Idleing Incohrently about Debating

(see previous Posts for relevant statement........hint it has to do with spelling)

As usuall I start a blog with no clair Idea of what I wish to write about.

Debate Society
My stint in UWI debating society was an educating experience for me. I have always shunned leadership positions because I disliked the responsibilty, while there however it became clare that it was devided in 2 factions, and at the time (I think) I was one of the most promissing new debaters they had in terms of raw talent, (they still had tons of work to do to get me up to speed). at this point let me take the Time t big up 2 people.

Kevin Baker :-
The epitemy of debating this man is the perfect debater, I kid you not. His style is that of some one who takes his time to tear your argument logically, limb from limb. He isnt flashy, does not use diliberate jokes, but sound unbrakable blocks of logic that crush all in its path, there is no hope of survival against him. Whenever a match was called and he was participating, you could see defeat on the other teams face before the match even started, and with good reason, he was flawless. But Why I apreciate him is the fact that he introduced me to debating taking me from the spine on those nights as a fresher on taylor hall. At first it was just a chance to get away from the raggi... er I mean orientaion (There is no ragging on hall). He encoraged me, guided me and showed me a platform. Its hard to describe, I am not a public speeker, I am not a good rebutter, but I like to present an argument (a position called Prime Minister or Leader Of Opposition in or style of Debating). When you are given the moot 15 minutes before the debate and you prepare your arguments and all you have are a bunch of jottings on a piece of paper that looks like jibberish as your sweating hands smear the ink all over the page, U can barely hear the anythiung cause your knees are rattling too loud. The moment you touch the podium everything changes. You realize that in this style of debate you are the speaker of a house, you are here to show these people the obvious that U are right and they are wrong. I'll not say that I love the spotlight, but I felt at home behind a podium, to have people listen to your every word. This is world that he introduced me to. (No I have no intention to become pastor)

Like I said, they saw me with a lot of potential but It never came to much fuitation.
The second Person I want to mention was not as good as Kevin but was Great. It was when I saw Him Debate way bak in High school that I decided that I wanted to debate. He was flashy Arorgant and Commanding at the podium and he made everyone suck it up and Love it. I saw that and said I want to be able to that.

Stuart Rodney
Cornwall College Production, of course, this yout was the tuffest, when I first started to debate I tried alot to mimic his style, but trust me there can be only one Stuart. I remember when we went to USVI to debate in the intercolleget champoinships and the opsition speaker made a comment and he burst out "TO RAAATID!!" for all to hear, it was tuff, totally scandelous, but it was the right mode for the debate. Needless to say we won.

After a while I developed My own style, I use to worry because I got to the point where, Before I got up I would decide what kind of persona I wanted to present before I got to the Podium,I mean I would do a complete personality shift. At one point I caught my self and realize how bad it was. I remember in one debate the opposition came up with an argument that was Airtight And I knew to my stomach that we lost I could not think of anything to say and then the moderater started to announce that I was to go next, I remember thinking that Im gonna come out calm and dissintrested in the fiery speach that the oposition just put up. And I was Surprized just completely I was able to change my whole thinking of the situation, I kinda shocked myself (We didn't win) after that It was even more fun, it was like deciding what mask to put on when it was my turn to speak. It was hype. But like I said I was only confident at the podium before and After I was a reck.

bak to to the topic at hand, leadership. Well it became clare in my second year in the Society that The too factions somehow saw me as the next president and as such the politics started to filter down. I will tell you this I regret in a way that I had not allowed them to vote me in, but I knew then and know now I was not ready. The politics in the society was deeply intrenched in the school politics as we usually got huge huge sums from the school just because we were an academic-ish society that showed of the itellectual skill of the school internationaly. They were willing to fork out the big gucks for us. But with big bucks comes big politics and my level of maturity at the time would not allow me to survive that. At the time my only thought was that I was scared, They would have major arguments with the big wigs of the school and they never backed down unless they got a compramize we could work with, I knew I was too intimidated to do that. I think now that both factions were not worried about that cause they seemed sure thyey could 'advise me' as to what to do. In any case when It came to nominations they selected me, and told them the first lie I could think of :). I told them i might be dropping out of UWI. HA! it took awhile to convince them, but trust me nothing else would have worked. Needless to say they were terribley dissapointed in me. Ah well such is life.
But enough of this morbid stuff. I have code to write. In my next blog I write how I came to choose between pan and Debating.