Stockholm School of Economics in Riga & Latvijas Mobilais Telefons Debate Club

I was browsing a net when I bumped into an article about first male (actually born female who partially changed her sex) pregnancy. Read more at News of the World. By the way - some nice pictures are also available there.

Would you like to become the second male who is pregnant?

I just found three topic overviews on my desktop about rather interesting topics:

• Integration of immigrants
• Ethnic minorities
• Intercultural dialogue

Feel free to view them & learn from them! Where they of any good?

We’ll go to Lilaste by train no 6122 Riga-Saulkrasti at 10:48 tomorrow. So please be in front of the Central Station (near Rimi entrance) at 10:30 if you don’t want to go to Rimi or at 10:00 if you do.

Let’s have some fun!

 Traditionally Debate Club ends year with a forest event somewhere close to Riga. This year this wonderful event will take place on May 31st (this Saturday) in Lilaste. With participation of some DC graduates, this will be a great chance for socialising, playing some football and volleyball and swimming if anyone pleases before leaving for the summer holidays.

We will go to Lilaste by train (return ticket costs Ls 1.48) from Centrala Stacija at around 11am on Saturday morning and arrive to the same place the same evening Exact departure time will be figured out in Thursday’s session, so be there. Another good reason for showing up on Thursday is the fact that this is the last official session of this academic year

The full results from Kyiv Spring 2008 are finally available. Congratulations to Vaidotas who squeezed into Top10 on the Speaker Tab! Ervinas got into Top20, while Paulius and Aurimas B. overperformed 2/3 of the participants, being 26th and 21st accordingly.

As for the Team Tab - Aurimas & Vaidotas finished with 8 points (split 5th place, 12 overall) and Paulius & Ervinas got 10 points (split 3rd place, 6th place overall). As mentioned in the previous post, Paulius & Ervinas were only stopped in the semi’s.

You can download full tabs here.

SSE Riga Debate Club members participated in Kiev Spring 2008 on May 2-4. The competition was better organised and of higher quality than ever. Ervinas and Paulius managed to break to semi-finals, unfortunately they didn’t make it to the final. The tournament was won by Estonians - Uve and Mihhail. Regrettably, detailed results are not yet available.

The last tournament of this season for us will be the European Championships held in Tallinn at the end of June. In the hope of the best achievements, let us all enjoy the spring and good weather in Latvia

Last weekend our debaters participated in the Baltic Debating Championships in Helsinki. The tournament was small, but well organised. Our results:

• 1 team in final: Martinš & Vaidotas
• 2 teams just below the breaking line to final: Kristina & Arvydas, Dmitrijs & Baiba
• All speakers in top 11, with Martinš being 3rd, Kristina 5th, and Dmitrijs 6th

The next tournament with our debaters participating will take place already the next weekend in Kiev. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

Thank you all for coming to this event. I would like to in particular thank the speakers

• Vaidotas Lasas, the initiator of e-mail discussion, Year 2 student
• Kristina Saudargaite, Year 2 student, member of Debate Club
• Arvydas Ziobakas, Year 2 student, member of Debate Club
• Martins Vaivars, Year 1 student, member of Debate Club
• Dr. Diana Pauna, pro-rector
• Henrijs Jansons, president of the Student Association

Many thanks also to the members of audience that stood up and let their ideas to be heard.

The motion “The re-exam policy of SSE Riga should be changed” was defeated by 87 to 49 indicating that the students in general favour the status quo but there is a considerable share of students that are displeased with the current system.

All kinds of feedback are welcome!

Dear All,

Following the recent flow of e-mails the SSE Riga Debate Club would like to invite you to a public discussion of the issue of re-exams. The discussion will take place in the form of a debate, with the most distinctive and appropriate speakers, and will be followed by an opportunity to speak for all members of the audience.

Motion for the debate: “The re-exam policy of SSE Riga should be changed“

Speaking for the proposition of this idea will be

• Vaidotas Lasas, the initiator of e-mail discussion, Year 2 student
• Kristina Saudargaite, Year 2 student, member of Debate Club
• Arvydas Ziobakas, Year 2 student, member of Debate Club

Speaking for the opposition

• Martins Vaivars, Year 1 student, member of Debate Club
• Dr. Diana Pauna, pro-rector
• Henrijs Jansons, president of the Student Association

The event will take place in Soros Auditorium on Monday, April 14 at 18:00. All members of the SSE Riga community are welcome.

Best regards,
Martin Küüsmaa

SSE Riga LMT debate club will send a judge to help out our Northern neighbours. Hopefully the event will be good enough to send actual teams next year.