WSDC 2010: Reflection

This is part of the WSDC 2010 series as I recount and report on the World School Debating Championship 2010 from Doha, Qatar as a debater, blogger and Hong Kong national team member.

It has been a while since WSDC 2010 ended. I’ve finally got round to putting pen to paper when considering what this competition has been, so here it is.

It’s hard to put into words exactly how the 22nd World Schools Debating Championship in Doha, Qatar truly was. It was lavish and comfortable, tiring and exhilarating, and it was a wonderful learning experience as well as a brilliant social event.

The organisers set out to host the biggest and the best WSDC ever, I’m very doubtful if anyone says otherwise after those two weeks between the 8th and 18th of February 2010. Flushed with funding and more than enough resources, QatarDebate had additional adjudicators sponsored, top notch facilities and well thought-out plans laid out well before we even landed at the tiny Doha International Airport. From that point on, we always had someone there to help us, to set up and organiser for us and to make the event what it was. The Marriott Hotel, with its quite location, private beach and food tent covering two full tennis courts complete with chandeliers, was never going to be easy to beat. Although the rooms were found wanting in some respects, it was in now way below par or problematic for anyone living there.

The Last Good Meal

The lunch we had the day we arrived was jokingly titled ‘the last good meal’. How wrong we were. We discovered that the buffet which we thought was our last would merge into only the first in a whole two weeks worth of buffets. As much as we’d like to complain, it was delicious, varied and filled with Prakash’s favorite green leaves.

The opening ceremony was spectacular, complete with cameras, live playback and performances in a stadium sized ball room in yet another 5 star hotel. Our lions proved to be a hit with the gathering crowd, Kudos to Heather.

HK at the Desert

If you thought that was hard to beat, wait till you got from your 4 wheeler to the Desert Safari complete with ATVs, camels, beach volleyball, modified football, falcons, disco, henna, traditional tents, lots of sand, traditional Qatar dresses and yes, yet another delicious buffet. The diplomatic area hosted our break night party with yet another gigantic buffet, this time with ice-cream, disco floor, smoke screen and neon lights perfect for juggling showdown between Max (Germany) and Gerg (HK Coach). The closing ceremony narrowly beat out everything else if only because it was hosted on top of a swimming pool. I mean, it’s not every day you get to shut down a 5 star hotel’s swimming pool, and host a closing ceremony there.

Paul & Sonic

The debates were brilliant, but they aren’t what defined the competition, its the people and boy where there a lot. With 57 teams and dozens of adjudicators, I’d estimate almost 450-500 people attended the competition. There was the cue-card eating Ben, the raging Heather, the sludge filled Annette and the carnivorous Prakash. Does a team really need anything else? Not really, unless you count a short 11 year old looking timer, stalker and blogger called Paul. The mini me, belonged not to Hong Kong, but rather to Germany as their gay mascot. No, there’s no correlation. He had more fun with hedgehog Sonic than with me We were reunited with the Indonesia and Qatar team and spent quite a lot of time with Team I, aka Team Netherlands or was it Team Sudan? I think we integrated them into Team Hong Kong…

The Ladies of the Extended Team Hong Kong

Then amongst all us Asians, popped a dark, shadowy figure, better known as Michael of Namibia and his never ending cultural rant. There was team Thailand at the break night party, South Korea who we met at ASDC and sparred in the early days as well as team Nepal as we crowded around the foosball table. The foosball table also represented the total inadequacy of the Hong Kong team in sports, unless you include running or swimming. We lost in foosball to just one Germany player despite having twice the number of players and then even lost on our home turf, table tennis. We subsequently retreated to more familiar ground, watching American made movies with Slovenia and Israel.

Team IndoKong

Oh, and of course there were the two Irish girls who I rejected, Sorry. We met the Welsh and Singaporeans in debates before being knocked out by the Australian girls whom we subsequently thrashed the last night in sports, strangely, the only win in that ballroom. Admittedly, the Australian’s were fighting in their formal dresses. Nevertheless, they got back at us by using biological warfare and managed to snag both Annette with her sludge eyes and Heather with her continued cough. And of course, there were Champions Canada who played pool with Heather until the late hours. I’m Canadian, so I’m glad you found the draw on my site! I contributed, albeit small and insignificant!

There’s a million and one more things that could and should be said to all. But as the double bell rings.

Thank You to everyone, WSDC 2010 was a blast. Eat a cue-card (Debaters breaking a leg) Hope to see you again next year (if I make it)

Kraken eating Cue-Card

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