Full video of the ESL final: http://blip.tv/file/3909004

The Main final is yet to come; in the meantime you can watch another video of it on Youtube.

Once again the tab, now in the official version:

Team tab: http://tinyurl.com/38byc2d

Speaker tab: http://tinyurl.com/36s68vw

Thanks to achteminute.de, you can see a video with interviews of tournament participants here:

http://bit.ly/cfbIoV

As mentioned in the News section, via this link you can watch the complete final:

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=BC5B5A9F9F2368D9

Here is a scanned version of the tab (Google Docs pdf). The official document will follow soon.

 http://rkb13.tk 

ESL final: THBT even in response to the most serious crimes a just penal system should have no consideration for society’s desire for retribution

Open final: THBT after a humanitarian intervention has halted human rights abuses the occupation forces should leave, if the population clearly establishes this as their wish

EUDC 2010 Open Champions: King’s Inns A (Eoghan Casey & Patrick Rooney)

EUDC 2010 ESL Champions: Ljubljana A (Maja Cimerman & Filip Muki Dobranic)

Best Speaker: Frederick Cowell (ULU B; 85,87 avg.)

Best ESL Speaker: Jeroen Heun (Erasmus A; 81,62 avg.)

R1: THBT the EU should pursue new member states by removing all non-economic membership
conditions, including political system and global location

R2: THBT schools should prioritise authority of the teacher over enjoyment of the pupil

R3: THW offer increased aid to the developing world countries that encourage and accept large
influxes of immigrants

R4: THBT social disgust is sufficient justification for censoring art

R5: THBT Bradley Manning should be pardoned if he is convicted of ‘communicating, transmitting and delivering national defence information to an unauthorised source’

R6: THW allow all women, and women only, to bear arms

R7: THW offer the Taliban power-sharing deals in exchange for acts of disarmament

R8: THBT developing nations should distribute as a dividend to citizens all income derived from natural resource extraction

Open QF: THW prohibit gay pride parades in countries or areas where there is a risk of violent backlash against those involved

ESL QF: THW extend the full protections of international law to guerrilla fighters, insurgents and terrorists

Open SF: THBT the state should determine the wages to be payed (in both private and public sectors) for jobs deemed of moral value or societal importance

ESL SF: THW grant higher primates rights equivalent to those of human children

All you ever wanted to know about the church that will host our Grand Final!

The location of today’s Grand Final is the Westerkerk, which translates as ‘western church’. It was built between 1620 and 1631 on the orders of the Amsterdam municipality. As a result, one can still see the city emblem at many places in the church. The architect was Hendrick de Keyser, who designed many famous buildings in the city; after his death in 1621 his son Pieter continued the work. At the time of building, it was the largest original Protestant church in the city. Amsterdam also features a number of larger churches that were originally used by Catholics but were seized by Protestants after the 1566 Iconoclasm. The church is located at the Prinsengracht canal, next to Amsterdam’s famous Jordaan district.
The church has been built in Dutch Renaissance style, typically featuring both brick and stone; it has a rectangular shape. Its length is 48 meters, its width 28 meters and its height 27 meters. It features 36 large windows that allow for a lot of light from all sides. The white walls inside enhance this effect.
Its tower (Westertoren) is Amsterdam’s highest church tower, with a height of 85 meters. It can be ascended and provides a great view of the city. Strikingly, the tower is topped off by an imperial crown, resulting from a gift by the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, who had previously ruled the Netherlands provinces. In 1489, he had awarded the city of Amsterdam the privilege of using his crown on the city emblem. Perhaps the emperor had been grateful for the help he had received from the city during the infamous Hook and Cod wars (Hoekse en Kabeljauwse twisten) in the Netherlands. The crown that was put onto the tower was inspired by the one worn by the Emperor Rudolf II, one of Maximilian’s successors who ruled Germany between 1579 and 1612. The crown is large enough to contain at least four people. All that being said, when the church was built the Dutch Provinces had already declared their independence of the foreign empire.
Buried inside the church are a number of well-known Dutch painters, such as Nicolaes Berchem, Govert Flinck and the most famous of all, Rembrandt van Rijn (who died in 1669), his son Titus and his lover Hendrickje Stoffels. It is unknown where Rembrandt was interred, but one can see a plaque remembering Rembrandt at a pillar in the north aisle.
Just around the corner of the Westerkerk, you can find the Anne Frank House, where the Jewish girl and her family hid during the war. From the attic of the house, the clock tower of the church can be seen, and it featured regularly in Anne Frank’s diaries. Also close to the Westerkerk is the Homomonument at the Prinsengracht, remembering those who have been persecuted because of their sexual preferences. Finally, the church is also famous for having been the location at which the Dutch Queen Beatrix (at the time still a princess) married her German husband Claus von Amsberg on March 10, 1966.

Author: Thomas van Lier

During lunch Thomas walked around in the OMHP and asked several participants for their opinions on EUDC. Despite some minor problems like bad club music and having to wait for the bus, it seems like everybody is very satisfied with the tournament.

Gregg O’Neill, from Ireland
Are you satisfied with EUDC? – ‘Yes, absolutely!’
What was the strangest thing you experienced? – ‘The decision of the jury in my last debate.’
Can you tell me about it? – ‘Hmmm, No. Painful memories.’
You lost the debate? – ‘Yes.’
So you don’t think the judgment was fair? ‘Yes.’
What were your expectations when you came to EUDC? ‘Well, I have never been in Amsterdam, so this was also a good opportunity to see the city.’
Are you an experienced debater? ‘I have been around for eight years.’
So you are very good? ‘Yes, I am quite good.’

Lucas, Johannes and Fabian from Cologne, Germany
What were your expectations when you came to Amsterdam? Johannes: ‘Our expectation was that this was going to be a really good tournament and I haven’t been disappointed until so far.’
So you are quite satisfied with EUDC? Lucas: ‘The organization is very good. Everything is on time, everybody is very friendly and you always get help if we need it.’ Johannes: ‘Maybe it is a typically German thing, but we love that everything is on time. (Everybody laughs). No delays.’ Fabian: ‘And the people from EUDC reflect that they are happy that they organized this tournament, with all their efforts.’ Johannes: ‘They not only do the job, but also like doing the job.’ Lucas: ‘We feel that it is the whole Dutch community that is working together here, it seems like it is a Dutch event.’
So there are no things that could be better? Fabian: ‘Yes, we want free beers!’ (laughs) Lucas: ‘Only some minor things, but that is not really worth noticing. You have to look for somebody who is more critical than us, to compensate.’
What was the strangest thing you experienced at this tournament? Johannes: ‘There was a guy from the organization dancing on stage. What was his name?’ Lucas: ‘Daniel.’ Johannes: ‘Yes, Daniel. That was very funny.’

Tamara, from Israel
What were your expectations when you came to EUDC? – ‘Well, this was my first international debating tournament and I expected to have a good time here: to see nice debates, meet interesting people and get to see Amsterdam.’
Are you satisfied with the tournament? – ‘Yes, the hotels are really nice. The food is okay, even though the kosher food isn’t the best. There are some minor setbacks, but that can happen when you plan such a big thing as EUDC. We had some problems with the buses, and yesterday in the club we weren’t allowed to go outside while it was really hot and crowded.’
What surprised you at this tournament? – ‘I was a little bit surprised that there was a debate about allowing only women to have guns. In my debate, there was somebody who said that women should stay in the kitchen and their husbands should protect them. So I think that was interesting, and a little bit strange too.
Are the subjects in the debates here different from what you are used to in Israel? – ‘Maybe a little bit. I know not much about Afghanistan for example. But that is part of the fun: you learn things.’
Why did you come to EUDC? – ‘Because our school got funding and I like to debate, so when there was the opportunity to go to Amsterdam I joined and I knew it would be a great experience.’

Author: Walter Freeman

Walter doesn’t feel like explaining it in person for the 25th time, so he enters the stage of our magazine to explain exactly what he’s doing.

Are you a debater or an adjudicator? If your answer to this question is yes, there’s a very big chance that you’ve seen me on stage during the preliminaries. I’m the guy that took care of the technical part of the presentations and apparently also known as: agent Freeman, the guy in the blue suit, that guy with the tie and a few other nicknames. After Daniel thanked me with the Freeman Thunder, a lot of people came up to me and wanted to know more about what I’m doing during the tournament.
I operated two laptops on stage. One was only used for playing music and the other was for all the video material. The video laptop ran several programs for the presentations, pictures, movies, and the displaying of the registration and draw. Finding out how I could switch between these programs without ugly windows showing up on the powerpoint was a bit difficult, but I was helped by an ICT-wiz who’s a member of Bonaparte. In general, I’ve been spending a lot of time double-checking the audio and video. And in between rounds I was preparing for the next presentation with Daniel and Julien (who is in charge of logistics). Because I got tired after explaining it 24 times, I’m going to explain it to you in the Big Clash and save myself the trouble of ever having to explain it again.
Music
As you may have noticed, we’ve had an amazing playlist during the preliminaries. You’ve been listening to a beautiful mix of drum & bass, techno, pop and other exotic genres when entering and leaving the main hall. These playlists were compiled from about 10 albums by the amazing Daniel ‘El Gringo’ Schut. He made playlists for each round and all I had to do was play them at the right moment. During the draw, I’ve been playing the tracks that I got from Jonathan Leader Maynard.
Pictures
Between rounds, photographers were able to copy their pictures to the main laptop. After that, they could select the best pictures and edit them. Last time I checked, we had collected more than 800 pictures from four photographers. The fun thing about this system is that each round, you were able to see pictures that were taken in the last hour. Are these pictures going to appear on Facebook? Well, to be honest, I don’t know. If they will, you’ll probably see them appear online.
PowerPoint, draw and registration
The PowerPoint presentations were all made by Daniel. All I had to do with them was make our friend, the red circle, appear from time to time in order to show you how to get from one location to another. As I stated before, it was difficult to find out how to switch between the powerpoint and other running software (like the program that played the movies or the draw for example). The draw was an HTML file that scrolled automatically. The team behind the tab made that possible. The cool registration screen was an HTML file that updated itself. Sander Kupers wrote the code.
Movies
The movies were made by Joost Hellegers. Besides being the creator of the movies, Joost is also a reporter for The Big Clash and a very good friend of mine. He was able to create movies in record time with determination and perfectionism. If you really liked the movies and want to give him a compliment, ask one of the white shirts to introduce you to him. I really enjoyed watching the movies and I hope you did too.
The act
So basically, I’d start each presentation with a slide show of pictures taken during the last round while playing some music. Then I would open the registration screen once the room started to fill up and I would dim the music so Daniel could start his presentation. The draw would be displayed after that, followed by the movie that introduced the motion of that round. There. Now you know what Agent Freeman was doing on stage. Besides having a great time with Daniel on stage, I’m also reporting for The Big Clash this week. If you’ve read this article and still have questions about my work afterwards:
‘Go to the information desk.’ – D. Schut.