NHSD Debate and More..

Having been there, done that for 2 days, I have again requested from my 'boss' to skip work to come for the finals of NHSD. I believe that there is much to learn from the adjudicators and the tremendously talented debators, including our very own uni students =) Now if you are a student in this uni and you are reading my post now, take note of this:

The semi-finals will be starting at 2 p.m. plus, release of rooms and disclosure of motion will be done in LT 3. The grand finals will begin at 5.15. p.m. and it will be held in MPH 6. Now if you think debate is where nerdy dudes sit around talking about boring topics like politics and all, you are so wrong. It is about spontaneity, it is about thinking on your feet, it is about structure, it is about how you project your speech to ultimately give this impresstion to people : 'Wow, that dude makes a lot of sense!!'

I didn't break in and all, but I am happy with myself for giving the best. Debate really built this onto me- to take criticism positively and not take things personally. Indeed, during these 2 days, I made friends with my opponents who were in the same room as my team!Once we left the room, all was good. The details of the preliminary rounds are:

1st round- This house believes that we should set an age cap for practising clinicians.
My team's position: Closing Opposition
Our ranking (out of 4) : 4th
The adjudicator thought that our extension wasn't really extension because they thinks that we merely repackaged what the opening opposition said. Never mind the fact that this dude called baby ______ who reminded me of andrew coz of his hair style (andrew, in case you feel insulted, ben said 'andrew is much hotter' and I agree with ben) kept harping that we didn't provide any new material in his so-called 'rebuttals' to our speech.


2nd round- This house would make pres-school compulsory for kids.
My team's position: Closing Government
Our ranking: 2nd

We lost because they thought they we didn't manage to justify why the mandate of going to pre-school should be given to the government and not the parents (the opposition harped on home-schooling'


3rd round- This house believes that all medical coverage plan should include a 'Successful Aging and Wellness Program'

My team's position: Opening Government
Our ranking: 2nd

It was my mistake of saying that the cost of the program will come partly from the employee (because we believe that an individual should take interest in his well-being) and the remainder is heavily subsidized by the company. And my closing government 'backstabbed' me-in the sense they changed our proposal (more like misinterpreted)- they couldn't see that we were making the program compulsory and they went on to say 'choice'. Yucks! when there is a backstab, automatically that very same bench will not win.


argh and that guy who has been talking to me outside debate room and whom I think is kinda nice to talk to, was kinda being a sore loser when he kept asking the adjudicator why they got last, and kept harping that if it was because they 'backstabbed' us in saying 'the programme is not compulsory but of choice' then they feel it is unfair. I mean, I like debators going up to adjudicators and asking them how they can improve ( In fact, Henry saw my team through 2 rounds and he told us he could see the marked improvement. ^_^) Ah, I just do not like guys who cannot take defeat graciously.


4th round- This house would ban genetic predetermination of babies.
My team's position- Opening Oppostion
Our rank: 1st!! ^_^ surprise for me

This was a silent round in that we wouldn't know our rankings after that. However, this afternoon after the quarterfinals, my closing opposition told me that she approached the adjudicator and found out that my team got first!!

Did you all know that that was the most screwed-up debate among the 4?? There were like basically 3 debates going on:

1. Adding of gene (banned by government) and deletion of gene (approved by government)

They claimed that they will only ban insertion of gene and not deletion of gene because the latter helped in health relater problems. So I went on and bang them on that point in that, certain genetic diseases need addition of gene too, so are they discriminating against different types of diseases?

Then their 2nd speaker came up and said they ban genetic predetermination of physical attributes. Again I banged them to say, what about those who are blind? what about those are lose their limbs? Are you then depriving them of getting rid of the disadvantage?


2. Vanity versus physical attributes

Then their closing gov came and said they are banning genetic predetermination for vanity purposes only. Hello, isn't that like a backstab coz their gov (who intended to say so, i guess but failed to state it clearly in their flawed mechanism) said a ban on physical attributes, which are entirely 2 different things!!


3. Technology for designer babies

The gov said that genetic predetermination is a slippery slope for designer babies; to which I addressed in my rebuttals that in today's technology, it is simply not possible to carry out genetic predetermination to that extent. E.g. you cannot insert a gene to make your child look like angelina jolie even if you want to (then for the next 60 mins, every teams cited angelina jolie as an example.


I am really grateful to hai liang and gang for guiding us young debators. The adjudicator Henry said he liked my manner and all =) Just that I could have set a better case as an opening government (in which I got 2nd out of 4 teams), losing to the opening opposition because they were attacking my mechanism.

I also do not like over-egoistic guys who push me around or think that his opinions is more important than mine that he can completely shuts me off and thinks that I do not know what they are doing. Why are pleasant guys so hard to come by these days? Has chivalry reached extinction? AH........


On the good side, my mc friends are back =) the mc guys-minghong and justin really made us girls laughed at The Laundry in The Curve yesterday. I miss mc gang. I miss having a gang whereby the girls and the guys can blend in really well; because right now in uni, I do not have that kinda of bond with my friends. It is either I am close with a certain girl, or I can talk to these 2 guys who are in a gang, but there is NEVER a gang that the guys and girls click really well and I find myself having the same wavelength as them.


May be people are changing as we grow older. May be we need to lose something in order to not take something for granted. May be some people just want to be more protective and reserved, may be now it takes longer to melt the ice.


Whatever it is, I never doubt the friendship I have with my help and mc friends. Distance may be there but it never drives us apart. Thanks may ling, for sharing with shin and sandy in my super-belated bday present - a nice pair of earrings which I wore today (which shin said was only 'appetizer' of my bday present). hehe.


Even if we haven't been in touched with each other for some time, we can pick up where we left from when we meet up again. Phoebe and I were shopping in the curve for her boy friend's present when we chatted. We both have mutual questions:
'why is it applicable when it come to friendship, but not relationship?' 'why is it we ask so much more in a relationship?'


To which we answered, 'may be we love him so much that we really really care (zai 4 yi4) if he doesn't do certain things to us.'

After all, who ever says that love is not complicated?