Belgrade Open 2009 debate tournament

Mental gymnastics

To debate means to think very quickly and to handle a lot of different information - on the tournaments, the competitors don't know in advance on which topic thay will debate to , and have only about fifteen minutes to prepare thier speeches. That means that being a good debater, among other things, means to have a broad general education , to know what goes on in the world and constantly do researches. The rest are nuances that can be thought through years of debating


By DUNJA TASIĆ
from Belgrade, SERBIA


People who practice debate tend to say that debating makes the best mental sport. The debate has its form, but leaves much room to interpretaton and imagination. It is something that puts the debater on a test over and over again, makes him defend his pssition with passion, and prepare the debate on various topics with equal pleasure. It is a game that shapes one's mind and makes you see things in an objective way, teaches you to think logically, separate relevant form irrelevant information, and what matters the most, teaches you that nothing is simply white or black and that apsolutely everything has both a bright and a down side.

To debate means to think very quickly and to handle a lot of different information - on the tournaments, the competitors don't know in advance on which topic thay will debate to, and have only about fifteen minutes to prepare thier speeches. That means that being a good debater, among other things, means to have a broad general education , to know what goes on in the world and constantly do researches. The rest are nuances that can be thought through years of debating.

Debaters have a chance to show off their skills on debate tournaments which are held almost every week around the world. One such international tournament is recently finished Belgrade Open, which was held in Belgrade from February 20th to 23rd. This year, the finalists were a Greek, Slovenian, Serbo-Croatian and a British team, and the winners were Slovenians Boštjan Pošhajner and Sergej Šuštar. The resolution of the final debate was "This home would incriminate genocide denial", and the visitors had the chance to enjoy a feisty debate in English language in the quarters of marvellous building of the Serbian National Assembly. Belgrade Open is a tournament with a 10 - year long tradition and it is open for debaters around the world. We talked about Belgrade Open and the significance of debating tournaments in general with Jovana Mitic, director of Belgrade Open and the president of the executive board of NGO Open Communication.

- Belgrade Open was founded in 1997, the same year as the Open Communication, which founders are the founders of Belgrade Open. The Open Communication is a Serbian university debating network, which is functioning by voluntary principle and which organizes annual debating programs in the Faculty of Political sciences, Faculty of Law and Faculty of Organisational sciences, but its programes are open to any student of Belgrade University. Everything started as an idea to create an international debating tournament in Serbia, since the meaning of debating is competing and going to tournaments. The biggest Belgrade Open so far was held in 2003, when we had the largest number of foreign participants and when it was included as an event of International Debate Association - says Jovana for WAVE magazine.

How many participants are there and where do they come from? Does one need to fulfil some special criteria in order to apply to this tournament?

The number of the participants, amongst other things, depends on the budget, because the most significant financial issue is for sure the accomodation of the foreign participants. This year we had 44 debate teams from which 22 teams were foreign and 22 were from Serbia. We had a lot of help in organizing the tournament from the volunteers. Those are the people who also practice debating on Serbian language, but maybe do not have enough confidance to debate on English language.

When it comes to criteria, it goes without saying that the participants are those people who already have some debating experience. We have already met most of the participants on some other debate tournaments, since they are being held almost evey week throughout Europe. Everyone who's interested in participating can go to the internet sight www.belgradeopen.rs and have a look, but, although the tournament is open for anybody in general, people who do not have any debating skills whatsoever can not simply expect to beat more experienced debaters.

How do you choose the judges of the tournament and which are the basic rules?

The judges are the people who have been practicing debating for at least couple of years. When somebody passes through the beginner's and than advanced debating workshops, as a natural course of things and the next step is to start judging on the tournaments. On Belgrade Open, we have some judges who have more than 10 years debating experience.

When it comes to the tournament rules, they are not quite universal. The main judge is the one who determines the rules. Here we have a British parliamentary form of debate, which includes four teams in a debate - two afirmative and two negative, or in debate manner of speaking, two governments and two oppositions. The main criteria is, for sure, did the team fulfuil its role, depends on the position it is on, than the argumantation, the style etc. The main judge on this Belgrade Open was Filip Tatalovic, and his replacement was Luka Keller from Croatia. This year Filip suggested a slightly different rules, and the main criteria was the argumentation, which means how much did a team prove it's case, no matter the position the team was on in the debate.

What does it take to organize an event like Belgrade Open and can you say it is a hard job to do it?

When we have enough funds, it is not that hard to organize it. We enjoy the support of Faculty of Law in Belgrade every year, in which quarters debates are being held. The final debate is held in the Serbian National Assembly, so the young people have the chance to debate at the building of a state's highest institution. Every year we have some interesting guests. This year we hosted Dr. Miodrag Majic, the president of the First Municipal Court in Belgrade, as well as Ruth Van Rhijn, head of Rule of law and Human Rights department of the OSCE Mission to Serbia. Besides this formal part of the turnament, we have organized an entertaining program and a city tour for the participants.

As an experienced debater yourself, why would you recomend to young people to start debating?

Debate was created in Great Britain as a simulation of parliamentry discussion between their government and the opposition. In many countries, debate has been recognized as an educational tool and an excersize of rethorics and public performance. Debating demands being in touch with current international political, legal and economical topics, which can be quite useful for the student who tend to limit themselves soly on their university programs.

Debating can teach you that there is no right or wrong answer and make you think about things independently as well as critically accept the data that someone is giving you and put them into context of what you are trying to prove. In debate, you never know which topic you are going to be given and position you are going to be on, so you have to inform yourself about every current topic and think in advance. Debating can also teach you to really listen to your fellow speakers and shape your own thoughts, present them in a proper way and ask all the right questions in a right time.


(Published: 10.03.2009.)