| DISCLAIMER:
This report does not intend to offend... it is hoping to be funny for the
most part.
Michael Saadat and
Annesley Athaide – Macquarie’s only team at Glasgow Worlds. (the XXI worlds).
Glasgow Worlds started
with Glasgow’s heaviest snowfall for 15 years. In some ways, I didn’t actually
mind this. Despite being stuck at Glasgow airport until 4am waiting for
a cab (in a blizzard, after having our flight diverted to Edinburgh first),
it was kinda fun seeing snow for the very first time… The snowfall was
also to set the tone for the tournament – cold, wet and miserable.
Most people expected
an awful lot from the Glaswegians. They had a really cool party at Sydney
Worlds, and we all thought they were a really cool bunch of people. We
seem to have forgotten that the people who tend to be really “cool” and
“fun” don’t tend to be the best organisers. Even the best debaters aren’t
the best organisers – yes, they’ve won Worlds five times and their university
is 550 years old – but yes, the tournament was still awfully bad.
I couldn’t possibly
go through all the problems at Worlds 21st anniversary (see Annesley or
me for that); I’ll stick to the juiciest bits. I don’t know if cancelling
the last round of debating was the worst thing that happened, or if it
the food poisoning of half the people present took the cake. Letting debaters
speak twice in a debate (as a result of having a sick partner) was definitely
controversial, and the lack of signage or people to direct us to rooms
was just down right annoying. The lack of vegan, halal or kosher food at
the Championship dinner definitely ruffled a few feathers, though everyone
suffered from having all but one social event in the not-so-glamorous GUU
(Glasgow University Union).
Fret not, however.
The New Year/break night party was fantastic (we didn’t break, but loads
of Aussies did), as was the final night party. The alcohol did flow quite
freely (even cheaper than soft drink!), the adjudicating was ok and there
were some funny moments (thank you Ireland). In the end Sydney University
won.
Oh, one more thing…
in addition to waiting hours between rounds for a draw, whatever took the
cake for the worst problem was definitely iced over by the following. Feeling
happy with their performance thus far, the Worlds committee decided to
sit in an exclusive part of a nightclub (at one of the functions) and drink
“frei” (“free” in German), with everyone else paying nightclub prices.
But I hate to be a bitchy debater (tautology?) – remember guys, it was
the worst snow in 15 years… |