Dear all, We are glad to announce that on September 18–19, 2010 in the beautiful city of Kyiv (Ukraine) Third Annual International Debate Tournament KYIV OPEN will take place, held by UYNGO “Debate Academy”. The Tournament is held in British Parliamentary style. Language – English. Team cap – 40 teams. Participation fee €15 for members of UYNGO “Debate Academy”, €25 for other debaters, no charge for adjudicators. Participants are provided with accommodation, food and transfer round our beautiful city. We insist on N-1 rule. Chief Adjudicator – Jens Henning Fischer (Head of Berlin Debating Union, prominent debater and adjudicator at Euros and Worlds). DCA's: Anne Valkering (EUDC finalist and Euros 2010 convenor) and Eugene Akulich (breaking Worlds &... Similar posts

Here’s an interesting vignette from EUobserver: Brussels is to hold an EU summit with atheists and freemasons in the autumn, inviting them to a political dialogue parallel to the annual summit the bloc holds with Europe’s religious leaders. While the EU is a secular body, the three European presidents, of the commission, parliament and EU Council, alongside two commissioners, on Monday met with 24 bishops, chief rabbis, and muftis as well as leaders from the Hindu and Sikh communities. The annual dialogue, which has taken place since 2005, is for the first time this year made legally obligatory under Article 17 of the Lisbon Treaty. Hey, I remember Article 17. I remember the perpetually angry Terry Sanderson waxing wroth about this requirement for a dialogue, and... Similar posts

Many, many people do crazy, crazy things to attract the cameras covering the Tour de France. Now that you’ve seen the photos from my first appearance at the Tour, take a look at how the media covered my presence. Due to my local renown, all I must do to appear on the broadcast is stand near the course. Proof? See the video evidence. By the way, The Expatresse also appears, along with daughters Skittles and...... Similar posts

Bloomberg News collects quotes hailing Ireland --“The scale of cuts in pay and spending here are unprecedented across Europe,” said Garret FitzGerald, 84, the Irish prime minister in the 1980s who reduced budgets and raised taxes. “We’re Northern European, less emotional, and more accepting of what needs to be done in a crisis.” You have to read the article a couple of times to see that by the economic measure to which it gives most attention, the budget deficit, Greece is doing much better than Ireland. Especially because it had no banking crisis.... Similar posts

This year’s Tour de France is one of the most exciting in recent memory, especially after yesterday’s events. Two weeks ago, the Tour began with a few stages in Holland and Belgium. I attended two stages within a two-hour drive from Luxembourg. First up, the Bruxelles-Spa stage, which was the first day of a real bloodbath that set the tone of the Tour until it reached the Alps. Here’s the link to the slideshow, which includes thorough notes on the drama of the day. (If you don’t see the descriptions, click on “Show Info” in the top-right corner.) A 90 minute drive brought my companions and me to a wet and windy spot in Basse-Bodeux, Belgium. The spectators are part of the fun, of course — as are giveaways like polka-dot caps. But it was a... Similar posts

Hello Debaters! We all had fun at Euros Amsterdam, but that is over now, Time to move on. And moving on starts at Eilat! If five days in a hotel along with all-you-can-drink free Alcohol and the most cracking A-Team in the world wasn’t enough* - we added more reasons to come to the Red-Sea-Open. As Announced in Amsterdam, the winning team will take away 500$!!!! We are also offering 250$ for the best speaker! That is 750$ that can be yours if you are the best speaker and win the tournament while your partner suddenly “disappears” after the final! (Cost of making partner disappear may exceed 750$.) So, what do you still need to do? Registration closes on July 25th, so you have less than a week to find a partner, pick a cool team name, buy a swimsuit and come down to a... Similar posts

Sounds like a fascinating book this! In Londonderry, as in many other parts of the country, economic necessity as much as a sense of loyalty may well have been a factor in so many men from both the Protestant and Catholic traditions heading for the various battlefields of Europe. In recent years it has been revealed that almost 50 per cent of the names recorded on the City’s Diamond War Memorial hailed from the Catholic/nationalist community. But, with the advent of the Easter Rising in 1916 and again at onset of the Troubles in 1969 it is true that those from the Catholic tradition felt uncomfortable recognising or remembering the involvement of their ancestors in service to the Crown. via ‘Remembering’- the city’s involvement in World War I – Londonderry... Similar posts

Kind of defeats the purpose of setting up the ECR in the first place:William Hague's instructions to the European Conservatives and Reformists group in the European Parliament, in which the British Tories sit, were decisive in securing a crucial positive vote on the European External Action Service (EEAS), EurActiv has learned.Without a decisive call by UK Foreign Minister William Hague to... Similar posts

Euros Main Break (I think in order - unclear from source)ULU B (London, Ross K. Allan, Simon Evans)Oxford A (Ben Woolgar, Thomas Hosking)Cambridge A (Harish Natarajan, Jack Watson)Kings Inn A (Dublin, Eoghan Casey, Patrick Rooney)Manchester A (James Dixon, Sam Block)TCD Phil B (Dublin, Jonathan Wyse, Doireann O’Byrne)TCD Hist B (Dublin, Ruth Fallner, Catherine Murphy)Erasmus A (Rotterdam, Jeroen Heun, Daniel Springer)Birmingham A (Bryn Gough, Tim Lees)Oxford D (Jen Coyne, Sebastian Farquhar)UCD Law Soc C (Dublin, Mark Haughton, Dearbhla O’Gorman)Haifa A (Leor Sapir, Hanneke Berman)Oxford C (Vignesh Ashok, Emily Pearce)Cambridge C (Charlotte Thomas, Natalie Smith)Nottingham A (Thomas Jackson, James Torrance)Oxford B (Hugh Burns, Neil Dewar)ESL Break (again I think in order)Erasmus A... Similar posts

UK Chancellor George Osborne using the oldest meeting trick in the book, the newspaper (The Times, as it happens) buried at the bottom of the materials. Except that he was holding up the materials.Still, it's a good sign for the UK that he saw the EU meeting as a snoozer, since it's the one that discussed next steps in the EU emergency finance package for countries in distress.One hopes the Irish representative (Martin Mansergh) was paying attention.Photo: The Council of the European Union... Similar posts

The Wall Street Journal editorial page uses forecasts of a modest positive impact of Spain's World Cup win on its economy to prove, to its own satisfaction, that it doesn't matter how much money is spent in any economy --But there's no such thing as a free celebration, and the money spent celebrating Sunday's 1-0 victory over Holland is, by definition, not available for spending on other things. A household that buys a crate of bubbly to toast Andres Iniesta will certainly improve the wine merchant's fortunes, but probably at the expense of someone else—perhaps a carpenter who had been booked to perform repairs, or wages for a cleaning lady.To put it another way, winning the World Cup does not expand the Spanish economy's productive capacity, and so the euros spent celebrating have to... Similar posts

Walter Oppenheimer, a Catalan journalist with the Spanish daily El Pais:Some Catalans hate the Spanish team, but most of them don't. Equally, some Catalans want independence but most of them don't. They might be ready to support it one day if necessary, but not yet, because they don't feel they need to be outside of Spain. Most Catalans are Catalanists, which is something rather different... Similar posts

Taoiseach and Government Ministers Must Be Accountable to Oireachtas on Key EU Decisions A report published today by a Sub-Committee of European Affairs and European Scrutiny Committees, chaired by Lucinda Creighton TD makes a series of recommendations which would overhaul the current system of interaction between the Houses of the Oireachtas and the EU. Click here to... Similar posts

and also Barcelona, it would appear!But the march could not have been worse timed, according to Josep-Lluis Carod-Rovira, deputy leader of the Catalan regional government and a leader of the separatist Catalan Republican Left party. "This is ridiculous," he complained. "We will end up with more Spanish flags being waved for the Spain-Holland match on Sunday than Catalan flags on the... Similar posts

Very interesting article on the connection between Ireland and the Choctaw Indians, by way of the famine: White Deer has just spent two days traipsing around the city with a filmmaker from Dublin, working on a documentary about the Choctaw-Irish connection. Among other places, they have visited the Irish hunger memorial garden in lower Manhattan, a quarter-acre grassy hill with the remnants of a famine-era stone cottage imported from Mayo. Etched into the stone base is a reference to the generous donation by “the Children of the Forest, our Red Brethern of the Choctaw nation.” via An Indian finds himself on the Emerald Isle.... Similar posts

In a week when the use of forged documentation in the asylum-system was highlighted with the rejection by the Supreme Court of Nigerian asylum-seeker Pamela Izevbekhai, FG and Labour are proposing the allow asylum-seekers to work. Despite 13% unemployment and mass-emigration – Alan Shatter and Pat Rabbitte are now arguing for the right of asylum-seekers to employment to be restored. Mr Shatter said in circumstances where there are 450,000 unemployed people in Ireland providing access to employment for asylum seekers was a difficult issue. But he said condemning people to a situation where they cannot work for four or five years was wrong. He said access to the jobs market should be considered in a way that would be appropriate in the current economic climate. Labour justice... Similar posts

Interesting and scarily relevant article about an unemployed TD in 1957 Ireland. In the Dáil / Hunger strike Murphy had difficulty trying to get answers to even the most basic questions in the Dáil. He could not even get an answer to how much unemployment relief money was being spent in Dublin.[32] In May Murphy and two other members of the UPC, Tommy Kavanagh and Jimmy Byrne, began a hunger strike to highlight unemployment and to protest against the removal of food subsidies in the budget.[33] The hunger strike lasted four days and each evening thousands of protestors gathered on the corners of Abbey Street and O’Connell Street.[34] Resolutions of support came in from trade union branches all over the country and there were demands for a one day strike. via The Election of Jack... Similar posts

I do love the writing and tone of the Bozo Sapiens pieces! The lesson of World War I was that huge artillery barrages on entrenched positions achieve little. Armor was the answer – but the British were short of armor. They decided instead on a huge bombardment from the air. The hope was that a precise but devastating raid on key points would clear the way for a swift and direct infantry attack via Bozo Sapiens: Operation Charnwood: Saturation.... Similar posts

Technically, we arrived in Baden-Baden at the end of a long day two. We checked into our hotel, found a lovely place to dine al fresco (with blankets to help keep us warm in the chilly May air) and enjoyed a relaxing night after a busy and interesting day. We retired early, intending to spend the day exploring the town and possibly a bit of the Black Forest south of town. The BBB&B favorite guide Rick had a walk through Baden-Baden that hit all the major (and some of the minor) sights. The photoset will take you through the details, but I thought I would give you a preview of some of the lovely things. Blooming flower beds Beautiful buildings Snacks! And, of course, sun and smiles After we finished Rick’s walk, we decided we could use a short break and possibly a... Similar posts