Monday, December 29, 2008

Day 1 -- The first three debates

Cave Hill Teams

We were told our teams today. We had guessed them before, but we weren't officially told them until this morning. They are:

UWI Cave Hill A -- Tecla Duncan and Luan Harford
UWI Cave Hill B -- Kevyn Henry and Kamal Wood
UWI Cave Hill C -- Sasha Clarke and Kevon Henry

Rounds 1  - 3

We also did our first three debates. Their motions:

Round 1
This house would ban all forms of gambling.

Round 2
This house would fire the senior management of all corporations which receive government bailouts.

Round 3
This house would allow soldiers to sue their government for negligence.

(Thanks to Global Debate for saving me the typing here.)

And our results in those rounds:

Round 1
Cave Hill A: 4th
Cave Hill B: 3rd
Cave Hill C: 4th

Round 2
Cave Hill A: 3rd
Cave Hill B: 4th
Cave Hill C: 4th

Round 3
Cave Hill A: 4th
Cave Hill B: 3rd
Cave Hill C: 2nd

The point standards so far are 1 point to Cave Hill A and 2 points each to Cave Hill B and C. You can imagine that we aren't too thrilled with the results. I'm not sure if they're entirely reflective of our performances.

As for our competition and their rankings, following are those for my team, Cave Hill B. I don't have them for the other two team's debates (except, Cave Hill A's third debate because we debated against them in that one).

Round 1
Rank Team Role
1 Sydney B Opening Oppostion
2 Nottingham B Opening Government
3 Cave Hill B Closing Government
4 University of Ljubljana A(?) Closing Opposition

The University of Ljubljana is Slovenian.

Round 2
Rank Team Role
1 NLS India C Closing Opposition
2 Princeton C Closing Government
3 Cardiff B Opening Opposition
4 Cave Hill B Opening Government

NLS = National Law School

Round 3
Rank Team Role
1 ICU A Closing Opposition
2 Tallin A Closing Government
3 Cave Hill B Opening Opposition
4 Cave Hill A Opening Government

ICU = International Christian University, a Japanese University
Tallinn University is Slovenian.

And oh, there are three other Caribbean teams at the competition: one team from UWI Mona and two teams from the University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech). I'm not certain of their results, but from what I recall, neither Mona nor UTech is quite getting the results it expects, either, although I recall hearing of at least one second for UTech. I really can't say why we all seem to be performing so poorly.

As for the public speaking, I think seven people from Cave Hill, one from Mona, and some (not sure how many) from UTech registered for that and participated in the first round. The public speaking competition is not as well organised or as well patronised as the main debating competition. I'm not sure how the judging and results will go for that, but I think there'll be another round tomorrow night.

~Kamal

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Debating Schedule -- Preliminary Rounds

Following is the schedule for tomorrow, Tuesday and Wednesday. All times are GMT.

             Monday

Time                      Event
07:00 - 08:15        Breakfast
08:00 - 08:40       Transfer from hotels to campus
09:00 - 12:00        Round 1
12:00 - 13:00        Lunch
13:00 - 15:30         Round 2
15:30 - 18:00        Round 3
18:00 - 19:00        Dinner/Public Speaking Round 1
18:00 - 19:30        Transfer to hotels

             Tuesday

Time                      Event
07:00 - 08:15        Breakfast
08:00 - 08:40       Transfer from hotels to campus
09:00 - 12:00        Round 4
12:00 - 13:00        Lunch
13:00 - 15:30         Round 5
15:30 - 18:00        Round 6
18:00 - 19:00        Dinner/Public Speaking Round 1
18:00 - 19:30        Transfer to hotels

             Wednesday

Time                      Event
07:00 - 08:15        Breakfast
08:00 - 08:40       Transfer from hotels to campus
09:00 - 12:00        Round 7
12:00 - 13:00        Lunch
13:00 - 15:30         Round 8
15:30 - 18:00        Round 9
18:00 - 19:00        Dinner/Public Speaking Round 1
18:00 - 19:30        Transfer to hotels

************

There are also socials each night: the comedy night on Monday, Women's Night on Tuesday, and the Break Night party on Wednesday (Old Year's Day).

~Kamal

Welcome!

Oye!

This blog was created by the Debating Society of the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, to chronicle its progress at Cork Worlds 2009, the 29th World Universities Debating Championships hosted by University College, Cork, Ireland. The competition will run from 27 December 2008 to 3 January 2009.

The first debate and public speaking rounds will be tomorrow, Monday 29 December 2008. We've registered three teams for the main debating competition and it seems that we've entered 8 people for the public speaking competition.

We'll try to post the teams once they're confirmed and updates on our progress as we can.

~Kamal