One of the most useful skills you gain from competitive debating is to be able to think and react quickly. You can use this in your studies, your work, and sometimes even at the kitchen table. You may learn this even better in the American Parliamentary debate format than in British Parliamentary debates (especially when the debates are in your native tongue). I really like that about AP and that’s why I participated with Jos Buijvoets (who doesn’t know him?) in the Bonapartian Debate Tournament 2021.
The BDT is known as one of the most fun tournaments in the Netherlands (after the Cicero Tournament, of course) and they proved that once again this time. Between rounds, Sex and the City was streamed, Rollercoaster Tycoon was played, and all sorts of other fun things to keep everyone occupied. Unfortunately, this time there was no “Axel bun” or “Amber pistolet” with the favourite toppings of the organizing committee but there were a number of exciting motions, for example about the stunt of r_Wallstreetbets in the final.
In the semi-finals (which Jos and I, unfortunately, did not reach) we saw not one but two high school student teams from the Haarlemmermeerlyceum. They would compete against teams from Leiden and Utrecht. Unfortunately, they both failed to win and the final was between the teams from Leiden (Fabian Beitsma and Riccardo Tosselini) and Utrecht (Jelte Schievels and Rins Hylkema). After a thrilling debate about the actions of r_Wallstreetbets, the team from Utrecht took the win. Jelte also became the best speaker of the tournament.
Thanks to the organizing committee for a very nice tournament! Until next year, where we will, hopefully, cross our verbal swords again in person.
Motion analysis
This House regrets the decision of social media giants to ban Trump’s accounts.
BDT 2021 – Round 1
The ban of Donald J. Trump from social media channels was, of course, big news. This motion discussed whether that was a good idea. In this motion analysis, I will analyse both sides of this motion.
Mike Weltevrede
Mike is an alumnus of the Tilburg Debating Society Cicero and has served as the secretary of the Nederlandse Debatbond (2019-2021). He was vice-chair of Cicero (2015-2016) and in that function oversaw the newly set-up international branch. He also organized the Dutch Debating Winter School, a debating training week that attracted participants of over 20 nationalities.
About the author