NDC updates.

Lyceum C broke into the octofinals but got eliminated by Ateneo de Manila A and Siliman University A.

Lyceum also won the bid to host the National Debate Championship (NDC) next year. 

And I learned a lot about debating this week.

Davao!

I’ve just arrived in Davao City, the premiere city of southern Philippines, for the National Debate Championship. The debates will begin Tuesday so we have the whole of today and tomorrow to see around the city.

We got here through the controversial Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3, which, although a little bit overrated, is way better than the the other two NAIA terminals. It’s my first time to see the said airport. It’s my first time too to be in any Philippine city outside Luzon (the farthest south I’ve been to was Bicol, where friends from Japan who studied there toured me; while the farthest north I’ve been to was Baguio where Mariko and I were toured by Glady). But what makes this trip more exciting is the fact that this brings me for the first time to the beatiful Philippine island of Mindanao.

Can’t wait to explore the place. 

Terrorist state no more?

And so we saw yet another concession to Kim Jong Il last week coming from US President George W. Bush: the removal of North Korea from the list of terrorist-sponsoring states.

Bush promised to do this as early as June, when the North Koreans agreed to dismantle their facilities at Yongbyon; but the US postponed the delisting after Pyongyang refused to agree on the method for verifying the dismantlement of the programs. Last month, Kim ordered to restore the plutonium-producing facilities and talks of another nuclear test began to leak, prompting the Bush administration to finally remove Pyongyang off the list.

In return, the North Koreans resumed the dismantlement of the Yongbyon plant and agreed to let experts inspect the declared nuclear facilities. But they still won’t give these experts complete access to the North’s undeclared nuclear facilities.

This means that, since the experts can inspect only the sites that have already been cleaned by North Korean authorities, the inspectors would never get the real score on Pyongyang’s nuclear program. In other words, the North Koreans have once again made a fool out of Bush.

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Nakagawa proposes G7 bail-out fund.

The Associated Press reports that Finance Minister Shoichi Nakayama, who is set to attend a meeting of finance and central banks officials of the Group of Seven in Washington, is proposing that a joint fund be set up by the world’s leading industrial nations to provide emergency loans to nations hit by the global financial crisis.

According to the report, the cooperative scheme, which is also proposed to enlist the help of China and Middle Eastern countries, will be created through the frameworks of the International Monetary Fund. Nakagawa did not give details of the plan, but he said Japan’s handling of the 1990 bubble burst could offer lessons for other industrial nations.

During that time, there was a rush in Japan to invest on real estate and stocks as a result of the post-war economic boom. Subsequently, demand for real estate properties stagnated and went down, resulting to a dive in the value of the Japanese’ investments and leading banks to get stuck with pile of debts. Tokyo responded by injecting billions of dollars worth of public money to the banks to bolster capital spending.

Bail-outs are becoming trendy now after the 700 billion dollar Bush proposal was approved by the US Congress and is now being implemented as a response to the market crash brought about by the subprime mortgage crisis. The United Kingdom is now pouring capital into its banking industry while Iceland has nationalized three of its major banks.

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What the hell.

When my mom visited my school and had breakfast with me at nearby McDonald’s last week, people I know who saw us together thought she’s my new girlfriend.

One friend even asked: “Who’s that new girl you’re making moves with?”

What the fuck, right?

No elections?

Newly-appointed Prime Minister Taro Aso (I just found out that his Catholic name is Francisco) has called on the Opposition to proritize the economy over politics, citing the urgency of addressing the global financial crisis that originated in Wall Street.

According to the Japan Times, Aso said that “The government must give priority to economic and financial measures for the immediate future” rather than dissolve the Lower House for a general election.

Statesmanship, eh?

Is Aso trying to hold off the anticipated elections because of the economy or is it because of the recent Asahi poll that shows the Prime Minister and his Cabinet’s approval rating going down? 

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Intra IVs tabs up.

The team and speaker tabulations of the recently-concluded Intramuros Inter-Varsities Debate Tournament have been uploaded to the Debate Philippines e-group by the tournament’s convenor, Ryan Castaneda. 

Swing (Ateneo de Manila) A, composed of Ely Zosa and Kip Oebada, emerged as champion of the tournament. Two teams from UP Diliman and another one from Ateneo de Manila were grand-finalists. My team, Lyceum C, made it to the semi-finals while two other teams from the IDU, Letran A and Mapua A, reached the octo-finals.

The Intra IVs was hosted by the Intramuros Debate Union (IDU), a consortium of debate societies of the Mapua Institute of Technology, Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, Collegio de San Juan de Letran and the Lyceum of the Philippines University, upon the initiative of the Lyceum Debate Society. The IDU’s generous official partner was e-PLDT Ventus.

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