MLYSN
News For Debaters. Stuff That MattersThe Debating News
Dear Readers,
MLYSN is going through some brand restructuring and is now the official site for debate promoter, H&G Strategic Communications Sdn Bhd. To reflect a global sense of what the site wants to achieve, MLYSN has now changed its name to ‘The Debating News’ (http://the debatingnews.wordpress.com)
We are currently looking for freelance columnist / contributors among the debating fraternity – there will be monetary incentive for your writings and pictures, if published. If any of you are interested please email me your news / comments to yunus@hngsc.com
Thank you for the support that you have shown thus far to MLYSN. We hope you will continue this support for The Debating News.
Cheers!
Muhammad Yunus
World Scholar’s Cup
Dear Debate Community,
I’m writing to invite you to participate in the upcoming World Scholar’s Cup for middle and high school students, to be held June 13-14 at Nanyang Girls School.
We are very grateful to our hosts at Nanyang Girls for all their help putting together the event. Teams will be housed together at the Concorde Hotel on Orchard Road, with easy access to shopping, food and entertainment; perhaps more importantly, the hotel staff is providing abundant practice space and study areas!
Debate is at the heart of the World Scholar’s Cup: teams debate resolutions related to a different themed curriculum each year. This year’s theme is The Fall of Empires. Within that theme, you’ll learn subjects such as Sustainable Development, the Economics of Spectacular Collapse, the History of Empires on the Brink, and the Art of Decay and Decadence. You’ll also watch two films: *The Last Emperor *and *Serenity*.
In addition to debate, the other three events in the World Scholar’s Cup are an essay, a multiple choice challenge, and an exciting bowl-style public tournament, the Scholar’s Quiz.
In case it helps, I’m attaching a poster containing some more information. Coaches and students interested in exploring the curriculum before deciding whether to participate might want to review the free, downloadable study guides at www.scholarscup. org–or watch the preview video there, which features footage from last year’s World Finals in South Korea.
Afterward, you can register your teams directly at www.scholarscup. org. There is a registration fee of $49 USD per student, to help cover transportation costs and select meals and other incidentals throughout the competition; however, teams for whom this presents a significant obstacle can request a fee waiver.
We’re already expecting participants from countries across Asia, Europe, and the United States; we’d be honored if you would join us as well. If you have any thoughts or questions, please don’t hesitate to e-mail me.
I hope to see you many of you in Singapore–or at one of our regional practice scrimmages before that!
Best wishes,
Daniel
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Daniel Berdichevsky
Competition Director
The World Scholar’s Cup
www.scholarscup. org
Come Quick Children, The WUPID School Debate Workshop Is Going To Be Frightfully Enlightening
Find out more about the WUPID School Debate Workshop here and keep coming back to this weblog for updates or news about what I regard the best inter-school debating championship in Malaysia – IIUM Inter-School Debating Championship.
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Today started off very normally. I had a hangover and was staggering around the house / office in my boxers, trying to find my way to the fridge for some restorative tomato juice.
Right, this of course has nothing to do with what I’m about to write. But I could imagine it would make an absolutely perfect excuse for a bastard statement I’m about to make very soon – Lunatics are running the debates in our schools and their suggestion for the future of debating is alarming.
First of all, debating is about having the capacity to respond dynamically to arguments of your opponents. Unlike in public speaking, debaters are strictly required to address arguments of the opposing speaker. Giving topics like months ahead and coupled with the overwhelming apprehension or anxiety would result in these young debaters having the tendency to revert back to the written speeches they prepared and rehearsed with their teachers. Contrary to popular belief, the capacity to read well and having a good command of the English language does not necessarily mean you have the dynamics of a wonderful debater.
It gets worse. If judges in school debating were like a country it would be the 81st biggest polluter in the world, between Estonia and Bahrain in the league tables, and that as a result people will be discouraged to debate, coach and even watch any of these debates.
You think this is all nonsense? Well, you could be right, but sadly the country has not ever been in the World Schools Debate for ages. And get this, I’m glad we’ve removed ourselves from making a fool of our children in global debating – you’re damn right sunshine, until the ministry of education can be serious and not half-hearted about debating in school, we should not allow our hospitals to overflow with people who are dead of boredom.
All Eyes On The Borneo Debating Championship: Start Of The Asian Parliamentary Style Season
Dear all,
University Malaysia Sabah(UMS) is proud to announce that we’ll be hosting Borneo Debating Championship again this year on the 25th – 28th February. We’re inviting all Universities or Higher Education Level Institution residing in Borneo to participate in this competition.
Tentative is as follow:
25th February – Launching
26th – 28th February – Debate
1st March – Safe Journey Home
The competition will be held in Asian Parliamentary Style. 3 on 3 debate with no substitute. We’re also using the N=1 rule for this competition.
For further information, please contact the Convener, Miss Meeta Devi – 6012-9358266 or you can choose to e-mail aoshi_chzelor@yahoo.com.sg
Is Debating Really A Sport?
Look at the English Premier League or the NFL or the Formula One. The one thing that these three sporting events (and many more) have in common is that everyone involved – players, managers, coaches – are suffocated with so much money. So I reckon, if I could first position debating as a sport it would be a positive move towards getting corporations to sponsor debate related events. I can see it now – Naomi Oreb in a billboard ad endorsing Tag Heuer while James Dray and Will Jones acting in a Carlsberg TV ad.
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Of course it’s a sport. Those of us who settled with our consciences on this matter a long time ago have moved on to a whole different discussion. What we are now wondering is whether debating is art.
If we seasoned debaters have nothing but confidence in calling debating a sport, then it must be with reason. Things are sport because enough people choose to call them sport – to think of them that way and discuss them as such. To that extent, calling debating a sport is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
In any case, the traditional objections melt away. “But you don’t even have to be fit,” people say. Not in the conventional sense, no. And I’ll go farther: you can even be fat. You will need a sharp mind for debating, though, and a good ear. It’s a kind of fitness, and it comes only with practice. And if you’re worried about the drinking, then may we point out that your resistance to the seriousness of debating is probably sketchy. The irony being that you can’t really debate when drunk. Or at least you can’t really debate well when drunk. This is not to say that debaters don’t drink. It just happens that a number of leading debaters – and this would be true for any part of the sport’s professional-era history – happen to be just as good at drinking as they are at debating.
Debating is gladiatorial, character-led, highly skilled and (sorry, archery – and also looking at the turnout at WUPID grand finals last year), it attracts spectators. They’re not busy wondering whether it’s sport. They’re too busy watching the debate and feeling the sweat on their palms.
So, inevitably, we move on to other considerations. At WUPID recently, Sarah Yasmin, a dedicated runner and volunteer, was wondering why we haven’t yet seen “Victor Finkel: The Musical”. Now there’s a question worth asking.
