| Introduction | 11/22 | 11/23 | 11/24 | 11/25 | 11/26 | 11/27 | 11/28 | 11/29 | Alfred C. Snider | Debate Central |
I awoke refreshed and ready
for my first day of debate activities, although most of them would not take
place until later in the day. The breakfast at Hotel Conde Ansurez was predictable
and tasty; with the twisted bread they served tasting as if it had come out
of the baking oven moments before.
After breakfast I decided
on an early morning walk to scout out the neighborhood a bit more and see if
I could find some blank CDs to buy so that I could make some music CDs as gifts
for friends in Chile. My iBook carries over 3000 songs, so I am able to select
special songs for special people and burn them in just a few minutes. My iBook
is truly my portable entertainment and information center, my most valuable
traveling companion. The neighborhood was much busier than it had been the previous
day, Sunday, and it was clear that this was, in fact, the neighborhood of the
universities as young people who looked like students seemed to be everywhere.
The buses were running and the traffic was heavy. I noticed that there were
many, many more Internet cafŽ-shops in the area, at least four within 100 meters
of the hotel. I knew that if I needed Internet access it would be easy to find.
I did find several small shops also offering computer accessories, and scouted
several until I found a very inexpensive set of CDs and bought ten of them for
a very reasonable price, especially given that they were high quality 40x discs.
After a bit more wandering around I discovered the basic food and supply store
I would need.
The streets were vibrant with
a youthful population. I noticed that many men wore their hair in dreadlocks,
a much higher percentage than you would see on any American street, even higher
than one would see in Burlington, Vermont. The mobile phone craze seemed to
have hit Chile as well and many people talked as they walked, a decided change
since I had been here some 20 months before.
Back in my hotel room I was
catching up on the news I heard some interesting noise outside my window. It
turned out that a student protest march was taking place on Calle Republica
outside my window. The avenue led down to the main street in Santiago (called
the Alameda, although it has several different names, and at this point it was
Boulevard Liberator Bernardo OÕHiggins) and I watched them march down towards
the main boulevard and by the McDonaldÕs across the street. I could not decipher
what it was they were protecting given my weak Spanish. In any case they had
considerable energy and determination and there were about 150 school children
all in school uniforms marching along with banners they had made, blowing whistles,
and chanting slogans. I like this country Ð people have opinions and they express
them loudly but in a non-violent manner. This phalanx of neatly dressed school
children was a clear example of that.
After just a brief time in
Chile it became clear to me what the most often spoken phrases I used were.
"You soy Americano" along with "Me habla espanol poco" were
remarks that I prefaced many of my conversations with. This seemed honest and
described my situation. This allowed me to use my fairly extensive Spanish vocabulary
in tandem with my miserable Spanish grammar in a way that people appreciated.
People seemed top like that I was trying very hard to communicate in Spanish
even though I was far from adequate in my attempt. Most taxi drivers would attempt
a conversation even though they knew almost no English, and I was able to respond
to most of their initiated conversations, but often after at least one repetition.
My experience is that non-English speakers are much more tolerant of our attempts
t speak their language than we are in the reverse situation, and I was very
thankful for this.
I went back to work on some
of my lectures and during a break I decided to adjust the time zone on my iBook
so that it would tell me the correct time, there being no clock in my room.
I was surprised to notice that Santiago time was two hours later than New York
time, even though Santiago is near the Pacific coast of South America. In fact,
it is only three hours earlier than Greenwich Mean Time. I know that soon I
will stop worrying about time zones wherever I am and just think in GMT so that
I have full temporal orientation wherever I am. Perhaps then I will be a true
world citizen.
As I began to think more and
more of all the things on my schedule and all of the things I want to accomplish
here in Chile I began making lists. For those of you who do not know me, making
lists is one of my habits. John Meany is often making fun of me for this habit,
but it helps me remember and prioritize things. I had a list of events and engagements,
a list of things I needed to find out or do (a very practical list, and a list
of issues I wanted to deal with during my visit. As lists go these were very
pleasant.
| LOGO OF SOCIEDAD DE DEBATE | MURAL IN DIEGO PORTALES DEBATE OFFICE |
I left the hotel and decided
to walk to Universidad Diego Portales for a visit with my friends at Sociedad
de Debate before the events of the evening. They have new offices at 237 Ejercito,
just a few blocks from my hotel. The new offices seemed much larger than their
previous facilities, and I realized why this was needed when I noticed how the
staff had been increased. Benito Escobar is now also in charge of cultural affairs
at UDP, and so there were far more people around, but also more people working
exclusively on debate. Besides Benito there is Francisco Mas (I am told to call
him Paco), Paola Bernales, Claudio Fuentes, Andres Kalawski, as well as Miguel
(who worked camera during most of my presentations) and Andrea who seemed to
be in charge of office affairs for Sociedad de Debate. They seemed pleased to
give me a tour of their office space, including a large open space for the public
to use that has a large and colorful mural on the wall. After meetings with
Benito and Francisco (where many things were crossed off my list) I had a chance
to meet with Rodrigo, a journalist who would be my translator during my presentations
on Tuesday. We reviewed the texts I had sent down some days and weeks earlier
and cleared up a few language issues, but also Rodrigo gave me some background
about the Chilean school system and related youth issues so that I would be
able to better relate to the students as well as refine the debate topics I
was going to brainstorm through with them. I also had a chance to meet with
Claudio and Andres, two individuals I had not met previously. They are working
on a communication concept they call status theory and wanted to share it with
me. It recognizes the inherent status dimensions in any human communication
and attempts to chart how the communication event is influenced both by differences
in status and status changes intended and produced by the communication event
itself.
| RODRIGO MY TRANSLATOR FOR UDP WORKSHOP | CLAUDIO AND ANDRES EXPLAIN "STATUS
THEORY" |
Time got away from us and
soon Benito was signaling to me that we needed to be on our way to my hotel
so that I could change clothing for the events of the evening. We quickly did
so and I threw on my Òmoney outfit,Ó the one I had worn during my 60 Minutes
interview. I appreciate the help others have given me in choosing this outfit
because as you may know I am somewhat of a fashion barbarian, partly because
of my preference for informality as well as my condition of serious red-green
color blindness. I have a dark grey suit, shiny black shoes (only worn for formal
occasions so the shine will last), a dark blue cobalt shirt, and a distinctive
hand painted silk tie picked out for me in Korea by Dr. Kyung-Ja Lee, head of
Korean Broadcasting at the time (she has now left this political appointment
and become a dean at Kyung Hee University in Seoul). The combination was suggested
by Lana Langsweirdt, one of my current debaters, who has quite an accomplished
and unique sense of fashion.
We rode the subway to our
destination, the Old Congress building in the center of town. It was a stately
building from the outside, but very impressive from the inside. In the main
chamber people were already gathering for the debate, and we were perfectly
on time. As we made our way in I heard my name being called and turned around
to see Alvaro Ferrer, one of the excellent Chilean debaters who had been at
WDI in Vermont last summer. It was good to see him again, and I learned that
he was the coach for one of the teams in the finals, Universidad La Maritima.
We traded news about ourselves and I wished him the best of luck in the upcoming
debate, using a phrase that policy debate coaches often use in the USA before
a debate but that I will not repeat here, as it might seem impolite. I often
follow this phrase with "in an intellectual sense, of course."
| LEFT AND RIGHT VIEWS OF THE AUDIENCE FOR THE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY DEBATE FINALS
IN THE OLD SENATE CHAMBER |
The hall for the debate was
very impressive, and designed as one would expect a legislative chamber to be
designed, with elaborate lecterns in the front and rows of ornate chairs at
the sides for the legislators to use. I found my marked seat, and sure enough,
Drina had me seated in the front row only one seat away from the front. I was
seated next to a distinguished member of the Santiago city council, and we had
a most enjoyable conversation. Drina arrived and I had a short conversation
with her, but she was obviously and properly preoccupied with staging this most
important event Ð the national university debate championship for Chile, ÒTorneo
Interuniversitario de Chile.Ó I am told that in the last few years since the
event began it has grown and prospered under the sponsorship of Corporacion
Cultural de lo Barnechea (COBA) and the personal planning of Drina Rendic. From
just a few schools now 45 schools have taken part. This year as many as twenty
student debaters at each university were trained, and then a final team of six
students was selected to represent each school. These teams then engaged in
a series of debates during the year to arrive at this moment Ð the best two
teams. The two traditional debate powerhouses in Chile, UDP and Universidad
Central de Chile, had both been eliminated in earlier upsets by La Maritima
and Universidad Republica. I snapped a few photos of the beautiful setting as
the debate began. I must say that while the mural above the speakerÕs chair
was lovely and surely traditional, depicting the Òdiscovery of Chile,Ó it did
not put the conquistadores and the native peoples in the light I would prefer,
but was still an impressive and huge piece of art. But, as one person mentioned
to me later that evening, Chile had been fortunate in that it had no gold and
so avoided some of the pain and blood colonialism had inflicted on places such
as Peru and Argentina.
|
JUDGES FOR THE NATIONAL FINALS |
The judges took their seats,
the teams came in to applause, and the debate was about to begin. An announcer
with a beautiful voice introduced the judges one by one, and they seemed a glittering
set of Chilean individuals, including the Minister of Education, the President
of the Senate, editors of major newspapers, leading corporate figures, and representatives
in Chile of firms such as American Airlines. I was impressed that so many important
people had sacrificed a lovely Chilean evening to hear a debate.
Both teams had six members.
Each side would give three speeches to construct their major arguments. After
this there would be a short break for strategy and consultation, followed by
three more speeches from each side. Each speech would be three minutes in length.
I would prefer longer speech times, but this format made for a very rapid moving
and exciting debate. The topic was, ÒPreventive war by the United States against
Iraq is justified.Ó I was surprised to find the topic not directly related to
Chilean affairs, but it is an important one and a topic about which Chileans
have very strong opinions. I think this was a good topic to choose for a major
public debate such as this. La Republica was the "Yes" team and La
Maritima was the "No" team. I gave Alvaro a good luck sign as the
debate was about to begin.
The President of the Senate
made a few remarks, and they impressed me. He said that in the past, as recently
as the 1970Õs, political debate had been very vibrant and active in Chile, but
that now in the post-Pinochet years the political debate was unsatisfactory
in quality and extent, and he welcomed this university debate as a way to improve
the critical climate in the country as a whole. This was an impressive admission
by him that the body he leads, the Senate of Chile, needs to improve its democratic
argument process. It would have been easy for him to say something perfunctory
and flattering but he chose to say something far more meaningful. He impressed
me. Then, Senor Balas, head of COBA, who acted as the moderator, called for
order. The topic for the debate was read and the first speaker introduced.
| "YES" TEAM FROM UNIVERSIDAD LA REPUBLICA |
While the speeches were short
they were very enthusiastic and delivered at quite a rapid pace. People who
say only Americans speak quickly in debates have not heard a Chilean debate
such as this. With only three minutes each speaker had a lot of conceptual territory
to cover and they went at it with a great deal of energy and dynamism. The crowd
seemed very involved in the debate, with everyone I could see very attentive.
At the end of each speech there would be a sort of ÒhurrahÓ from the crowd,
and all of the important people around me (the ones in the seats marked by their
names) would smile and roll their eyes in various forms of approval for the
just concluded speech. It was one of the most active and involved audiences
I have ever seen for a public debate. In seemingly just a few moments the six
ÒconstructiveÓ speeches were concluded and the ÒconferenceÓ period was underway.
Each team formed a circle and were vigorously discussing what their strategy
should be in the rebuttal. They had covered almost all of the relevant issues,
such as the need to stop the use of weapons of mass destruction by Iraq, the
possibilities of civilian casualties in such a war, the need to end the cruel
and murderous regime of Saddam Hussein, the dangerous and illegal precedent
set by Òpreventive war,Ó and other issues. I did not hear a discussion of problems
this would create in post war Iraq (a Kurdish state triggering a dangerous reaction
by Turkey, an Iranian follow-on attack in Southern Iraq to annex desired territory),
or attack on Israel resulting in massive Israeli retaliation, but this could
have been because of my faulty Spanish combined with their rapid delivery.
| "NO" TEAM FROM UNIVERSIDAD LA MARITIMA |
After the conference period
there were six more speeches, as energetic and rapid as they had been before,
but these seemed mostly unscripted. The last two rebuttals were very passionate
and summarized the major issues each side was banking on to win the debate.
There was a huge round of applause and cheering as each side gave ended their
final speech.
The judges then began their
deliberation and the filling out of their ballots. During this period there
was a speaker so that the audience would be occupied and entertained while the
judges deliberated. The speaker was a neurolinguist and gave a speech about
language creating thought and reality. I learned that this concept of "Neuro-Linguistic
Programming" is quite popular in Chile, and is widely used in political
campaigns. It is something I need to learn more about.
| THE WINNING TEAM FROM UNIVERSIDAD LA REPUBLICA | THE TOP SPEAKER FROM UNIVERSIDAD
LA MARITIMA |
The decision was announced
with a great cheer, and to the surprise of many around me the ÒYesÓ team from
La Republica had won the day. This was not a surprise that they won because
they had an excellent performance, but it was a surprise because the vast majority
of people in the audience (and, I am told, almost all of the debaters) oppose
such USA action against Iraq. (By the way, I like how Iraq in Spanish is spelled
ÒIrak.Ó) There was wild celebration among the debaters and in the chamber, especially
among the La Republica supporters in the audience. The La Maritima team seemed
a bit disappointed (who would not be) but they crossed the chamber to congratulate
the winners with hugs, handshakes, and the traditional polite cheek kisses that
the Chileans seem to love to use between men and women. Then there was the announcement
of the top speaker in the event, and a young man named Christian from La Maritima
was named. Awards were presented and the event was officially over, with a series
of photo opportunities taking place. The reporter from El Mercurio asked me to pose with the winners and the top speaker, something I was
glad to do. I gave her my card so that my name would be spelled properly, and
then other photographers asked me for my card. I gave them each one and posed
as they suggested with the students. Then I was caught by surprise as three
of the photographers then presented me with a bill, telling me that I had contracted
with them for a picture to be sent to me for the sum of 10,000 Chilean pesos,
or about US$15. I paid the first one and told the others no very politely.
As the event began to break
up I realized that I had no plan for transportation to the post-debate banquet
to be held at the Hyatt Hotel, an event Drina had told me to be sure to attend,
and that I should look for a seat at her table at the banquet. I met up with
Gonzalo Downey, who had been at WDI last summer as well, but was also the top
speaker and champion at the Torneo Hispanoamericano de Debate held last May
in Puerto Rico. He said he would be back and would give me a ride if I needed
one, as he was also going to the banquet. As he departed for a moment Drina
swept into view and told me she would give me a ride, which I accepted, hoping
this would not inconvenience Gonzalo.
As we made our way to the
parking garage we met up with one of the judges who expressed surprise at the
decision. He wondered if there was a problem given the difference of opinion
between the judges and the audience about the debate. I mentioned that in my
experience the judges and the audience perceive of the debate quite differently,
since the judges are far more active listeners and are also far less likely
to let their personal opinions play a role in the decision. This seemed to comfort
him a bit. We were soon on our way to the Hyatt, and Drina and a close friend
of hers, the wife off a Senator, asked me about my feelings on the Òlanguage
creates realityÓ concept. I shared with them the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis and
the example of how Inuit perceive of snow (for which they have many more words
than we do) but did note that I am not well informed on Neuro-Linguistic Programming.
DrinaÕs friend noted that the use of these techniques in her husbandÕs political
campaign had been very successful.
We arrived at the Hyatt and
found ourselves at a private entrance complete with valets to take care of the
cars. I soon began to realize that this would be no ordinary debate banquet.
We entered a large open space, nicely decorated, where the pre-banquet reception
was being held. A wide variety of beverages were being served (including the
famous wines of Chile) as well as canapŽs offered by smartly dressed staff.
There seemed to be about 100 people there, although I did not do a formal count.
While I never was able to snag a beverage, I was engaged in several conversations
with people who were very interested in my work with debate as well as my impression
of the event. I specifically enjoyed my conversation with August Coello of the
Australis Group who said he would be helping to organize future events and would
be attending both my seminars later in the week.
| DARK PICTURES OF THE MUSIC AND THE BANQUET AT THE HYATT |
All of a sudden a huge section
of wall slid back and the dreamy music of Andes (pipes and drums) filled the
room as the banquet itself was revealed to us. The room was lavishly decorated
and the musicians were excellent. People began to enter the banquet space and
search for their nametags at the various tables. I wandered aimless like a cloud
until Drina collared me and led me to her table. I found myself between Drina
and Julie Gianelloni Connor of the US embassy. She and her companion turned
out to be fascinating conversationalists as we discussed everything from WoodwardÕs
new book, to the last political campaign in America, to the challenges and benefits
of being posted to various US embassies around the world and specifically in
Chile. I shared my opinion about the potential of debate as a democracy promotion
mechanism that had been used in various other countries, and she seemed very
interested.
The meal itself was more than
splendid, and after 30 years of debate banquets I would have to say that this
was the best. Waiters were constantly filling wine glasses (in my case, filling
my water glass), and the courses were quite excellent, including a light meat
pastry, a lovely grilled steak covered with a white coating I could not identify,
a tasty and unique soup, chocolate mousse, truffles, and other treats that escape
me as a write this. Perhaps I did not pay as much attention to the food because
the conversation was so stimulating.
At the conclusion of the banquet
Gonzalo made a brief presentation of thanks to Drina for organizing the event,
and also for sponsoring Chilean students and debaters in visits to the USA,
both to Ohio State University and WDI in Vermont. She received a well deserved
round of applause for her superb staging of the debate and the banquet. At the
conclusion I had several conversations with Ònew friendsÓ who gave me their
cards and offered to host me on my next visit. ÒAdd an extra week,Ó they would
say, Òand we will visit the south of Chile, especially the lake region.Ó I am
excited to find time in my busy schedule to take them up on their kind offers.
I also had a very moving talk with the Rector of Universidad La Maritima
about debate, and he asked me to return to teach seminars at his university.
A graduate of MIT he has great ambitions for his institution and I was very
impressed by my conversation with him. He lavishly praised the work of Alvaro
Ferrer and the many kind things he had said about his WDI experience. I realized
that Drina would be staying until literally the last guest left, and it was
already way past 1:00 AM. Chileans love to have a late dinner, but this one
had seemed to go very late. I decided I could make it easier on her if I found
another ride home. Alvaro offered to give me a ride home. This was a good chance
to talk to Alvaro. I know he has changed his vocational plans from law to something
that might involve additional work in the field of debate. He is very talented
and charming, so of course I encouraged him. As we drove home he shared with
me that his father had been a professional racecar driver, as he had been. He
certainly drove with all the skill and assertiveness of a racecar driver, and
I felt very safe.
He dropped me off at my hotel,
Hotel Conde Ansurez, and after a farewell I entered. I asked for a 7:00 AM wake
up call and went up to my room. It was after 2:00 AM and I knew I had a long
day ahead of me on Tuesday working with high school students and teachers. Even though I was tired and knew I needed
to sleep the events of the evening had been so stimulating that it was not until
after 4:00 AM that I finally dozed off.