The art of debating

A regional tournament in Belgrade provided university students from throughout the Western Balkans with the opportunity to debate a variety of contemporary issues of relevance to the region and beyond.

The fifth regional Debating tournament of the Faculty of Political Science, “Denny Crane 2012”, took place last week, with a final debate on the motion that “This House would never restore the buildings destroyed in the bombing”.

Over the course of two days, debaters from the entire region competed for the title of the best team in the Balkans, through a series of debates on current political and social themes, such as the fight against terrorism, women’s rights, religion and politics, the relationship between the poor and rich, and eco-terrorism.

The winner of this year’s tournament was the team, ‘Independent List’, composed of Ognjen Rakić, from the Faculty of Law, and Stefan Badža, from the Faculty of Physical Education, the University of Belgrade. Students of the Faculty of Political Science, Helena Ivanov and Stefan Sirindžinski, who qualified for the semi-finals and had an equal number of speakers’ votes after four rounds, shared the award for best speaker. Amongst the ten best speakers were students of the Faculty of Political Science, Ana Kostadinović and Katarina Sladaković, taking sixth and ninth place, respectively.

The themes of the tournament were:

• First round – “This House prefers Guantanamo Bay rather than the current practice of the war against terrorism with unmanned aerial vehicles.”
• Second round – “In the case of a contact with extra-terrestrial beings, this House would send a woman as a negotiator.”
• Third Round – “This House would grant one seat in the Parliament to all more significant religions.”
• Fourth round – “This House would make a number of votes of one voter inversely proportional to his/her personal wealth.”
• Semi-finals – “This House believe that only people who take the law into their hands can save us.”
• Finals – “This House would never restore the buildings destroyed in the bombing.”

‘Denny Crane’ is a debating tournament which has been organised by the Debating Club of the Faculty of Political Science for the past five years. It is named after Denny Crane, from the famous American series, “Boston Legal”, who is portrayed as one of the best lawyers owing to his impressive debating skills.

The Debating Club of the Faculty of Political Science is part of a network of debating clubs within the academic network ‘Open Communication’. This year, the Debating Club is celebrating the tenth anniversary of its work.

TransConflict is pleased to be a friend of the Debating Club of the Faculty of Political Science, and looks forward to support its future endeavours.