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THE BELIZE TIMES
SCA’s Karen Munnings & Alexia Perez
The Great Debaters: E.P. Yorke battles SCA
Belize City, March 30, 2011 A hotly contested and quite eventful debate broke out in the University of the West Indies Auditorium on Monday, March 28, 2011 at 10:00am. The packed auditorium of mostly Belize City-based high schools sat to witness the commendable initiative of the Belize National Library Service and Information System (BNLSIS). BNLSIS is in the climax of hosting a secondary and tertiary school level debate in commemoration of Women’s Month. The debates follow the theme for Women’s Month 2011 which is: “Valuing Ourselves, Promoting Shared Responsibilities.” The topic debated was: “Be it resolved that in providing their value to society women should have shared responsibility with men.” The debate teams are organized by gender for the co-educational schools and the presentations have been vibrant and intriguing so far. The forum is surely a clean and healthy tool for teaching youths how to articulate differences of opinion and how to form intelligent ideas. The debates are structured in rounds of seven minute presentations and explode into three minute summary speeches. On Monday, Edward P. Yorke’s debating squad, represented by Brenton Codd and Francis Vanzie gave passionate, focused arguments that left the entire room with new perspectives and provocative questions but the day belonged to St. Catherine’s Academy.
The dynamic female duo of second former, Karen Munnings, and third former Alexia Perez, held their fort. In a refreshing and inspiring presentation, Munnings and Perez spoke with razor sharp zeal and focused substance. The challenges to the judging panel was an intimidating and formidable one, to try to weigh the competition, and this was apparent from a temporary and almost controversial hiccup in the tabulation and application of the one page rules the debates. After the smoke cleared and the students finished their nail biting, the rousing cheers were for the winners of this round, St. Catherines Academy. As we panned the room and listened to the excitement of the students, we noticed that the vigilant boys of St. John’s College had infiltrated the debates and were actively taking notes. The next debate is between the winners of Monday’s round and the SJC boys. Their espionage was professional and smooth, as a student from that school showed us the list of what he referred to as “contradictions that he could get them (SCA) on.” This has all the gut wrenching excitement of a heavy weight headliner in the making but it does leave the on lookers, students, teachers, organizers, parents and the public, with a sense of hope, inspiration, and national pride. Belize looks forward to the next round, and to hold the anticipation, that date will be announced at a later date.
EP Yorke’s Brenton Codd & Francis Vanzie
Sunday, April 3, 2011