Voices in Motion
British Chargé d’ affaires for Bahrain, Russ Dixon, presents the winner’s trophy to Doha College.
From left to right: Oliver Tull, Fathima Faizeen, Dhiren Naidu, British Chargé d’affaires Russ Dixon, and Doha Debating Coach, Jonathan Henley.
The inaugural BSME Debating Tournament was hosted by St Christopher’s on the weekend beginning Thursday 18 October, finishing with a farewell banquet for all participants on Sunday 21st.
Over the three days, eighteen teams took part in seventy nine debates. St Christopher’s entered four teams, one of which made it to the semi-final. As luck would have it, St Chris teams met each other twice in the closing rounds and were forced to knock each other out!
The finalists, Jumeirah College, Dubai, and Doha College, Qatar, made it to through without losing a single debate.
In front of an audience of 180 students and staff, with guests of honour the British Chargé d´Affaires, Mr Russ Dixon, and the Chairman of the BSME and Principal of St Christopher’s, Ed Goodwin, the finalists contested the motion:
‘This House believes that the GCC countries owe it to the world to take the lead in the conservation of fossil fuels and the development of sustainable energy´.
Doha College, who were in opposition, argued that it was unfair to ´finger-point´ Gulf countries in the way suggested by the motion, and that instead oil companies and major consumers such as the US. and Europe were the ones who should ´take the lead´ .
Their case prevailed. They won the votes of all five adjudicators, though by as little as 4 marks out of 250 in some cases.
To get this far, Doha and Jumeirah had taken on sixteen other teams, who came from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE., and of course, Bahrain.
The BSME Debating Tournament is set to become an annual event after this year’s success. The event has two principal objectives: firstly, to promote debating within the region; and secondly, to help prepare students for world-class public speaking challenges, such as the Model United Nations and the World Schools Debating Championships.
During their stay, both debaters and adjudicators enjoyed the excellent hospitality of The Crowne Plaza Hotel.
More details of the event can be found at www.debatebsme.com
