*The Debatewise Blog
World Online Debating Championships: T-35 days
Just over a month to go until the start of the main competition stage of the World Online Debating Championships and so far we've got interest from 12 different countries from the four corners of the globe That's ten if you count the UK as one but then you'd be risking the wrath of a large amount of nationalists from both sides of the border, Sorry unionists!. Whatever, Stand by for more than a few sporting and edgy political observations as I go through the possible countries that could be involved so far. Out of the Home nations who have entered so far it's the Auld Enemies England and Scotland who meaning we could see debating's equivalent of the Calcutta Cup (a rugby union match between England and Scotland normally held during the Six Nations tournament). A competitor or team from Turkey beat all of the other European Union entries bar the UK in entering. Interestingly enough Turkey is where next year's World University Debating Championships will be held. Crossing over the Black Sea to the Middle East we find two key members of the Middle East peace process Israel and Jordan looking at competing . Also a large amount of entries have come from Asia and especially South East Asia with entrants or should I say wisers coming from Indonesia, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Singapore which given the large amount of territorial disputes and nature of the countries should be interesting. South Africa is the first country of the African continent to get involved. The USA is also involved so far being the only North American representative although that will change as some of it’s north American cousins will want to put the world’s oldest democracy in it’s place. Finally last but not least the Japan may well also be fielding entrants making it the first to do so from the Far East.This is because one of the things we'll be doing next week is putting the finishing touches ( a touch of Western arrogance maybe?) to the destruction of the People's Republic of China's Green Wall as we hold a test debate between a group of our very own rapid response team's finest (with more than a little bit of input from certain people in HQ) and a team of students somewhere in the PRC as a dry run before the mayhem begins. We've had one in house debate so far using the system and despite a few teething troubles it works. Next week's test will be a good final shakedown although I'll be missing it (grr) as I'll be off to Italy with a new passport! .Expensive but worth it and I won't be losing this one in a pile anytime soon! Can't win them all.
Although the WODC is over a month away the deadline for registering is on July the 19th which is just over two weeks away. To find out more information and possibly register your interest in taking part click this link hereclick this link here which will take you to the WODC page on the site.
=
Good luck to both sides involved, may the best team in the shake down win and may the site be fully prepared for the five or more rounds that are to come!