Words from Round 9

"And then all sheep were dead."

WUDC 2011: Round 9

"THBT social movements should use the courts rather than the legislature to advance social change"

The Round had been delayed to 20:30 on account of earlier fun and considerations around dinner (the canteen staff's departure times, to be exact). Now that debaters have been fed, it's time to sort this out ...
We are in high spirits that there will be a New Year's party afterwards. It may even include a Break announcement.

Round 8 Delayed

Start of Round 8 has been postponed to 15:10 local time, on account of what the CA team called a "monumental cock-up".
Apparently, not everybody had been provided with lunch ... "not everybody" including all vegetarians.

WUDC 2011: Round 8

"THBT the Southern African Development Community (SADC) should pursue political union"

Finally. Will see what teams do with this ...
To be fair, though, the expectation management this morning regarding Round 8 was excellent.
Round 9 will be at 19:00 local.

Words from Round 7

"Don't go and get yourself an underwear bomber" ...

I'm pondering.

WUDC Results After Round 6

Damn internet connectivity; others were faster ... ;)

Specifically, Colm has posted a copy of the Tab after Round 6. Achte Minute have already done an analysis on what this means for VDCH Land (that is kind of Great Germany, but phrasing it as such might land me an equity complaint ;P).

For all else, you'll need to wait for the break announcement tonight (as well as the full tab), seeing as we've been instructed to "give no more oral today".

WUDC 2011: Round 7

"TH would require individuals to reveal their actual identity when communicating on the internet"

From now on, Rounds are closed adjudication. Nothing better to keep the tension up ...

WUDC 2011: 30 Dec

It's been a fun night once again, and it's high time for bed.

Indeed, promises to ensure relative sobriety of others (who still need to speak) have been made within the German delegation.

Speaking of sobriety, that was clearly out of order on account of judge status.

The Phillipino/Botswana Brand Night was clearly good to us: A gin&tonic, a cigar, and a BW cultural performance ... Jens referred to my state as "mellow". Let's see whether we can upgrade to "inebriated" tomorrow.

Key observations until then:

• There were no drinks from Manila - Dino de Leon tells me that we need to come get those ourselves at Manila Worlds next year ... this gets me thinking (about flights)
• I associate some products with very specific places in my mind. Heineken has so far had an association to a beachfront bar somewhere close to the Olympic harbor in Barcelona. It is now attached to the University of Botswana campus
• Conclusion after two nights of socials (beyond the ice breaker): Things over here always end up in song and dance

WUDC 2011: Round 6

"TH would deny teacher's unions the right to strike"

Before this, more beer in the sun. - Did I mention that I love Africa ...
Debaters had their traditional Debate Day 2 Crisis today (How are we doing?, How could the judges in the previous round be so ignorant?, What are perspectives?), but everone I talked to was doing impressively well ... so I suppose the bin must be filled by "the others", whoever they are.

After this is dinner and Manila/Bots Brand Night. I'm curious as to the specialties they'll be serving ... :)
Before, there will be a German Caucus meeting - jawohl!

Good News

The tournament is currently running ~30-45 mins behind schedule, which - given the rather liberal timing of 2 hrs per Round - is a pretty fantastic achievement by all involved.

Favorite Quotes of the Day:

"There will now be toilet paper in all restrooms."

"We are talking to the administrator about opening the pool. Any certified lifeguards, please come forward."

I need to go check whether Bastian Laubner and Marcus Ewald have already followed that call ...

WUDC 2011: Round 5

"TH would prioritize asylum seekers who have engaged in armed struggle against oppressive regimes"

Lunchtime was spent in pursuit of BW cash (me; successful). Jens knows more about the Equity Forum.

Thought of the Round

Only because you perform barefoot, this does not make you Shakira.

WUDC 2011: Round 4

"THBT independent central banks should set limits on government spending"

Last night was "Recreation/Talent Night". Never thought I'd get to see Jamaican song, Jewish rap, and Botswanan dance in one evening ... good fun!
(Free drinks were curiously absent, though.)

WUDC 2011: Round 3

"THBT governments should NOT provide benefits on the basis of marital status"

Time inbetween Rounds was spent with beer in the sun and on an (unsuccessful) search for a working ATM on campus.
Jens meanwhile hosted the EU Caucus in preparation of Council.

The Public Speaking session is postponed to 21:15 tonight.

Looking forward to food and drinks after this ...

WUDC 2011: Round 2

"THBT all countries should have the right to possess nuclear weapons"

Interesting ...

Getting to food was a challenge at lunch - note to self: Don't offer individual feedback immediately subsequent to Rounds ;)
Shout out to my judging partner Finn from MAD, who footed the bill for the ice cream, thanks to which I survived ...

Round 3 is currently forecast to be announced at 18:15 local time.

WUDC 2011: Round 1

"THBT national sporting teams should reflect the diversity of the national population"

There's been a bit of a delay this morning, largely on account of the fact that everone needed to check in and that the latest reg updates did not make it to the tab. VLookup, anyone?

Check-in of speakers and judges before Rounds happens by manual database entry - when you're checked in, the system tells you that it cannot find you ... this has been a bit confusing when people checked in their partners or delegations.

Apparently, ESL/EFL also need to re-register ...

Feels a little like at the BW border ;)

Let's go ...

WUDC 2011: 28 Dec Wrap-Up

It's shortly past midnight, and I'm back in my room ... that kind of puts the party to shame just a little bit ;) (Details below)

Today's Excitement:

• Things started with the Debater/Judges Briefing and Administrative Announcements ... a little late this morning. So did I.
  The briefings were good, highlighting a holistic approach to judging and the notion that there are always judgement calls without much "automaticity" ... something that needs to be said especially at Worlds.
• Lunch was had
• Pre-Council took ~3.5 instead of 1.5 hrs, but according to Jens they managed to address already many things which would otherwise have needed to be discussed on 01 Jan - this includes the Bid Presentations for WUDC 2013 from Zagreb and Berlin. I have taken sides - I suppose Jens, too, has a private opinion but refrains from voicing that on account of his EUDC Council Presidency. We shall therefore keep the discussion out of here from our end until the voting has been completed ...
• A first round of the Masters Competition was held on the motion, "THW buy local" - I'm not sure on participants, etc., but we'll update latest on the Final
• The Welcome Dinner was held at night, incl. a welcome by the BW Education Minister

Awesomeness:

• + The weather is still divine ... those who complain really need to get a grip
• + The helpers/runners/volunteers are still amazingly friendly
• + There is beer on sale at the cafeteria (Note to self: Remember to get local currency tomorrow)
• + Speaking of which, the food is pretty good and plentiful
• + Up until now I rarely ever imagined that one day I'd be standing in the bathroom of a BW student dorm, with the only challenge at hand being to fix my bow-tie to socially acceptable standards

Potential for Awesomeness:

• - Apparently there were some visa issues, incl. nights spent at the ZA/BW border crossing ... Manos and Tuna have more
• - I like the food - but sometimes getting access is a little tricky ... the crew needs to catch up on crowd management techniques
• - Speaking of food, while I'll leave the ranting about special dietary needs to this gentlemen ... Halal were practically made Vegetarian, which not all appreciate
• - There is a case for a Lean Operations project to be sold here ... or something like that. Examples: Way too many entertainment items before all food on the dinner (guys, seriously, between main and dessert is the time), a buffet dinner (crowd management ... see above), and a conversation that included the statements, "we have run out of wine", "we are not sure as to other drinks", and "there were two departments kind of clashing over drinks responsibility, each thinking the other would organize"
• - They need to open the swimming pool

While there is a certain degree of what hopefully is turning into a steep learning curve, I'm still on holiday. In Africa. With beer.

Other People's Thoughts:

• Steve had the best tweets today
• Colm has it all on where the streaming of some debates will be happening tomorrow, and what the CA Team announced as "official results" of the Adjudication Test (Jens and I both differed on some counts ... clearly not a simple call)

Bring it on, 29 Dec!

WUDC 2011: Opening Ceremony and Dinner Impending

There you go: As much as they were advertised, the free condoms from my dorm are already gone. Looking forward to the Social ...

Oh, the day. Not so much stress, really (though Jens might beg to differ on account of Pre-Council), just a lot of time spent in the sun, drinking beer, and a little time spent indoors listening to good briefings. More later, I need to put on a tux, after all ...

Vacation Time

This is my annual leave. I was really happy to get out of the office for a while.

From Mike's photo of WUDC reg it appears, though, that my employer is following me around ... ;)

A Message From My Cell Phone Provider

Sehr geehrter Herr Maedler,

leider bekommen wir keine detaillierten Informationen über Netzausbau bzw. Netzstörungen in Afrika.

Allerdings ist bekannt, daß Südafrika bezüglich Netzausbau führend auf diesem Kontinent ist. Alle anderen Länder verfügen nicht über einen vergleichbaren Ausbaustand. Dies gilt auch für Botswana,

mit freundlichen Grüßen,

In essence, this is T-Mobile telling me that they have no idea what's going on with their roaming partners (or lack thereof?) in Africa. Lovely.

Thanks, OrgComm, for thinking of SIM cards for the participants (the only challenge is that everyone receives a welcome bag ... persistence has shown to be key here)! Will now try to get this working for international communication and data ...

WUDC 2011: Welcome to Botswana

Cosmic Girl brought Jens and Isa. A considerably less exciting-sounding Frankfurt am Main brought me (but hey, it was an A380, and I was in the only row in the whole of Eco with the middle seat unoccupied ;)

What they had in common: Reasonably on-time, reasonably chaos-free delivery of debaters and judges from -8°C and 25cm of powder into +25°C and sunshine.

First observations from a drive from Jo'burg to Gaborone:

+ Africa seems a wonderful place

+ The people here are immensely friendly

+ 25°C, sun. Summer. Putting the winter coats into suitcases until Jan 15

+/- Anyone in for an adventure is advised to take a border-crossing from ZA into BW by road. The bureaucracy. The facilities. Oh, wait, maybe this whole EU citizenship thing makes for a somewhat spoiled existence ...

- It's either easy to get a little lost in Gaborone, or Google need to do better homework

First impressions from Botswana Worlds (can't compete with Tuna's comprehensive analysis, anyway, but still):

+ Large, sprawling, well-protected campus

+ Did I mention the weather?

+ The immense friendliness of all the tournament staff we've met so far (and yes, both Jens and I have managed to keep them well entertained my locking ourselves out of our rooms ... still don't really understand the "replace actual lock by tournament-provided Chinese padlock" logic)

+ There was beer. On arrival

- No towels ... seriously

- As much as I romanticize my student life, but shared bathrooms ;P

- Break day remains a mystery, at least according to official schedule. I'm pretty sure, though, it will happen

So will sleep for me now.

See you all tomorrow!

WUDC 2011: Keeping Tabs

That is probably already a bad pun.

In any case, here is a work-in-progress version of how we think Worlds can come to you:

Blogs

• We will dump all relevant and maybe-only-relevant-to-some thoughts and infos on Worlds here (the RSS feed, specifically, is here) in as timely a fashion as possible
• A beautified version of our reporting, as well as possibly of that of some others, will be available at Achte Minute
• There are obviously countless others having fun over here, first non-exhaustive listings of whom are here and here

Twitter

• I might tweet the occasional thought
• It would be a good idea for you to follow Achte Minute anyway
• There is again a fair chance that others might also have thoughts on this

Shameless Self-Adulation

We have been busy lately, especially with trying to find new cups to facilitate our drinking habits ...

It is, however, good to be back. Botswana Worlds, we are much looking forward!