First Venezuelan Debate Tournament Begins

Participants in first debate

Hello from Venezuela.

I am in Caracas, which is supposed to be the city of eternal spring, since it is near the equator but in the mountains so it always has that spring-like flair.

It is lovely city, nestled between mountains that separate it from the Carbbean sea. The "Avila," or lovely moutain range, separates it from the ocean. It is nice, but the traffic is unbelievable and hostile. There are obviously too many cars, and it has the worst traffic I have seen in the known world. The people are friendly and the climate is friendly as well.

I am here for the first ever Venezuelan university debate tournament. I had a great lecture opportunity on Thursday afternoon at a local univeristy and about 90 people showed up to hear me talk about debate as a teaching tool in non-debate classrooms (literature, history, political science, etc.). They were attentive and seemed to like me, asking lots of questions and staying involved. Local organizers said it was a big success.

Today the tournament started. They have had a lo of debate workshops here but never a tournament. Students seemed excied and ready. I judged four rounds today and have the following observations:

• Students seemed more ready that most beginners, because many of them have had model UN experience and have been to workshops held by the local organizers and staffed by excellent Spanish-speaking trainers from the USA, includling Luis Magallon, Brenda Montes, Kenda Cunningham and Sandra Maroschka. .
• I was pleased with their knowledge of the topic area, which is expanding representation on the UN security council. While not omniscient, they knew quite a lot.
• They had a very good idea of what the important issues were in the debates, going right to them and spending time there.
• They seemed really into it and highly motivated.

Today we had four rounds, and tomorrow we will have three more rounds and then break to semifinals.

I feel as if I witnessed a transformative moment in Venezuelan debate. The work and the trainers that had previously been done now paid off in a real debating tournament.

In my hotel room I was listening to a song and these words from Timothy Leary came through. Pardon me if I share them.

As you may know, I practice a profession for which there is no real name. What I have been doing for over 40 years is to practice the psychology of individual freedom. It is my job to corrupt young people with the infectious and contagious idea of individual freedom. It is my job to encourage and to empower you to to think for yourself and to question authority.

--
Alfred C. Snider aka Tuna
Edwin Lawrence Professor of Forensics
University of Vermont
Huber House, 475 Main Street, UVM, Burlington, VT 05405 USA
Global Debate Blog http://globaldebateblog.blogspot.com
Debate Central http://debate.uvm.edu
World Debate Institute http://debate.uvm.edu/wdi/
World Debate Institute Blog http://worlddebateinstitute.blogspot.com
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