New Zealand Schools’ Debating

NZ closed off the preliminary rounds of Worlds today by winning their last two debates against Slovakia and Indonesia. They finish the preliminary rounds with a 8 from 8 record, having dropped only one judge (in round one). This should mean they break 1st or 2nd into the octo-finals, and will face either the 16th of 15th ranked team.

The 2008 team is the first since the 2001 NZ team (at Singapore Worlds 2002) to win all 8 preliminary debates. Hopefully the same thing doesn’t happen to them though in the octo-finals!

The very best of luck to the team for their octo-final!

Just heard via Julia (the power of text messaging!) that NZ won its debates today against Scotland and Singapore, both by 3-0 margins. Scotland and Singapore were last year’s champion and runner-up teams so these are excellent results.

Not sure who debated in each yet but will post once I have that, plus other, info.

In news just in:

In Round 3, Holly, Maria and Jen beat Bangladesh 3-0, proposing the (prepared) motion, “This House would ban the use of unethically obtained data in scientific research”.

In Round 4, Ben, Tom and Jen beat Japan 3-0, opposing the (impromptu) motion, “This House would make humanities subjects compulsory at undergraduate level”.

Tomorrow is the big day – Scotland in the morning and Singapore in the afternoon.

New Zealand is off to a good start, winning their first two rounds.

In Round One, Ben, Holly and Tom beat Greece 2-1, opposing the motion “This House would use military intervention to deliver aid in a humanitarian crisis”

In Round Two, Holly, Maria and Tom beat Estonia 3-0, proposing the impromptu topic “This House would ban strikes by workers in essential state services”.

Tomorrow the team faces Bangladesh and Japan.

The debating is soon to begin at World Schools in Washington. The tabmaster of the tournament, the venerable Tuna Snider, is running a blog (in addition to running the tab!). Check it out at http://www.wsdc2008.blogspot.com/ There will be round by round results posted there, as well as news about the tournament. NZ results and other things of interest will be cross-posted here.

Also check out www.schoolsdebate.com/blog where NZ’s own Claire Ryan is posting other news from the tournament.

The 2008 World Schools’ Debating Championships starts soon in Washington D.C. The New Zealand squad consists of:

- A team of five debaters (Maria English, Holly Jenkins, Jen Savage, Ben Kornfeld, and Tom Chen)
- Two coaches (Julia Fetherston and Kevin Moar)
- Two adjudicators (Claire Ryan and Jeremy Johnson)

The team leaves NZ this afternoon, and the tournament starts on September 5.

As news filters in from Washington over the next couple of weeks we’ll be updating the website with all the news.

New Zealand’s draw is below. Affirmatives on the left, negative on the right.

Round 1: This house supports military intervention to deliver emergency aid in humanitarian crises
Greece v New Zealand

Round 2: Impromptu
New Zealand v Estonia

Round 3: This house would ban the use of unethically obtained data in scientific research
New Zealand v Bangladesh

Round 4: Impromptu
Japan v New Zealand

Round 5: This house would make the directors of multinational companies personally liable for environmental abuses committed by their companies in the developing world
New Zealand v Scotland

Round 6: Impromptu
Singapore v New Zealand

Round 7: This house believes that governments have a duty to bail out failing financial institutions
Slovakia v New Zealand

Round 8: Impromptu
New Zealand v Indonesia

New Zealand has a pretty tough draw, with debates against last year’s winning team and runner-up team. Greece have also been strong performers in recent years, and some describe Indonesia as the sleeping giants of the schools debating world.

All the very best to the team!