Debate as Travelling

“To see the world, things dangerous to come to, to see behind walls, to draw closer, to find each other, and to feel. That is the purpose of life.” – from the 2013 film The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. 

To me (the mysterious author), debate has never been about the sadistic glory that comes in defeating your opponents, or the attempts at constructing barely intelligible speeches and then infantilizing the opposition for not understanding. No, to me, weirdly enough, debate has always been about “travel.” 

On October 3rd, Qatar Debate hosted its annual British Parliament Debate Tournament. This iteration showcased a record number of teams with over 156 debaters participating, representing more than seven different countries. What also made this year’s QDBP so special was the presence of multiple international schools from Kenya and Uganda, and the representation of communities from Kurdistan Iraq and Jordan. The diversity of this year’s tournament was unmatched!

That is precisely why, debate is about travelling. Although the tournament was held at Qatar University in Doha, Qatar, in the span of two days the GU-Q Debate Union was able to travel to sides of the world they had never seen before. By debating teams from Jordan, we saw how culture and argument can intertwine; by debating teams from Kurdistan-Iraq, we learned how behind the volume of speech there lies history and struggle. Kenya’s teams reminded us that debate was not a mundane practice, but an art of storytelling–vibrant and alive; and the Ugandan teams showed us how rhetoric and wit is as persuasive as logic itself. 

Eight teams that represented GU-Q were engrossed in this rich environment, and I have no doubt that this experience will cement itself as an example of how debate becomes an exchange of ideas that converges worlds. Ameer Sadi (2028) and Mena Abdelhady (2028)–veterans of debate and rhetoric–were able to take the blue flag to the finals and had a fierce final debate with teams from UDST, QU, HBKU, and NUQ. And although Georgetown was unable to take home the trophy, our cabinet still remains hungry from our last year’s win at QD’s Asian Parliamentary Debate Tournament, which I am sure we will take home again this year!

So, reader, why did I even put a quote from The Secret Life of Walter Mitty at the beginning of this article? Because this tournament has shown us the value of debate as a medium of connection, one that allows us to transform the white walls of debate rooms into flora of countries we had never been to–that dares us to travel with our ideas. Indeed, we have seen behind walls, have drawn closer to cultures, we have found one another and felt the richness of debate. And despite not winning, our teams have returned with new experience, one that will make us the dangerous thing to come to in the next tournament.