Flooding in Malaysia

[David Bean]

I was concerned, naturally, by events in the early hours of this morning in sough east Asia, where a massive earthquake caused huge tidal waves throughout the region. Given that Worlds is taking place in Malaysia this year, which was one of the countries said to have been affected, and that most of the competitors will be there by now, I wanted to post here to ask that anyone with any definite news of what's going on there, particularly if they can confirm the safety of our delegation and everyone else, could let us know.

It would seem from reports thus far that Malaysia is the least badly hit of the affected countries, which is at least some comfort, but obviously we need to know precisely what's happening as soon as possible.

[hr]"Fiat justicia ruat coelum (let justice be done though the heavens may fall)" - Judge James Horton (family motto)

[KMart Cowgirl]

From just reading the news it sounds as though Malaysia has been mostly spared as a fault of geography.

the bbc has a map up picturing the epicenter of the quake and the affected areas, you can understand looking at it how Malaysia is sheltered so to speak. the Indonesian Island of Sumatra stands in the way of any serious tidal waves reaching the most of the coastal areas of Malaysia.

One of the online Malaysian newspapers reported that the 15 deaths there were all centred in the northern town of Penang which if i'm reading the map correctly is about 180 miles north of Kuala Lumpar. Additionally Kuala Lumpar is not directly on the coast and thus should be spared any direct devestation from tidal waves.

I only hope they don't and haven't had any problems with the more indirect consequences of a natural disaster of this magnitude. at the very least it could cause some major transport problems.

[David Bean]

See, that's what I figured. I didn't have time this morning to check on Malaysian geography, but I didn't see Kuala Lumpur marked on any map of the places that had been hit, so I assumed it either wasn't on the coast, or was in some other part that had been spared.

I was also concerned, though, in case anyone from the Worlds delegation had decided to stay over in one of the worse affected parts for a couple of days before the compeition started; when I was at Worlds in 2003 we met plenty of people who had travelled around a bit beforehand, and we ourselves stayed in Cape Town for a while afterwards. I was sure nobody from St Andrews was doing that, but I didn't know anything about the plans of our friends from other institutions.

I had a look at the Britishdebate mailing list, but nobody has posted since Christmas Eve; its address is

http://lists.topica.com/lists/britishdebate/read .

Presumably someone would have posted there by now had there been any major problems.

[hr]"Fiat justicia ruat coelum (let justice be done though the heavens may fall)" - Judge James Horton (family motto)

[KateBush]

Everyone is fine; I've had a text from Lindsay out there and it's all good. Panic not!

[David Bean]

Thank God for that! And thanks for letting us know.

[hr]"Fiat justicia ruat coelum (let justice be done though the heavens may fall)" - Judge James Horton (family motto)

[RJ Covino]

[s]David Bean wrote on 00:35, 28th Dec 2004:
Thank God for that! And thanks for letting us know.


I love the fact that texts can come from as extremely far afield as Malaysia, but here in the U.S. I couldn't text to find out what the score was if I tried...

Any word on how they're all doing debating-wise?

[Mr Comedy]

Competition rounds start tomorrow, and I have found the Wi-Fi in the hotel, so I may be able to give you periodical updates. Just to emphasise, we are not dead.

[Guest]

[s]RJ Covino wrote on 01:33, 28th Dec 2004:

Any word on how they're all doing debating-wise?


I would imagine they're doing just swimmingly.

[M]

John and I did 2 masters rounds today- they went pretty well, will see for sure tomorrow.

[Kizzy]

Greetings all,
Well, we've completed five of the seven preliminary rounds, and we're doing well!

Alex and Dave are sitting on 2 thirds, a second, and a first, which is brilliant.

John, Lindsay and I all started off as solo chairs, which means we must have done well in the adjudication test - we didn't have panelists! John's chaired throughout, and Lindsay and I lost chairs for one round this morning, but got them back in the last round. So things are going well.

Best wishes to all at home

Kizzy

[John Stewart]

Worlds was won this year by Ottawa Law(Jamie Furniss and Erik Eastaugh).

The finalists were:

FIRST PROP Ottawa Law
SECOND PROP Oxford D (Jon Bailey and Alex Just)

FIRST OPP Hart House B (Michael Kotrly and Joanna Nairn)
SECOND OPP Cambridge A (Joe Devanny and Daragh Grant)

---------------------------------------

SCOTTISH RESULTS

For teams was as follows. No Scottish teams broke, but Edinburgh missed it on Speaker points:

TEAM TAB

37. EDINBURGH A (DIana Tansley & Adam McKinley) - 18 pts
92. GLASGOW A (Niall Rowntree & Andrew Forsyth) - 15 pts
120. GLASGOW B (Kenny Fleming & David Adams) - 14 pts
141. ST ANDREWS A (Alex Jennings & Dave Vinton) - 14 pts

INDIVIDUAL TAB

97= Diana Tansley - 685 pts
97= Andrew Forsyth - 685 pts
97= Kenny Fleming - 685 pts
120= Niall Rowntree - 682 pts
150= Adam McKinley - 677 pts
170= David Adams - 675 pts
287= Alex Jennings - 659 pts
298= David Vinton - 657 pts


ADJUDICATORS

The only Scottish adjudicator to break was John Stewart.

---------------------------------------

[Kizzy]

Motions debated...

Rounds:
1. THW compel people with HIV to disclose their condition to any sexual partner.
2. THBT The EU should open its doors to N. Africa.
3. THBT Universities should only teach non-vocational subjects.
4. THW support positive discrimination for women in the armed forces.
5. THBT outsourcing is good both for developing and developed worlds.
6. THW punish celebrity criminals more harshly than common criminals.
7. THBT Anti-terrorism is the new McCarthyism.
8. THBT NAFTA should be expanded to include South America.
9. THBT organ transplants should be prioritised for those who have led healthy lifestyles.

--
Octo-finals: THBT ASEAN should have its own parliament.
Quarter Finals: THBT mentally handicapped people are better cared for in the community than in institutions.
Semi Finals: THW use gambling to rejuvenate depressed economic zones.
Grand Final: THW allow corporal punishment in schools.

Thoughts, anyone?

[Mr Comedy]

My thoughts are that the motions were a bit shit, and very economics heavy.

[Ian McFarlane]

Sounds like a right tin-bath.

Where is 2005's get-together going to be?

[Bonnie]

I'm interested in the Quarter-Finals motion. How did they slant it, if anyone saw?

I've been involved in campaigns around that theme before and am just wondering how they dealt with the question.

[Bonnie]

Oh yes,
And happy to see you're all alive and all that.

Cheerio.

Have a drink for me.

[David Bean]

Well done all, but especially John - breaking as a judge is quite an honour, but very well deserved in his case.

[hr]"Fiat justicia ruat coelum (let justice be done though the heavens may fall)" - Judge James Horton (family motto)

[John Stewart]

[s]Bonnie wrote on 19:51, 6th Jan 2005:
I'm interested in the Quarter-Finals motion. How did they slant it, if anyone saw?

I've been involved in campaigns around that theme before and am just wondering how they dealt with the question.


Bonnie - I'm trying very hard to get hold of the video of that debate. We watched the Monash/Ottawa/Lincolns/Cambridge quarter which was one of the best I've ever seen. Monash defined along the lines of closing down all mental health institutions (except for the very worst cases where a clear danger is presented to society or the individual themself) and redirecting funding to visiting carers. It was a blindingly good debate.

In my opinion though a lot of the motions were a bit shit really.

[John Stewart]

Oh, and the good news is that following the Worlds COuncil bid re-ratification, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN are the hosts of the Worlds Debating Championships next year (2005/06). Hopefully that means we can sends shitloads of teams and judges and try to build our reputation.

The chosen hosts for the 2006/07 Championships were UNIVERSITY of BRITISH COLUMBIA based in Vancouver, beating Sydney for the hosting rights. This is a choice I feel which weighs heavily in favour again of institutions like ourselves who cannot afford to be going to Australasia every couple of years.

[Mr Comedy]

Although there was the outside possibility that if we went to Australasia, we could go and visit Ramsay Street, which would be ace. Although this is all spurious chat, as I will obviously be far too old for that kind of behaviour. Although Independent University in Banglasdesh have offered that I can represent them as a judge for as long as I feel like it.