Chinese version of Friday

This popped up on my facebook news feed, and as bad as the song itself is, I cannot let myself go without posting this.
A Chinese version of Friday by Rebecca Black sung by a Chinese person in the US who’s Chinese isn’t brilliant, but is good enough.

Very Simple Tabbing

Very Simple Tabbing is a program for tabbing BP debate competitions created by Dan Bradley.

Dan himself described the programme as “an idiot proof tabbing system suitable for small to medium size competitions; competitions where the person in charge of the tab may not have been familiar with the other programmes out there, or indeed with BP debating. In this regard it works very well.”

A few key points:

• The program is intended only for ENGLISH EXCEL running on a WINDOWS computer.
• Email Dan himself at dfbradley@gmail.com to recieve the latest copy of the programme.
• Upon opening the tab, instructions are provided and users are advised to read the instructions carefully.
• Users are further advised to test the programme on the computer to be used on the day prior to the actual competition’s commencement.

WSDC 2011 – Team Singapore

This is part of the WSDC 2011 series as I recount and report on the World School Debating Championship 2011 in Dundee, Scotland as a debater, blogger and Wales national team member.

For WSDC 2011, Team Singapore will be exactly the same as the team for WSDC 2010 consisting of

• (C) Teoh Ren Jie (Raffles Junior College) {Returning Member}
• Ashish Xiangyi Kumar (Raffles Junior College) {Returning Member}
• Benjamin Mak Jia Ming (Raffles Junior College) {Returning Member}
• LiKi Ng (Hwa Chong Institute) {Returning Member}
• Adil Hakeem (Raffles Junior College) {Returning Member}

Team Singapore will be coached by Mrs Geetha Creffield and Ms Woels.

Source: http://debateable.org/natteam

HK announces Development Team

Following in the foot-steps of a number of other teams in the world, including Australia, Canada and England, the Hong Kong Schools Debating Council has announced the creation of an HK Development Team.

The Development Team, according to details released by HKSDC, will be lead by Ms. Kay Deswani (Ying Wah College) along with Greg Forse and Team HK for WSDC 2011.
As per most development teams, participation is limited to those in their second last year of high-school or under so as to ensure their availability for next year’s full-strength team.

With a number of countries already putting development teams in place for WSDC 2012, competition is heating up. This is most likely due to the relatively closer nature of WSDC 2011 and WSDC 2012 which will only be half a year apart, limiting the amount of time available for selection and training. Many countries have tried to jump the gun by using development teams to being training debaters so as to take advantage of a longer training period.

Singapore Secondary Schools Debating Championships 2011 Grand Final

After many rounds of debating and head-to-head competitions, the Singapore Secondary Schools Debating Championships 2011 – Division 1 is coming to a close with the debate for 3rd place and the Grand Finals themselves to be held this week.

Full details below:

Eating Truffles in the White House

Amongst the many delicacies in the world, the truffle is noted for being expensive, rare and exclusive. Indeed, in the last 2-3 years, a sign of the value that is placed on truffles, particularly black truffles, Hong Kong citizens have won an annual truffle auction and snapped up the biggest truffle every year.
Essentially, truffles are nothing more than fungus… but, I’ve heard they taste a hell of a lot better than what you’d think. It appears that White truffles are the most valuable, beating black truffles in value. There seems also to be a ‘Chinese truffle’ variant, although it is considerably more common.

The HK buying spree started in 2006 when Gordon Wu and his wife paid USD 150,787 for a gigantic Italian White Alba truffle weighing 3.3 lbs. That record was beaten by Stanley Ho who in 2007 bought a white truffle weighing 3.3 lbs for USD 330,000. In 2010, Stanley Ho again won the auction, buying two truffles weighing just under 3 lbs for another USD 330,000.

Where’s the best place to eat a truffle? Why the White House of course.

Vetoing an increase of the US Debt Limit

Stimulus: What would you do differently if you were president or Prime Minister of your country for a day?

First came the government shutdown threat, now comes the need to increase the debt limit, then comes the long term financial fight. The US congress is engaged in a length and protracted fight over money, ideology but most importantly politics.

On previous ocassions, Obama has managed to portray himself as a middle-of-the-run President who is able to operate above the fray. But that has come at the nasty cost of some major concessions to Republicans. Certainly, cutting spending is now a mutual goal of both the Democrats and the Republicans. but in doing so, Obama has disenfranchised his liberal base without much to show to independents except having been able to sign a bill.

While the debate over whether to raise the US debt limit or not continues, I believe that Obama should veto any bil that contains anything other than a clean bill.

UWC Adriatic MUN 2011: Part 5

Thankfully, after a long day of tiring and endless negotiations and conferencing, we were able to settle down for a good Adriatic dinner which I enjoyed on the porch like thing outside the ‘Mensa’. Adriatic have a wonderful sea-view and I’m not surprised they love enjoying their meal outside. AC also have a beautiful view, but it’s significantly harder to get to given that you have to walk pretty much all the way to the sea-front to enjoy the sea’s full blast, or dare to take your tray out (totally unadvisable) to the top lawn.

I followed Angus (my HK second year) to Lukeze (did I spell this right?) and stayed there talking, observing, playing until around 11 when I went back to the room to pack up, finish some work and sleep. Saturday night wasn’t quite as eventful as most people decided against doing odd things, especially after a very active Friday night.

UWC Adriatic MUN 2011: Part 4

Friday night, with all the committees adjourned, I joined Graciella and Merone at a nearby Pizzeria for… well Pizza. You cannot visit Italy without trying their pizza, and boy do they have large portions. I took me such a long time to eat al of it, though it is most appropriate for sustaining conversations like ours. I went back to the hotel shortly after that to do some work and catch-up on some sleep.

I later found out that, like most other UWCs, the night was an eventful one with two separate parties and a whole lot of activity. The stories that could be heard the next morning were not dislike those at AC. Except in a community of 180 people, just about anything you did is known to the rest of the school pretty quickly.

Dinner – A massive pizza

An interesting Art Piece in the Art Center

The Closing Ceremony

UWC Adriatic MUN 2011: Part 3

Friday arrived and the village was in full MUN spirit. We grabbed some breakfast at Fore house, a speciality of Adriatic where breakfast is put in the residences (cereal, croissant and milk usually). It’s probably good for people who are late wakers or who have the first class free, but sometimes I prefer the hot food provided by AC at breakfast. In any case, we went to the opening ceremony in the school auditorium where we had a flag ceremony, and a speech from the SecGen. After that, it was off to our committee rooms for the speeches, negotiating and arm twisting.

Coffee Machine in one of the houses

The Security Council in full swing

I was, by luck or by fate, France in the Security Council which meant I had veto power! Our first issue of discussion was the Korean peninsula where most of the discussion centered on how to reduce hostilities, whether reunification was desirable and who should be responsible for doing what. After a few moderated causes and the odd unmoderated caucus, a proposal put forth by Bosnia and Herzegovina was particular in that it suggested a new UN body to deal with Korean matters. Hating new bodies and hoping to keep power amongst themselves, the P5 countries pretty much rejected the proposal. In the need, we borrowed part of B&G’s proposal, and chose to bolster existing bodies rather than create new ones. I also slipped in a few things about UNHRC and the nuclear program while writing the final resolution. We eventually passed it 13-2 on Saturday just before lunch.