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22 March 2008

From Coastweek Kenya

Jaffery Wins THE LION CLUB Interschool Debate Shield

The Jaffery debate team once again lifted the prestigious Lions Club Annual Interschool Debate shield.
In the event sponsored by Mabati Rolling Mills and Quality Sports House, Jaffery emerged winners against Oshwal Academy, who came out fighting, seeking to claim the shield out of Jaffery's clutches.
The teams featuring in the finals were a repeat of last year's, in which Jaffery had pro-posed and won the motion 'Multi party Democracy is the Best Route to Economic Develo-pment in Kenya'.
This year, Jaffery's team cons-isted of Muhammedhasnain Khatau of Year 11, Zahra Dhanji of Year 10, Neelam Molu of Year 9, Zainab Karim of Year 9 and Furqan Valli of Year 8.
On the way to the finals, Jaffery beat Sheikh Khalifa in the 1st round, proposing the motion, 'Advertisement is Good for Society', wherein Furqan Valli emerged best speaker.
In the semi finals, Jaffery was up against Coast Academy, proposing the motion 'HIV Status should be made public'.
Jaffery won and once again Furqan Valli was the best speaker.
Against Oshwal in the finals, Jaffery opposed the motion 'Parents are Responsible for Indiscipline in Schools'.
In a fiercely fought contest, Jaffery carried the day, and were for the second year in a row declared the Lions Club Interschool Debate Champions, and Furqan Valli was adjudged the day's best speaker and the competition's overall best speaker.

Congratulations to the school, the team and members of the English Department especially for a job well done!

IDEA-NFL Singapore

Article on the IDEA-NFL Singapore qualifying tournament written by Alex Dukalskis from idebate

Singapore, the newest country in the IDEA-NFL Guest Country Qualifier system, has just completed its tournament and is ready to send competitors to Las Vegas! Held at the Anglo-Chinese Junior College and featuring roughly 40 competitors from 6 schools, the tournament featured original oratory, dramatic interpretation, humorous interpretation, international extemporaneous speaking and duo interpretation.

Results are as follows:

Duo Interp
2nd Alternate for US Nationals: Charmaine Poh and Rebecca Kwan from (Anglo-Chinese Junior College - ACJC)
1st Alternate: Nicholas Ngo and Lesley Sia (ACJC)
National Qualifier (1st place): Mark Cheng and Yin Ling Ng (ACJC)
International Extemp
1st Alternate: Ho Wee Seng (Anderson Junior College)
National Qualifier: Arun Vignesh s/o Selvaraju (Raffles Junior College)
Dramatic Interp
2nd Alternate: Dharshini Lokaswarn (ACJC)
1st Alternate: Frances Lee (ACJC)
Qualifier: Sarah-Ann Lee Meixia
Humorous Interp
2nd Alternate: John Cheah (ACJC)
1st Alternate: Xun Wei (ACJC)
National Qualifier: Gideon Yap (ACJC)
Original Oratory
Finalist: Nurul Sharafudin (National Junior College)
Finalist: Geran Wong (Millennia Institute)
2nd Alternate: Shreya Vipul Sanghvi (Victoria Junior College)
1st Alternate: Lian Kim Selby (ACJC)
National Qualifier (2nd place): Alexander Woon (Raffles Junior College)
National Qualifier (1st place): Sarah Yip (Victoria Junior College)

CEDA Nationals

Here is a report from Kansas.com on the CEDA national Championships in the US

National debaters converge on Wichita State
Wichita State University hosts the National Championship Tournament of the Cross Examination Debate Association for the third time.

As he began to speak, Matt Coleman sounded more like an auctioneer than a college debater. With a rapid-fire delivery, Coleman -- a member of the Wichita State University debate team -- unleashed a nine-minute speech on U.S. relations with the Middle East.
Coleman and his teammates were among the more than 175 debate teams from 70 schools on the campus of WSU on Friday for the National Championship Tournament of the Cross Examination Debate Association.

For Jeffrey Jarman, WSU director of debate, the event is a hectic culmination to nearly a year of planning.

"It's a long four days," he said. "It's a brutal run of debating."

WSU hosts eight preliminary rounds Friday and today and elimination rounds on Sunday.

Elimination rounds and the final round will be held Monday at the Wichita Marriott.

Jarman said WSU, which also hosted the event in 1986 and 1997, began preparing for the contest in May.

In the competitions, teams present opposing arguments and are then cross examined by the other side.

A judge observes the arguments and cross-examinations and selects the winning team.

Teams with five or more wins continue after the opening rounds, Jarman said.

The topic for this year's contest is whether the U.S. government should improve its diplomatic relations with Middle Eastern countries, including offering security guarantees and greater financial support.

Jarman said the students can spend up to 30 hours a week researching and preparing their arguments.

"It's impressive that students are willing to put in that kind of time and effort," he said. "But it's rewarding. (Because) it's not just a competitive activity, it's also an educational activity."

Eric Robinson, a 21-year-old political science major and member of the WSU team, said it was the competition that drove him.

"People always say 'I like to learn things,' but honestly... everybody likes the fact that you get to beat other people," he said.

Stephanie Eisenberg, who traveled to the event with her teammates from San Francisco State University, said the competitive aspect helped create a sense of community among people with widely varying viewpoints.

"We still all come here with the same purpose," she said. "That's very unifying."

WSU has three teams of two students each in the event.

The team of Coleman and Robinson finished the day with two wins and two losses, as did Brian Box and Grant Brazill.

The team of Zach Brown and Patrick Rinker finished at three and one.

Irish Mace Final

The final of the 2008 Irish Mace will be held on Monday 31st March 7pm, hosted by the College Historical Society, Trinity College Dublin.

Motion: TT Believes That Non Consensual Sterilisation of Persons with an Intellectual Disability is Always Wrong

1st Prop Kings Inns (Alison & Dave)

1st Opp (UCD Law Ross & Mags)

2nd Prop Kings Inns (Luke & Brendan)

2nd Opp UCC Philosoph (Tiernan & Jimmy)
For more details click here and join the facebook group

21 March 2008

Canada's next great PM

Rahim Moloo, Public Speaking World Champion from MMU Worlds in 2005, is a finalist in the Canadian TV show Canada's Next Great Prime Minister.

Best of luck to Rahim in the Final this Sunday.

For more info and to download the show via bittorrent and youtube visit http://www.cbc.ca/nextprimeminister/blog/
From CUSID

18 March 2008

Former Exeter Debater on "The Apprentice"

It seems that debating continues to pop up in the media. After Justice took on Big Brother Africa, and MTV started a search for a Debate team to follow for a year it now turns out that this years version of the hit TV show "The Apprentice" features Raef Bjayal (number 4 on the attached photo) from Exeter University.

His profile:
4. Raef Bjayal, 27, entrepreneur from north-west London
Raef founded the Exeter University Debating Society. He says: 'The spoken word is my tool. [I'm a] terrific conversationalist and raconteur, with incredible charisma. [I'm] priceless, absolutely priceless.'

I don't know Raef but he is listed as a life member of the Exeter Debating Society from 2002 on their website. The claim that he founded the society may need a bit of clarification though as their website also says they have been going since 1893.

Best of luck Raef.
Update: 19th March
Raef's Profile from "The Times".
Raef Bjayou, 27
An entrepreneur with a degree in politics and history who lives in north west London.
A former school captain, he founded the Exeter University Debating Society and claims to "have never lost an argument yet".
He once asked Michael Heseltine a question on Question Time and was "surprised by the ignorance of his answer".
He claims to have "stared death in the face many times".
He says: "The spoken word is my tool. (I'm a) terrific conversationalist and raconteur with incredible charisma. (I'm) priceless, absolutely priceless.
Never lost an argument...... except it would appear at Debating competitions ;-)

Uve Poom added to Newcastle bid

Newcastle have continued their PR offensive with yet another announcement on their bid to host the European Debating Championships in 2009. This time they have announced that they have added a fifth member to their adjudication team in the form of Uve Poom from Estonia.

For more info please click here

Cayman Islands Results

Two teams from Cayman Brac High School battled it out at the 18th annual Inter-Schools Debate final at the Conference Suite of the Brac Reef Hotel on Saturday, 8 March.

The moot “Nationalism is a force for evil” was keenly contested with Cayman Brac High School “A” winning as the opposing team.

This is the third year in a row the team, comprising Geoffrey Grizzel, Staci Scott and Nickolas DaCosta, has won the competition for the Brac High School. The competition started last October with eight teams representing five schools.

Magistrate Margaret Ramsay-Hale, chief debate judge, reporting on behalf of her fellow judges, Nicky Watson and Brac Rotary President John Elliott, commended both teams on their presentational skills, particularly their avoiding the temptation to read their speeches.

The evening started with a thought-provoking talk by Rotary Sunrise President Rosalie Jamieson on “World Peace and Understanding”, one of Rotary International’s goals.
Rotary Central President Sandy McFarlane gave the vote of thanks.

Debate Chairman Rotary Central Past-President Fred Speirs observed that the debate was the best he had ever presided over and that the Rotary Inter-Schools Debating Competition remained the premier high school debating forum in the Cayman Islands.

Organised by the Rotary Clubs of Grand Cayman Central and Grand Cayman Sunrise, the competition is sponsored by British Caymanian Insurance.
From caymannetnews

17 March 2008

Hart House Dominate CUSID Nationals

Hart House dominated the Canadian National Debating Championships this past weekend: both teams in the final and at least the top three speakers.

Hart House D (Monica Ferris & Jon Laxer) defeated Hart House A (Richard Lizius & Paul-Erik Dash Veel) from Government, making the case that blackmail should be legal.

McGill A (Leon Grek & Vinay Kumar Mysore) and C (Padraic Scanlan & Sophie MacIntyre) were semi-finalists, and Hart House B (John Ashbourne and Adam Lazier), Western SS (Wajid Sayeed & Zachary Schwartz), Carleton D (Adam Coombs & Garnett Genuis) and McGill B (Catherine Evans & Saro Setrakian) fell in quarterfinals. Queen's WM (Sheldon McCormick & Christine Wadsworth) placed ninth after a special half-octofinal round to determine the winner of a tie for 8th place.

Vinay Kumar Mysore from McGill was the best public speaker at the event, edging out Alexander Levy from Hart House. Giorgio Traini, also from Hart House, was the top novice speaker... and with George Trotter, triumphed over Alberta TB (Ian Burch and Byron Tse) in the Novice Final.

Richard Lizius was the top speaker, followed by Monica Ferris and Jon Laxer.

Adam Coombs from Carleton is the new President, joining the University of Ottawa's Alex Amar and York University's Rudi M. Lof as the 2008-2009 CUSID Executive.

NSU All Asians update

Dear All,
I am proud to announce on behalf of the organizing committee of 15th All Asians that we are all set and ready to go. It's been a while that I haven't updated any information and my organizer tells me it's time for the monthly update. I am about to make fewimportant announcements and apologize in advance for any sort of inconvenience that you might face for our change in decision. Just to make you read the entire mail I decided not to write one of those usual boring formal mails.

In the last few months, we did few surveys and I would like thank everyone for their feedback. Well, we tried to incorporate all your suggestions (almost all of them!) We know this is the first time any Asian debate championship (be it AUDC or All Asians) is coming to South Asia and being very proud and sensitive about our national pride (we are sensitive about particular issues! Read sub-continental history! Read `Bangladesh's history'), we want to showcase the best possible All Asian Debate Championship, with properaccommodation, variety of food, not-too-decent socials (!) and most importantly, top quality judging and debating.


We have had few questions regarding our adjudication inexperience and hence selected one of the best DCA panels ever. (C'mon! With Jason, Adiba, Jess and Sidharth on board, I can claim this is one the best, if not, the best! I am leaving a space for your opinion. :D ) We are honored that Dr. Snider, having directed dozens of debate tournaments in different parts from the world, is flying in all the way from Vermont, USA to be our TAB Director. (I heard he's bringing a box full of cheese, if anybody isinterested. He's from Vermont, guys! ) I see tons of mails flowing back and forth within our adjudication panel and the only reason they are doing this is to ensure top quality judging. I am sure you have seen the result in Sidharth's mail couple of days back. For the first time, we are going to have a general briefing round followed by special briefing round by having all the adjudicators divided in 4-5 groups and being trained/briefed again by the top adjudicators ofAsia. Through these focused groups, we hope all the adjudicators will have a much better idea (and we will face less complains. I didn't say `no' complains…that'd be too ambitious)

We have nothing against AUDC. In fact, we were not even in the picture when the split happened. We wish Latif Bhai (I feel so proud to see a fellow Bangladeshi being the CA in another tournament) and his team a great success. But I realized no matter how much we try, the hardcore AUDC people will not come to All Asians, not yet. (Our database and the teams that registered for AUDC clearly shows the split is still in effect…more than in mind that in reality)

But still, we are in a compromising mood. We are trying to have a structured adjudication system so that the ground on which the split happened gets nullified. To show our full support to the unity in Pattaya Declaration, and most importantly, to see the Asian teams going up the ladder in contrast to this year's performance in the Worlds we don't want to go into a direct clash with AUDC. We are pulling our tournament by two days.

The revised schedule is May 7-13, 2008. There are flights available from Dhaka to Kuala Lumpur on 13th and 14th of May, if anyone wants to fly from Dhaka.

(A) Regarding our ACCOMMODATION, we will not accommodate you in Hotel Sarina, as mentioned earlier. In fact, we will accommodate you in Pan Pacific Sonargaon. Yes, you heard it right- it's Pan Pacific, which means internationally approved 5-star quality With the same rego fee, now you are going to stay in a better hotel, in fact, one of the largest and best hotels in Dhaka. http://www.panpacific.com/Dhaka/Overview.html

(B) Our BANK ACCOUNT is up and you can start paying now.
Accounts name: NSU ALL ASIANS

Accounts number: 103.110.13886
Bank name: Dutch-Bangla Bank Limited

Banani Branch

Plot# 75, Block# B

Kemal Ataturk Avenue

Banani, Dhaka-1213
Swift Code: DBBL BD DH 103

The Bank must receive your university name in clear writing.

(C) For mutual benefit, we are EXTENDING THE DEADLINE for paying registration fee.

Registration until April 21st, 2008.
160 USD per person (for debaters and adjudicators)

190 USD per person (for observers)

Late Registration (April 22nd –May 5th, 2008)
185 USD per person (for debaters and adjudicators)

215 USD per person (for observers)

Please note that once we receive your registration fee, we will ask for your details so that our foreign ministry can send letters to Embassy of Bangladesh in your respective country for smooth processing of your visa.

(D) We are increasing our TEAM CAP per institution from 3 to 5. However, the total team cap of 120 will remain same. ADJUDICATORS CAP will be minimum: n=1 and maximum: N= n+ 5, n being the number of teams.

So much of information in one mail! If you have any more queries, please visit http://www.nsuallasians.com/ We also have a facebook account where you can ………do facebooking!
FB Group: NSU All Asians Inter Varsity Debating Championship 2008

Get moving, fast.

And See you in Dhaka!
Zunaed Rabbani

Convenor,15th All Asians.
1) Web forum and Newsletter launched
We're very pleased to announce the launch of our new web forum andnewsletter. Sign up to the forum from the bid home page ateudcnewcastle09.com and follow the links. Here you'll be able todiscuss European debating and the Newcastle bid. You can also receive the latest news in your inbox by signing up forthe Newsletter. Sign up by typing your address in the box on the homepage.

2) Judging applications
A quick reminder to debaters that our applications process is stillopen for DCA and Named Judge positions. Deadline is 1200 GMT Monday 17th March. Contact convenor [at]eudcnewcastle09.com for details.

PS: our website is improving all the time, so keep looking!
Russell & Oskar
EUDC Newcastle'09 Co-Convenors

EUDC 2008 update

Phase 1 of registartion for EUDC 2008 ended yesterday midnight.

During the next we are expecting your payments – you have time until March 23rd. There is no chance of late payments! If any questions about payments, please check first our Q&A section or Info for Participants section on our homapage and our previous letters to the EUDC list for answers. In any more questions, please contact our Payments Coordinator Piret Poopuu at Estravel at piretpo@estravel.ee. If you do not make the deadline of the payment (March 23rd 23:59 GMT), you will be cancelled from the list of registrants and your place will open up for others in Phase 2.

Phase 2 of registration will open on March 31st 12:00 GMT. Before that you will all know how many places there will be available for registation.

For further information please read the descriptions of Phases from here.

If any questions, please write to info@eudc2008.eu

Happy St Patrick's day



Beannacht Lá Fhéile Pádraig

Saiful Rijal (Brunei) Results

From Borneo Bulletin online

Martino bin Prait, a National Diploma in Aircraft Engineering (Avionics) student, was yesterday crowned the champion of the 6th Public Speaking Competition, organised by Saiful Rijal Technical College, at the college in Jalan Muara.

The first and second runners-up were Mohd Ramzi bin Mohd Zain and Nurul Rafidah bte Haji Ibrahim.

On hand to present the prizes to the winners was the college's deputy principal Cikgu Alias bin Haji Abdul Bakar.

Fanta Suppa Bushan, in a speech, said, public speaking is an essential skill in today's competitive world, though studies have shown that it is the second most common fear.

"We all know that good leaders are usually confident speakers, and public speaking skills help to prepare students for their future," he added

AUDC Rookie Workshop

The AUDC crew is organizing a "rookie" workshop just before AUDC proper starts. The rookie worshop is a basic workshop for new debaters.

Who should join?
  • Those who have never debated in an international debating varsity tournament
  • Those who have never judged an international debating varsity tournament
  • Those who have never seen an international debating varsity tournament
  • Those who want a refreshing reminder of why you debate in university in the first place
When is it organized?

  • Starts exactly 2pm 13.May.2008, ends at 5pm 14.May.2008
  • AUDC proper starts on 14th May. That means you can straight away join AUDC once the rookie workshop is done

Where do I stay during this time?

  • You can fix your own accomodation
  • But with a small fee, we'll put you up in one of IIU's hostels (apply only if you are brave)

How much is the cost for everything?

  • Without accommodation, it should cost RM 25.00 per head
  • With accommodation, it's RM25 + RM? (we will confirm only if we have requests)

If I need further info, where do I go?

Maidens/Novice Results

Ireland: Niamh Ni Mhaoileoin (TCD Hist) won the 2008 Irish National Maidens competition held in University of Limerick over the weekend. Catherine Murphy (also from TCD hist) was runner up.

Malaysia: MMU1 the Malaysian 2008 national novice tournament held in UT Mara over the weekend. MMU3 were runner up.

Stylish Manchester

Manchester A (Dan Bradley & James Dixon) won the 2008 Style IV held by the Nottingham Debating union.

Best Speaker in the final was Douglas Blackwood (UCL) and best speaker on the tab was Dan Bradley (Manchester).