Achte Minute is your reliable source on the World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC or Worlds) in Botswana’s capital Gaborone. As usual since this year’s Euros in Amsterdam, Achte Minute is going to fulfill this task in English as well as in German.

Your local correspondent in Gaborone is Jens Henning Fischer – he reports the latest and most interesting for participants and those at home: breaks, stories, interviews. If you want your stories and reports published on Achte Minute, please convey them to Jens or send an e-mail directly to achteminute[at]vdch.de.

In addition to Achte Minute you might want to consult other sources on Worlds 2011 too:

The US-American assistant professor for rhetoric Stephen M. Llano just recently opened Achte Minute’s op-ed ZEITGEIST. Now he is a judge at WUDC in Botswana keeping the international debate circuit updated on his blog “Progymnasmata – Preliminary Exercises on Rhetoric, Debate, and Argumentation“. Stephen has been a rhetoric and debate coach worldwide for 17 years.

The grandfather of parliamentary debating Alfred Snider, professor for rhetoric in Vermont, reports about breaks on his Global Debate Blog. Alfred, like Stephen, follows his mission to distribute debating worldwide.

The cradle of debating is going to be rocked: Being one of the world’s oldest debating societies and represented by four teams at Worlds 2011, the Cambridge Union Society is going to report from WUDC via blog and via Twitter.

You may also find recent news on breaks and Council decisions on Colm Flynn’s World Debating Website. The Irishman is an old stager on the international debate circuit, having been deputy chief adjudicator at Stellenbosch Worlds in 2003 and chair of the WUDC Council in 2001 and 2002.

Although he is not going to be there personally, Mark Eastham still does have Hope to Break. There you might occasionally find news on breaks as the member of London’s SOAS Debating Society most probably will have his informants in Gaborone. Obviously, Mark consulted his crystal ball: He’d put his money on Berlin hosting 2013, as he says on his blog.

In addition to our correspondent Jens other fellow debaters from VDCH countries are going to report from Worlds 2011: Andreas Lazar will do so on the website of Debattierclub Stuttgart, Florian Umscheid will be blogging on the homepage of Wortgefechte Potsdam.

Achte Minute is going to keep you always updated gathering all break results and other relevant info quickly and reliably.

apf / glx