shanghai OPEN

Hello,


Here are the motions from the recently-concluded inaugural Shanghai International Debate Open. The Adj Core comprised of Zheng Bo, Mai Mokhsein, Chanel Chan and TJ.

Preliminary Rounds

1) This House regrets the celebritisation of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.

2) This House supports a match-making industry where parents "shop" for the spouses of their children.

3) This House believes that governments should never pay ransom to terrorists for hostage taking.

4) This House would offer lighter sentences to criminals in exchange for information about crimes committed by their criminal syndicate.

5) This House believes that countries should be responsible for civil aviation tragedies that happen in their airspace.

6) This House would ban the use of civilian drones.

Knockout Rounds

Quarterfinal

You are a high school teacher in love with your 16-year old. She initiated and actively pursued the romance. You have, on several occasions, rejected her pursuit. This House, as the teacher, would date the student.

Semifinal

This House believes that the Police must not bear arms.

Final

This House believes that the International Criminal Court should prosecute the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, for hate crimes against Palestinians.

Adj-Core Favorite

The time now is 2016. In response to a failed attempt to assassinate Kim Jong Un, conducted by a retired South Korean marine, North Korea decided to declare war.

This House believes that the Chinese Government should join the war to support North Korea. 

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Ni Hao Ma!

Hello from my new chocolate-wrapper-strewn digs at Shanghai. Agreed, I seem to have grown a virtual beard of non-writing but hopefully, things will brighten up starting now. 

I am currently an SDET intern at Microsoft Shanghai in the Zizhu campus. So far, I have worked on testing frameworks, performance testing, data pipelines (which warrants an entire tragedy post by itself) and now figuring out Hadoop for Microsoft HDInsight. 

It has been quite an interesting journey so far. I have been learning every single day and a lot of helpful people helping me get settled. Worthy of mention is Sheldon, Charles, Rodge (the Meri expert), Jingfei (for teaching me all about Github and tolerating my stupid questions) and my current mentor - Yun Hu. My usual summer cycle of hope-frustration-sleep-inspiration is happening in full flow. I come to office nicely rested, get this nice brainwave, and yesterday's problem gets fixed. Two hours later, I get bogged down by a new issue and go home racking my head about it. Sometimes, it make me yearn for the safe comforting environment that is university life but recently, following several Quora posts, I'm learning to accept "life sucks" and starting to deal with it. I have also been visiting the gym enough for the trainers to recognise me, so life's not too bad, eh? 

I am also on the Microsoft Intern Management Committee as its Chief Evangelist and hopefully, we are able to dole out some fun events for the interns to attend. 

P.S: Sometimes, I question the purpose of my being at such an tech-savvy organization. Then, I realize my caffeine addiction is at least benefiting the Microsoft pantry stocker. So, in this "What-is-the-purpose-of-life?" period of my life, it comforts me to know that somewhere, someone is happy because of me.