07.12.08

SAID December 2006 and January 2007 Debate Event Reports

Posted in Uncategorized at 9:28 am by dsbear

Dear Members, Friends, and Associates,

SAID was involved in 2 overseas debate events in the month of December 2006. In January 2007, we held our 4th Annual General Meeting and started 3 debate outreach programmes in secondary schools, in partnership with the Ministry of Education of Singapore. Below are the details of these events:

a) Hong Kong High Schools Debate BP Workshop Series (17th to 27th Dec 2007)

SAID conducted a series of British Parliamentary (BP) Style Debate Workshops at 4 Hong Kong High Schools, namely, Maryknoll Girls’ School, St Paul’s Convent, St Paul Secondary School (Lam Tin), and Po Leung Kuk Centenary Li Shiu Chung Memorial College. Over 100 high school students were taken through a series of public communications games and taught the rudiments of debating using the BP debate format in this project.

We wish to thank the teachers who took time to host us: Mr Lee and Ms Mimi Lau (Maryknoll SS), Mrs Dutta (St Paul SS), Mrs Lui and Ms Lam (St Paul at Lam Tin) and Ms Siu (Po Leung Kuk Centenary Li Shiu Chung Memorial College). Thanks also to the student debater leaders, Robert, Kenneth, Licca, Catherine, Doris, and Sheron for playing key roles in helping us to bring the joy of debating to their schools.

Our SAID members, Ms Calista Lee, Mr Hewlen Wong, Ms Cheong En Min and Mr Loke Wing Fatt also joined debaters from Chinese University of Hong Kong, University of Science & Technology Hong Kong and Hong Kong University on 23rd Dec 2007 in a Pre-Worlds Combined Training Session at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Our thanks to Ivy Li for allowing us to take part in this event.

b) World University Debating Championship (WUDC) at University of British Columbia (UBC), Vancouver, Canada (27th Dec 2006 to 4th Jan 2007)

Held in the cool clime of picturesque Vancouver, 336 varsity debate teams, the largest numbers of teams ever from around the world, competed fiercely each day , secure in the knowledge that they would luxuriate in the 5-star hotel comforts of the Sheraton Wall Centre each night. Hewlens Wong and Cheong En Min competed as the non-breaking SAID Team A in this event.

In the Grand Final on 3rd Jan 2007 held at the UBC Chan Concert Hall, Cambridge Team C, Oxford Team D, Queensland Team A and Sydney Team G clashed on the motion “This house believes that economic growth is the solution to Climate Change”. Julia Bowes and Anna Garsia of Sydney Team G were crowned as WUDC 2007 Champions. Jess Prince of Oxford Team A was the Best Individual Speaker of the tournament.

International Islamic University Malaysia Team A was the English as Second Language (ESL) Winner while Tsinghua University China Team A was the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Winner. The best performing Asian team this year was the 21st-ranked Singapore Management University Team B which made it to the Octo-Finals of the Main Competition for the top 32 varsity teams.

Loke Wing Fatt was given the privilege to adjudicate in the Octo and Quarter Finals, as well as the EFL Finals.

SAID would like to Kevin, Teddy, Miranda, Alex, Derek, Tim, Ian Lising and all the old and new debating friends for yet another year of fine and fond memories till we meet again in Bangkok, Thailand, in 2008.

c) 4th Annual General Meeting of SAID (10th Jan 2007)

Our young adult debating society held its 4th Annual General Meeting on 10th Jan 2007 at the Clementi Student Services Centre, Singapore. The following are the elected SAID Executive Committee for 2007:

President : Loke Wing Fatt
1st Vice President : Cheong En Min
2nd Vice President : Bernard Vijayabalan
Secretary : Hewlens Wong
Treasurer : Raffi Ismail
Training & Adjudication Development : Shareen Ng

d) Debate Outreach Programmes in Singapore Secondary Schools (Jan 2007)

SAID, through the auspices of the Singapore Ministry of Education, has started 3 debate progammes at Temasek Secondary School, St. Patrick’s School and Chestnut Drive Secondary School. In the works are projects to involve primary school students in debating as well in the coming months.

Attached are selected pictures of the above events reported above for your viewing, please.

Please visit our website at http://said.d2dsg.com if you would like more information on SAID.

Thank you for reading.

Loke Wing Fatt
President
Society for Associated Inter-Tertiary Debaters (SAID)
Singapore