A few days back a video on YouTube had gone viral after it grabbed the headlines in the Philippine national TV. The video shows a young student shouting at a lady guard in one of Manila's metro rail station asking her in shrill angry voice "I'm a liar?" which sounder more like "amalayer?". Worldwide, #amalayer became trending on twitter. In the next 24 hours, the video got a million views. What happened was that everyone jumped right in, hurling insults to the young student, calling her all sorts of terrible names and that without even discerning the real story and totally disregarding the fact that the video may only tell a part of the story.
Last night, at Miss Earth 2012, so many people had their #amalayer moment. They sat in front of their computers, reading what other people are telling them and then decided to become the judge, the jury and the executioner. The focus of their tirade - Miss Philippines Stephany Stefanowitz. She finished as Miss Air which is roughly but not really the equivalent of first runner-up.
Missosology is trying to fair and we always point things when they appear to be wrong. We criticized Miss Earth last year after the undeserving Miss Philippines Athena Imperial became Miss Water. We criticized Miss World and Miss International after they crowned the local girl. We point out when one deserving lady was left out of the semis. But in the case of Miss Philippines Stephany Stefanowitz, facts should matter.
A few days back Missosology published an opinion piece criticizing how Miss Philippines Stephany Stefanowitz gained a few pounds. How her body structure looks terrible and with that kind of beauty structure, how undeserving would she be in the semis. Days later she won silver in swimsuit group competition. Most did not saw how it happened as the contest was held in Puerto Princesa City in a Philippine province which is known as the country's last frontier. But everyone had to criticize - without knowing and without seeing what really happened.
Miss Philippines Stephany Stefanowitz at the finals night of Miss Earth 2012 is a woman full of confidence, slim, leggy, beautiful and statuesque. Pictures may tell a thousand words but there are no guarantee those words are even correct. One has to be there, to know what is going on. Some would claim that they are the first to publish things but really what they are doing is copying from others. It is a classic story of how the internet ruined everyone's common sense and ability to deduce sound conclusion.
Miss World's crowning of Miss China and Miss International's crowning of Miss Japan, as we all knew it are all big jokes. Spare Miss Earth. The results are fair and Missosology has the responsibility to call it as we see it fit. Miss Czech Republic deserves to win the Miss Earth 2012 title. Period.
