One year gone…

And just like that, the first year of university is over. It’s been a strange transition. One might be forgiven for thinking that the IB was a tough new world, but academically speaking, the IB was not so different from IGCSEs. Certainly not compared to a curriculum that has maybe 8-9 hours of lectures a week and requires you to actually demonstrate your knowledge/learning only thrice a fortnight. It brings with it not only an incredible amount of freedom, but the phrase ‘self-directed learning’ takes a whole new twist when you literally have to learn almost everything by yourself. No-more classes, teachers and detailed mark-schemes for you to memorise. Just lots of books and the freedom to think. If nothing else, the lack of posts this academic year (bar the now almost obligatory WSDC and WIDPSC coverage) is evidence of the taxing nature of Oxford, and perhaps my involvement in too many things for my own good.

It’s been quite a fun year, despite all the work. There are thankfully no exams now until 2015, a fact that is both comforting and intensely worrying if one were to consider the number of hours that will need to be spent in exams come that time. Debating and MUN are both more varied and fun at university level, albeit a lot scarier. And then there are a host of other things available at university that have tickled my fancy and stolen my time and energy.

Now that summer has dawned, I can finally catch-up on sleep (managed nearly half a day of sleeping night before last) and hopefully gear myself up for the next year or two.

ASDC 2013 [MOTIONS]

Motions for the 2013 Asian Schools Debating Championships hosted by Claret School of Quezon City in the Philippines from 15 May to 21 May. The Chief Adjudicators were Dino de Leon, Syed Saddiq, LP, Shamalie Madhu Jayatunge, and Ratib Ali.

Round 1: Politics and governance
THW make the salary of politicians equal to the per capita income of the country
THBT believes that corporations should not be allowed to contribute to campaigns
THW prefer a technocratic autocracy over a populist democracy

Round 2: Religion
THW compel religious adoption agencies to accept capable LGBT parents
THBT Free Speech should include the right to offend religions
THW remove all legal and economic privileges granted to religious organizations

Round 3: Finance and Economics
THW break up the big banks
THBT home countries should not penalize is citizens/corporations for bribery in foreign states
THBT multinational corporations have a duty to maintain a strong presence (majority of their industry) in their home countries

Hong Kong’s Tiger Tutors

Lots of people have probably heard me joking about the asian stereotype of studying all the time. If you’ve got some free time, then I’d encourage you to watch this documentary.

Admittedly it is somewhat exaggerated and of course this sort of experience isn’t universal (so don’t go around talking to everyone from HK as if they did go through all those), but certainly it’s representative of the experience of lots of people. It also gives you an idea why I dislike the tutorial system in general. It’s not that it doesn’t help people, but rather that it should be a necessary component of the education system.

All that sad, having not been through this system myself, my own experiences are only peripheral.

Oxford Women’s Open 2013 [MOTIONS]

The Baillie Gifford Oxford Women’s Open 2013 was CAed by Anat Shapira, Leela Koenig and Tasha Rachman.

R1: THW ban religious street preachers in the public sphere
R2: THBT The US Should Give South Korea Independent Control Over A Nuclear Arsenal
R3: TH, as a professional female athlete, would not pose in a sexualised manner for magazines and commercials
R4: In areas where hostage taking is a tactic, THBT soldiers, whose unit mate is about to be captured, should be required to kill their unit mate
R5: THW subsidise art that glorifies the working class
SF: In newly democratised nations, THW limit voting rights to those who have completed secondary education.
GF: TH as a feminist, would not join the army

Why humans like to cry

This is a random collection of thoughts that came after a talk organised by the Oxfordshire Branch of the British Science Association. It was titled ‘Why humans like to cry – tragedy, evolution, and the brain’ by Professor Michael Trimble.

Why even worry about this issue? Simple really. Animals have emotions and are capable of producing tears. But humans are unique in that they cry and produce tears emotionally rather than for biological reasons.

Women cry more than men at a ratio of about 5 to 1. This raises the question of whether this is for biological reasons (in terms of the way men develop or their brains are wired) or whether this is attributable to sociological reasons (such as societal views that make crying acceptable or unacceptable in particular circumstances or for people of different genders).
I think this is, for the most part, a social construct. That said, it may have arisen from perfectly defensible societal demands such as the fact that men in hunter-gatherer time had to continue hunting or growing crops even in the face of hard times and adversity, whereas women may have had more time to mourn and grieve so to speak.
What is more interesting, as was noted by Prof. Trimble, was the question of why the gender gap hasn’t been reduced if its source has been sociological. One would expect that societal views might change given the new circumstances. And yet, men are more likely to apologise for crying, more likely to cry quietly and in less discoverable places.

Undoubtedly, crying is very much a contextual activity. The perhaps obvious explanation for crying is that it is something triggered by emotions. Joy, sorry and bereavement can all be causes, in some instances injustice also triggers crying. More interestingly are instances where there is no prescribed or specific emotion that is easily identifiable, but rather the weight of a myriad of emotions that triggers crying.

WIDPSC 2013 – Grand Final [VIDEOS]

Other WIDPSC 2013 videos can be found in my earlier post. These are only from the Grand Finals hosted at the Moses Mabhida Stadium.

Debating Grand Final
Motion: THW sacrifice economic gain for the good of the environment
Proposition: Nick Marine (South Africa) and Emma Pottinger (South Africa)
Opposition: Joseph Kahn (South Africa) and William Richardson (Canada)
Result: Joseph Kahn – Champion; Emma Pottinger – 1st runner-up; Nick Marine – 2nd runner-up; William Richardson – 3rd runner-up

After-Dinner Speech Champion
Emily Leijer (Australia)

WIDPSC 2013 Speaker Tab [RESULTS]

The overall speakers tab for the 2013 World Individuals Debating and Public Speaking Championships hosted in Durban, South Africa are included below. These results are taken from the WIDPSC Facebook Page.

1. Connor Campbell (Canada)
2. Joseph Kahn (South Africa)
3. Nicholas Marine (South Africa)
4. Madhav Menon (Hong Kong)
5. William Richardson (Canada)
6. Raja Noureddine (Australia)
7. Nicolo Mazaro (USA)
7. Ryan Sherbo (Canada)
9. Lucien Wang (Hong Kong)
10. Ella Thomson (Canada)
11. Greta Hoaken (Canada)
12. Emma Pottinger (South Africa)
13. Jaclyn Flom (Canada)
14. Philip Balson (USA)
15. Clare Moffat (Canada)
16. Zachariah Lee (Hong Kong)
17. Shaun Gohel (USA)
18. John French (USA)
19. Katie McAllister (Australia)
20. Pierce Dickson (Canada)