Elmo's View of Debate I

ELMO'S VIEW OF DEBATE I- FORM ONE TO NATIONAL TEAM ASPIRATIONS

(This is the first part of a series that you’ll be seeing on my blog very often from now on….  Should be fun right? In any case, National selections were held for Secondary Students across the country to pick the top 10 debaters. After much sweat and blood, I have decided to examine some of my great moments as a debater since my Form One Days, to the present day. I also give a basic outline of what debate is actually like for us word warriors. In the next edition I’ll tell you a detailed explanation of what Debate is and the nature of Debate, and I’ll tell you more about our upcoming tournaments as the Captain of the Botswana Schools Team.)

I've had five great moments in Debate so far since Form One.

The first was when, in the rainy downpour of the late year, I, the only Form One in the whole of the MaP Debating Society was ranked as the top debater in the whole school. I was fourteen years old, and my hair was a bit shorter. I was quite starry eyed and happy, and I had this ability to flood everyone around me with my sunshine vitriol. I had gotten this position because of one book: The Caged Virgin by Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

The second moment was when I had presented my 'famous' "Logging Off Twitter" speech at the Books Botswana Debate Tournament 2012. I got second place because apparently I wasn't loud enough. Me, not loud enough! In any case I'd tell you all what the speech is about, but it's very embarrassing because it has to do with a girl. And I'll spare both of us any elaboration. This was the Public Speaking Category so really anything goes, one could speak on anything from Neo-imperialism and patriotism, capitalism and communism, and even stupid adolescent affection. My nickname for that tournament as given by Jamie, the great Uhuru Public Speaker was "the man with the big words."

The third moment was when, the night before I had to go for the National Debate Championships, as a confidence exercise, I would cry out to the starry night sky (I had fed the dogs late: I AM THE GREATEST DEBATER IN BOTSWANA! This gave me so much spirit, vigour and passion that I couldn't help but smile afterwards. I use this as my maxim at every tournament to inspire me.

The fourth moment was when I got my Sesame Street inspired nickname at Radisele, and the National Debate Championships. We were doing what is called a demo debate where an example debate is done to show people how the whole thing is done in terms of structure, style and so on. The demo debate consisted of University students but they asked one of the Secondary students to volunteer. I was the only one in that hall of about 500 kids to put their hand. Well I think a few other people put their hand up after me, but still, I was first. The debate was based on a principle motion, so arguments of morality came into place. I used Sesame Street and Elmo as examples of basic morality to undermine the opposing team and to add a bit of humour. Unfortunately, Fangz attacked me in his rebuttals by saying that "We're listening to a guy who takes his debating advice from Elmo." In the end, I still got a huge round of applause and felt proud. And the name Elmo stuck, everyone knew me by it.

The fifth moment was when I got selected as Captain of Botswana Schools Debate Team for 2012/2013. The message I received which I got on Facebook sparked an investigative stance from me. It said "Congratulations Captain, sir" from another team member. Looking at the official statement I was given the position of Team Captain. I think, I'm pretty sure I was the youngest. I'm pretty sure I secured this position after Justice (during Monkgogi and I's selections, he also got selected for the team by the way) heard my speech about my most important concern for the future. I said my Physics education and gave a passionate delivery about why I love Physics, and got to use the famous line: "Ahhhh, What a fine day for Science!"

For me, these are the moments I remember the most in Debate. While I've had plenty of others, my favourite being that they told me that varsity girls like Debaters. So really, no matter how miserable at high school I end up being, I've got a pretty awesome future set up. And I wish to craft many more as I go on, Debate for me is a lifestyle to which I wish to uphold the most fundamental principle in everything I do. And no, to my creationist friends, it isn't to argue. The principle happens to actually be a question: Why?

Debate is all about the one simple question, and that's why I love it some much, because I can link it to my love of Science and Philosophy. Debate is the complex, structured application of the why's and how's of knowledge. And it leads to brilliant results. Though Debate is seen as mostly a political, social and economic vehicle, I prefer looking at it from the less popular perspective, the scientific and philosophical stances and implications. This is why I hate policy motions but love principle motions. And why I'm the only debater I know who wants to a Physicist.

Debate isn't just arguing all day as most people assume. Arguing all day can be quite exciting even, or it can be gratingly irritating. It depends of the people and the structure of your arguments. People unwilling to learn equals a gratingly irritating argument where despite all the efforts, the more intelligent being never seems to be able to educate anyone. Arguing with smart people can be exciting but will eventually end in anger and irritation without structure. Debate is where all of this comes. For one thing, the presence of more than one speaker can help maintain a debate regardless of the intelligence levels of the participants, and structure gives the opportunity for everyone to voice their opinion fairly and allows the clear and distinct thinking to shine through. Of course, oftentimes this can become excruciatingly boring. But, structure, plus willingness to learn plus a good topic will make for a very exciting game of intellectual blood sport. I say blood sport because debate is very harsh, and there will always be victims in the clashes. But the process in which this done, the sheer excitement as a result of the debate as a whole, pretty much negates all the little whiny behaviours as a result of losing... unless you have terrible, biased adjudicators.

Debates, likes stories, have a beginning, middle and an end. They start with an introductory sequence of statements and arguments that define and explain a topic thoroughly, and from there on the debate flows on, arguments and rebuttals, until the conclusive summary offered at the end. It is from this data that the judges, the adjudicators, must judge who argued best from three criteria: content, speech making quality i.e. vocal delivery, eye contact and hand gestures and finally style: the structure and the way your speech was delivered.

Different types of speakers are prominent. You will have strong speech makers, who are loud and entertaining, but don't actually say anything worth really listening too. Mr. Laverick thinks I'm this type of speaker, and therefore said I would make a good dictator because I “say a lot of things but don't really mean anything". They are content speakers, quite, and calculating, these guys focus on the task at hand. These guys are very dangerous, Monkgogi is one of them. What they do is completely destroy the opposition with a second thought, without caring, without any sign of effort or fatigue... and they sit down calmly afterwards. Then they are style speakers, who pretty much use the crowd to their advantage. I, being a crowd pleaser, find myself close to this category, but I'm actually a mix between content and delivery.

Debate can be a very emotional sport to partake in. For one thing, you can feel the weight of your voice when you speak, and thousands of little eyes dart back and forth between your face and lips, the ears focused on you. It is stressing. But if you suck. No such attention is paid to you. This feeling is worse than the stress. Tears fall in abundance at these tournaments. Feelings of inadequacy and defeat, of sheer hopelessness at the prospect of having your dreams and ideas shattered by a particularly intelligent opponent. Or even that horrible, horrible dread of not feeling good enough.

At a basic level, Debate compromises of these things, structure, speakers, emotion, great moments, stories, advice. But most importantly every debate is a learning opportunity. Once the tears are wiped, once hands shake together, once the silence of anxiety in a room is broken as the results are announced.... These, and so much more make up debate.

And as we continue all these journeys together, as we create more great moments together, perhaps this article will become slightly more complete, but for now...

All Batswana reading this support your team. Help get us sponsorship from the likes of Private Companies and beyond. But most of all believe in us so we can reach greater heights in Debate. So we feed this hunger for learning, this desperate need to think. Support us, and help us feel, that we are indeed, the Greatest Debaters!

Debate has horizons that extend everywhere and affects all of us. From the bickering that happens in the Security Council and the General Assembly in the U.N to the stuff happening in the government in our own country. This is why it’s so important that we foster this spirit, this want, this need to learn in any way we can. And Debate, is just another brilliant way for us to apply that simple question that has lead mankind to greater heights: Why?

Good luck Team Botswana.

"Ahhhh.... What a fine day for Science!"