Defeat? Nah...

Well, last Friday, we won the battle. CHIJ Katong lost to us. It was not a unanimous win, however, and that's probably what cost us the progression to the quarters. Sigh... But you know what? It's a milestone that we've been able to progress this far already. From a newcomer into the JG Scene last year (and becoming a finalist in the B Division at that) to now moving into the A Division against the well-established schools such as Hwa Chong and Raffles. Our team of Gerard, Patricia and Daniel Fong have done the school proud. We'll just learn from this and apply it to our future competitions to make SJII become just as renowned for debating as all the other battlecruisers already in the running (the analogy works well, you see. The other schools are big, have lots of people, have a reputation and are generally good in debating).

So was this a defeat? Yes. We lost the battle. But the war is far from over.

Now let's have a debating tip or two from our friendly blog writer, Jose. I recently went for the Dorothy Cheung's @ NTU on Saturday and Sunday with two DEP friends of mine. The first thing that struck me was the (lack of) efficiency the organisers had. The debate was supposed to start at 9 am. They only started at 10 something. They even had a late fee to supposedly deter those who didn't arrive on time. Didn't work. Pity. And in between matches, we had groups milling around for time periods of up to 30 minutes or even more. Lunch, which was supposed to be served in the early afternoon, only came at 3.30 pm... And guess what? We were supposed to have 4 preliminary rounds. We ended up having only 3. Why? Because if we had 4, we'd probably have ended at 8.30 pm instead of 5.30 pm as stated in the schedule.

The next day really wasn't any different, although there was a slight improvement in speeding up. We started late. Argh. So next time anyone goes for these university debating competitions, just be wary. Even the rules might be different (apparently challenging definitions set by the proposition is much harder than in the WSDC format).

Well, my group went on to the quarters of the competition. This was special because we were in the same group as the university teams unlike the rest of the JCs. The explanation for this was that our scores were so good that we got placed in the top few groups there. But then again, it all also depends on who your judge is, I suppose. But really, having 5 debates in two days was... Wow.. Indescribable. And having 30 minutes prep time for 7 minute speeches.. Even more wow.. An even more amazingly, I found myself able to do it. But to be honest, I couldn't've done with without my great team. Haha.

As for the debating tips, here's one very important one. In a debate, when you seem to be getting pummeled by your opponents, just keep this in mind: whose perspective are they looking from? More often than not, you'll find that they're leaving something out and so, from there, you can use that to your teams' advantage. Case in point, we were debating this motion against Temasek Poly in the quarters (which we lost):

THBT welcomes developmental aid to Africa from China.

We lost to TP because the debate was focused a lot on China and its motives and the things it could gain rather than on the African states itself. We didn't think or know enough about the African states and how varied they were economically and politically that we couldn't come up with very substantial counter-substantives.

Also, in a debate, whenever you're talking about a contentious issue, always think about the nature of the subject being debated. More often than not, you can find something to shift to your advantage. For example, let's look back at that China & Africa debate. TP came up to us and told us that China should not invest in Africa because Africa is known for being corrupt and shoddy and so these would hurt China's dealings and international standings, which was especially important as China was looking to be a superpower. It was explained quite nicely by TP and our team couldn't really find a way to debate that.

However, in the debrief we had, one of our DEP coaches who had come to watch us told us that we should've countered it by looking at the nature of how a state wants to become a superpower. They do so not by trying to get the approval of other superpowers or by playing to the West; they do it by gaining a foothold in other areas the other superpowers haven't yet gained a foothold in. Africa is made up of 53 states. With 53 votes behind you in the UN, you'd definitely want to use that opportunity and put your developmental aid into Africa so that they'd be grateful to you and thus support you.

Yeap, that's basically it for today. The MIDCs are next month. We'd better train our team up for them so that we can make a proper name for ourselves. And trust me, if you like debate, 5 debates in two days can actually be quite fun (though tiring).

P.S.
I STILL HAVEN'T PUT UP THE PICS AND INFO ABOUT THE MEMBERS IN OUR CLUB BECAUSE NOBODY (bar one [and even then, you just gave me three phrases about yourself via MSN Shoba {=P}]) HAS SENT ME THEIR PERSONAL INFO. PLEASE DO SOOOOOO SO THAT I CAN PUT UP YOUR HANDSOME AND PRETTY PICS HERE!!!!!!

P.P.S
And if that's the reason why you aren't giving me your info (me not putting up your pics) then I'll do so anyway. And I'll do so by first taking not-so-pretty/handsome pics of you here and by writing your personal info for you. Mwahaha....