reasoning for failing to achieve climax in the finale: EDD - Erratic Debating Disorder
my worst fears came through, my virgin foray into debate coaching ended up with a semi-final exit. we were up against nanyang girls in the semi-finals, with the dictators proposing the motion TH endorses the assasination of terrorist leaders. this performance was a far cry from the dismal performance last week. from a side that could hardly identify the correct issues for a debate, and one which actually contemplated using the joo chiat neighbourhood conflict as an illustration of 'localised conflicts' to becoming one which can formulate a coherent case setup and give rebuttals with increased sophistication in analysis within the span of a week. they've shown there was never a dearth of talent, just a dearth of hardwork. and when they actually put their hard and soul to it, they can achieve great things. and for this only, and despite the result, i'm very very proud of my dictators. a special mention has to be made to bryan chan, the only sec 2 debater in the team. he did an excellent 1st prop speech, clearly structured, presented the setup impeccably (albeit with some rather ridiculous suggestions in their 'implicit' policy like getting UN mandate for assassinating terrorists) only to be outdone by his very own superb reply. it was a reply speech worthy by any standards and even his senior mark couldn't have done better than that even when he was in secondary 4, and bryan is only in sec 2 now. he represents the future of cat high debating.
the debate was really a closely fought one, and i personally felt it could have gone either side. the adjucation was testament to this. it was a 2-1 split decision. the dissenting adjudicator gave the debate to us by 1.5 marks while the other 2 gave it to NY by 1 and 1.5 marks each. interestingly, it seems strategy didn't seem to feature high in the verdict making process. despite advancing their substantive arguments into protected time, not accepting any points of information during their 2nd and 3rd speakers' speeches, and bringing in new arguments about the legality of the assasinating terrorists in the 3rd opp speech (which bryan rightfully pointed out in his reply 'do the opposition expect me to give a rebuttal on the new arguments brought up by the 3rd opp in my reply speech?'), nanyang wasn't penalised for their strategic flaws. well i guess different adjudicators have different judging styles, and that not all judges place such a high premium on strategy as they would to pure argumentation. lesson learnt: sometimes, it might well be better to just bite the bullet and deal with the arguments.
while watching the grand finals between nanyang and st nicks, reality and the bitterness of losing started to hit upon the dictators. it could have been them instead of nanyang or st nicks sitting in front of the audience, defending their seniors' title. the trauma of defeat seemed to have shaken them to their senses, (or could it be just a tokenistic outburst of frustration?) this culminated in the passing of what i would term as the 'Treaty of Marine Parade'. under this 'treaty', the dictators (fengyao and kenneth's batch) pledging to 'win every tournament from the 4th of December 2004 onwards' which is then ratified and witnessed by the seniors including myself. well in debating jargon, i guess it's not so much the feasibility but rather the principles of wanting to achieve this feat that really matters. with truly a conviction to make a clean sweep of all titles in mind, and of course, the elusive hardwork from these (hopefully) reformed slackers, great things will be achieved. i hate losing. especially in things that really matter to me. but if defeat is a good wake up call to shake the dictators into realising their potential. then it would be something i'm willing to endure.
the original copy of the treaty of marine parade. maybe i should laminate this and put it in our debate room for posterity's sake. it's an agreement between the juniors and seniors, and failure on the dictators' part to achieve the terms stated on the treaty will result in the relinquishment of all rights by the juniors to be subjected to jacking by the seniors on any hard object of the seniors' choice (aka tree/lamp-post)
speaking about jacking, we perpetuated the cat high tradition by ending the tournament by jacking kenneth kang against one of the pillars outside the LT. what we din realise was that this happened in full view of the vjc principal...yikes. but fortunately it seems she (the principal) was pretty cool with that especially after robin explained to her that this is part of our society's tradition. apparantly according to alex shieh, she once threatened to tell the whole VJC to boycott suntec city in retaliation should the suntec management complained about the unofficial vjc mass dance held there. she's da man. but i couldn't say the same for the vjc teacher in charged though. after finishing with kenneth, we turned our attention to feng yao, the one person NO ONE ever succeeded in jacking. we chased feng yao round half of VJC until the vjc teacher intervened shouting something in a chatising tone telling us to stop it. at the risk of getting banned form the vjc invitationals, i responded with a laugh and a huge smirk on my face, and a tokenistic 'sorry about that' to her. haha, yes we may have tarnished the kind of professional, dead-serious reputation ben tried to uphold during his reign as the coach, but i'm not the least guilty of it. gong jiao debate society is more than just debating, it's about brotherhood and having fun. besides, much as i try to tell them, the dictators themselves dun seem to care about what ppl think about them. think shaun goh and his lying on road and grape throwing antics which eventually got himself banned from several debate gatherings. or the retarded things kk and fengyao say in public all the time. at the end of the day, it's the hedonistic imperative, fun supercedes everything - EXCEPT results.
a certain personality codenamed 'laisex' has further entrenched itself as the pariah of the debate fraternity. bad fashion sense aside, 'laisex' actually tried to help its (notice the use of it connotes firstly a desire to give anonymity to the pariah and secondly to emphasise the androgenous nature of its look) juniors in a one hour impromptu case prep. highly unethical. shame!
the grand final was unbelievably boring. well perhaps it had much to do with the motion which really, had inherent potential to create a messy debate. THBT material power is the only currency in the international arena. ny propsed and st nicks opposed. as a gesture of good faith in support of our sister skool, the dictators cheered on for st nicks though nanyang eventually won in a 3-2 split.
after the whole thing, i brought the dictators down to fish and co at the glasshouse and treated them to dinner. it was a credible effort and for that they deserved a little reward. fuck, going out with the dictators can be pretty embarrassing with all their stupid antics. first andrea kua (the petite little sec 2 junior) who seriously looks 10-11 yrs old ordered some green alcholic cocktail. when they order came, they waiter asked who the drink was for and asked for identification and so i had to show my ID to them claiming that was my drink. then it was the usual suspects like kenneth and shaun who started placing their orders and flirting with the waitress in very super retarded sounding mandarin like 'wo yao sea monkey freeze....' in a damn 'teh' voice, or 'wei so mo ni yao or men order oysters?? or the ultimate salvo from shaun goh who stopped the waitress and asked her if the fish drinks (which is just some fanciful name for a series of mocktails whose concoction is explicated on the menu) where actually 'fish blended drinks' meaning drinks with fish meat blended inside....i strangled him there and then. then again, the waitress taking our orders was damn annoying too, she kept insisting that we should try the oysters which none of us like. so when she repeatedly questioned us why we din like oysters i simply told her 'oh they (kenneth and co) are already retarded enough, oyster is an aprodisiac so for your sake, i really dun think they should eat oysters.' but it was good fun nonetheless. for the past 2 weeks, it has really been my honour to coach the dictators for a competition. it's more than just an cca. they're like our younger brothers now. it's amazing to see how time flies. in like 4 days time, nick poon will soon be enlisting. before long, it would be aloy, tat and robin's turn. damn, i really wish i could be there for the debate chalet. now it seems i might have to give that a miss since i'm probably going to hainan island. sigh...
later that night, went to some super ulu hotel at mt emily for a birthday party of chris' fren alvin. it's pretty decent place, held in the balcony of the hotel. din drink much though, cos i had diarrohea for the past 2 days. it's been such a tiring week. now all i wanna do for the rest of today is just to sit home and nua, and at least for now, i'm living it that way.
the debate was really a closely fought one, and i personally felt it could have gone either side. the adjucation was testament to this. it was a 2-1 split decision. the dissenting adjudicator gave the debate to us by 1.5 marks while the other 2 gave it to NY by 1 and 1.5 marks each. interestingly, it seems strategy didn't seem to feature high in the verdict making process. despite advancing their substantive arguments into protected time, not accepting any points of information during their 2nd and 3rd speakers' speeches, and bringing in new arguments about the legality of the assasinating terrorists in the 3rd opp speech (which bryan rightfully pointed out in his reply 'do the opposition expect me to give a rebuttal on the new arguments brought up by the 3rd opp in my reply speech?'), nanyang wasn't penalised for their strategic flaws. well i guess different adjudicators have different judging styles, and that not all judges place such a high premium on strategy as they would to pure argumentation. lesson learnt: sometimes, it might well be better to just bite the bullet and deal with the arguments.
while watching the grand finals between nanyang and st nicks, reality and the bitterness of losing started to hit upon the dictators. it could have been them instead of nanyang or st nicks sitting in front of the audience, defending their seniors' title. the trauma of defeat seemed to have shaken them to their senses, (or could it be just a tokenistic outburst of frustration?) this culminated in the passing of what i would term as the 'Treaty of Marine Parade'. under this 'treaty', the dictators (fengyao and kenneth's batch) pledging to 'win every tournament from the 4th of December 2004 onwards' which is then ratified and witnessed by the seniors including myself. well in debating jargon, i guess it's not so much the feasibility but rather the principles of wanting to achieve this feat that really matters. with truly a conviction to make a clean sweep of all titles in mind, and of course, the elusive hardwork from these (hopefully) reformed slackers, great things will be achieved. i hate losing. especially in things that really matter to me. but if defeat is a good wake up call to shake the dictators into realising their potential. then it would be something i'm willing to endure.
the original copy of the treaty of marine parade. maybe i should laminate this and put it in our debate room for posterity's sake. it's an agreement between the juniors and seniors, and failure on the dictators' part to achieve the terms stated on the treaty will result in the relinquishment of all rights by the juniors to be subjected to jacking by the seniors on any hard object of the seniors' choice (aka tree/lamp-post)
speaking about jacking, we perpetuated the cat high tradition by ending the tournament by jacking kenneth kang against one of the pillars outside the LT. what we din realise was that this happened in full view of the vjc principal...yikes. but fortunately it seems she (the principal) was pretty cool with that especially after robin explained to her that this is part of our society's tradition. apparantly according to alex shieh, she once threatened to tell the whole VJC to boycott suntec city in retaliation should the suntec management complained about the unofficial vjc mass dance held there. she's da man. but i couldn't say the same for the vjc teacher in charged though. after finishing with kenneth, we turned our attention to feng yao, the one person NO ONE ever succeeded in jacking. we chased feng yao round half of VJC until the vjc teacher intervened shouting something in a chatising tone telling us to stop it. at the risk of getting banned form the vjc invitationals, i responded with a laugh and a huge smirk on my face, and a tokenistic 'sorry about that' to her. haha, yes we may have tarnished the kind of professional, dead-serious reputation ben tried to uphold during his reign as the coach, but i'm not the least guilty of it. gong jiao debate society is more than just debating, it's about brotherhood and having fun. besides, much as i try to tell them, the dictators themselves dun seem to care about what ppl think about them. think shaun goh and his lying on road and grape throwing antics which eventually got himself banned from several debate gatherings. or the retarded things kk and fengyao say in public all the time. at the end of the day, it's the hedonistic imperative, fun supercedes everything - EXCEPT results.
a certain personality codenamed 'laisex' has further entrenched itself as the pariah of the debate fraternity. bad fashion sense aside, 'laisex' actually tried to help its (notice the use of it connotes firstly a desire to give anonymity to the pariah and secondly to emphasise the androgenous nature of its look) juniors in a one hour impromptu case prep. highly unethical. shame!
the grand final was unbelievably boring. well perhaps it had much to do with the motion which really, had inherent potential to create a messy debate. THBT material power is the only currency in the international arena. ny propsed and st nicks opposed. as a gesture of good faith in support of our sister skool, the dictators cheered on for st nicks though nanyang eventually won in a 3-2 split.
after the whole thing, i brought the dictators down to fish and co at the glasshouse and treated them to dinner. it was a credible effort and for that they deserved a little reward. fuck, going out with the dictators can be pretty embarrassing with all their stupid antics. first andrea kua (the petite little sec 2 junior) who seriously looks 10-11 yrs old ordered some green alcholic cocktail. when they order came, they waiter asked who the drink was for and asked for identification and so i had to show my ID to them claiming that was my drink. then it was the usual suspects like kenneth and shaun who started placing their orders and flirting with the waitress in very super retarded sounding mandarin like 'wo yao sea monkey freeze....' in a damn 'teh' voice, or 'wei so mo ni yao or men order oysters?? or the ultimate salvo from shaun goh who stopped the waitress and asked her if the fish drinks (which is just some fanciful name for a series of mocktails whose concoction is explicated on the menu) where actually 'fish blended drinks' meaning drinks with fish meat blended inside....i strangled him there and then. then again, the waitress taking our orders was damn annoying too, she kept insisting that we should try the oysters which none of us like. so when she repeatedly questioned us why we din like oysters i simply told her 'oh they (kenneth and co) are already retarded enough, oyster is an aprodisiac so for your sake, i really dun think they should eat oysters.' but it was good fun nonetheless. for the past 2 weeks, it has really been my honour to coach the dictators for a competition. it's more than just an cca. they're like our younger brothers now. it's amazing to see how time flies. in like 4 days time, nick poon will soon be enlisting. before long, it would be aloy, tat and robin's turn. damn, i really wish i could be there for the debate chalet. now it seems i might have to give that a miss since i'm probably going to hainan island. sigh...
later that night, went to some super ulu hotel at mt emily for a birthday party of chris' fren alvin. it's pretty decent place, held in the balcony of the hotel. din drink much though, cos i had diarrohea for the past 2 days. it's been such a tiring week. now all i wanna do for the rest of today is just to sit home and nua, and at least for now, i'm living it that way.
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