Die Weltmeisterinnen in der Kategorie ESL vom DK Wien: Marina Kojić und Paula Breyer – © Mauricio Herrera und Jorge Blázquez

Die World University Debating Championships 2023 in Madrid sind vorbei und die neuen Weltmeister im Debattieren kommen aus Manila (offener Wettbewerb), Wien (Englisch als Zweitsprache) und Zagreb (Englisch als Fremdsprache)!

Open Kategorie

In der Open Kategorie konnte sich mit Ateneo de Manila University A (David Demitri Africa, Tobi Leung) ein Team aus den Philippinen den Titel sichern. Beide waren bereits in separaten Teams im vergangenen Jahr angetreten und unter den besten 15 Redner:innen vertreten, gemeinsam konnten sie nun den Sieg erreichen. Nachdem die beiden bereits in den Vorrunden u.A. sechs erste Plätze sammelten und schlussendlich auf 21 Punkten im Team Tab landeten, setzten sie sich im Finale aus der Eröffnenden Opposition gegen die Eröffnende Regierung University of Sofia A (Rumen Marinov, Niki Angelov), die Schließende Regierung Tel Aviv University A (Hadar Goldberg, Tamar Ben Meir) und die Schließende Opposition Princeton University B (Isaac Cape, Xiao-ke Lu) durch. Debattiert wurde die Motion „THP a world where all individuals have a strong belief in Ubuntu“ (mit Infoslide), juriert wurde das Finale von Ashish Kumar (Hauptjuror), Anna Shreder, Jack Stanley, Joseph Lewis, Pranav Kagalkar, Ruth Selorme Acolatse, Ruth Silcoff, Simon Luo und Tota Takahashi.

ESL Kategorie

Im Finale der English as Second Language Kategorie (ESL) konnte sich die Eröffnende Regierung DK Wien A (Marina Kojić, Paula Breyer) durchsetzen. Ebenfalls im Finale vertreten waren die Eröffnende Opposition Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology A (Prosper Michael Ametu, Vincent Johnson Attakpah), die Schließende Regierung University of Ghana A (Elisha Owusu Akyaw, Wesoamo Zempare) und die Schließende Opposition University of Zagreb C (Petar Žnidar, Mislav Mikota ). Das Thema lautete: „When they are not part of that religion, THBT feminists should refrain from critiquing widespread religious practices that have different rules based on gender (e.g. wearing of veils, separate prayer spaces, women on their period being forbidden from fasting, Iddah (waiting) period after divorce/death of a husband, etc.)“. Es jurierten Lucie Slamova (Hauptjurorin), Davida Paul, Devesh Kodnani, Emery Taylor, Juanita Hincapié Restrepo, Miriam Kalman, Robert Barrie, Tengku Omar und William Price.

Der Austragungsort des Finals der diesjährigen WUDC – © Mauricio Herrera und Jorge Blázquez

EFL Kategorie

In der English as Foreign Language Sparte war die Schließende Regierung University of Zagreb B (Paula Djaković, Vladimira Šuflaj) siegreich. Sie setzte sich gegen die Eröffnende Regierung Universidad del Rosario A (Jessica Zapata, Andres Revelo), die Eröffnende Opposition University of Athens A (George Aravosis, Panagis Gouvelis) und die Schließende Opposition University of Zagreb E (Lovro Marušić, Franka Logarić) durch. Die Debatte zum Thema „THBT religious organisations should syncretise over remaining independent“ (mit Infoslide) wurde von Udai Kamath (Hauptjuror), Alexandra McCreadie, Anum Naseer, Banun Sabri, Daan Spackler, Daniel Maier-Gant, Daniel Schonning, Erasmus Segbefia und Sebastián Dasso juriert.

Fotos der verschiendenen Finals wurden hier durch die Veranstalter veröffentlicht.

Der VDCH auf den WUDC

Aus dem deutschsprachigen Raum nahmen insgesamt fünf Teams aus den 3 Debattierclubs in Wien, Berlin und Zürich teil. Neben dem ESL-Gewinner-Team aus Wien waren dies ETH Zurich/University of Zurich A (Ekaterina Heim, Afia Asare; 11 Punkte), ETH Zurich/University of Zurich B (Jessica Fenger, Dylan Raj Singh; 14 Punkte), Debattierklub Wien B  (Mira Eberdorfer, Victor Bervoets; 13 Punkte) und Berlin Debating Union A (Felix Reischl, Martha Kliemt; 11 Punkte).

Als Jurierende breakten Flora Baek (Berlin Debating Union, open Partial Double Octo Finals), Sowmya Srinivasan (Berlin Debating Union, ESL Semi Finals and open Semi Finals), Helena Hecke (ehemals Tilbury House / Köln, open Octo Finals und open Quarter Finals), Miri Muntean (DK Wien, open Partial Double Octo Finals), Samuel Scheuer (ehemals Streitkultur Tübingen, Octo Finals) und Theo Dorfner (DK Wien, open Partial Double Octo Finals). Darüber hinaus nahmen an der WUDC als Jurierende Anna Neuber (DK Wien), Matthias Roshardt (DC Zürich) und Samuel Gall (DC Heidelberg / für DK Wien) teil.

Open Top 10:
1. Hadar Goldberg (TAU A) – 756 | 84.00
2. Tobi Leung (Ateneo A) – 754 | 83.78
2. Rumen Marinov (Sofia A) – 754 | 83.78
4. Matt Caito (LSE A) – 753 | 83.67
4. Tamar Ben Meir (TAU A) – 753 | 83.67
6. Ahmed El Sammak (LSE A) – 750 | 83.33
6. Niki Angelov (Sofia A) – 750 | 83.33
8. David Demitri Africa (Ateneo A) – 748 | 83.11
9. Tejas Subramaniam (Stanford A) – 747 | 83.00
10. Dylan Leo Mc Carthy (TCD Phil A) – 743 | 82.56

ESL Top 10:
1. Hadar Goldberg (TAU A) – 756 | 84.00
2. Rumen Marinov (Sofia A) – 754 | 83.78
3. Tamar Ben Meir (TAU A) – 753 | 83.67
4. Niki Angelov (Sofia A) – 750 | 83.33
5. Maria Matcheva (UNWE A) – 729 | 81.00
6. Mauricio Jarufe Caballero (PUCP A) – 728 | 80.89
6. Robert Raos (Zagreb A) – 728 | 80.89
8. Alexandr Sušić (EUDU A) – 727 | 80.78
9. Olja Bošnjak (Zagreb A) – 726 | 80.67
10. Biser Angelov (UNWE A) – 724 | 80.44

EFL Top 10:
1. Mauricio Jarufe Caballero (PUCP A) – 728 | 80.89
2. Olja Bošnjak (Zagreb A) – 726 | 80.67
3. Carasel Valeriu (Bucharest A) – 720 | 80.00
4. Paula Djaković (Zagreb B) – 719 | 79.89
5. Petar Žnidar (Zagreb C) – 715 | 79.44
5. Mislav Mikota (Zagreb C) – 715 | 79.44
7. Vladimira Šuflaj (Zagreb B) – 713 | 79.22
8. Velina Andonova (Sofia B) – 712 | 79.11
9. Jose Francisco Vergara Muñoz (PUCP A) – 711 | 79.00
10. Lovro Marušić (Zagreb E) – 705 | 78.33

Die vollständigen Ergebnisse des Turniers sind hier verfügbar.

Die Themen:

R1: Infoslide: A team that’s recently gained prominence after great performances at the World Cup has advanced to World Cup finals for the first time. After the semi final, the team’s top scorer and most important player, while drunk at a bar, publicly instigated a physical fight against another member of the team. When asked to calm down they continued to double down, causing more of a public disruption and seemingly irreconcilable differences with other members of the team.

THBT it’s in the interest of the team for the player to be excluded from the World Cup finals squad

R2: THP the quality of art being viewed as predominantly subjective as opposed to predominantly objective

R3: Infoslide: The Pacific Alliance (Spanish: Alianza del Pacífico) is a Latin American trade bloc, formed by Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru.

THBT The Pacific Alliance should introduce a common currency

R4: THBT governments, when determining housing policy, should heavily prioritise supporting renters over home owners

R5: Infoslide: Data journalism is a type of journalism reflecting the increased role that numerical data has in the production and distribution of information in the digital era. It reflects the increased interaction between content producers (journalists) and several other fields such as design, computer science and statistics. On the flip side, more traditional forms of journalism are qualitative in approach, focusing more on interpretation and contextualisation.

THS the increasing prominence of data journalism at the expense of qualitative journalism

R6: Infoslide: For the purposes of this debate, dominant political parties are ones that have won multiple elections and have been in power for a long time. We will assume power can be handed over in a fair election.

In developing countries with a history of ethnic, racial and/or religious tensions, THP a change of power from dominant political parties

R7: THBT it is in the interests of Taiwan to pursue friendlier ties with China (e.g. economic, political and cultural ties)

R8: TH, as an average individual in the world today, would prefer to be immortal

R9: Infoslide: Intellectual property is a category of property that includes ‘intangible’ creations of human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property including patents, copyrights and trademarks. The ‘internationalisation’ of intellectual property law refers to efforts to make intellectual property rights universally applicable, including the widespread use of treaties to recognise intellectual property rights across different jurisdictions, the creation of the World Intellectual Property Organisation, etc.

THBT the internationalisation of intellectual property law brings more harm than good

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P-D-OF: THW allow democratic governments to overturn supreme court/constitutional court decisions with a simple majority in the legislature

OF: THP a focus on societal factors (e.g. socioeconomic factors) as opposed to individual factors (e.g. personal history) when addressing the causes and consequences of mental health issues

QF: Infoslide: During the recent economic crisis, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has provided certain conditions to developing countries for receiving loans. These conditions require governments to adopt more market based economic policies. Targets include reducing government budget deficits and increasing international currency reserves. The policy conditions provided by the IMF include 1) reducing or eliminating fuel subsidies and fertiliser subsidies; 2) setting the currency exchange rate to international market rates; 3) implementing market-based interest rates; 4) anti corruption provisions.

THBT the IMF removing all conditions on these loans, except for explicit anti corruption provisions, is preferable to the recent conditions to developing countries

SF: THR the dominance of left/liberal views at universities

F: Infoslide: Ubuntu (“I am because we are”) is a philosophical belief that asserts that people’s identities should be shaped by, and their obligations should primarily be owed to, their communities.

THP a world where all individuals have a strong belief in Ubuntu

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ESL-SF: THBT education systems in Africa should emphasise pan-African history and identities rather than national ones

ESL-F: When they are not part of that religion, THBT feminists should refrain from critiquing widespread religious practices that have different rules based on gender (e.g. wearing of veils, separate prayer spaces, women on their period being forbidden from fasting, Iddah (waiting) period after divorce/death of a husband, etc.)

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EFL-F: Infoslide: Religious Syncretism is the practice of blending cultural/religious indigenous practices with different religious beliefs (for example, the Catholic Church merging traditional saints with local deities in Latin America). Religious Independence is the belief that one’s religion must remain tied to a unique set of religious teachings that contain the truth about humanity and divinity.

THBT religious organisations should syncretise over remaining independent

jgg.