, also Lincoln seniors, were quarterfinalists in duo interp.

O’Gorman senior Corbin Cleary was a semifinalist in student congress, a debate where a contestant takes the role of a senator. O’Gorman’s Morgan Peck and Kate Hennies were quarterfinalists in duo interp.

Lincoln also was champion in 1981. Watertown, which won in 1990, is the only other South Dakota school to earn the title, said Lincoln coach Kim Maass.

News from ALOUD - about Urban Debate

From Impactcoalition@cs.com

Fresh from a long season and a family reunion in Texas, there is a great deal to discuss and update. This note will be the first in a series of posts to cover topics and updates. Let's welcome two new folks:

a) Gordon Stables from USC. USC is helping re-start the LAUDL as a outgrowth of work done by largely by David Wiltz, with help from Jon and various ALOUD board and staffers. The university has posted a very well-compensated position for a program administrator and is really looking to play a major role in this work. Please contact Gordon and help circulate this announcement.

b) Kathy Gregory--Kathy is one of three heroic teachers working to keep St' Louis afloat after Anthony Grobe's passing. Many of you met her at this year's Fuqua. ALOUD is now working with them to help rejuvenate their area and we're sure they'd be glad to hear about your successes and failures.

With that said, I wanted to start with cash and resources since that's always what's most in need.

1--THE MEMBERS' PROJECT

American Express is running a new campaign called the Member's project. The goal is for AMEX cardholders to write in to the American Express about an organization they care about. Any cardholder can write in (including YOU!). The winning organization may receive up to $5 million based on "votes". Additionally, my sources in the funding community indicate the AMEX is using this project to think through their fund development mission.

This is a great opportunity for urban debate communities even if their group doesn't win. a) It allows your donors, volunteers and stakeholders to activiely endorse your work. b) It may lead to new avenues at AMEX for your local work. c) if many of us write in about

Ask your people to write short messages, direct them to the Members Project website for more info and make sure they cc you so you have a copy of the great things they say about your work for

2- NEW PARTNERSHIP--ABA National Minority Trial Lawyer Group

Hopefully, you've seen announcements about this initiative. This program is an outgrowth of interest from attorneys in the Minneapolis area. Essentially, the notion is thatr attorneys from local chapters could become involved with urban debate groups for the mutual benefit of each party.

ALOUD board and staff members have had great conversations with Paul MacDonald. We are actively partnering on this initiative and want to make sure none of our partner communities miss out. The benefits are: a) a new base of volunteers and judges b) potential access to in-kind donations such as event space, photocopying, L/N accts and publications. c) a new pool of potential board and advisory group members and obviously d) contributions for your work.

How it Will Work: The Committee co-chairs will do initial outreach to attorneys in areas when urban debate programs have "opted in". Some folks may respond but also local urban debate groups can follow up and post links on their home pages about it.

ALOUD is taking two steps to reduce the hassle. Step 1--We have designed a one-page sheet that folks can fill out to indicate your needs. The biggest difficulty with volunteer frustration is when people come and want to help but their help is not in areas that the nonproft needs. Step 2--Helping make sure that the current contact is listed.

If you're interested (and you should be), send me the appropriate email address and we'll forward it to Paul and send you a need sheet ASAP.



Peace & Justice,



Will Baker
Chief Executive Officer, IMPACT Coalition
impactcoalition@cs.com
212-702-0944 (o)
212-471-8664 (f)
Help us have an IMPACT. Support debate in our schools and our communities.

IDEA Youth Forum to Begin in Czech Republic

IDEA Youth Forum is revving up for this summer. It looks to be one of the larger international debate events of the summer.

It will occur in Trest, Czech Republic July 23-August 5 2007.
http://www.ideayouthforum.org/index.php?id=acomm

It will have over 250 participants, with the largest contingent from Korea.
http://www.ideayouthforum.org/index.php?id=partlist

There will be a variety of competitions
From http://www.ideayouthforum.org/index.php?id=Tournament

Tournament info

The Forum accommodates two debate tournaments, one in the beginning of the Forum and a second one in the last days of the Forum. The IDEA Karl Popper Debate Championships is the first tournament, when students compete in their national teams. During the second tournament, the IDEA Karl Popper Mixed Teams Tournament, students compete in mixed teams, formed of debaters from different countries.
Tournament tabulation policies:
K. Popper Debate Championships
IDEA Mixed Teams Championships

The IDEA Karl Popper Debate Championships will feature two prepared topics and three limited preparation debate topics (announced at the Forum, 30 minutes prior to the round) in the area of water:

Prepared topic 1: "Dams be damned"
Prepared topic 2: "Private management of fresh water utilities is preferable to their public management"

Please check below for a detailed explanation of how the two topics will be alternated during debate rounds.

The IDEA Mixed Teams Championships will feature one prepared topic and three limited preparation debate topics (announced at the Forum, 30 minutes prior to the round) in the area of freedom of expression. The prepared topic will be: "Hate speech should be a crime".

Several changes have been introduced in this year’s Forum tournaments’ structure:
The IDEA Karl Popper Debate Championships will accommodate six preliminary rounds after which the first eight teams advance to elimination rounds. Thus, the first elimination round is quarterfinals.
During the IDEA Karl Popper Debate Championships two above-mentioned prepared resolutions will be debated. In addition, two rounds will be limited preparation debate rounds, with topics being announced 30 minutes before the rounds. The schedule for the first tournament, then, is as follows:
Round 1: Prepared topic 1
Round 2: Prepared topic 1
Round 3: Limited preparation debates
Round 4: Limited preparation debates
Round 5: Prepared topic 2
Round 6: Prepared topic 2
Quarterfinals: Prepared topic 1
Semifinals: Limited preparation debates
Final round: Prepared topic 2
The IDEA Karl Popper Mixed Teams Tournament will accommodate six preliminary rounds and advance the first eight teams to quarterfinals. One topic will be debated throughout preliminary and elimination rounds. Participants will also debate limited preparation topics, announced 30 minutes before their respective rounds. The schedule of rounds is as follows:
Round 1: Prepared topic
Round 2: Prepared topic
Round 3: Limited preparation debates
Round 4: Limited preparation debates
Round 5: Prepared topic
Round 6: Prepared topic
Quarters: Prepared topic
Semis: Limited preparation debates
Finals: Prepared topic

A list of trainers can be found at
http://www.ideayouthforum.org/index.php?id=Trainers

Singapore Meets Scotland in WSDC Final

From http://www.schoolsdebate.com/blog/

Tuesday, July 10, 2007


They've been there before.....
The two finalist teams have been in finals before but not, as far as I know, against each other.

Singapore and Scotland both won in close split decisions (3-2) this afternoon. I watched the best debate I've seen all tournament between Scotland and England in a room full of animated debaters who cheered loudly for both the teams but sat so intently during their speeches that you could have heard a pin drop.

I was particularly unimpressed with one thing however: the audience member seated next to me who left her mobile phone on despite the chairperson's request at the start of the debate to switch them all off. Then it abruptly rang during the first prop's speech and she answered it, covering her mouth with her hand as if that would somehow conceal the sound! Then there were those who thought it was ok to come in and go out during that same speech. Things calmed down after I had a bit of a public whinge after the first speaker had sat down.

Still, at least we had an audience! And a very inteststed one at that!

So, onto the final tomorrow after what will be a very fractious AGM.

CU,

Kiwi Claire
posted by Kiwi Claire at 9:29 AM 3 comments


Quarter final results
Resolution: THW would privatise public utilities companies

PROP OPP
Canada 2 South Africa 1
England 3 Pakistan 0
Hong Kong 1 Scotland 2
Singapore 2 Australia 1

So now we proceed to the semifinals:

Resolution: THW partition Iraq

Singapore proposes against Canada.
Scotland proposes against England.

Debates begin in about half an hour.

We saw some fabulous quarter final debates today, folks, at the Chung Ang University. Apart from those eliminated teams who bravely got out of bed at 6:30 am in time for the early breakfast and were on the buses at 8 am to cheer for the 8 teams still in the competition, there were no audiences, a hitherto unknown experience for WSDC but the norm at this tournament (more about that some other time.) The nice thing about the University was the cafeteria - we had to pay for our own lunch but at least it was nourishing and nutritious for a change, just what stressed debaters really need.

Some exceptionally good teams lost today. Spare a thought for Australia -
there will now be a new world champion. We'll know who that is tomorrow.

Australs 2007 Results from UT Mara

From the Chief Adjudicator hafiedz@gmail.com

UT MARA Australs ended a few hours ago and I am pleased to announce the
results.

Champion : *University of Queensland 2*
Runners-up : *Victoria University, Wellington 1*
**
* Grand Finals Motion : "That Governments should fund treatments that seek
to normalise autism"*
**
*Sayeqa Islam from Victoria won* *Overall best speaker as well as the
Grand Finals best speaker*.

ESL Champion : *University Malaya 1*
Runners-up : *International Islamic University*

ESL Best Speaker : *Astrid from Universitas Indonesia*
ESL Grand Finals Best Speaker : *Zuliana from University Malaya*
**
* *
* Semi-finalists : Monash 1 & University of Queensland 3*
**
* *Congratulations to all winners and I will be posting the full tabs and
all motions soon!

Also, thank you to everyone who attended the UT MARA Australs, we hope to
see all of you again soon!

Hafiedz
CA
Australs 2007

#1 Ireland Out at WSDC in Korea, USA & Slovenia also Out

From http://www.schoolsdebate.com/blog/

And the curse of the top room continues

Ireland was defeated by South Africa earlier today in a split decision. The no 1 team has been undone by the no 16 team for a second year in a row. Last year Pakistan lost to South Korea in a similar split in the octos last year. We Kiwis feel your pain, guys: our team, ranked no 2, and having won all of its 8 preliminary rounds at WSDC Singappore in 2002 was undone by the killer Kuwaits, ranked 15th at the end of the prelims. It hurts right now, Ireland, but congratulations for 8 great rounds and commiserations on your defeat.

BTW, Pakistan avenged its loss last year by beating South Korea 2-1.

The wonderful Slovenian team also lost to Canada on a split in today's octos but hopefully, their stylish charge into the break rounds will be broadcast on national TV as there was a Slovenian crew in tow throughout the rounds. This was the best performance by a Slovenian team ever (and they're great kids too)- send us the CD, Slovenian TV!

Oh and by the way, the results are:

PROP OPP
Ireland 1 South Africa 2
England 3 Greece 0
Hong Kong 2 Philippines 1
Australia 3 Argentina 0
Singapore 2 Israel 1
Scotland 2 USA 1
Pakistan 2 South Korea 1
Slovenia 1 Canada 2

As you can see, many of these debates were close and hard fought as indicated by the splits.

The quarter finals and seni finals will be held tomorrow and that's when tiredness really sets in. It then becomes anyone's and everyone's chance! This may sound like Granny Claire speaking, but seriously, tell your teams to eat and sleep as well as they can tonight - tomorrow is not for the faint hearted.

Signing out in Seoul.

Kiwi Claire
(Sad that my team is not here but delighted to watch the perfromances of others.)

Australs Photo Album

A photo album from the Australasian Intervarsity Debate Championship is now posted at
http://upds.multiply.com/photos/album/19

IDEA/NJFL Tournament Results from Colorado

Here are two reports from the International Debate Education Association/National Junior Forensic League National Tournament held in Greeley, Colorado. The results follow the first story.

From http://www.greeleytrib.com/article/20070709/EDUCATION/107090097

Greeley shined as tournament host

Staff Reports
July 9, 2007

Comments (0) Print Email

William Jennings Bryan, a magnetic orator at the turn of the 20th century, once said, "As long as there are human rights to be defended; as long as there are great interests to be guarded; as long as the welfare of nations is a matter for discussion, so long will public speaking have its place."

And public speaking did have its place June 29-July 1, when hundreds of students from around the United States and as far away as Saipan gathered to participate in the annual International Debate Education Association/National Junior Forensic League National Tournament. This national-level event occurred right here in Greeley at our own Greeley Central High School.

As a District 6 teacher and parent, I could not have been more proud of our children and students standing toe to toe with some of the best young speakers from around the world. Not only did our students do well, many of them went on to the quarterfinal, semifinal and final rounds, placing among the top competitors.

When I was a high school student in the early 1980s, I participated in Lincoln-Douglas debate and was proud to place second in Colorado. I missed going to the national tournament by one point. I was disappointed because I had worked harder on that debate topic and presentation than I had on anything up to that point in my life. I am certain many of the students participating in this tournament felt the same way this past weekend.

Loss is an inevitable part of competition, and we learn to grow from it. William Jennings Bryan would probably empathize as he ran unsuccessfully three times for the U.S. presidency.

Many people came together, most of whom were volunteers, and spent hours and hours of their time to make the tournament a success.

Our town, in the eyes of so many people from around the world, is now a place they will remember, win or lose, as a place where they had a chance to defend human rights, guard great interests, discuss the welfare of nations, and once again give importance to the value of public speaking.

From http://www.greeleytrib.com/article/20070709/EDUCATION/107090099

Results from the International Debate Education Association/National Junior Forensic League National Tournament

Chris Casey, (Bio) ccasey@greeleytrib.com
July 9, 2007

Results from the International Debate Education Association/National Junior Forensic League National Tournament June 29-July 1 in Greeley. Results listed are for the top eight finishers, plus other competitors, in each event:

DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION:

1. Alex Siverson, Russell Middle School; 2. Meagan Rowell, Lewis Palmer Middle School; 3. Sontasia Salsman, Heath Middle School (Greeley); 4. Hannah Viroslav, St. Mary's Hall; 5. Mark Anthony Liban, CNMI Saipan; 6. Krista Tremblay, St. Mary's Hall; 7. Joshua Martinez, Bronx Prep Charter; 8. Alex Benton, Lewis Palmer Middle School.

Other competitors: Tucker Hamilton, Mountain Ridge Middle School; Paige Isuani, St. Clements School; John E. Elenzano, CNMI Saipan; Stephanie Strehlow, St. Mary's Hall; Brooks Naylor, St. Mary's Hall; Madeline Azari, Brentwood Middle School (Greeley); Natalie Varnet, Lewis Palmer Middle School; Daniela Rivera, Ribet Academy; Adam Arsenault, Pike School; Rachel Stern, Pike School.

IMPROMPTU SPEAKING:

1. David Janovsky, Pike School; 2. Jessica Rangel, Heath Middle School (Greeley); 3. John French, Pike School; 4. Katie Raitz, North Middle School; 5. Brooke Bettolo, Windsor Middle School; 6. Robert Hollar, Ribet Academy; 7. John H. Strauss, Sidney-Lanier; 8. Chan Woo Lee, CNMI Saipan.

Other competitors: Jacob Fox, St. Mary's Hall; Jared Naylor, St. Mary's Hall; Stephanie Strehlow, St. Mary's Hall; Adam Arsenault, Pike School; Reid Geissen, Sidney-Lanier; Paige Isuani, St. Clements; Carter Moon, North Middle School; Harry Wood, Pike School; Cole Huff, Ribet Academy; Brooks Naylor, St. Mary's Hall.

ORIGINAL ORATORY:

1. Daniela Rivera, Ribet Academy; 2. Myles Miller, Bronx Prep; 3. Rafael Go, Sidney-Lanier; 4. David Janovsky, Pike School; 5. Robin Go, Sidney-Lanier; 6. Olivia Arena, Sidney-Lanier; 7. John French, Pike School; 8. Andrew Theobald, North Middle School.

Other competitors: Ajit Singh, Sidney-Lanier; Yan Ni Li, CNMI Saipan; Amber Martinez, Ribet Academy; Max Patterson, Sidney-Lanier.

POETRY:

1. Tess Macapini, Sidney-Lanier; 2. Max McGillivray, Pike School; 3. Tiffany McLarty, Bronx Prep; 4. James Barkley, Sidney-Lanier; 5. Antonio Brown, Bronx Prep; 6. Chiantee Rosette, CNMI Saipan; 7. Olivia Arena, Sidney-Lanier; 8. Rachel Stern, Pike School.

Other competitors: Sally Huang, Sidney-Lanier; John Elenzano, CNMI Saipan; Sydney Bagley, Pike School; Elizabeth Carrolo, Pike School; Rilwan Babijide, Jane Long Middle School; Becki Yukman, North Middle School; Taylor Alvado, St. Clements; Anthony Azari, Brentwood Middle School (Greeley); J.J. Hurste, Russell Middle School; Brianne Powell, Bronx Prep; John French, Pike School; James Hamilton, Pike School; Taryn McQueen, Brentwood Middle School (Greeley); Aisha Joyner, CNMI Saipan; Yan Ni Li, CNMI Saipan; Veronika Reidel, Heath Middle School (Greeley); Natalie Baldwin, Russell Middle School; Ana Martinez, Jane Long Middle School; Tabi MacMillan, Russell Middle School; Angie Andrade, Brentwood Middle School (Greeley); Illia Shakarzahi, St. Clements.

PROSE:

1. Brooke Kantor, Sidney-Lanier; 2. Paige Isuani, Pike School; 3. Doren Berko, Sidney-Lanier; 4. Katie Raitz, St. Clements; 5. Tingian Dail, North Middle School; 6. Sydney Bagley, St. Mary's Hall; 7. Ara Bilazarian, Sidney-Lanier; 8. Jacob Fox, Pike School.

Other competitors: Chloe Schafer, St. Clements; Mereylen Denora, CNMI Saipan; Timothy McLaughlin, Pike School; Robyn Straus, St. Mary's Hall; Adam Arsenault, Pike School; Abbi Helfer, North Middle School; Brooks Naylor, St. Mary's Hall; Erin Cusenbary, St. Mary's Hall; Ana Martinez, Jane Long Middle School; Aisha Joyner, CNMI Saipan; Elizabeth Carrolo, Pike School; Lucy Chen, Sidney-Lanier; Jay Scheinman, Jane Long Middle School; Jessica Horton, Pike School; Ashlynn Mondgragon, Brentwood Middle School (Greeley); Bal EumHong, CNMI Saipan; Anthony Azari, Brentwood Middle School (Greeley); Jared Naylor, St. Mary's Hall; Alex Leal, Jane Long Middle School; Ben Kellogg, St. Mary's Hall; Alex Hollis, Brentwood Middle School (Greeley).

DUO INTERPRETATION TEAMS:

1. Tiffany McLarty and Brianne Powell, Bronx Prep; 2. Antonio Brown and Kelvin Bemarnd, Bronx Prep; 3. Hanna Viroslav and Krista Tremblay, St. Mary's Hall; 4. Ben Kellogg and Jacob Fox, St. Mary's Hall; 5. Isaac Arellano and Angie Andrade, Brentwood Middle School (Greeley); 6. Max McGillivray and Ara Bilazarian; 7. Becki Yukman and Sara Volz; 8. Brooks Naylor and Erin Cusenbary, St. Mary's Hall.

Other competitors: Ana Martinez and Tania Babu, Jane Long; Sontasia Salsman and Kirbie Huwa, Heath Middle School (Greeley); Jared Naylor and Kent Healy, St. Mary's Hall; Christa Schafer and Chloe Schafer, St. Clements; Robyn Straus and Sari Imber, St. Mary's Hall; Harry Wood and James Hamilton, Pike School; Alex Siverson and Shae Davis, Russell Middle School; Jessica Horton and Sydney Bagley, Pike School; Natalie Varnet and Warren Swartwout, Lewis Palmer; Alex Leal and Rilwan Babijide, James Long; Madeline Azari and Anthony Azari, Brentwood Middle School (Greeley); Rachel Stern and Elizabeth Carrolo, Pike School; Chelsea Snipes and Jacqueline Laguarta, Sidney-Lanier; Chiantee Rosette and Mark Anthony Liban, CNMI Saipan; Theresa Pucci and Riley Acker, Lewis Palmer; Clayton Farris and Noah Brace, Sidney-Lanier; Joel Nordby and Michael Hamlin, Lewis Palmer; Kristen Myers and Lindsay Gaiser, Brentwood Middle School (Greeley); Torea Williams and Caroline Howell, Brentwood Middle School (Greeley); Jessica Martin and Hannah Hockley, Franklin Middle School (Greeley).

EXTEMPORANEOUS SPEAKING:

1. Brit Byrd, Sidney-Lanier; 2. Rafael Go, Sidney-Lanier; 3. Bradford Reed, Sidney-Lanier; 4. Bennett Ostdiek, Sidney-Lanier; 5. Ryan Smith, Lewis Palmer; 6. Reid Geissen, Sidney-Lanier; 7. Robyn Straus, St. Mary's Hall; 8. Aamil Sarfani, St. Mary's Hall.

HUMOROUS INTERPRETATION:

1. Aidan Kennedy, St. Mary's Academy; 2. Ben Kellogg, Sidney-Lanier; 3. Jared Naylor, St. Mary's Hall; 4. Stephanie Strehlow, Pike School; 5. Timothy McLaughlin, Pike School; 6. Hannah Viroslav, St. Mary's Hall; 7. Sarah Griffith, St. Mary's Hall; 8. Max McGillivray, Sidney-Lanier.

Other competitors: Katey Haas, Franklin Middle School (Greeley); Jessica Grams, Franklin Middle School (Greeley); Tucker Hamilton, Mountain Ridge; Kent Healy, St. Mary's Hall; Shae Davis, Russell Middle School; Meagan Rowell, Lewis Palmer; Mereylen Denora, CNMI Saipan; Jacob Fox, St. Mary's Hall; Ethan Vanderslice, Sidney-Lanier; J.B. Jensen, Windsor Middle School; Harry Wood, Pike School; Chan Lee Woo, CNMI Saipan; Brianne Powell, Bronx Prep; Riley Acker, Lewis Palmer; Sara Volz, North Middle School; Bal Eum Hong, CNMI Saipan; James Hamilton, Pike School; Kelvin Bernarnd, Bronx Prep; Tori Fanberg, Franklin Middle School (Greeley); Brendan Mallory, Ribet Academy.

"Resolved" Debate Movie Wins Audience Award

PHOTO: Louis Blackwell is featured in "Resolved," a documentary about high school debating that included Jordan High School students' controversial and personal approach that shook up the debating world.

From http://www.presstelegram.com/news/ci_6329596

Speaking up, speaking out
Education: Jordan students were filmed on their journey to winning debate title.

By Kevin Butler, Staff writer
Article Launched: 07/08/2007 09:04:29 PM PDT



LONG BEACH - In "Resolved," a documentary about competitive high school debate, a student looks downward and pauses, reflecting on what arguments he should use to persuade the listening judge to declare him and his partner the winners in the contest.

Suddenly, the silence is broken when the debater begins speaking so rapidly that most people unaccustomed with high school forensics couldn't possibly keep up.

Typical of the predominant debating style nowadays, complex sentences are emitted in just a few seconds.

Periodically, the student pauses from the rapid-fire speech to take two quick gulps of air, which sound as frantic and deep as if he had spent two minutes underwater and just emerged on the surface for air.

But in the new, feature-length documentary, which earned an audience award at the Los Angeles Film Festival last month, into this lightning-fast forensic world enters a two-person debate team from Jordan High School that tries to shake things up.

In the film, the team of Richard Funches and Louis Blackwell, who are black and now former students of the inner-city North Long Beach high school, stick out. They stand out in an activity where few of the high-powered teams, mostly

Advertisement

from private schools, have black members.
The documentary shows the Jordan pair - who after becoming state champs have since graduated and gone on to compete in college - trying to change the style of debate by speaking more slowly and drawing on personal experiences during arguments, instead of relying just on research by experts.

Focus shifted

The film - which also profiles a white team from Highland Park High School in University Park, Texas - gives a glimpse into the somewhat insular world of competitive high school debate.

Replete with jargon and a rapid speech style referred to as "the spread," the activity of debate seems far afield from what the ordinary person might expect - slow speeches designed to appeal to a wide, layperson audience.

The film's director and producer, Greg Whiteley, said he thought of spotlighting high school debate in a way similar to documentaries that have explored the cultures of other competitive activities, such as Scrabble and spelling bees.

During the course of filming, however, the emphasis in part shifted to the arguments presented by Funches and Blackwell, who came out of nowhere in the debate community to become state champions in 2005.

The students, now both 19, shifted focus during their senior year to argue that the structure of debate itself had the effect of excluding minorities and low-income populations from the activity.

Unlike students in better-off high school programs, during their senior year Funches and Blackwell didn't have a debate class, meaning they had to practice after school. They worked on the side, Funches at a Food 4 Less.

They couldn't afford expensive subscription-based research databases some other teams used and didn't have the travel money to hit the national tournament circuit to the extent of other schools.

Those kinds of disparities "have never been thought of as a problem because ... the debate community is mostly an affluent community," Blackwell said.

Personal touch

The pair would discuss the inequities during debate rounds in an effort to change the way debate was done. They also brought their own or their friends' and family members' personal experiences to bear when discussing such issues as racial profiling.

"We felt like a lot of urban minorities ... didn't necessarily have adequate resources or equipment to debate the way" most teams debate, Funches said.

The style of rapid speaking and jargon-filled prose also is exclusionary, Funches said, leading him and his partner to try to switch the conversation during debate rounds to argue about the structure of debate itself.

"We decided to throw out all the evidence and talked about why that debate wasn't going to be educational for us," Funches said.

Their debate focused on personal experience, passion and comprehensibility, among other things.

Body counts

Too often in debate, the rapid-talking tactic results in a victory for the team that throws out the greatest number of arguments, even though some center on outlandishly imaginative scenarios like nuclear war, said David Wiltz, a former Jordan debate coach who worked with Funches and Blackwell.

In the documentary it's pointed out that in policy debate - in which debaters discuss national policy choices - judging the winner often boils down to balancing body counts.

The affirmative or pro-side argues that their particular policy saves thousands of lives while the negative or anti-side claims the policy will result in a larger number of deaths, through extreme scenarios of genocide or war.

The team was making an effort to step outside that framework, Wiltz said.

"What we were saying is that the issues we were bringing into the round were more real and had more impact than any other issues we can discuss," Wiltz said.

The tactic of discussing race and class leaves some opponents shown in the documentary bewildered. The strategy was not without controversy, Funches said.

Some of their opponents from different backgrounds understood their perspective, he said. Others reacted differently.

"There were several people who wouldn't even shake our hands after the round," Funches said.

Despite the controversy, the pair pushed forward with the strategy, which proved to be a winning argument in competitions.

But winning was not the point of the tactic, Funches said, a fact that distinguished the team from other debaters.

"I felt like it was more than just a trophy that was on the line," he said. "It was my personal worth, and the thing that I fought most for, which was respecting differences and bridging the gap between disconnected urban minorities and debate."

Debate a savior

Funches and Blackwell didn't have debate in mind when they first enrolled at Jordan High School.

Funches ended up fleeing into a debate room for safety during a 2003 melee at the school. He got interested after talking with the debate coach.

Funches said that debate kept him focused and out of trouble.

"Debate kind of saved my life," he said.

A teacher recommended that Blackwell join the debate club.

After beginning to debate their sophomore year, a coach paired the two, and during their first competitive appearance together they won the regional novice tournament.

Whiteley went to an important, large high school tournament held in 2005 at UC Berkeley to film part of his documentary, where a coach suggested he watch the Jordan team.

"They were the only two African-American kids that we could see that were competing successfully in the activity," Whiteley said. "So they stood out that way, but they were just really engaging ... I just really enjoyed being around them."

Although the pair had a certain swagger, the Jordan team wasn't in the top echelon at that point, which was not surprising, since many of their competitors had been debating since eighth grade, he said.

"You could tell that they had talent, and they were both extremely bright, but it just takes awhile to learn the language of debate," he said.

After that, the two got much better, winning the state championship in 2005 and getting exceptionally high ratings from judges on their speaking ability.

The debate community wasn't used to hearing the name "Jordan High School" announced in a major tournament awards ceremony.

No one has heard the name announced there lately.

After the pair graduated in 2006, the debate program ended at Jordan.

The program was funded by a three-year, $175,000 grant from the L.A. Urban Debate League. The grant, which ended in the 2005-2006 school year, funded Wiltz's position, travel expenses and competition entry fees for students, according to district officials.

When the grant ended, there was no funding to continue the program, said LBUSD spokesman Chris Eftychiou.

Wiltz now teaches at Jefferson High School in South Los Angeles, where he is starting a debate program.

"We're proud of what Richard, Louis and their coach accomplished here," Eftychiou said. "Perhaps the movie will generate some interest in starting the debate team again at Jordan."

Blackwell and Funches received college debate scholarships. Blackwell attends Cal State Fullerton and Funches goes to University of Louisville in Kentucky.

Blackwell said that he felt that the administration at Jordan High school became supportive of the program only after they started winning and that the interest waned after they left.

"They started having interest after we were successful," he said.

He hopes that his success at Jordan will create more interest in debate programs at inner-city high schools, as well as more confidence that students in such programs can succeed.

"I think maybe people could look at me and say, `You know, it's not impossible,"' Blackwell said.

Editor's note: Whiteley is currently fielding offers from companies interested in releasing "Resolved" in theaters, followed by television airing and then home video release. The trailer can be seen online at www.debatemovie.com.

Kevin Butler can be reached at kevin.butler@presstelegram.com or (562) 499-1308.

Persuasion Course in Serbia

PHOTO: Poster for the event
The debate group at the Faculty of Organizational Sciences (FON) at Belgrade University in Serbia invited me to do a one-week class on the subject of persuasion. I had been there last December to hold a debate workshop that had been a huge success. It is reported ion the Global Debate Blog at http://debate.uvm.edu/debateblog/doctortuna/Blog2006/767A9813-7C94-44DE-AD3A-F15676205F8E.html
They asked me to come back and present a more "academic" workshop in a field related to their area of study. Many of these students are involved in marketing and other business related fields, so this seemed like a subject they could get excited about.

The arrangements were made through the faculty there, and I specifically want to thank Mirjana Drakulić, Konstantin Kostic and Radmila Janicic for their support and help. Many, many students really made this happen, and did most of the planning and footwork, including Vesna Ceranic, Marko, Igor and Mario. They were solid.

They erected a webpage at http://debata.fon.bg.ac.yu/.
It will probably be one soon as it is their general webpage, but nice design job by Igor. They started recruiting students.

There was a fee for participation, and the event took place between July 2-6 2007. This is an examination period for Serbian students so I knew this would keep attendance down. Students from Serbia were there representing four different faculties at Belgrade University, and students also came from Bosnia, Romania, Netherlands and Bulgaria. We had set a cap at 30 students, but there were two extra students who kept trying to persuade us to add them, so we did. I received no compensation for my work in the program, although my expenses were covered. Luckily, I was able to add this to a previously scheduled workshop in Slovenia.
PHOTO: The group poses on day four

The days were tightly packed and this was something that the students were not necessarily accustomed to, so much on one subject in one day. We started at 9 AM and went until 5 PM each day. The day consisted of lectures (in my own semi-discussion style) exercises and presentations made by the students. My goal was to cram as much of my whole-term Persuasion class as I could into these five days. We succeeded.

I was delighted and amazed by the focus and concentration of these students. Non-verbals will tell you a lot, and they were very engaged at each step of the course. At one point during a lecture I asked a rhetorical question, someone immediately started answering it, and before I knew it four students had answered the question. I was grinning so broadly during the third and fourth answers that the students later told me that they were worried that they were doing something wrong. But, of course, they were doing something very right.

During the class they made two persuasive speeches, made two presentations about sample persuasion strategies and took an old-fashioned American-style final examination. They did it all joyfully and without complaint. They had all paid to be there and they really saw a connection between the subject matter and their future efforts.
PHOTO: Groups hard at work on a persuasion simulation exercise

At the end of each day I was very tired (it's all me all the time, and next time I will bring some help) but not so much that I could not relax a bit and then head over to the student watering hole called Kovac for a drink and a wonderful meal in the outdoor courtyard. The food was outstanding and they carried real Appleton Jamaican rum. I was staying at the Hotel M (a very nice place, with in-room Ethernet connection to the Internet) which was a three to five minute walk away from where the class was held. It was held in a beautiful and large seminar room with wooden tables and all the technology you could want.

My observations about the students included:
1. Strong motivation for the material, as they asked questions about unclear concepts and vocabulary words they did not know.
2. Excellent English skills. Some students were better than others, but the overall level was high and the less skilled were able to participate clearly and had many excellent ideas.
3. I learned a lot from them, about specific persuasion situations, about Serbia, about their previous training, about which of my techniques work and which do not and about 21st Century humanity in general.
4. I was impressed by their ability to take content and turn it into behavior. They used the theories and tactics I outlined, and did it quite well.
5. Never have I seen such a variety in sample persuasion presentations. We had campaign speeches for parliament, a pitch for an animated television series, a model of a speech given by Pope Innocent III, a pyramid scheme pitch, loan meetings and on and on. This made the many presentations very fresh and enjoyable to me.

I did not do much sightseeing (tired, been to Belgrade many times before), but I did get to see my dear friends Branka Josimov and Djordge Pavicevic and have a delightful dinner with them. I did miss seeing my dear friends Tomislav Kargacin (teaches in Novi Sad), Sima Avramovic (Faculty of Law) and Mila Turajlic (filmmaker, in Paris during my stay). But, I shall return.
PHOTO: Branka and Djordge

Everyone took very good care of me. I was worked hard but treated gently. I expressed to them my new conviction that it is no longer me helping them, but now we are helping each other. Plans are now in the offing for a similar course in argumentation sometime in the future with myself and another instructor.

Thanks to FON, Belgrade and Serbia.

GRAPHIC: Clever image from their homepage, the symbol of the class.

Breaks announced at World Schools

From http://www.schoolsdebate.com/blog/

Sunday, July 08, 2007


Break out
The break is now out - 16 teams, some predicted, some not. A number of teams attained the same number of wins and the same number of judges so they had to be separated by speaker points. The CAP worked through the day to tabulate all the results and by dinner time, we felt tired but happy that we had team and speaker tabs all completed. Then Joshua Park, the convenor, asked if we would "do the flags" the way the break teams were announced in Wales. In the past, the names have simply been read aloud but Wales 2006 had a jazzy power point presentation involving the appearance of flags which was much enjoyed.

So I ran to the computer room, filled with debaters emailing family and friends, and commenced the fastest flag search on line in South Korea, before throwing together a power point show with 16 flags, all the while trying to guard it from prying eyes. At last, I raced dowstairs with the data stick to plug into the school computer and launch it onto the screen at the break party.

As I flew down the stairs, I noticed the silence. I'd been to 5 WSDC break parties before tonight and there is always plenty of music, food, drink, music and dancing. I'd heard some music earlier on and expected this famous party to be in full swing by the time the break was announced. But it was not. As I reached the hall, I realised there was no music, food, drink or dancing. It was the strangest break night ever. Instead, the debaters, judges and coaches were sitting around waiting anxiously for Mark and me and then to be herded back onto the buses after the teams were announced. It seemed like a thousand eyes were staring, waiting, willing a favourable result.

The "doing the flags" bit seemed to work very well and wild cheers broke out as we counted from 1 to 16, and the flags flashed onto the screen. The debaters from Slovenia who broke 8th were just screaming and screamimg - and everyone around them was joining in exuberantly. The whole count down was a joyous cacophany, even by those who didn't break but were barracking wildly for one or more of the top 16.

And I guess you want to know who they are. The quarter finals start tomorrow afternoon. The first ranked team must debate the 15th, the 2nd the 15th and so on.
Sides will be chosen by a coin toss before the topic is chosen. Send them all your best wishes.


1. Ireland 16. South Africa
2. England 15. Greece
3. Hong Kong 14. Philippines
4. Australia 13. Argentina
5. Singapore 12. Israel
6. Scotland 11. USA
7. Pakistan 10. South Korea
8. Slovenia 9. Canada

Signing out from Seoul

Kiwi Claire

Round Eight Over, Waiting for the Breaks at WSDC

From http://www.schoolsdebate.com/blog/

Sunday, July 08, 2007

Hi everyone.

The break party has begun and in just over an hour the top 16 teams will be revealed. We're at the Seoul English village, an immersion centre in which students live in and speak only English. Today the place certainly resounded with English - international accents ardently arguing the merits of free trade and censorship.

The results are:

Round 7: THBT free trade harms the developing world

PROP OPP
Bermuda 0 Israel 3
Canada 3 Malaysia 0
Czech 0 Australia 3
England 3 Slovakia 0
Greece 3 Mongolia 0
Hong Kong 3 Sri Lanka 0
India 0 Singapore 3
Ireland 3 Hungary 0
Japan 0 Scotland 3
Kuwait 2 Estonia 1
Lithuania 0 Korea 3
Netherlands 1 Bangladesh 2
Pakistan 3 Indonesia 0
Peru 1 Slovania 2
Philippines 0 USA 3
Romania 2 South Africa 1
Wales 1 Germany 2

Round 8 (impromptu) THW limit media reporting on terrorist atrocities
Argentina 2 Wales 1
Australia 0 Ireland 3
Babngladesh 1 Peru 2
Estonia 2 Romania 1
Germany 1 Netherlands 2
Indonesia 1 Kuwait 1
Israel 0 Hong Kong 3
Korea 1 Philippines 2
Malaysia 1 India 2
Mongolia 1 Japan 2
Scotland 0 Pakistan 3
Singapore 2 Canada 1
Slovakia 0 Czech 0
Slovania 3 Lithiania 0
South Africa 1 England 2
Sri Lanka 2 Bermuda 1
United States 1 Greece 2

Better get the break round power point ready....
posted by Kiwi Claire at 9:43 AM 0 comments

Saturday, July 07, 2007


Round zero (bye round) results
After a chaotic tour to the DMZ (no tour guides, no volunteers, no idea of what was happening and no western food for those who had paid double the price of the Korean food to have it - but the third tunnel was fun!), we arrived late back to the Imperial Palace Hotel for the bye round, necessary because there is an uneven number of teams at this year's Worlds, namely 35.

Eight lucky teams prepared in various rooms in the hotel tonight (mainly the bedrooms of opposing teams) on the topic "This house would execute war criminals." At least there were audiences as a number of teams who were not debating in the bye round came along to watch and lift the spirits of the tired debaters. Well done teams for debating your hearts out after a long day!

Here are the results:

Prop Opp
Australia 3 Indonesia 0
Hungary 3 Slovakia 0
Scotland 3 Bangladesh 0
Slovenia 2 Argentina 1

(I was the split. First time since Calgary '05!)

So we're on the home straight now. Tomorrow night's the break party and you'll all know then who's made the exalted list of the top 16.

Stay tuned amnd hold on to your seats. This roller coaster ride isn't over yet. Lots of teams are in with a chance. Two of the unbeaten teams, Ireland and Australia, meet head to head tomorrow. So which teams do you think will make the top 16?

Students in India to Engage in "Verbattle"

From http://justsamachar.com/local/talking-it-out-to-win-a-battle

Talking it out to win a battle

Hundreds of children will noisily “verbattle” it out at an inter-school debate tournament next month, on various subjects. Verbattle that is, verbal battle, aims to popularise debating among students, to promote free speech and train children to present arguments logically.

Verbattle Junior 2007, organised annually for students in the age group of 12 to 16 years, by TV House, a media company, will be conducted in association with the Information Department.

The competition will be held from August 1 to 24, 2007, in Mysore, Mangalore, Hubli and Bangalore.

“Verbattle helps children to grow into healthy, right thinking, social beings in a democratic society.

For any healthy society it is important to inculcate the habit of settling issues through verbal dialogue where each party is aware of the need to listen to the other side, reason and then put forward an argument,” the organisers say.

But it is not a shouting match, they warn, and there are rules. You must speak relevantly.

Not be “vicious or vile”. Present arguments in co-ordination with team mates.

Have a sense of “fairness, justice and decency”.

A cash prize of Rs. 1,00,000 will be given to the winning team.

An entry fee of Rs. 500 is charged for each team. For more information, call 9845455118 or visit www.verbattle.com

DIVYA GANDHI

Some Upsets at WSDC in Korea

From http://www.schoolsdebate.com/blog/

Friday, July 06, 2007


Some upsets today
Hi folks,

Rounds 5 and 6 took place at the Korea International School, the same venue as yesterday and much closer than the 2 hour bus journey some debaters, coaches and judges made to Gimpo Foreign Language High School on the first day of competition. Thanks to JUSTIN RESNICK who has been patiently arranging rooms at the KIS, co-ordinating volunteers and ensuring all goes smoothly.

Unfortunately, there are few audience members for the debates, usually none unless the teams have supporters like the 4 Irish parents who flew in last night. This is because the championship is taking place during Korean students' exams...

Anyway, there are 3 new nations at the Championships - JAPAN, INDIA and MONGOLIA. I hope to have a few words from them for this site over the next few days.

Tomorrow, we are going to the DMZ so watch this space for news and photos about the border tour. Hopefully none of the students will point at the North Korean guards (we've been told not to point!)and we'll have a great time.

But in the meantime..... here are today's results.
Drop us a line or two saying what you think of the results or the debate topics.

ROUND 5

THBT that the United States should withdraw from its military bases in Asia

Germany 1 Ireland 2
Hungary 0 Hong Kong 3
Israel 3 Mongolia 0
Korea 2 Czech Republic 1
Slovenia 0 Pakistan 3
South Africa 3 Bermuda 0
Sri Lanka 0 England 3
United States 3 Japan 0
Bangladesh 0 Philippines 3
Estonia 0 Canada 3
Netherlands 0 Kuwait 3
Singapore 3 Romania 0
Slovakia 0 Wales 3
Argentina 3 India 0
Indonesia 1 Greece 2
Malaysia 1 Peru 2
Scotland 3 Lithuania 0

Australia had the bye

ROUND 6

Impromptu: THW legalize all drugs

Bermuda 3 Hungary 0
Czech Republic 1 Germany 2
England 1 Israel 2
Hong Kong 1 South Africa *
Ireland 2 Korea 1
Japan 0 Slovenia 3
Mongolia 0 Sri Lanka 3
Pakistan 1 United States 2
Canada 1 Netherlands 2
Kuwait 1 Australia 2
Philippines 1 Estonia 2
Romania 2 Slovakia
Wales 1 Singapore 2
Greece 0 Argentina 3
India 0 Indonesia 3
Lithuania 2 Malaysia 1
Peru 0 Scotland 3

Bangladesh had the bye.

Unless I'm mistaken, the unbeaten teams are:
Australia, Ireland and Scotland.

Signing out from Seoul,

Kiwi Claire

Report from WSDC in Seoul

<== Claire Ryan (second from right) from the Kings College website at http://www.kcoca.com/

Claire Ryan, a WSDC veteran and a New Zealander, reports from her blog.

From http://www.schoolsdebate.com/blog/

Thursday, July 05, 2007

Greetings from Seoul
Hi everyone,

At last - access to a computer, some time (actually 3 am, NZ time) and a chance to send a brief blog. It seems like only yesterday that I was just arriving in the world's 2nd most densely populated city, Seoul, with over 10 milion inhabitants or over 23 million if you include the greater metropolitan area. The only thing over 23 million which Kiws usually encounter is...the number of sheep in NZ (over 43 million or 12 to every NZer, which is of course just what you wanted to know.)

I don't speak Korean apart from some very basic words I learned on the 16 hour flight. So, despite the fact that I once survived being alone in a dark French train station at midnight when the trains were on strike (don't ask), I did emerge from customs on June 30 with some trepidation, wondering to what extent my rudimentary linguistic acquisitions would be put to the test. I needn't have worried. My introduction to the Republic of Korea was the smiling and welcoming Kyunghee Kim in the arrival area. Kyunghee is the deputy convenor of the championships in Seoul and the volunteer co-ordinator. With her gracious help, I was soon on the one hour bus journey from Incheon airport to the Imperial Palace Hotel in Seoul city's south.

Seoul is huge, but the traffic seems no worse than my home city - gridlock, a "rush hour" that last for more than two, the frequent use of the horn and the way you can tell it's summmer by the fact that the rain is warm. What is different and disconcerting is, firstly, the cloud and smog that constantly shrouds the city and conceals both the summer sun and northern hemisphere stars and secondly, the unhelmeted moped riders who zip between, around, and behind pedestrians on the pavements or on the crossings notwithstanding the "walk" signs. The convenor of the championship, Joshua Park, told us that pedestrians do have the right of way but he added " well, legally, anyway!" So I have learned never to be the first person onto the crossing or the last off it. I try and selfishly position myself between crowds of crossing Koreans. While it is true that Kyunghee is a nurse and there is a nearby hospital, I think that it would be better for all of us if I didn't have to find the words in Korean for "yes, my patella was indeed fractured by a flying moped."

Those are the two disconcerting aspects of this mega-city. However, they are outweighed by three gifts - the spicy, healthy, diverse and wonderfully cheap Korean food, the hospitality of Koreans including those who have spontaneously and generously offered us advice and translations when we are at restaurants or when we sare helplessly seeking directions on the street and most importantly, the student volunteers for the championships, in their bright orange shirts, chairing debates, guiding us to rooms and events and taking us on food tours at night time. They are just awesome and we are very appreciative of all their smiling, patient, good humoured and sometimes witty efforts for us.

Being co-chief adjudicators has kept Mark and me extremely busy, certainly more so than any previous CAP I've been on. This has certainly meant huge upskilling in tabbing - quite a task for the excel-challenged. WE MISS TAB MAESTRO TREVOR SATHER! However, we do have a wonderfully hard working, enthusiatic and supportive CAP - Irene McGrath from Scotland who can spot an erroneously completed mark sheet at 10 kms, even without a calculator, our Dutch satirist Ard van der Steur who is the ultimate CV collector and connoisseur of all good things including wine, kimchi and marksheets separated into neat piles for teams, the man from NZ's West Island Chris Erskine from NZ's West Island, who is the source of wisdom, history and encouragement as well as analyst of lonely space travel, Wales representative and 2006 convenor Martin Pollard who has graphically shown us all why you don't drink the tap water in Seoul and the greatest CApper of them all, none other than Excel King JJ from USA, who has endured late nights, talking to us, and the riveting experience of entering hours of data from marksheets into the computer. It's enough to drive a man to drink!

That cannot be said for the debating. It has been a real pleasure to judge. I have enjoyed witnessing some close and hard fought debates, especially in round 3, a debate of an extremely high standard, well worthy of a break round. The general feedback has been very positive about the teams. A spirit of friendship prevails, with hard work during the debating rounds but mutual respect and the enjoyment of each others company after the work is over. To any parents reading this site, yes you can be proud of your debating children because they really are fine young men and women. So keep the messages of support, the emails and the texts coming!!

Signing out to get some sleep,

Kiwi Claire

Hispanic Youth Conference Uses Debate to Clarify Issues

PHOTO: Julio Cotto

From http://www.chieftain.com/metro/1183622173/5

Youth conference has plan for future

By MATT HILDNER
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN

ALAMOSA - An upcoming conference at Adams State College will help develop leadership skills in young Hispanics and possibly give the San Luis Valley school a leg up in recruiting top students.

For the the third straight year Adams State will host the National Hispanic Institute's Young Leaders Conference. The program, which runs July 12-15, will bring in roughly 100 students who will be entering their sophomore year of high school.

Participants will be broken down into teams to debate beliefs about economic growth and development in the Hispanic community.

While not necessarily the same format as a debate tournament, Julio Cotto, the institute's vice president for enrollment, said the format is designed to get the students as involved as possible.

"For us, we approach leadership from more of a hands-on training," he said.

And regardless of what answers the students come up with, Cotto, said the idea is to get students involved sooner rather than later.

"The purpose for us is to start these conservations at a very young age," he said.

Cotto said the NIH found a home at Adams State for its conference for a number of reasons: It had a former employee with ties to the school and it's location has also been a good fit.

The conference draws students from neighboring states and has heavy participation from students in Colorado Springs and Pueblo, he said.

The students, a number of whom will come accompanied by parents, must have 3.2 grade-point average to take part in the conference.

That they have also taken the initiative to develop their leadership skills makes them a valuable pool of prospective students to the host school.

"These are students that are going to be college-bound and could potentially be leaders when they get here to Adams State," said Eric Carpio, the college's admissions director.

In hosting the conference, the college doesn't charge for the use of facilities or for the students' room and board, Cotto said.

While students at the conference are responsible for the $425 tuition fee, he said the actual cost per student is closer to $2,000.

The reward for the college would come in drawing top students to the school.

And although Carpio is aware that teenagers can be fickle when it comes to finding a future college to attend, he thinks making a good impression on the students will pay off when they begin applying to schools two years later.

"If they had a good experience they'll still have Adams State in their mind," he said.

Adams State's undergraduate enrollment during the past school year was nearly 29 percent Hispanic. ASC and Colorado State University-Pueblo are the only colleges in the state designated as Hispanic Serving Institutions by the U.S. Department of Education.

World Schools Results, after four rounds

After four rounds, here are the results from Seoul:

TEAM WIN-LOSS TOTAL JUDGES CARRIED

England 4-0 12Australia 4-0 11

Hong Kong                 4-0                  11
Ireland                   4-0                  11
Korea                     3-1                  10
Canada                    3-1                  9
Singapore                 3-1                  9
Philippines               3-1                  8
South Africa              2-2                  8
Israel                    2-2                  7
Scotland                  3-0 B                7
United States             2-2                  7
Argentina                 2-2                  6
Bermuda                   2-2                  6
Germany                   2-2                  6
Greece                    2-2                  6
Kuwait                    2-2                  6
Lithuania                 3-1                  6
Malaysia                  2-2                  6
Slovenia                  2-1 B                6
Wales                     2-2                  6
Estonia                   2-2                  5
Indonesia                 2-1 B                5
Czech Republic            1-3                  4
Peru                      1-3                  4
Sri Lanka                 1-3                  4
Hungary                   1-3                  3
Pakistan                  3-1                  3
Bangladesh                1-3                  2
India                     0-4                  1
Japan                     0-4                  1
Netherlands               0-4                  1
Romania                   0-4                  1
Mongolia                  0-4                  0
Slovakia                  0-3 B                0

"B" denotes that the team in question had a bye round.

Results: Rounds 1-4
Sorry for delay - complicated chain of results involving more than one continent... Here are the first two days' results:

Round one prepared “THBT free trade harms the developing world

BAN 0
ENG 3

EST 1
LIT 2

GER 3
IND 0
(IND= India)

KOR 1
CAN 2

MON 0
BER 3

SIN 3
PER 0

SLE 3
ROM 0

SAF 3
WAL 0

ARG 0
PAK 3

AUS 3
GRE 0

HUN 1
KUW2

INA 2
CZE 1
INA = Indonesia

SLA 0
PHI 3

ISR 0
IRE 3

MAL 3
NET 0

SRI 3
JAP 0

USA 0
HKG 3

Round 2 impromptu “THW ban the use of models who are below a healthy weight

BER 0
SIN 3

CAN 3
GER 0

ENG 3
SLE 0

IND 0
KOR 3

LIT 2
SAF 1

PER 3
MON 0

ROM 1
BAN 2

WAL 3
EST 0

CZE 0
ARG 3

GRE 3
HUN 0

KUW1
SCO 2

PAK 3
SLA 0

PHI 1
AUS 2

HKG 3
MAL 0

IRE 3
SRI 0

JAP 0
ISR 3

NET 0
USA 3

Round 3 Prepared “This House believes that Holocaust denial should be a crime”

BER 0
SLE 3

CAN 1
SCO 2

CZE 3
MON 0

ENG 3
SIN 0

GRE 2
SAF 1

HKG2
ARG 1

IND 1
EST 2

IRE 2
USA 1

JAP 1
HUN 2

KUW3
BAN 0

LIT 2
SRI 1

NET 0
INA 3

PAK 0
AUS 3

PER 0
KOR 3

PHI 2
GER 1

ROM 0
MAL 3

WAL 0
ISR 3

Round 4 Impromptu “THB that governments should not place limits in the areas which scientists may research

ARG 2
NET 1

AUS 3
JAP 0

BAN 0
BER 3

EST 2
PER 1

GER 2
GRE 1

HUN 0
PAK 3

INA 0
HKG 3

ISR 1
PHI 2

KOR 3
KUW0

MAL 0
IRE 3

MON 0
ENG 3

SCO 3
ROM 0

SIN 3
CZE 0

SLA 0
CAN 3

SAF 3
IND 0

SRI 0
WAL 3

USA 3
LIT 0

World Schools Debate Championship Draw

From Joshua Park joshuapark@post.harvard.edu

ROUND 1

Motion: This House would make the development of clean industry a condition for receiving non-emergency aid

Gimpo Foreign Language High School
Proposition Opposition
Bangladesh England
Estonia Lithuania
Germany India
Korea Canada
Mongolia Bermuda
Singapore Peru
Slovenia Romania
South Africa Wales

Chodang Elementary School
Proposition Opposition
Argentina Pakistan
Australia Greece
Hungary Kuwait
Indonesia Czech Republic
Slovakia Philippines
Not debating in this round: Scotland

Jongam Middle School
Proposition Opposition
Israel Ireland
Malaysia Netherlands
Sri Lanka Japan
United States Hong Kong

ROUND 2

Impromptu

Gimpo Foreign Language High School
Proposition Opposition
Bermuda Singapore
Canada Germany
England Slovenia
India Korea
Lithuania South Africa
Peru Mongolia
Romania Bangladesh
Wales Estonia

Chodang Elementary School
Proposition Opposition
Czech Republic Argentina
Greece Hungary
Kuwait Scotland
Pakistan Slovakia
Philippines Australia
Not debating in this round: Indonesia

Jongam Middle School
Proposition Opposition
Hong Kong Malaysia
Ireland Sri Lanka
Japan Israel
Netherlands United States

ROUND 3

Motion: This House believes that Holocaust denial should be a crime

Korea International School
Proposition Opposition
Bermuda Slovenia
Canada Scotland
Czech Republic Mongolia
England Singapore
Greece South Africa
Hong Kong Argentina
India Estonia
Ireland United States
Japan Hungary
Kuwait Bangladesh
Lithuania Sri Lanka
Netherlands Indonesia
Pakistan Australia
Peru Korea
Philippines Germany
Romania Malaysia
Wales Israel
Not debating in this round: Slovakia

ROUND 4

Impromptu

Korea International School
Proposition Opposition
Argentina Netherlands
Australia Japan
Bangladesh Bermuda
Estonia Peru
Germany Greece
Hungary Pakistan
Indonesia Hong Kong
Israel Philippines
Korea Kuwait
Malaysia Ireland
Mongolia England
Scotland Romania
Singapore Czech Republic
Slovakia Canada
South Africa India
Sri Lanka Wales
United States Lithuania
Not debating in this round: Slovenia

ROUND 5

Motion: This House believes that the United States should withdraw from its military bases in Asia

Gimpo FLHS
Proposition Opposition
Germany Ireland
Hungary Hong Kong
Israel Mongolia
Korea Czech Republic
Slovenia Pakistan
South Africa Bermuda
Sri Lanka England
United States Japan

Gimpo FLHS (or School B)
Proposition Opposition
Bangladesh Philippines
Estonia Canada
Netherlands Kuwait
Singapore Romania
Slovakia Wales
Not debating in this round: Australia

Gimpo FLHS (or School C)
Proposition Opposition
Argentina India
Indonesia Greece
Malaysia Peru
Scotland Lithuania

ROUND 6

Impromptu

Gimpo FLHS
Proposition Opposition
Bermuda Hungary
Czech Republic Germany
England Israel
Hong Kong South Africa
Ireland Korea
Japan Slovenia
Mongolia Sri Lanka
Pakistan United States

Gimpo FLHS (or School B)
Proposition Opposition
Canada Netherlands
Kuwait Australia
Philippines Estonia
Romania Slovakia
Wales Singapore
Not debating in this round: Bangladesh

Gimpo FLHS (or School C)
Proposition Opposition
Greece Argentina
India Indonesia
Lithuania Malaysia
Peru Scotland
SAT JUL 7 – BYE ROUND

Impromptu

Imperial Palace Hotel
Proposition Opposition
Australia Indonesia
Hungary Slovakia
Scotland Bangladesh
Slovenia Argentina

SUN JUL 8 – ROUND 7

Motion: This House believes that free trade harms the developing world

Seoul English Village
Proposition Opposition
Bermuda Israel
Canada Malaysia
Czech Republic Australia
England Slovakia
Greece Mongolia
Hong Kong Sri Lanka
India Singapore
Ireland Hungary
Japan Scotland
Kuwait Estonia
Lithuania Korea
Netherlands Bangladesh
Pakistan Indonesia
Peru Slovenia
Philippines United States
Romania South Africa
Wales Germany
Not debating in this round: Argentina
SUN JUL 8 – ROUND 8

Impromptu

Seoul English Village
Proposition Opposition
Argentina Wales
Australia Ireland
Bangladesh Peru
Estonia Romania
Germany Netherlands
Indonesia Kuwait
Israel Hong Kong
Korea Philippines
Malaysia India
Mongolia Japan
Scotland Pakistan
Singapore Canada
Slovakia Czech Republic
Slovenia Lithuania
South Africa England
Sri Lanka Bermuda
United States Greece
Not debating in this round: Hungary

Team Canada Has Blog for World Schools Debate Championship

From http://teamcanadadebate2007.blogspot.com/

dimanche 24 juin 2007
Arrival, Pop Culture Jeopardy, and Prepping
With the arrival of Team Canada to the west coast, it seems as though the weather didn’t know what to do with us. We’ve had rain, thunder, sun, snow, hail, blizzards (ok I made the last three up) but the weather has been very bi-polar, which of course is no pathetic fallacy to the feelings and ambitions of team Canada. After I (sean) arrived at the airport, it seemed as though I had been unwittingly entered in to a game of pop culture Jeopardy. Our coach Mr. Poirier seem to be very worried about our teams lack of knowledge about pop culture so was testing us constantly, alluding to movies, songs and current events. It seems because of our age, and maybe our lack of interest in Charlton Hesston’s movies about eating old peoples that we seem to have initialed failed at this task. However today, Kierstin, our smallest and most courageous member fired back with a witty remark about number 2 from Austin powers which flew, as fast as capital from Jamaica after union formation over MP’s head.

After a delightful meal at a local Malaysian restaurant, the team retired to their respected houses, waiting for the next day to come. Awaking to the soft sounds of thunder and rain the team arrived to an amazing breakfast made by our hosts here at WPGA. After this point I don’t know how much I am allowed to say. All I can say is that we descended in the most secure bunker on the WPGA campus, apparently built incase of a Japanese attack on the city in world war two, to start prepping. After hours of working, crying, voice exercises, medieval torture practices, case construction, and debate, we emerged, shielding our eyes from the sun, which was out to greet us. We then ventured out; following the sound of Greek music to Greek days, where we had a tasty meal of you guessed it Greek food. After such a meal, we returned to our billets and are currently all working hard on the case. I mean, working hard on a top secrete project. Well I must return to my work. Good night.

Your friend
sean

Lanier Middle School Debate Dynasty

From http://www.bloghouston.net/item/5299

Lanier wins fifth straight debate title, says farewell to coach

The Chronicle's Jennifer Friedberg reports that the Lanier Middle School debate team has just won its fifth straight national title:

The Lanier Middle School debate team spent three days last week preparing for its biggest competition of the school year — the National Junior Forensics League Tournament in Greeley, Colo.

The work paid off as the squad won the three-day event, which concluded July 1, posting its fifth consecutive national title for Lanier debate coach Jim Henley's last hurrah.

"I'm very proud that 65 students took time out of their summer vacation and worked very hard on a tough academic discipline, prepared and were successful in the competition," Henley said. "We just dominated the debate section of the competition."

Henley calls the tournament "the World Series of middle school debate."

[snip]

The team is comprised of 100 sixth-graders and 100 seventh- and eighth-graders. Henley said the squad is the largest in the country.

It won eight out of nine local and regional tournaments this year.

"They compete against high schools here and most of the time they win," Henley said.

The team has lost only one competition since 2002.

[snip]

Henley has taught at Lanier for 20 years — history for 10 years before starting the debate team and moving into teaching forensics full time.

After their win, the team and 90 Houstonians celebrated at Outback Steakhouse. They said goodbye to Henley and hello to the team's new coach, Frantz Hill from Jane Long Middle School, 6501 Bellaire Blvd.

"His students were sad to lose him and my students were sad to lose me," Henley said. "The transition was seamless and wonderful."

Retiring, Henley said, "is the hardest thing I've ever done."

Congrats to the debate team and to Henley for jobs well done!

Thoughts About Debate and Success in Life

From http://ricksincerethoughts.blogspot.com/2007/06/scenes-from-debate-season.html

Friday, June 29, 2007
Scenes from a Debate Season
This past Sunday's Washington Post included an Outlook section article about the relatively new debate program in District of Columbia schools. Its author, Phil Kerpen, quoted President John F. Kennedy as saying:

"I think debating in high school and college is most valuable training, whether for politics, the law, business, or for service on community committees such as the PTA and the League of Women Voters. . . . The give and take of debating, the testing of ideas, is essential to democracy. I wish we had a good deal more debating in our institutions than we do now."
Kerpen also pointed out some of the benefits earned by student debaters, benefits that are often overlooked or undervalued:
Like athletics, debate teaches the value of teamwork and healthy competition. Unlike athletics, debate channels the competitive spirit of students into rigorous academic work.

Preparation for debate requires extensive research, including critical thinking to formulate arguments and anticipate responses, as well reading comprehension and writing skills. Debate also teaches presentation skills and builds confidence. It teaches listening and note-taking skills. Competition drives these benefits in a virtuous cycle. Students continually improve their skills not because they are told to but because they want to win.

National studies have found that participation in debate can substantially and quickly increase reading scores, reduce disciplinary referrals and increase critical-thinking ability.

Kerpen's piece reminded me of something I wrote years ago, based on my own experience as a high school debater and later as a debate judge and coach. But before I get to that, let me take you back to October 1988, when Mike McGough, then editorial page editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, contributed a piece to The New Republic called "Pull It Across Your Flow" (unfortunately available online only in the pay-per-view TNR archives).

McGough, who had debated at Pittsburgh Central Catholic High School in the 1960s (around the time that school was considered a debate powerhouse), was disappointed by some of the changes that had occurred in the debate world in the two decades since he had been active on the circuit, and his TNR article -- which was cited in Gary Alan Fine's 2001 book, Gifted Tongues: High School Debate and Adolescent Culture -- was consequently critical, as well as observant:
If the meaningless sound bites traded at today's presidential debates represent one regrettable oratorical extreme, then the current condition of high school debates represents the other. Let me take you to a typical high school debate tournament, at which two-member teams from around the country square off on the "public policy" proposition that they will wrestle with all year. High school debate topics are worthy and boring enough to come from the MacNeil-Lehrer playbook; this year's question is whether the federal government should maintain a program of retirement security for the elderly.

The debate is already in progress, so you let yourself in quietly, fearful of interrupting one of the speeches. But no one is speaking. Instead, the two pairs of debaters, hedged in by prodigious file drawers and briefcases, sit at desks scratching on legal pads as the "audience" — a single judge — inclines scribelike over her own notepad.

Time passes until one of the debaters at last rises from his desk, legal pad and sheaf of index cards balanced on his arm. You brace yourself for a burst of eloquence — certainly the boy has had plenty of time to prepare — but when he speaks it is sotto voce with eyes cast downward. "I'll start with the D.A.s," he says, "then go back to the P.M.N. and finish with solvency." A pause follows, during which the other debaters and the judge nod knowingly and consult their legal pads. Then, suddenly, our speaker shifts into drill-instructor mode and shouts: "REALIZE that the Affirmative has dropped all of our D.A.s, therefore they lose. Now go to the B(l) subpoint." That's the last sentence you can make out; as he presses on, the boy increases his speed until he sounds like the motormouth in the Federal Express commercials. Adding to the robotic effect is his habit of constantly raising and lowering his right arm in order to scoop up his index cards.

I EXAGGERATE—but only a little. Some debaters manage to make themselves understood despite the machine-gun delivery. And such is the effervescence of youth that even the most jargon-clogged debate can suddenly turn frisky and familiar, as when one of the debaters I recently heard warned that if a certain policy were implemented, "the Soviet Union will freak out of their minds!"

Overall, however, the effect of a high school debate on the unwary spectator is usually one of bewilderment. Today's budding Buckleys traffic more in bizarre jargon than the telling bon mot. A "D.A.," for example, refers to "disadvantage," a term of art for a negative consequence of the adoption of the Affirmative resolution. "P.M.N." stands for Plan Meets Need. "Solvency" is a reference not to financial security but to the ability of the Affirmative plan to "solve" a problem. But don't expect a contestant to translate these terms for you. In today's high school debates, the object of the exercise is to beat your opponent, not win over an audience.
Oddly enough, this article from TNR's October 10, 1988, edition features the only appearance in the entire archives of The New Republic -- going back to 1914 -- of the phrase "high school debate."

McGough's article prompted replies from readers, including me. My letter to the editor -- which defended "modern" debate styles against the article's critique -- was not published in the magazine, but it did lead to a telephone call from Mike McGough, who invited me to lunch. We have seen each other periodically since then, most recently when he was in Charlottesville for an April 2006 performance of a one-act play, Baggage, written by his nephew, Walt McGough, a UVa student.

But this is a digression.

Although my letter was not printed in The New Republic, I expanded it to a full op-ed piece, which found a few placements in newspapers around the country. I confess to recycling the article in subsequent years, since the high-school debate topic changes annually and that gave me a chance to give the article a new "hook" related to current affairs. The most recent iteration of my debate piece appeared in the Forum section of the Sunday Washington Times on October 12, 2003, almost precisely 15 years since Mike McGough's original TNR article that inspired it. This is how it appeared:

High school debate: road to success

It's easy to make fun of ignorant, uninformed Americans, especially American teenagers, through comic lenses like the Tonight Show's "Jaywalking" segments. Cynicism aside, however, one group of teens eagerly buys newspapers and diligently watches Fox News and C-SPAN. Who? High school debaters. Their topic this year is: "Resolved: That the United States federal government should establish an ocean policy substantially increasing protection of marine natural resources."

While this might seem a dreary topic, it offers much potential. If ocean policy is not the first question posed at a Democratic presidential candidates' debate, it has myriad components. According to America's Living Oceans, a report issued by the Pew Oceans Commission: "The oceans are our largest public domain. America's oceans span nearly 4.5 million square miles, an area 23 percent larger than the nation's land area. Their biological riches surpass those of our national forests and wilderness areas. The genetic species, habitat and ecosystem diversity of the oceans is believed to exceed that of any Earth system."

Yet how we husband those resources can engender serious disputes. The Heartland Institute's Dr. Jay Lehr, for instance, criticizes the Pew report as "anti-capitalist, anti-individual freedom, pro-government" in its approach.

Lots to chew on there, for any policymaker - or for any high school debater.

Most debaters are normal, active girls and boys, if somewhat more competitive and inclined toward books and ideas rather than beer bashes, PS2 games, cars, or sports.

Non-debaters ("laymen"), and even veterans of debate seasons long past, encountering today's debaters in action tend to be simultaneously fascinated and a bit repelled by the state of debate in our high schools today.

Often, they find an arcane world dominated by jargon and fast talking that bears little relation to reality. Some older observers lament the decline of debate from their day, when persuasive oratory was the norm, to the present, when oratory is shrugged off and the emphasis is on the number and complexity of arguments.

All this is true. Yet I am afraid observers who fail to dig a bit deeper might be left with the misconception that high school debate is unreal, unintelligible, or useless. Far from it.

Despite a style incomprehensible to the layman, high school debaters still acquire considerable rhetorical skills. Even in the 1970s, it was said the average debater on the national high school circuit did as much research in one year as a person does for a master's thesis in graduate school. In cross-examination debate, teenagers who might otherwise discuss the relative merits of Britney vs. Christina (or 50 Cent vs. Eminem) discover the most effective means to penetrate a complex public policy argument, cutting across empty quotations and slicing an opponent's logic. Good debate rounds are characterized by humor and intelligence.

Fundamentally, debate teaches its participants to think. Debaters must be able to respond to arguments they have never heard before - at a moment's notice. To prepare, they must spend hours in the library and more hours writing briefs that anticipate and pre-empt opponents' arguments.

Yes, debate is esoteric and unlike the real world. Like any art or profession, it relies on a specialized language to communicate, and it generates theories about reality that may not hold much water in corporate offices, courtrooms, Washington think tanks, or city council chambers. Its benefits nonetheless remain substantial. Debaters are generally better prepared for college than their non-debate peers because they know how to pursue research and how to construct an effective argument. They adapt more easily to stressful academic situations. (My own college admissions essay was about, remarkably, ocean policy, based on research I had done pursuing trophies during the 1975-76 debate season.)

After college, too, the debaters to succeed. Debaters from highly regarded programs like Georgetown, the University of Vermont, and Northwestern are rarely, if ever, denied admission to top law schools and graduate programs.

Competitive debate requires sacrifice. Long hours of research and practice overlap with even longer hours of bake sales and car washes to help finance debate programs. Parents who rise each Saturday at 5 a.m. to drive their kids to a tournament deserve our respect; they also have the satisfaction of knowing their children are engaged in an intellectually invigorating, disciplined activity.

Our schools merit praise and encouragement for including debate programs (which, compared to sports, are substantially less costly) among their extracurricular offerings.

Whatever its flaws, debate continues to stimulate. As this year's ocean policy topic shows, it keeps kids informed on the major issues of the day. With the start of 2003-04 debate season, we can be proud and hopeful that today's high school debaters are tomorrow's community leaders.

RICHARD SINCERE
Mr. Sincere a former high school debater and debate coach, is author of "The Politics of Sentiment" and "Sowing the Seeds of Free Enterprise," among other works.

Seeing Phil Kerpen's piece, "Undebatably, A Useful Tool for D.C. Schools," in the Washington Post last weekend made me a bit nostalgic for my own years as a high school debater. I found some rare video footage of the 1975-76 debate season at Marquette University High School in Milwaukee, which I posted to YouTube on Wednesday. It features members of the Webster Club at various tournaments, on and off the MUHS campus, during the course of the year. (Law professors John Q. Barrett and James P. Fleissner may not be too keen to have their students see them in this context. Forgive them; it was the 1970s.)



Of course, videos like this will make for a great conversation-starter at the upcoming 150th anniversary celebration of Marquette High.