One year into debating

みなさん、こんにちは!今回は22期のシュントにGemini Cup 2020についての英語ブログを書いていただきました!大会への姿勢から当日の大会についてまで詳しく書いてくれたので是非、一読して下さい💫

それではどうぞ〜⬇️⬇️⬇️


こんにちは皆さん!KDS22期の高橋です。今回初めてのブログになります。英語で書きましたがよろしくお願いします。Please enjoy, a debater’s mind at work!


Table of Contents:

  1. Beginning

  2. Mindset

  3. Preparation

  4. Gemini Cup Day 1

  5. Gemini Cup Day 2

  6. Acknowledgement


  1. Beginning [This is just the beginning]

I cannot believe it has almost been a year since I began debating. As a first-time writer here, let me introduce a little about myself. I joined KDS as 22nd generation last September 2019 after enrolling in Economics (PEARL Program) at Keio University, without knowing what parliamentary debating was. I was drawn into it after seeing their first practice, I can only call it fate looking back. Initially, I thought that I could just argue what I thought and expand my perspectives on random topics and make friends along the way. How wrong I was, there is much more I’ve learned and done! KDS this year alone has taught me how to be a debater, a thinker, and a listener.

 

  1. Mindset [“If you don’t fail, you’re not even trying”]

There is always fear and anxiety going into practices, getting into new teams, and especially during tournaments. For the first few months, I only debated in KDS practices and constantly feared losing arguments as it seemed others have been debating since high school. They just seemed scarier, and I feel that’s not just me. What changed after a few months is my mindset to turn fear into my strengths, to challenge myself. Instead of fear I made each failure into a learning opportunity, take every debate practice to observe and understand the details. Each time I partnered up with other KDS members, they taught me their debate style, what they do, and how they think. Each RFD and feedback opened up to both what went well and what could’ve gone well overall. From both these opportunities throughout each practice, I continued to push and learn what experienced debaters did and what I could improve.

I found momentum approaching my first competition at Asian Bridge 2020 (February) with my first official teammates, Ushiroda and Ruochen (thanks!). I will spare the details about this tournament but I gained confidence in myself after finishing in the top 10 best teams. I’ve grasped the gist of parliamentary debating, so after a while I found myself wanting to debate at Gemini Cup Tournament.

An piece of advice for those who are starting out just like me, acknowledge the uncertainties and seize the opportunities that come from it; success or not you’re taking a step closer to your goals.

 

  1. Preparation [Pre-Gemini Cup was the best practice]

Gemini cup being an Asia Parliamentary style tournament targeting up to second-year student debaters, felt like a perfect opportunity for me. Not only have I had experienced the AP tournament earlier this year, but it was also a summer tournament where I would have the most time to prepare for it. After deciding upon my second ever official team ”ごろうさんファンクラブ” (I had a blast!), I was given the role of the first speaker (it’s where I felt the most comfortable). As a PM or LO, it was my main role to present the team’s case and create the framework of our debate. I listened to what the main argument we wanted to protect and made sure I had the ideas aligned with the second speaker. I realized how communication between team members is critical to forming a strong debate position and obviously better organizes how well an AP debate is conducted. We practiced regularly against different teams since early July before the tournament and with actual past tournament motions. What helped me the most throughout these practices is grasping what motions to veto and choosing the best debate topics depending on the stance we take as a proposition team or opposition team.

During Pre-Gemini this all came to light and I was able to improve each speech after each round (I even found myself standing up and using hand gestures regardless of it being an online debate speech). The pre-tournament is much simpler and less stressful. I saw the value here as I gained some understanding of the difficulty level and simply the overall flow spending the entire day debating with my teammates.

 

  1. Gemini Cup Day 1 [Don’t get tired just yet]

I was excited going into the Gemini Cup tournament as I cleared all my schedule to leave the weekend open for this tournament. It was my first tournament with breaking rounds and a Grand Finale that sits at the very top. I’m glad we were able to win the first two rounds. For Round 1 (R1) we were the opposition side; taking a stance on radical movements and lack of organization hindering the progressive movement. The debate overall became focused on icons and less with the cult of personality with both teams lacking knowledge and explanations on this end. The general idea was there but more debate in this half of the topic would’ve been beneficial especially coming in from my end of the opening speech. R2 was being a political economics topic, it involved us taking stands on both practical and principal grounds. The clash was mainly how the benefit of having secure trade vs this being exploited on political pressures. How former colonies in principle had the right to some form of reparations was given but lacked a strong mechanism, so the judge was not reluctant to credit strongly on this point. We were able to win the round by outweighing the opposition’s stance that the benefits outweigh the exploitation if the pressure existed at all.

R3 and R4 result sadly ended in losses. R3 was a tough-luck on the motion looking back; TH opposes organized religion. My background knowledge of religion is let’s say limited and understanding their significance is only as good an educated guess. Our approach in short was to oppose religion in general with supported claims on different levels of individual exploitations. The clash this round was whether religion was exploiting the individuals or providing solace for them. The opposition pressured us by distinguishing the safety of organized and dangers of unorganized religion, as well as distinguishing the harms, not as institutional/systematic harm but cases of individuals going rogue (a bad apple in a bunch). I learned how my frame working is crucial in providing a better stance for our team’s success in guiding the debate. I would like to learn how to do this better especially as a Prime Minister (PM) role by using tactics that would try to discredit the leader of the opposition’s (LO) probable stance at the start. R4 I felt that I did good but the government bench was unfortunately better. By this round we were all pretty tired, I was very tired. R4, another progressive movement debate. There was a clash basically whether or not the ends justify the means and even the end itself could justify the act of doxing itself.

At the end of the day, we broke as 11th with 1098 speaker points. We were excited to move into the Octo Final (OF) rounds for the second day. For me, the end was not as important as performing the best I could the next day.

 

  1. Gemini Cup Day 2 [“Give everything you got”]

Going into the OF I believe that we were all fired up to just get a win since our last two losses. We all felt we could have done better so we told ourselves we would. We were very careful in choosing the motions veto. In OF our main argument lied on saving soldier and civilian lives by avoiding direct physical contact and improved tactical accuracy. The debate was against another KDS team (寿司とラーメンとラーメン…). The clash became the reliability of automated weapon systems (AWS) and later on about accountability. It was a very good debate with both teams making legitimate arguments on how entrusting a system has the potential of both success and failure depending on the system development and usage intentions. We were able to form our arguments that a faulty system would not be implemented in modern warfare thus the accountability of using AWS for mass lethal actions or civilian harm. All in all, this round was an enjoyable one for me to play the role of LO and debate on the various impacts and weighing them to oppose the ban.

Quarter Finale, I remember this debate being a slightly difficult one myself but through the team preparation time it was just enough for me to write up my speech. I was dealt with the responsibility to clearly illustrate the current capitalistic society system where those with financial benefits are privileged and have the power to construct their views in the world. Hollywood production, book ratings, etc. would be valued in the eyes of whoever holding the social power. Thus, we pushed strongly on the exclusivity of LGBTQ+ artists having the opportunity to best present their reality, not just a social construct made from the capitalistic world. Let’s face it, It’s brutal.

So Semi Finale and Grand Finale, I’ve never pulled through as hard as in what became the final two rounds of debate. In SF I was once again opponents with KDS team (日中韓友好同盟). I felt comfortable facing familiar faces and heated at the same moment as I have been learning from my friends at KDS. After all, they have been the ones teaching me how to debate. Again, I have to say it seemed like a great debate overall. Deep illustration of the impacts of reallocating police funding as well as reforming police through various means. I believe that we were able to illustrate exclusive harms from defunding and illustrated the preference of structural reforms. The round decision had a split decision with the government bench win for this round.

Grand Finale was my most favorite round out of the entire tournament. As a finale, I was fueled to make sure I prepared for the best speech I could. The GF motion was a topic I had fairly well knowledge of, lobbying. Our stance as the government was focused on corporate lobbying that influenced politicians and political legislation to its fundamental core of democracy. I illustrated this through the status quo of NRA lobbyists and industrial corporations affecting weapon legislations and environmental regulations. My favorite part was where I was able to use the Pork industry who were able to push the government into endorsing bacon, which had no health benefits and only negative effects as pig fat is useless. The unique mechanism of lobbying working in favor to generate corporate benefits I feel was pretty clear. The clash that became clear after PM speech and LO speech was the protection of the lobbyist platform pushing for progressive movements such as Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia. Given these groups would become vulnerable without the direct access to legislations, we were able to argue by explaining deeper the democratic progress, they will have access to be heard (argued on the exclusivity there). Once again, a great debate from both teams in my view. The final decision was a 6-1 in favor of the government bench with the chair being in favor of the opposition.

 

  1. Acknowledgments [“Be open to people and ideas”]

I’d like to dedicate this section to everyone who has helped me get to this point in Gemini. ごろうさんファンクラブ, thank you for guiding me through the entire tournament and trusting me with my role. I really hope this experience meant something special as it did for me. Gemini Cup organizing committee, judges, and debaters thank you for providing the platform for us participants, especially under the COVID-19 pandemic to continue online for everyone’s safety. Personal thanks to my KDS senpais and friends who were patient with my learning and showed criticism with kindness. Without them, I cannot imagine giving myself a shot at debating. My final appreciation goes to Owen, my friend who actually introduced me to debating and stuck with all my rookie questions. I am inspired by every one of these wonderful people I’ve met, so thank you.

What comes next after my first year? I’m hoping to Judge at JPDU Autumn Tournament 2020. Looking forward to seeing familiar faces there!

 

Motions

R1 – THBT the creation of feminist icons and their cults of personality are good for the feminist movement.

R2 – THBT former colonial powers should aggressively favour their former colonies in trade (e.g. preferential trade terms, prioritisation of trade deals etc.)

R3 – TH opposes organized religion.

R4 – THBT progressive movements should not doxx.

Doxxing is an internet-based practice of researching and broadcasting private or identifiable information (e.g. name, address, occupation etc.) about an individual or organization.

OF – THW prohibit the use of automated weapon systems.

QF – THBT art related to LGBTQ+ should be exclusively created by LGBTQ+ artists.

SF – TH, as the U.S., would “reform the police” rather than “defund the police”.

Reform the police is to transform the values, culture, policies and practices of police organizations so that police can perform their duties with respect for democratic values, human rights and the rule of law.

Defund the police is to divest funds from police departments and reallocating them to non-policing forms of public safety and community support, such as social service, youth services, housing, education, healthcare and drug rehabilitation.

GF – THW ban lobbying.


Results of Gemini Cup 2020

Champion: ごろーさんファンクラブ (Shunto Takahashi, Riku Saito, Tsubasa Ito)

Semi Finalist: 日中韓友好同盟 (Owen Park, Jayne Yu, Ritsu Murata)

Quarter Finalist: KDSゆるふわ部 (Yuriko Nishikawa, Takashi Kobayashi, Yohei Horiguchi)

Oct Finalist: お寿司とラーメンとラーメン… (Erika Ueno, Keita Fukuda, So Ushiroda)

さいとーりくファンクラブ (Koma Hattori, Aiko Kurano, Mirei Kataoka)

Best Speakers:

3rd: Riku Saito

5th: So Ushiroda

Best Adjudicators:

1st: Hikari Tamura

2nd: Atsushi Sumida

3rd: Kaito Suzuki


シュント、ありがとう✨