SMU Hammers

2013 SMU Hammers

Round 1 Religion

THW ban any depiction of the Prophet Mohhammed.

THW remove all tax exemptions for religions, except to the extent they do conventional charitable work.

THBT Pope Francis should advocate for socialism.

(GO GO POPE FRANCIS!)

Round 2 The City

THBT developing countries should limit rural to urban migration.

THW limit the construction of high-value residential properties.

THBT public transport should be owned and operated by the state.

Round 3 Election

THBT Pakistan should withdraw support for the War on Terror.

THBT Libya should repeal the ban on senior members on Gaddafi Regime (including civil servant, military personnel, parliamentarians, financiers) from holding positions in government.

THBT the Philippines should ban political dynasties.

Round 4 Modern Culture

TH regrets Disney’s film continuation of the Star War Sage.

THBT the LGBTQ community should regret the rise of Macklemore (a heterosexual male, who raps about gay love).

TH regrets the rise of newly mega-rich football clubs, like Paris Saint German, Chelsea and Manchester City.

Round 5 Women

THBT feminist movement should discourage women from having and raising children.

TH supports affirmative action for women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.

THBT the democratic party should have selected Hilary Clinton rather than Barack Obama during the 2008 US presidential primaries.

Octo Finals

TH supports corporate funding of Wikipedia.

THW nationalize all large social media websites.

THW bail out failing newspapers.

Quarters Economics

THBT the WTO should allow developing countries to erect trade barriers against developed countries.

THW reverse austerity measures in Europe.

THW break up Goldman Sachs.

Semis Ideas

THW never die for country.

TH prefers a world without marriage.

TH regrets the decline of Marxist political ideologies.

JC Final Conflict

THW invade North Korea.

THR the militarization of the African Union.

THW end US extraterritorial drug enforcement operations in Latin America.

Main Break Final Legacy

TH celebrates the legacy of Margaret Thatcher.

TH does not regret the invasion of Iraq.

THBT the US should pay reparation to Japan for Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

2012 SMU Hammers

Round 1: 99% of the Debaters, 1% of the Careers (Justice and the Law) Song: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers – Main Theme

THW abolish prisons in favour of community sentencing and other alternative punishment methods, for all but the most heinous crimes.

THBT criminals that live in public housing and who are convicted of drug trafficking should be evicted from their homes, in addition to any existing penalties.

Round 2: WOAR! (Geopolitics) Song: Ride of the Valkyries – Richard Wagner

TH prefers the African Court of Justice and Human Rights to the International Criminal Court.

THW undermine the sovereignty of a state in order to eradicate organized crime and illicit trade.

THW give priority to asylum seekers who have participated in active resistance against oppressive dictatorships in their home countries.

Round 3: The Lack Of Money Is The Root Of All Evil (Economics) Song: Travie McCoy – “Billionaire” ft. Bruno Mars

THW abolish income taxes and institute wealth taxes instead.

THW permit workers to forego compulsory health insurance coverage for a higher take home wage.

THW place a tax on the holding of patents proportional to the patent owner’s income and number of patents held.

Round 4: Smile For the Camera and Do the Handshake (ASEAN): Song: Smokey – The Coconut Song

THBT ASEAN states whose sovereign territory includes their adjacent waterway should be made legally responsible for providing naval security from pirates, to any ships passing within their territorial waters.

THBT recent political developments in Burma have vindicated the ASEAN way of positive engagement without punitive sanctions.

THBT the USA should intervene in ASEAN territorial disputes involving China.

Round 5: Maybe He’s Born With It (Gay Rights) Song: Carly Rae Jepsen – “Call Me Maybe”

TH supports the creation of segregated schools for youth who explicitly self-identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer/questioning (LGBTQ).

THBT in-your-face activism strategies (e.g. pride parades, rainbow protest rallies) harm the gay rights movement’s efforts to construct a modern gay identity.

TH regrets the rise of Grindr and other gay-themed social networking cum video-sharing websites.

Joke Round: Adjudication Core Goes Ape-Shit (Joke Round) Song: Pinky and the Brain Main Theme

THBT corrective surgery for diminutive genitalia should be covered under a national health insurance scheme in countries where such a scheme exists.

THW create segregated spaces for annoying little kids and sniveling whiny parents who can’t control them, in public spaces of all kinds. Like airplanes.

THBT the gay agenda should actively celebrate and milk the current popularity of slash fiction and fanon guy-on-guy action among today’s young women, in order to build tomorrow’s critical support base for gay rights.

JC Break Semi-finals: The Little Engine that Could (Singapore) Song: Tanya Chua – “Where I Belong”

THW impose a quota for new citizens and foreigners in public housing districts.

THBT liberal arts colleges seeded in Asia by Western parent colleges should be allowed to operate under Western laws governing freedom of speech, so long as such expression only takes place on the college’s campus grounds.

JC Break Finals: Highway To Hell / Stairway To Heaven (Religion) Song: Splender – “I Think God Can Explain”

THBT in liberal democracies, members of religious groups should be allowed to obtain immunity from hate speech prosecution in exchange for their right to vote.

THBT small churches are preferable to megachurches.

THBT in a secular democracy, Supreme Court appointees should publicly renounce any prior religious affiliation before taking office.

Open Octo-finals: MOAR WOAR! (Geopolitics Yet Again) Song: Johnny Hates Jazz – “I Don’t Wanna Be A Hero”

TH prefers the consequences of potentially unilateral armed intervention to a nuclear Iran.

THW prioritize armed intervention in South Sudan over intervention in Syria.

THBT the United Nations should turn Somalia into a DMZ and work towards the establishment of a new African state.

Open Quarter-Finals: Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock (Science and Technology) Song: Barenaked Ladies – “Big Bang Theory Theme”

In the absence of a will stating otherwise, THBT families should have access to and ownership of all digital property and information, even those stored online, of their deceased relatives.

THW allow the creation of donor siblings.

THBT ISPs and dot-coms (e.g. companies like Google, Twitter, and Facebook) should, within the bounds of the law, actively undermine both real and potential government surveillance efforts.

Open Semi-finals: Nothing Is True, Everything Is Permitted (Rights and Ethics) Song: The Beatles – “Strawberry Fields Forever”

THBT immigration laws and visa regimes that restrict the movement of people across borders are morally condemnable.

THBT self-harm is never a legitimate basis for any restrictive legislation.

THBT there can be no equality of opportunity without the equality of outcome.

Open Break Grand Finals: Choose Your Own Adventure (First Person Motions) Song: Final Fantasy IX – Boss Theme

(Iron Man) You are Tony Stark. THW turn over the Iron Man armor to the government.

(Passion of the Christ) You’re a religious leader living in Jerusalem around 32 A.D. with the ability to perform miracles and a large following. The Roman Empire has sent soldiers to arrest you ostensibly for inciting rebellion as The King of the Jews. Given a choice between actively resisting arrest and willingly going to your death, THW actively resist arrest.

(Were the World Mine) You’re Timothy, a gay university student secretly in love with your straight best friend, who is an LGBTQ supporter. He accepts your sexuality but does not reciprocate romantically. You find one dose of a magic potion with which you can spike his lunch soda to change his current orientation from heterosexual to homosexual. This is the only dose you will ever get, and no one will ever find out. THW use the potion.