Hi there! Before you lies the second newsletter of de Debatbond! Through these monthly newsletters we would like to keep you informed on what is happening in the Dutch debating community. As the summer months were quiet months for the debating community, the newsletter this time sees to two months (July and August).
EUDC
The most interesting event that happened in the summer obviously is the European Debating Championship for Universities. This year EUDC was held in Novi Sad (Serbia), after Scotland had trouble with making EUDC possible. This year around 200 teams participated. The Dutch delegation was quite large this year with 14 teams, 16 judges and a tabber. See below who were representing the Netherlands.
The Dutch delegation did incredibly well. Leiden A (Romée and Jeroen) broke as 6th ESL team on 18 teampoints, also making it to the open octofinals. They eventually made it to the ESL finals. ASDV Bonaparte A (Marike and Tom) broke as 10th ESL team, being the ESL top team on 17 teampoints, nearly breaking open as well. A lot of Dutch teams were very close to breaking, like Leiden C (17th ESL team), Kalliope A (19th ESL team) and Cicero (20th ESL team).
The Dutch judges did well too, with breaks for Roel Becker, Emma Lucas, Ybo Buruma, Daan Welling, and, for both their first EUDC judge break, Simone Landman and Huyen Nguyen. Ybo and Emma eventually even judged the open final.
Eventually EUDC has been won by Tel Aviv A, with Tel Aviv B winning ESL. In 2019 EUDC will be held in Athens. Astana (Kazachstan) won the bid for 2020.
Dutch delegation:
Bonaparte Amsterdam A: Marike Breed and Tom Pouw Bonaparte Amsterdam B: Lana Moss and Zeno Glastra van Loon Bonaparte Amsterdam C: Britt van Lochem and Ezra Glasbergen
Cicero (Tilburg) A: Mike Weltevrede and Roel Schoenmakers
Erasmus Rotterdam A: Emma van der Horst and Fenna ten Haaf Erasmus Rotterdam B: Dick van Tongeren and Bastiaan Mudde
GDS Kalliope A: Joris Graff and Linsey Keur
Leiden A: Jeroen Wijnen and Romée Lind Leiden B: David Metz and Louis Honee Leiden C: Jop Flameling and Rianne ’t Jong Leiden D: Joas Bakker and Nastia Grishkova
Utrecht A: Jobke Visser and Stefan Gaillard Utrecht B: Jelte Schievels and Pieter van der Veere Utrecht C: Justin Seydouz and Friso Scheepstra
Maastricht A: Alwin Bakker and Katharina Jansen Maastricht B: Frederic Augustin and Lisa Knodt
Judging: Daan Welling, Daan Spackler, Davy Fung, Ellen Goltstein, Jan Pjotr Komen, Lena Martinovic, Lisa van Vliet, Lizzy Groenenberg, Maarten, Roel Becker, Simone Landman, Steven Glen, Ybo Buruma, Elvire Landsta, Lisa Eijgenhuijsen, Huyen Nguyen
Tabbing: Marthe Wijfjes (UCR)
720 at EUDC
As we hope you have all noticed, 720 tried to brought you all the necessary updates regarding Novi Sad EUDC this year. The 720 editorial board decided we wanted to better combine live updates with more elaborate write-ups of the inround days. Moreover, before the tournament actually started we released an interview with Gigi, one of the DCA’s, and wrote a preview on the teams participating. Although it proved a little difficult to combine debating/judging with writing for 720, we hope you have all enjoyed the updates and articles we posted online!
Qatar-gate
As you might have noticed, there was something going on with Qatar at EUDC. At EUDC this year a situation arose where a team from Qatar University refused to debate teams from Israeli institutions, because they feel this institutions contribute to and represent an apartheid state. This caused the Qatari team to make anti-Israel speeches in round 3, the first round they faced an Israeli team, and them being replaced by swingteams in rounds afterwards if they were to face Israeli teams again. This situation led to a discussion at council, where the Israeli delegation proposed an amendment to the constitution that would state that institution/nationality was also a ground of discrimination and therefore those people could be barred from further participation at EUDC. Amendments to the constitution require a 2/3 majority and this was not met at council. Important to note on this council meeting are the following things: 1. At the point this issue was raised, council had already lasted for 6 hours and multiple other amendments had been postponed to next year. 2. The Netherlands voted in favor of the amendment after what was discussed at the Dutch Caucus. 3. There were three main arguments to vote against; first of all the fact that people did not agree with the wording of the amendment, secondly people did want to discuss with their delegation before making these changes and finally some people did not believe that your institution is a part of your identity and therefore it shouldn’t be a ground for discrimination. After a lot of discussions and doomthreads on facebook, there now is a new amendment from the Israelis which was voted on during an e-council meeting. The amendment was accepted unanimously. This means that the EUDC constitution now states that discrimination can also be: not willing to engage with someone based on their institution. This will lead to removal from the tournament.
Evaluation of DDL
After the final DDL evening was hosted in Tilburg, we made sure to evaluate what the community thought of the first edition. We want to thank everybody for their input, it is really valuable! This is a short update on what were regarded the most important issues that good or need improvement.
Firstly, we are happy that almost everybody who responded thinks the DDL is a good initiative and that, overall, the first edition was quite successful. The most valuable contribution in your opinion is an opportunity to have good debates and more engagement between societies.
Several areas also need improvement, however. Some people were disappointed about the quality of judging, others felt the social aspect of the DDL has not reached its potential and lastly, an often heard issue was the available information, in the sense that dates, CA-teams etc were announced too late. We think all of these are good, constructive points and we will work in the coming weeks to ensure a better second edition of DDL. Expect some updates on how in the next newsletter!
Past tournaments
In this sector, which will be standard within upcoming newsletters, we will look back at past tournaments within the Netherlands or international tournaments where Dutch teams went to.
1. Dutch Mace: the Dutch Mace has been won by Utrecht, Pieter and Florine. This means that the Dutch Mace will be held in Utrecht in the upcoming year
2. Imperial IV: Leiden A (Romee and Jeroen) broke open as 6th team, Erasmus A (Emma and Fenna) broke open as 8th team. Both teams made it to the semifinals. Leiden C (Jop and Rianne), Bonaparte A (Marike and Tom) and Kalliope A (Linsey and Joris) broke ESL. Eventually Leiden C won ESL on a 3-2 split.
3. WSDC: From 17-27 July, the World Schools Debating Championships took place in Zagreb. Representing the Netherlands this year were Mare van den Putte, Lukas Joosten, Cato Brinkhof and Carli Kooijman. The team performed well, breaking 15th with Carli ranking top 10 EFL speakers.
4. Belgrade Open: Leiden A broke as 7th team and made it to the quarter finals.
Upcoming events
Take your agenda and note the following events!
1. Roosevelt Open 13-14 October (Middelburg): this is an English BP tournament with 7 minute speeches
2. UCU Open 2-3 November (Utrecht): this is an English BP tournament with 7 minute speeches
3. Besturendag / training day for boards 4 November
4. Bonapartiaans Debat Toernooi 2 February (Amsterdam): this is a Dutch AP tournament with 5 minute speeches (3 for the summury)
5. Leiden Open 1-3 March (Leiden): this is an English BP tournament with 7 minute speeches
6. NK debatteren 6-7 April (Amsterdam): this is a Dutch BP tournament with 5 minute speeches
De Nederlandse Debatbond (NDB) stelt zich als doel het wedstrijddebat te bevorderen en ondersteunen in Nederland. Als nationaal overkoepelend orgaan vertegenwoordigt de NDB ongeveer 1.000 leden waarvan de meesten lid zijn van één van de debatverenigingen die Nederland rijk is.
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