“We need com­pas­sion to get our­selves started, and enlight­ened self-interest to get our­selves seri­ous … that’s the alliance that changes the world” Paul Col­lier

“Evi­dence over­whelm­ingly demon­strates that aid to Africa has made the poor poorer, and the growth slower. ” Dambisa Moyo

“Unless there is recog­ni­tion that women are most vul­ner­a­ble… and you do some­thing about social and cul­tural equal­ity for women, you’re never going to defeat this pan­demic.” Stephen Lewis

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I absolutely love the con­cept of bring­ing together ideas, as I think it is one of the most vital plat­forms in which we can learn and grow from one another. Con­sider The Munk Debates, a remark­able debate series that I followed/am fol­low­ing that brings together promi­nent lead­ers to debate about major issues con­cern­ing the world and Canada.  It is one of the few plat­forms that brings together the opin­ions of promi­nent peo­ple and places them head to head against each other and see how they fare. The model of this debate also works around the fact that the debate is sub­ject to pub­lic scrutiny and opinion.

In terms of organ­i­sa­tion, they have been wise in their selec­tion of debaters. ie. Stephen Lewis — pretty much a Cana­dian icon, or con­tro­ver­sial writ­ers like Dambisa Moyo that would really draw the audi­ence to par­tic­i­pate and con­sider the topic of choice. The cho­sen top­ics are also well timed, the first one set just before the US pres­i­den­tial elec­tions in Novem­ber 2008, urg­ing the pub­lic to con­sider global secu­rity in light of the elections.

So, if you haven’t been fol­low­ing the debates (There is one every 6 months), here are three rea­sons why (aside from the usual expo­sure to new ideas):

1) It’s FREE

The organ­is­ers have done an amaz­ing job mak­ing the debates acces­si­ble online. The debates are streamed live, can be re-watched, audio, mp3, read the debate tran­script, etc. Did I men­tion that its all free? Enough said. Watch!

2) SAVES you time

There are few places online that you are able to find Stephen Lewis, Paul Col­lier, Dambisa Moyo, Mia Far­row, John Bolton’s, etc. opin­ions all in one place. All of them are extremely influ­en­tial and respected indi­vid­u­als in their respec­tive fields and it’s a one stop/click/video for amaz­ing insights into dif­fer­ent top­ics. It also enables you to see their posi­tions on cer­tain top­ics, which would help you greatly in terms of referring/researching on a topic/individual should you want to inves­ti­gate in more depth their pub­li­ca­tions and opinions.

3) COMMENT on your position

For a cer­tain period after the debates, an online pol­ing sta­tion (open to a ran­dom selct group of Cana­dian pan­elist) and medi­ated forum (open to the gen­eral pub­lic) is set up. You get to see and com­ment on an ‘opin­ions forum’, and some­times you find some of the most amaz­ing ideas and posi­tions that the pub­lic has taken on it. A data analy­sis is also run based on the online pol­ing sta­tion and you can see the break­down of opin­ion on the debate topic as well as the key points that are brought up dur­ing the debate.

In other words, you watch the debates, com­ment, and view stats. Love it.

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Past debate topics:

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Some future debate topic lineups:

Reli­gion is a force of good in the world

More Free mar­ket and less gov­ern­ment reg­u­la­tion is the answer to our eco­nomic woes

Final thoughts: Ranked: 9/10. Improve­ment: Bet­ter adver­tis­ing. I only found this after nav­i­gat­ing heav­ily through the Globe and Mail.

Note: All pic­tures are taken from http://www.munkdebates.com