blast from the past.

my friend found this and emailed to me. Can’t believe he still kept those old newspaper reports about our exploits. a nice surprise.

I have to say that I was grinning from ear-to-ear when i saw it again. That was the time when i know that i had some talent. We were on a roll that year. KL and Malaysian Champions with a record of 40-1.

SMK Damansara Jaya with their 3 TV Hosts blemished our unbeaten record. sigh. those were the days.

apparently, i do not know english

was called to judge at the IIU Interschool Debate by my former trainer. figured that since i had nothing to do and i feel that i owed my alma mater a lot as they have spend hundreds of thousands of ringgit (give or take) on me, i went.

at the last round of the day i was judging these 2 teams – let us just call them team A (government) and team B (opposition). it was a problem solving debate and not a principle debate.

in a principle debate of course things are pretty basic, a clash of the principles takes place. but in a problem solving debate, one would need to look into whether the solution matches the gravity of the problem.

it was pretty clear after the 2nd government speaker’s speech that team A did not have clue of how to deal with a problem-solution debate especially after it was pointed out by team B that there is a problem-solution mismatch i.e. that the solution offered is too small to deal with the gravity of the whole problem identified by team A. team B was very consistent in the line of argumentation and engaged team A at every juncture of their argument while carefully making strategic concessions whilst differentiating their solution to the problem although certain principles were overlapping.

in the end, i awarded the debate to team B due to reasons which are apparent such as mentioned above and that shocked team A who thought that they won the debate hands down.

i pointed out to them that (a) they had a problem-solution mismatch (b) they were not consistent in their line of argumentation (c) they were dismissive of their opposition (d) IIU Interschool is not the same tournament as the Dato’ Wira trophy.

one person looked pissed off. another looked furious. my conscience was clear. when the adjudicator feedback form came about, they had written only one comment about me which was:

“the adjudicator does not know or understand english”

well, i have long accepted that i do not have the best command of english as it is not my mother tongue. for that i do not feel insecure but sadden by the lack of sportsmanship (debate is after all, a form of mental sports).

those spoiled, pampered sore losers. they have a long way to go to learn and accept defeat graciously. i do not wish to name the school, but let’s just say they are from Damansara. those spoiled, pampered idiots…sore losers i mean.

p/s: it’s not meant for everyone from Damansara. just those kids. typical.

p/p/s: im not bitter. just appalled by the fact i was told by a bunch of kids who have yet to win anything that i am beneath them.