School of Democracy: session two
The message in the bottle: how to get it out.
The training’s theme was “How to get the message in the bottle out” in the most effective, argumentative and convincing way. After a rich lunch meal that served the purpose of welcoming the trainers and the trainees, students were actively immersed in a success story of one of the members of the CDA “Christian Democratic Appeal” political party in the Netherlands. The first guest speaker Mustafa Amhaouch, who descends from a Moroccan family, fervently shared his story which gave a boost of inspiration to our students at the NIMAR.
As agreed upon, the students were asked to translate a personal ambition for the country into a concrete plan to solve issues that touch their communities. They had the opportunity to share their works in groups of three or four and receive constructive feedback in return. A dinner at a vintage restaurant in Rabat was a wrap up to the first day.
The second day was no less than the first. After welcoming and introducing Mr. Gerrit Jan Valk by Wytske de Pater-postma, Mr. Gerrit started his workshop and he introduced us to set and build strong arguments in political debating. The best part was about how to react to the arguments of the other parts. We had a chance of practicing and working together as sub-groups and/or as a whole group or alone in the process of finding suitable arguments and proofs.
After lunch, we had another chance to meet Mr. Mustafa Amhaouch in part of the training entitled “Reaching your audience.” In this part, Mr. Mustapha introduced his methodology of reaching his audience though he is a Muslim in a Christian political party. “it is all about the need to know what is going on in the society” says Mr. Mustapha; because people need to know that their representatives feel and understand their need.
At the end, we had an opportunity of debating competition with Mr. Gerrit Jan Valk. All the groups presented and demonstrated their skills in the debate.
After the heated debate the students got involved in the engaging session of Saturday, it was time for the students to learn the techniques that enable them to win a debate and pinpoint fallacies in one’s speech; hence, winning political and societal support for their plan. Our second guest speaker, Gerrit Jan Valk, gave tangible and enriching examples of incorrect argumentation that are widely spread among some politicians.
As future leaders and/or politicians, our students were exposed to some of the instruments used to sound and be more convincing, and reliable. To put that in practice, our speaker asked the students to employ those tools to write a short speech in which they try to convince an audience to visit their city of origins. This was an opportunity for the students to concretely use their newly acquired knowledge into the writing of persuasive speeches. The training ended at an Italian restaurant where the students enjoyed the rich Italian savory cuisine.
“We always have a biological family and there are lot of families that make elsewhere. At the NIMAR, we have made a very special one.” Abdeslam Outaleb.
Ikrame Chibani and Abdeslam Outaleb.