Just another Odyssey

I was browsing the photos from the flicker account of IIUM AUDC a few days ago. I realized that two years had already past since I was at Ateneo AUDC- it was last 2006. It is safe to say that it was my first international university debate tournament and my actual first tournament in the world of debating.

Being in Ateneo was definitely great time. After that, I missed the ITB AUDC as well as the recently concluded IIUM AUDC. I don't know when I will be joining again the 'trois a trois' parliamentary. However, I always keep myself updated when I always check the tabs at the end of each AUDC. Thanks to Colm Flynn or Alfred Snider.

Was it the Glenn Effect? Because he hasn't won many major tournaments yet. Or was it the Gica Effect? The new member of the A-team. Or was it the Chars Effect? Whatever that is. In any way, I think they could have done better. Four consecutive wins is probably too much for an institution.

Post-Cusid Atlantic Novices 2008 Entry

Trying Canadian Parliamentary is a-ok. My first impression was a shock but eventually I fully understood why they only need four individuals debating (two on each side of the house). Throughout the Atlantic Novices Debate, I performed two tasks and only two tasks. I am either the Minister of the Crown if we were on the Government side: or, I could be the Member of the Opposition if we were on the Opposition. There is a logical sense to this and I'll explain that later.

My teammate, Andrew, has higher scores than me and I'm not bitter on that. Well, he should have higher scores, after all, he's a Political Science Major from University of British Columbia who transferred to University of New Brunswick. I'm actually impressed by his pool of knowledge that in almost every debate I will ask him about the status quo, and yes, he is that smart. It's scary that he almost know everything.

The debates were okay for most part and some were just painful to watch. I believe that we should be in the Semifinals but thanks to the very talented tabs officials, they put us up against Dalhousie B twice. It would have been better if we were government on the second debate but we were opposition which sucks because they run very tight cases or very isolated cases that I as a common person wouldn't even care about knowing. (Talk about mercenaries and Iraq!).

Debate 1: University of St. Francis Xavier (St. FX) B vs. University of New Brunswick (UNB) A

Those kids ran a mandatory civic class for Grade 12 students in High School. Not bad of a case but it wasn't that good either. Whatever! They're good speakers though.

Debate 2: UNB A vs. St. FX A

My teammate and I ran a case that Turkey should be approved by European Union to be part of it. And we won (not because there was a Bulgarian judge who was one of the adjudicator)!

Debate 3: UNB A vs. Dalhousie B

I was so pissed that we lost in this round. Thanks to Myles whose judging at the round was irrelevant. Very irrelevant that he called my team 'socialist'. Shame! I just hope he listened to our set-up more and not stare on the chair in front of him during my speech.

Debate 4: St. FX C vs. UNB A

Since I was so pissed during the previous round, I exhausted all those anger in this round. I commend St. FX for having resolutions that are easy to understand and very general unlike Dalhousie. St FX C girls were hot but very cocky. It was so obvious that the adjudicators were hitting on them. The legend of Auyon, Dan, and Neil that is! Btw, they said that rap music is detrimental to the society but they lack the mechanism to prove the degree of detriment on the society. And yes, we won!

Debate 5: Dalhousie B vs. UNB A

Nevermind. They won the Novices!


The whole tournament wasn't outstanding but it's good enough to be a learning experience. And yes, I think my team should have been part of semifinals only if they didn't make us face Dalhousie B again.

Bad surprise, upset, and shocker

Words were flying out of my mind as soon as I heard/read/witnessed the series of unfortunate news. Yet, I still kept mum since my opinion doesn't matter anyway. I might have been watching too much Jackie Chan Rush Hour Movies since The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian didn't impress me that much. Fury lighted up from a bad surprise, dismay overflowed from an upset, and a parent-like disappointment evolved from the shocker.


The story of bad surprise

I don't really know myself much in terms of surprises because my whole life haven't been surprising at all. In all the experience's worth, it was more on spontaneity rather than a jump of overjoy. If something was happening, it could be compared to a hilly billy chart. My adventure could rather be a spontaneous downhill or a spontaneous uphill from there on. It's like going to Earlfordshire avenue to rehab the lazy man. The real cause of my fury is a petty madness over the wrong choice that my mom made over the Havaianas slippers she bought. It's mainly superficial and very worldly but I wasn't expecting that she's going to buy a pair without a soon-to-be-ownver consultation. I can't even believe myself that I felt a hard constriction in my chest when I knew she already bought a pair. And it's a metallic blue size 11 and another metallice green. I didn't even liked those colors! It could have been better if it was a metallic silver for neutrality, and please, not brown, it's hideous!

I could have chosen better if she let me. These Havaianas Brasil 2008 edition could have compensated if she chose a wrong shoe size. I can't believe that I'm living an adage of "expect the unexpected.


The story of an upset



Rona was EVICTED. How upsetting is that? More like a downsetting...but whatever, the deserving got evicted!


The story of the shocker

It's hard to say but I have to say it! Another team got the AUDC championship title... bye bye to three years of filipino dominance in asian debating.

Although I'm happy Glenn was still named Best Speaker of the tourney.

On Thai Worlds and a debater's death

I think it's day 3 or day 4 at World Universities Debating Championship 2008 at Assumption University. I could have gone there if I didn't choose to go to Canada. Robert Jed Malayang, a former colleague at Silliman University Debate Society is attending as an adjudicator together with Samantha Tornilla, a debate-friend from University of the Philippines-Cebu. Both of them are probably the only participants from the Visayan Debate Circle. I'm not sure.

I was just lazily hanging around my brother's room today and I decided to check my Facebook account from some updates. Certainly, there were updates indeed (more about Assumption Worlds). A debater from Monash University created a group that gives round-by-round update for Facebook debaters who weren't able to go to Worlds 2008.

Updates were good but I didn't see anything about Ateneo de Manila University debaters. They could have not missed Worlds 2008 because they are Ateneo. These debaters never misses any important international debates and they shouldn't. I was a little bit worried since I didn't see any name of ateneo in the updates. I checked back at the Worlds 2008 website to verify. I was greatly relieved to see in the list of attendees that Ateneo is part of the competition. They've sent 5 teams and 5 adjudicators (just like Oxford Union).

I began to browse Colm Flynn's blog about the World's motions. Some motions are really interesting and I find the 3rd round motion hard to debate. I also clicked the link in Colm's blog that directed me into another debate blog of Alfred Snider, an American professor and former debater. Alfred writes his entries about his opinionated responses toward Worlds, a more personal outlook rather than a blog trying to be unbias. He relates his experience as to what transpired in a day to day basis.

Both Colm and Alfred's had entries about Benazir Bhutto assassination. She was practically the talk of the town during the opening of Worlds 2008. I also knew that Benazir Bhutto was a former debater and a former president of Oxford Union. She went to school from Harvard University to Oxford University. I wasn't ultimately shocked but was a little bit of surprised for the new information.

While Benazir was the president of Oxford Union, consequently, Arianna Huffington was the president of Cambridge Union. In Arianna's post, she recalls what was Benazir Bhutto like. She also asked Benazir to blog, and Huffington provided a portion of what she [Benazir] wrote this fall.

"I long ago realized that my personal life was to be subjugated to my political responsibilities. When my democratically elected father, Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was arrested in 1977 and subsequently murdered, the mantle of leadership of the Pakistan Peoples Party, our nation's largest, nationwide grassroots political structure, was suddenly thrust upon me.It was not the life I planned, but it is the life I have. My husband and children accept and understand that my political responsibilities to the people of Pakistan come first, as painful as that personally is to all of us. I would like to be planning my son's move to his first year at college later this month, but instead I am planning my return to Pakistan and my party's parliamentary election campaign.

I didn't choose this life. It chose me."

Read the whole post of Arianna Huffington and Benazir Bhutto as presented by the links. Benazir's 19-year old son will likely be name the successor of Pakistan People's Party (PPP). He's currently in Oxford University. To read more about this, click here.