Debate Again

So yesterday (Saturday May 12th) was the Chuuk State Debate…

Before I go on with what happened, let me fill you in with some background details. Last year I was in charge of organizing the whole thing. Things fell apart, it was kind of a mess, and it was the first time I really had a look into the state of things here on Chuuk. Last year, I used words like “ridiculous” and “incompetent”, and it is unfortunate that most events or general matters are not sufficiently, efficiently, or properly run/organized/dealt with. Basically, it showed me how band aids are constantly used here: they ask a 2 year American volunteer to run this Chuuk State debate which SHOULD be run by the department of Justice (just like how the other JVs run the Interscholastic events for basketball, volleyball and track and field).

As for this year, I was in charge. BUT the guy at the Supreme Court (it’s his job I’m basically taking over) agreed to get the judges and arrange communication between schools; two things that I (or anyone else up at Xavier) can not feasibly do. So, unlike last year, things were more organized. Yesterday, after driving down my team to the court, I helped get the court ready, and everything really fell into place: the judges actually arrived (on time!) and ALL the schools (4 of them, including us) arrived (on time!)! We actually started at 9:00 AM, like we agreed, not island time (30 minutes to 2 hours later).

Long story short, Xavier beat Saramen (the school that won last year), then Chuuk High and Berea Christian High (two schools that are not, unfortunately, up to the standards of Xavier or Saramen) faced off, with Berea winning. It was not the prettiest form of debate I have seen, but I am immensely proud that these two schools are participating and learning. Usually, in the past, it was JUST Xavier and Saramen, but it is wonderful to see more schools participate. Then for the final round, we faced off with Berea. Everyone knew before we would win, and during the debate, it was very evident that Xavier was stronger and Berea, trying their best, could not compete.

However, according to the judges, Xavier lost.

I will not spend the rest of this blog elaborating WHY Xavier obviously did not lose. But it is the opinion of everyone that the judges were either:

1) completely incompetent in the ways of debate, even though they are adults (with rather important positions in the Chuukese community, by the way), AND they had the rules for judging in front of them;

or 2) the judges felt sorry for Berea, OR they discriminated against Xavier because both of the debaters are Pohnpeian (as opposed to being Chuukese).

No matter what the reason was for the obviously ridiculous ruling, everyone was shocked. Everyone. No one was happy – students, teachers, people working for the court, people not affiliated with Xavier high school – no one.

BUT, we had to count up the points from BOTH of the debates held that day, and Xavier ended up winning the whole debate.

So my team came in first place. My students won, and I am very, very proud of them.

Needless to say, I am emotionally exhausted now: drained from moderating this huge event all morning, incredibly proud of my students for winning, absolutely fuming over this poor, poor decision by the judges (which hurts the credibility of the event, and also does not give fair due to both the Xavier and Berea students – AND something like this honestly feels like a nightmare that it will haunt me for a while), and lastly I am very relieved that this last of my big responsibilities here is over with.

So here is some big news:

The winners from each FSM state go to the National Debate in Yap in the beginning of July. All expenses are paid for the two debaters and the coach. Well, since I am the coach, I would like to go, so right now I am in the process of seeing if I can change my plane ticket and leave from here one month later. So all of you that were expecting me home in June, there is a good chance that I may be home by the end of July. It is a bit sad knowing that I will delay seeing everyone, but this will be an opportunity that I will not want to miss. And what is one more month? It’s not like I have a job to go back to.

Debate is finished! I have hundreds of pages of grading to look forward to this week. Then my work is really done.

Almost there.