Home/ “I AM INDIVIDUALIST” SPEECH CONTEST TO DEBUT AT AUCA

“I AM INDIVIDUALIST” SPEECH CONTEST TO DEBUT AT AUCA

Objectivist Club AUCABISHKEK, KYRGYZSTAN - The Objectivist Club of AUCA is organizing the first of its kind speech contest in Kyrgyzstan, entitled “I Am Individualist”. Inspiration for the tournament’s title came from Ayn Rand’s bestseller novel Atlas Shrugged, which is gaining readership in Kyrgyzstan.

The purpose of the debate tournament is aimed at attracting and popularizing the concept of individualism among university students. It is an ambitious project on its own because individualism is seen as selfish and even immoral in Kyrgyzstan, perhaps because of the Soviet, communist, conformist legacy.

The three topics that contestants can choose from are:

  1. What is Individualism?
  2. Is the society more important than the individual?
  3. Can the Individualism be the solution for world oppression and poverty?

According to the President of Objectivist Club Ernis Adylbekov, “by organizing this speech contest we will educate and motivate university students to learn more about Individualism and shake off Soviet stereotypes from the word.” Gulmira Aidaralieva, Program Coordinator at CAFMI and one of the three judges at the speech contest agrees, “Individualism is beautiful for it values rationality, responsibility and sound judgment.”

The speeches will be recorded on video and uploaded online for viewing on all video portals of Kyrgyzstan, including bulbul.kg and blive.kg. Major offline viewers will be attendees during the speech contest itself, who are expected to number 250.

For organizing and spreading message of the speech the contest, the Objectivist Club has partnered with the Central Asian Free Market Institute, Movie Making Club of AUCA, AUCA TV, and the Ayn Rand Institute from California, USA.

The speech contest is to take place at the American University of Central Asia on November 12, 2010. The prizes for the first three spots are as follows: $50, $30 and $20. In order to quality contestants are asked to send their speeches ahead.

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