seven years on, the same old story...desite breaking as the top ranked team for the Julia Gabriel preliminaries, the dictators were denied a win in the quarter finals against NYGH and the journey to the frozen throne ended.
i said 'denied a win' rather than 'lost', cos' by every credible account -dictator seniors, a national debater who was the split-adjudicator, and even the coach and teacher of Nanyang (who actually went up to Andre telling him how she felt we should have won) - even though it was a close debate, no one could actually fathom how cat high could have lost. and perhaps it is no surprise that the chief pannelist is none other than our good o' mr.
david gabriel yet again, by giving an adjudication debrief which mentioned nothing about the analysis of the issues, but rather dropping the thermo-nuclear bit about how the debate was lost solely on style and - wait for this- decorum cos' he didn't liked the way the dictators flagged the NY speakers down when they rejected points-of-information and thus deducted a fucking 0.5 points per flag.
Now, a debate cannot possibly be lost SOLELY on style becos' there by every adjudication guideline be it WSDC or WUDC or Australs,
style is
not a measure of how stylish or flamboyant a speaker is, but rather the diction, the clarity of the speaker's enunciation. As such, a speaker with a poor style would definitely have his/her content marks severely dogged for the simple reason that the lack of clarity in expressing a point makes it impossible for the adjudicator to understand the logic behind the argument he/she is verbalising. A poor style mark goes hand in hand with a poor content mark. So to say that a debate is lost solely on style while both teams are tied on content is utter bollocks. Moreover, especially when u consider two of the dictators - Bryan and Tze Kai were ranked Best Speaker of Tournament in the VJC Invitationals and NUS Challenge Shield respectively, i really cannot understand how a team of such composite could have conceivably lost '
solely on style'.
Next, flagging. All i can say is that it is the
modus operandi of many teams in singapore, and no less, the national team itself since 2000. That i can recall, becos' i was told off by Ben who coached VJC then for refusing to sit down after my POI was flagged. The rationale behind flagging is that while there is no real detriment to a speaker who's being flagged, a speaker on the floor when constantly badgered by a team who offers too many POIs would be at the significant disadvantage that could most likely break down the flow of the speaker's speech.
A failure to understand this, further questions mr gabriel's capacity to handle secondary school debate adjudication at the top division.
essentially i really don't know which is more ridiculous. the fact that he made an issue out of a non-issue while ignoring the real issues, or the fact that he ACTUALLY bothered to count the number of flags made....
seven years...SEVEN FUCKING YEARS...and when we are finally getting close to that elusive frozen throne, we're denied by a self-important bona fide noob who passes himself off as a qualified adjudicator. would it surprise you that mr gabriel is in fact the husband of the tournament sponsor, mrs julia gabriel. that probably puts everything into perspective and answers one of the most oft asked question in secondary school debates 'why on earth is he still adjudicating???' i recall better times back in 99' when mr G was the chairperson and not an adjudicator of our grand final. now wouldn't that be nice...
and if YOU, David Gabriel are reading this, i hope it makes you happy to know that your perrenial desire to get a kick outta ur self-funded an ego trip has destroyed the collective dream of 7
fucking generations of dictators. you on you mate, good on ya..
Initially I wanted to put Linkin Park's 'In The End' up the blog cos' apart from the opening line
'It starts with one thing I don't know why It doesn't even matter how hard you try'there's this line in the bridge that goes
' I’ve put my trust in you Pushed as far as I can go And for all this There's only one thing you should know '
which would be the perfect song for Mr Gabriel. He betrayed the trust debaters had in the competancy of presiding adjudicators. and the 'one thing which he should know' was what i wrote a couple of paragraphs up.
But then i realised, no, even
In the End, It DOES MATTER.Victory or otherwise aside. It was truly the journey that bought back the fondest of memories i had during my debating days. The late night case preps in the orchestra rooms, climbing over the fence to get out of school, fighting around with the drama props we found the store room when we should be prepping the cases, speculating whereabouts in school were the Teos making out when they left us to do our 'more-than-one-hour' case preps. It's shit like this more than the silverware that etched the memories of what i would consider to be the happiest time of my life thus far.
Likewise, i truly hope that the dictators can see the silving lining of it all. the camaraderie you shared, the many rounds of DoTA you played as a team, the intellectual growth you had since you began debating. To say that this is the true prize, is no cliche at all.
Andre, you're intelligent, you know that. Yet it was a pity that your cavalier attitude towards debating previously probably compromised on your technique. Don't make the same mistake in life, treasure every chance that comes along, be it debating or not.
Bryan, you have everything it takes to be a national debater and you certainly have the capacity to be the best debater Cat High has ever produced. Be proud of what you have achieved, and move on from there. A disappointment can only feed your desire to succeed later on in life, not your embitterment. You're stronger than that, i know it.
'Kristiano' Tze Kai, you are an absolute sensation. Don't feel bad just becos' David G told you that your flagging made that you lost the debate for the team. If there's any adjudicator NOT to believe, it's gotta be him. I told you before, you are certainly the most precocious talent Cat High has ever had. You are truly a savant, so please do not let it go to waste. All it takes is that little tinge of cynicism, disillusionment and complacency to take that all away. You will be the core of the team next year, and it's up to fulfilled the unfulfilled dream of 8 generations of Cat High debaters next year.
Thomas, Arianto and Wee Seng, the same goes for you guys. You'll have to take on the unenviable task of fulfilling that elusive dream.
It has been an absolute pleasure being the temp coach for you guys. Playing LAN and trash-talking. You guys made me feel young all over again. And it was an immense honour for me, xander, shawn and all of the seniors accompanying you guys to what's the conclusion of this journey.
sometimes, the true chamipions don't always win. PS: In case you were wondering about the random chinese name of the post, it's from the lyrics of the Jay Chou's theme song for the Jet Li movie 'Fearless'. 天下谁的 第一又如何 roughly tranlates into 'it really doesn't matter who wins eventually'. in light of cat high's cheena/poor man school stereotype probably didn't play to our advantages in a tournament dominated by preppy indie schools (especially in a round with a clueless adjudicator). hence, it was probably approriate that i indulge in a little cheena-cisation here..which was also why i'm loading the Jay Chou song -my current infatuation - on my blog. an infinitely more inspiring song than the defeatist 'In the End'. Becos' in the end, it really matters. " 天下谁的 第一又如何 止干戈 我辈尚武德 我的 拳脚了得 却奈何 徒增虚名一个 " " ....洗涤过的回忆 我记得你 骄傲的活下去 "
- <<霍元甲>>, 周杰伦
