News – Nederlandse Debatbond

Meet the Dino: Josse van Proosdij

Daylight Saving Time has just started [this article was clearly written much earlier, ed.]. An hour less time to sleep means only one thing: it is necessary to sleep longer. For example, I spoke to Josse van Proosdij after he had taken advantage of this pleasure on a lovely Sunday. We spoke about the inclusiveness of the debate world, about the value of debating because you learn to view a problem from multiple sides and about hiking as a corona hobby.

Profile Josse van Proosdij
Age: 29
Alma mater: University of Amsterdam (MA Military History) and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (MSc Spatial, Transport and Environmental Economics)
Current position: Strategic analyst WWFT at International Card Services
Debate achievements, including: Best speaker at the Cicero Tournament 2019 and Lund IV 2020. Winner Erasmus Rotterdam Open 2013 and Kalliope Debate Tournament 2019.
Favourite tournament: Lund IV (where he has been 4 times): there is a good atmosphere, the hotel is nice and you can get smoked salmon for breakfast for a low reg fee.

ByJos Buijvoets

Should we offer people living in the Randstad a financial incentive to move to a shrinking region (‘krimpregio’)?

Source cover image: 50+ In Nederland

This House would offer people living in the Randstad a financial incentive to move to a shrinking region (‘krimpregio’).
NK 2021 – Round 1

A nice accessible motion to start the NK with. The dynamics between shrinking regions and the Randstad are something that many people can imagine and a lot of depth is possible here.

ByJos Buijvoets

[Dutch Nationals 2021] Debating from a holiday home on Schiermonnikoog

The Dutch National Debating Championships (or NK for short) is the calling card and annual highlight of the Dutch debating community. It is the most attractive event for new members, it is the best prize for competitive debaters, and it is the tournament that people who have retired for years want to do again. I was really looking forward to the NK 2020 in Utrecht. I saw that Jelte Schievels and the organizing committee were creating something beautiful. There was a nice website, good promotion, and low registration fees. Unfortunately, the NK was eventually forced to move online to 2021 due to the corona crisis. How was this and did the organization manage to guarantee the survival of our most beautiful event?

ByMike Weltevrede

Meet the Schoolie: Frits Geelhoed

Debating is done by young and old. Earlier we spoke with Danique van Koppenhagen and Adrienne Huisman in Meet the Dino. This time we speak with someone who is at the beginning of his debating career: Frits Geelhoed. He is a high school student who is part of the Dutch delegation for the World Schools Debating Championships (WSDC). In this article, we learn more about him, the World Schools Debating Championships and the Dutch Schools Debate College of which he is a part.

Profile Frits Geelhoed
Age: 17
School: Utrechts Stedelijk Gymnasium (USG)
Debate achievements, including: Two times part of the Dutch delegation for WSDC, second-best speaker (English as a second language – ESL) at the WSDC tournament in Saskatoon (Canada), second-best speaker in Oxford Schools qualifying round.
Favourite tournament: Spatha Schools, a BP tournament for high school students in Nijmegen with a huge buffet of food.

ByJulie Nyerges

Should we raise the corporate income tax in major business centres?

Source cover image: Principal

This House would significantly increase the corporate income tax in major business centres of the world, such as Macau, Jakarta, New York, Sydney, London.
Groningen Open 2021 – Semifinals

This was one of the topics debated during this year’s edition of the Groningen Open 2021 last weekend. It represented the semifinal topic, which means that only the best eight teams participating in the tournament got the opportunity to debate it. As the Chief Adjudicator panel (a.k.a. the people who pick the motions) myself, we chose this one for an outround both because it requires a higher level of economic knowledge and because it asks speakers to ponder important questions about how we chose to set up our governments’ policy. In the following paragraphs, I will be discussing several arguments for the proposition and the opposition, and I’ll show how these logically interact. By the end of the article, readers should hopefully have a comprehensive account of the major clashes in opinion surrounding raising the corporate tax.

ByJulie Nyerges

[Groningen Open 2021] Thinking, debating, winning trophies

Source cover image: RTV Noord

Last weekend, the Groninger Debating Society Kalliope hosted the first-ever edition of the Groningen Open. Despite the long and successful tradition of Kalliope debaters contributing to the Dutch debating circuit, there has never been an international tournament held in Groningen. However, that changed on the 8th of May 2021, when over 120 participants from all across the world gathered in the cybersphere to exchange ideas and debate current issues. While few of us were physically in Groningen, the friendly atmosphere, interesting topics and the hard-working organizational team helped make the competition a pleasant and immersive experience.

ByMike Weltevrede

Meet the Dino: Adrienne Huisman

Next week, the Dutch National Debating Championships (NK Debatteren) 2021 will take place but not before we speak with one of the reigning champions: Adrienne Huisman. Two years ago she received the ultimate gift: when she won the final of the NK, it was her birthday! In a super fun interview, I asked this organizational superstar about her job at PwC and the lessons she learned from the debating world and organizing debating events such as the World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC) in 2016-2017.

Profile Adrienne Huisman
Age: 25
Alma mater: Leiden University (MSc Crisis and Security Management, MSc Public Administration)
Current position: Senior Consultant Security & Justice at PwC
Debate achievements, including: Reigning Dutch Debating Champion, Top 10 speaker Dutch Policy Debating Championships 2017, Logistics Officer WUDC 2017
Favourite tournament: Adrienne doesn’t really have a favourite tournament but she likes the fact that there are associations that stick to Dutch. She found the Dutch issues particularly interesting and felt more free with regard to the content, because Dutch is her mother tongue.

ByMariska Frelier

Guaranteed employment or a universal basic income?

This House prefers a world with guaranteed employment over one with universal basic income.
Tilburg Women’s Open 2021 – Round 1

With this motion, Tilburg Women’s Open 2021 started on a good note. Basic income has always been an interesting topic for me personally. This specific motion really appealed to me because it offers the opportunity to look at the fundamental values of a society and also gives the opportunity to fathom the motives of several stakeholders (government, poorer population, richer population, and companies). In the next section, I will highlight a few arguments in favour and against.

ByMariska Frelier

[Tilburg Women’s Open 2021] A successful introduction to BP tournaments

Tilburg Women’s Open 2021 was one of the first BP tournaments I have been able to attend. It was certainly a successful introduction to the Dutch debating circuit. The online environment, Discord, which had to be used out of necessity, gave the opportunity for many international teams to join it as well. A familiarity at this time but also an extra opportunity for me as a newcomer to learn a lot and, of course, meet new people.

ByKirill Svavolia

In 2017, the Twente Debating Society was dissolved… In 2021 it re-opened!

Hi, my name is Kirill Svavolia. I’m the chairman of the Twente Debating Society (TDS) and I will tell you about how the Twente Debating Society 2.0 started. Basically, I just wanted to do debates, but there was no place. So, how do you start a debating society? First, you need a team: chairperson, secretary and treasurer. I approached my friends – Nick and Yevhenii. I knew they could get things done and would go for it. After a few discussions, they were in.

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