PHILIPSBURG–Representatives of the St. Maarten, Antigua and Anguilla debating teams will be participating in the Leeward Islands Debating Exhibition in New York from April 7 to 10.
The event will be held at the Medgar Evers College in New York.
Representing the St. Maarten team will be University of St. Martin (USM) students Dwayne Griffith and Alexandria Baly Stanford and Charlotte Brookson Academy (CBA) student D’shnay Matthew York.
Griffith is enrolled in the USM General Equivalency Diploma (GED) tutorial programme, while Stanford is a second year student in USM’s General Liberal Arts programme.
The first debate exhibition moot will be “The Caribbean is not doing enough to combat child abuse” with St. Maarten as proposition and Anguilla as opposition. The second exhibition debate moot will be “The marginalisation of men has led to the breakdown of Caribbean society” with St. Maarten as proposition and Antigua as opposition. USM instructor Roberto Arrindell will be the moderator for the debates. Organisers said this is no longer a competition, but an exhibition of the “very best” talents in Leeward Island Debating Competition. The purpose is to showcase the high quality of debating, USM said in a press release on Wednesday.
The first debate exhibition is scheduled for April 8, at 11:30am. The debates will be streamed live on YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sL-0PXxLVcA.
While in New York, the debating teams also plan to visit the United Nations (UN) office.
The St. Maarten debating students competed in the recent Leeward Islands Debating Competition (LIDC) held at the Sonesta Maho Beach Resort and Casino recently.
Arrindell had been the head coach of the LIDC team St. Maarten. Arrindell had received the J.A. George Irish Oratorical in recognition of outstanding achievements in the literary or oratorical and/or the promotion of freedom of speech amongst the youth.
USM Dean of Academic Affairs Genéve Phillip said she recently learnt that Arrindell is the longest-serving faculty member at USM. “What is most important and admirable about this is his diligence and level of unwavering commitment for all these years,” Phillip said. “I’m happy that he has remained with USM to contribute not only as the excellent Math teacher that many of his colleagues acknowledge he is but he has also remained with USM, ensuring that we have well-rounded and skilled students who can represent us when the opportunity presents itself, such as this debate.”
“It is noteworthy that these youngsters are very much aware and attuned with issues like the illicit drug trade and child abuse in the Caribbean region and that they possess the ability to effectively articulate their views on such,” she added.
“Traditionally, we have not engaged our region’s youth enough in these types of discussions and it will be to our detriment if we continue to forgo the opportunity to allow them to contribute to discourses that have far reaching implications for the political economy of development in the Caribbean.”
Source: The Daily Herald Local debate students to attend exhibition in NY
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