Singapore Debate Open took place in the small capitalist police state from December 14th to 16th. The tournament was well organised and attracted a high class adjudication core. Let’s better not talk about the rest though. The author decided to show pictures instead.
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SDO 2011 took place on the shiny and modern campus of the National University Singapore. Even the accommodation was on campus which made getting to the venues very convenient. The entire tournament was incredibly well organised and if not to say already a little bit over organised. Preprinted ballets for the chairs, lunch vouchers for snacks which were only distributed to debaters anyway. It would be wrong to say that the convenor Lee Jing went the way for the least hassle. The final was also won by a NUS team (NUS1) |
| It’s monsoon season in South East Asia, so the weather was not the best. Fortunately Singapore is well prepared for heat and rain and everything happens inside air-conditioned rooms. Not only the mix between rain and sun was a little bit unbalanced towards the former, also the motions brought up some storm clouds for teams on the government side. It seems like the only reason there was no “THW ban everything if necessary” motion is that this is already status quo in Singapore. See below to evaluate them for yourself. |  |
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It is actually not necessary to add a comment to this picture as it describes “the social”(?) most accurately. Singapore imposes a corporal punishment and a 1000$ on spot fine on almost everything. Maybe having fun is forbidden as well, who knows? SDO11 suffered from the strong presence of high school debaters. Despite being scheduled shortly before worlds for some reason the range of good teams was fairly limited as there were other tournaments in the region that took up parts of them. From a adjes’ perspective there was a lot of feedback to give… |
| Singapore is a major hub in the region. Changi airport features connections to the entire world and the city attached is very convenient for western travellers. The official language is English, public transport and infrastructure are hard to beat. Only the quite paranoid set of rules and the price level that also fits quite well to an airport shopping area are drawbacks. Population: 5.1 million State Religion: Money. |
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The gamut as always. As outlined debating might have been the intended main focus of the tournament but the improvable level still encouraged to rather go visit the city instead of watching the out rounds. Judging was good though, panels usually consisted of up to 5 people as many good adjudicators wanted to polish der CV at a tournament with Lucinda David (WUDC CA) as a Chief Adjudicator. The accommodation was in single rooms on the campus, so quite luxurious. However one had to pay for it. The field was quite international with teams from the entire South East Asia Region and apparently one Viennese adjudicator. The Orga did a good job. No major problems occurred. |
Motions:
THW cane children in schools
THW compel religiously affiliated organisations to provide birth control coverage under the new US health care laws
THW protect undiscovered tribes from the outside world
TH regrets Palestine’s full membership in the UNESCO
THW completely privatise public transport in developing countries
THBT states should provide military assistance to environmental activists*
¼ THW actively discredit orientalism, specifically the Western conception of an Asian identity
½ TH should only appoint female generals
Final: THW entitle citizens to sue their governments for compensation after natural disasters
General Data: Dec 14-17, Singapore; BPS, 6 Rounds, Quaters, Finals (7 min speeches); CAs: Lucinda David, Sadhana Rai, Irzal Kamal; Winner: NUS 1 (Imran & Robin)
*If you ask yourself: What the hell? Shall we invade Canada for pulling out of Kyoto? Seriously, all these motions were real and no gov won this one.
