Well, we can see it again, a debate motion really happening in real life, and we can see, if the predictions, the arguments and the ideas, that we used in debates really happen, or not.
I wrote about that in the “A debate plan in reality” post that was about Kosovo debate motions and what debater thought is going to happen when Kosovo gets independent.
Well, now we can see another topic, that we all probably debated about, developing in Real life.
Olympic games, not going to the Olympic games or whatever connected to the Olympic games was debated a lot on tournaments around Europe, and now we can see, what is really going on. It is not like someone important didn’t go there, but we can still see at least one argument developing in the RL (Real life).
Its the “China will develop its Human Rights (HR) agenda” argument. Well, I kind of feel, that this has not happen. If you read the last weeks Economist, you can see, that that is not happening. Let’s see what rights are equally or more restricted because of the Olympic games.
1. Freedom of speech - well, I just watched a CNN report today that tried to find the protesters, that protest at the designated protest parks in Beijing. Well, they found the parks, but they were empty. You need to apply for a protest, give all the data (even what your banners are going to say) and wait for an approval. Well, up to today no one got the approval. And 1 person got arrested while applying for it.
2. Economical freedoms - even if it looks better for the tourists and other foreigners, the China’s leaders made a lot of companies to stop working, or they even forced to transfer the workers into Beijing (like with the power plants, where they got all the good workers to Beijing so that they can supply the games with power juice).
3. Freedom of movement - or is is another one, I’m not sure, but people were forcedly moved, so that they were able to build new stadiums and other venues. Well, not really a thing that you would call a good thing.
And probably other rights have been violated (like moving or arresting of beggars on the streets etc.). Its a show that they put on for us, but in the background I believe that it got worse. We will see, what will happen after the games, if they will change in a positive matter.
What do you believe now, after you have seen the games, was it a good decision?
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I just love the US political campaign. There’s almost nothing so interesting and funny than the political ads and campaigns that they do.
But I’m a bit dissapointed with the number of the oncomming debates, because Obama wishes to do only 4 debates, and a couple debates by the Vice president candidates.
Well, I will enjoy all of them, but I also believe, that there will be more, beucase if you get an invitation like that, you just need to go
(Im not sure if this will mean, that more young Americans will watch or be interested in the debates, because they will expect Paris to show up, but if nothing else, I just love the ad, how Paris calls the candidates beaches That’s kinda cute, isn’t it?
The organisers of IDAS always try to find a good mix of trainers. If you like the American proffessors more, you will get them, if you like British debate trainers, here you go, if you would like to get an idea about what the Asian trainers do, we have it for you and if you would like to hear from people that have won the EUDC ESL, we try to get them.
We are again expanding the pool of the trainers with new trainers, that have done great at different debate tournaments and have great teaching experiences. Debbie Newman is going to join this years trainers pool, and I am happy to hear that. I met her at a international High school debate tournament in Slovenia (she is a coach of the English High school world’s team) and we had great times together, and I have seen and heard from others that she is a great trainer.
Read more about the International debate academy Slovenia 2008 at the blog and apply as soon as possible.
Well, we finally got the answer from the WUDC org.com and they gave us the places. The problem is obviously getting resolved, so I hope that all the institutions that should have received their spot got one.
Well obviously something was wrong with the registration…
This is what you can read on the official website
“Just a quick update on how registration has gone. We have been massively oversubscribed and the places for allocation in this phase were allocated within a couple of minutes. There were however some places held by the system which should have been allocated to teams who have been told they are on the waitlist. These extra places will be allocated within the coming hours.
We will place a further update on the website shortly.”
I have registered teams from my University to the WUDC and I really didn’t want to miss the spots, so I waited 10 minutes before the registration opened on the site, that means that I started typing in all the information at exactly 15.00 (GMT +1).
A couple of seconds after I finished I made a print screen, just to be on the safe side, and it shows 15.02, that means that I finished the registration in less than two minutes.
The confirmation email that I received 10 minutes later told me, that we are on the waiting list.
I know that the application process goes fast, but I just can not believe it, that more than 70 people typed faster than I do and that they filled all the spots.
I really do not understand what happened.
Well, I emailed the organisers, we will see, what will be their answer.
This is not a promotional post for our debate academy, do not worry.
What this post is, is the question, what are the things that are important to you/or only me if no one comments, at a debate academy.
Lets first define it in a good debating way. A debate academy is a couple of days, up to a week long education, of course about debate. There are a couple of them that I know about, one in the GB every year, one in the Netherlands (DAPDI), and one in Slovenia (IDAS), and there is a new one that is just taking place in Serbia and there is one just going on in the USA (WDI). Because I have been a part of the organizing committee of a couple of the past IDAS, I like to think about what should we do to make it better.
So what is it that will make you join a debate academy?
I would think that the most important thing is the Faculty. But what does that mean exactly? Do we need people from the UK and only that? Or do we need people that are well known because of their great results in important debate tournaments. What about people from the theory, debate and rhetorics professors from the USA? What do you want to hear at a academy?
The second thing are the lectures. I see more and more topical lectures being provided. How to debate criminal law, economics, international relations. But is this really what a good debater needs, or are this only shortcuts to get “good” arguments? I have seen a class that has “destroyed” a tournament after the academy, because everyone used the arguments presented.
Socials? I know it is not only about the socials and drinking (or I would like to believe ), but is this a really important part? Do you make a decision based on how much free beer do you get? Or is the truth, as Bojana would say it “they are adults, they can entertain themselves”?
The last part that could be important is the accommodation. Is it really important that people stay in a fancy hotel? This is what we can see at the EUDC’s and some other tournaments (even if some of the tournaments just provide crash, and that is it)
I know a lot of questions, but these are questions that I and other people from our org.com ask themselves all the time.
Or is it “Who is going to be there”. I have been told that it is incredibly important that you have best debaters on the academy and the tournament that follows, so important that people would actually pay travel expenses to good teams, just to have them there… Is this true?
I would enjoy your comments. We, and probably every other org.com tries to balance all these things, but what is REALLY important?
If you do not find the time to comment, at least subscribe and read more blog posts.
I have already written a post on how our debaters debated for Laura Bush here, now we got official photos from the event, every photo with a not and a hand signature from Laura. Just wanted to brag about it here
One of the most important parts of my debate website for me is the Tournament invitations, at least for me.
I’m trying to post all the debate tournament invitations, announcements etc. that I come to. I regularly check the EUDC, WUDC, debate-I and other debate mailing lists, different debate blogs like Tuna’s, Flynn’s and other, I check Facebook invitations and I also regularly get invitations to my private email address.
I post all of them here, and try to add interesting details from what I know about the tournaments.
You should check this aggregate regularly, and to make it easier for you, I provide a RSS feed that you can subscribe to. Paste this Debate tournaments RSS link into your favorite RSS reader (like goggle reader) and you will be up to date.
Of course you are invited to post me your debate tournaments, so that I can post them, use the contact form and I will post it on my website, so that you will get to as many people as possible.
This years EUDC council debated on the problem about the names of the categories of debaters at EUDC. Until now we debated in the EFL (English as a first language) and ESL (English as a second language). It is understandable, that there are problems, because of the mix up of EFL that can mean English as a first language or it can mean English as a foreign lanugage, categories that are used at the WSDC and I believe also at the WUDC.
The solution that th EUDC council came up with is, that the EFL (First language) category should be named The Main break, and the other as it was, ESL.
I do have a big problem with this, because I believe that naming something Main means, that the other stuff is just not as important. That means, that the ESL break becomes the Secondary, or Auxiliary break. And this is just not acceptable.
There are other variations that could be used, but they just did not use them. Like for instance, they could call it ENL (English as a native language). They are native speakers, so there is a background for this.
There was a discussion on the names Closed and Open break, Open, because second language teams can break into the first language break, and it is not possible vice-versa. This naming is acceptable, but it is just not so natural, as the other names.
I believe that because of the respect of the second language speakers (a ESL team broke 4th on the first language break this year at EUDC), the council should reconsider this position and pick other names. I’m not sure what happened at the council, if anyone protested against that, but I do know that some ESL judges already work on using the MAIN names. We will see.
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