Competition - Debate online now
November 16th is the UN's International Day of Tolerance. Tolerance is a tricky concept, easier to support than to define, so here's a debate to test you out:
Competition - You're The Judge
No winner this week, though thanks for your entries. More homework needed!
Q4 was: In a British Parliamentary debate, the Opposition Whip speaks for seven minutes without taking a point of information. It is a brilliant speech, and one of your fellow judges think the closing opposition team have clearly won. But the other panellist thinks failure to take a POI merits an automatic fourth place. You're the judge – what do you do?
The answer: there is no such thing as an automatic fourth place. No one flaw or attribute puts you in a position by default. The judges should take into account the failure to take a point of information as part of their overall impression. They should make a call about how important it was in that particular debate. If the speaker was running away from a case or argument to which they had no answer, then it is serious. If they made a simple timing error, it is less serious.
Q5: You are judging a room which includes a swing team, or dummy team, comprising students from the host institution. The panel agrees that they are the best team in the room – but your colleagues claim that swing teams must be put fourth, to avoid distorting the break. Are they right? You're the judge!
Sign Up - Global Debates
The Global Debates: 36 days gone - 40 days to go!
15 days to submit your essay for the IDEA Global Challenge! Great rewards for joining in!
Submit an essay summarizing the best arguments and evidence you gathered for your public debate on the topic: Nations of the world should increase protection of the economic and social rights of migrants.
Your essay should present your team’s best arguments for the proposition, the team arguing in favor of the resolution. Aim for 3-5 double-spaced pages. And don't forget to send it to us by November 15!
The prize winning essays will be featured in the next issue of Idebate Magazine and posted on
Stories and Updates
Rebecca Kuhn and her team from Bugil Academy (Korea) played the PlayDecide migration game. Along with her friends, they agreed on adopting the policy no. 3, with the following addendum: Nations must accept immigrants with refugee status defined by the UN. Individual nations could decide further to accept immigrants undefined by the UN such as climate refugees.
Kristen Dupard from Ridgeland High School (USA) submitted her Research Blog on how Ugandan internally displaced persons are recovering from the aftermath of the war between the Ugandan government and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). “There is a huge number of migrants in the world, in the United States alone there are 33.1 million immigrants, legal and illegal, that seek the “American Dream.” This is the opening sentence of Migrant Action plan submitted by the students from The Grover Cleveland High School (USA). They are in the game for the above mentioned prizes. Are you?
Sign Up - The HWS/IDEA Round Robin
On April 8th and 9th, 2010, an elite and internationally diverse group of university debaters will descend on Geneva, New York for the annual Round Robin.
You can join them – for a weekend of high-quality debate with exceptional adjudicators and fabulous hospitality, including dinner with Mark Gearan (Peace Corps Director) and Tony Lake (UNICEF director), and an awards banquet at The Cobblestone.
The automatic qualifiers include the four WUDC grand finalists, winners of the Asian BP Champs, Australs, CUSID BP Nats, Europeans, Hart House IV, International Mace, Oxford IV, Pan-African Champs, Sydney Mini, United Asians, US UDC and the Yale IV.
You can apply to be there too. Contact
Eric Barnes and check out the
website. Applications will be assessed between now and January 31
st.
I thoroughly recommend this tournament. You will have a great time.
Sign Up - PAUDC
Last chance to join in all the fun at the Pan-African Universities Debating Championships in Namibia. The final deadline for late registration is November 19th. Institutions who have not yet registered, or those who want to enter additional teams, still have a chance to do so. Hurry though – places are limited.
News - IDEA Youth Forum 2011
We are happy to welcome Hanneke Westerhout (Netherlands) - IDEA's newest employee. Some of you might recognize her from the IDEA Youth Forum 2010 in Zeeland, where she was responsible for the logistics of the event, taking care of the evening program, venues, transportation, communication and general participant care.
All this experience will help Hanneke to make sure the 2011 YF runs smoothly, as she guides our host, Doga Colleges. She will be communicating with the general public and participants. Veronika will remain in charge of the curriculum and trainers preparation and will help Hanneke with the transition.
We are also proud to announce that the official 2011 IDEA Youth Forum website is online! This website features important information on the Youth Forum and will be updated regularly with the latest news about the program, the venues, the host, and the topic of international migration. Last of all we are excited to announce the call for 2011 IDEA Youth Forum trainers. The Curriculum Committee will be selecting 21 trainers who will be asked to give training in Karl Popper and British parliamentary style and judge during the 2011 IDEA Youth Forum. The Committee will employ multiple criteria for selecting the pool of trainers for the YF including debate and teaching excellence, concern for geographic and programmatic diversity, the desire to develop the capacity of young trainers and the motivation for participating as trainer.
Please email Veronika for more information. The deadline for submitting your applications is December 20, 2010. The 2011 IDEA Youth Forum, is a two-week summer debate event for high school students and their coaches, which will take place from July 19 to August 1, 2010 in Istanbul, Turkey. The event is co-organized by IDEA and Doga Colleges.
News - Serbian school parliaments
On October 30th, 30 high school parliament representatives from across Serbia met in Belgrade. They decided to hold actions in 15 Serbian towns from December 6-10, organizing exhibitions, concerts and performances. Their aim is to promote youth activism in their local communities as well as to empower a network of youth leaders representing majority and minority, rural and urban populations.
In Backi Petrovac, where the Slovak minority is predominant, a seminar for 30 members of high school parliaments was held to develop leadership skills, to build the capacity of students to articulate their ideas, to critically examine issues affecting their communities and to practice tolerance for different viewpoints.
The Conference of the network of Serbian high school parliaments is scheduled for December 11. At the conference students will share success stories and brainstorm ideas for future co-operation between schools.
News - Estonia v Economists
A public debate took place on Wednesday, October 27 in the run-up to Estonia's accession to the euro area on January 1, 2011. It was resolved that "Euro accession will accelerate economic growth in Estonia".
Monetary policy heavyweights on the government side - vice-president of the Bank of Estonia, Märten Ross, and a publicly well-known macroeconomic analyst and commentator from SEB bank, Hardo Pajula – took on an opposition comprising debaters Martin Küüsmaa, Oxford IV ESL semi-finalist from 2007 and Silver Suun, WUDC ESL semi-finalist from 2009.
“The debate was rich in content and generated a lot of media attention - both major daily papers as well as the national broadcaster ran stories and it was featured on the evening news programme” said Margo Loor, head of the Estonian Debating Society. “As before, we ran a blog of the debate on the website of Postimees, the leading daily. Also, we took real-time questions from online readers and asked them from the debaters, posting answers back online.”
Links to stories, videos and photos can be found on the Facebook page. 
Neill Harvey-Smith, editor, The Big IDEA.
