MONGOLIAN YOUNG DEBATING TEAM: MONGOLIA SHOULD KEEP ITS URANIUM IN THE GROUND UNTIL IT CAN BE USED LOCALLY

Mongolian debating team is heading to the World Schools Debating Championship to be held in Feb 2010 in Doha, Qatar. This is the third time in the last four years, Mongolia sending a team of sophomore students. The World’s best English speaking students will challenge each other in the battle of intelligence, wits, and rhetorical skills. The team recently made tours around local businesses, NGOs, and other establishment to get advice and critique from experienced public speakers. Their main debating topic was whether Mongolia should keep its uranium until it can be used locally.

The team consists of six fluent English speaking students from Ulaanbaatar’s hi-school and they were chosen, based on students’ performances in the debating tour. The visits are important part of the training process because they allow the team actively engages in debates.

“Their advice was very really helpful” commented team member U. Bilguun.

“Debate promotes improved confidence and fluidity of speech in a second language” explains Ms. Pic, the team’s couch. “It also encourages critical thinking in a range of subjects to which students would not otherwise be exposed while developing speaking skills” For further information, please visit the official website here.

I had an opportunity to take part in one of their tours and I was so impressed with their fluency of English and skills to debate. Recently I hadn’t been involved such activities with young people so it was great pleasure to see one of the brightest parts in our society. I think they picked up good topic for their debate at the suitable time, that Uranium issue is becoming open discussion in the country.

In 1990, uranium was discovered in Mongolia. Since then this issue was not mentioned a lot in public. Recently politicians started to speak about it in the public after Mongolian prime minister’s visit to Europe. During his visit, he signed on the memorandum to exploit uranium with France. Even Mongolian government has already formed nuclear power agency and made a new law.

So let’s take a quick glance at the World stage. The first commercial nuclear power stations started operation in the 1950’s. There are now some 436 commercial nuclear power reactors operating in 30 countries, with 372,000 MWe of total capacity. They provide about 15% of the world's electricity as continuous.

The Mongolian young debating team believes that Mongolia should use its uranium locally only whey it is ready to use it and it can’t be used now because it is a very harmful source of energy since there are no professional people of this field in Mongolia yet.

I also agree with them. We already know how harmful it can be if we misuse it. People still didn’t forget the atomic bomb in Hiroshima, Japan and the nuclear power plant in Ukraine.