St Mary’s College wins the RBTT/UNDP Young Leaders debate

THE SUCCESS of the recently concluded Royal Bank of Trinidad and Tobago (RBTT)/United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP), Young Leaders Debate, may prompt its sponsors to extend the programme to schools from across the Caribbean, according to Helen Drayton,  Chairman of RBTT’s Education Foundation.

Drayton was speaking  at the close of the RBTT 2003 debate finals held at the Central Bank Auditorium yesterday. St Mary’s College argued their way to victory over rivals Fatima College on the topic “Be it resolved that poverty invalidates the statement in the First Article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights : All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” St Mary’s debaters Stefan Mungalsingh, 15, and Kurt Caesar, 15, Form Four students, had to argue against the statement, while Form Three student Dale Jones, 14, and Form Four student Marcus Joseph, 15, of Fatima, presented arguments that supported the Declaration.

Mungalsingh, the first proposition speaker for St Mary’s, explained that 1.3 billion people in the world lived in abject poverty. He said although slavery was abolished by the Declaration of Human Rights, it still existed in certain parts of the world. He explained that a UNICEF report dated February 23, 2003 showed that an estimated 1.3 million children are caught and smuggled by child sex traders annually. The report also states that discrimination and poverty are the causes for the smuggling. He quoted from a statement made by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan that “only through the eradication of poverty and obstacles in human rights can every one be equal in dignity and rights”.

Caesar supported his colleague’s argument that the poverty invalidates the statement in the First Article. He pointed out that dramatist/writer George Bernard Shaw described poverty as the greatest of evils. Fatima’s Jones presented several points to support his argument that all people are born free and equal. He pointed out that residents of Haiti flee their country to look for refuge in other countries. He explained that their flight was not prompted by poverty but by man’s inhumanity to their fellowmen. He said greed and lust for money and power caused man to fight wars, which often resulted in innocent lives being lost. He said poverty by itself could not take away a person’s equality and dignity or freedom from them. However man’s inhumanity and greed are what cause these things to occur. Jones said money, power and financial acquisitions could not replace dignity and rights. He said if that was the case the National Anthem would have read “Every Creed and Race BUY an Equal place”.

Joseph argued that equality was a concept that has been argued by all religions for decades. He noted that the Holy scriptures state that man should love thy neighbor as you love thyself, the Quran states “none is truly a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself”. Following the competition, champions Mungalsingh and Caesar said it took a lot of hard work and research and they would always be ready for any issue that comes up on poverty due to the vast knowledge they acquired from their preparation.