When Miss Philippines Angelia Ong was announced as the new Miss Earth, it was as if the death knell of the pageant was sounded. By the looks of it, Miss Earth organization is completely oblivious of the previous allegations that one of its top honchos allegedly attempted to sell the crown, completely callous that it is being described as a sham designed to crown no one but Filipinas, completely numb about the fact that it is losing credibility in the world stage.
It costs $2, 000 for a national organization to send a candidate at Miss Earth and the candidates should expect nothing but a fair play. And be fed and transported properly. Allegations about the mediocre food in the first days of the contest were not without any basis. So many national directors can attest that while breakfast is good, lunch and dinner was pitiful. Strangely though, some national directors beg to differ. What we knew though is that only when the issue became big that Miss Earth started to dispense adequate lunches and dinners. This is something that should not happen in a major international beauty pageant.
Sure, the production and the stage was a big improvement. The results however can’t even be described as scandalous. It was beyond scandalous. How, for example can Miss Panama and Miss Thailand be hoarding so much gold medals in the prelims only to be clapper in the end? How could Austria and Guam be one of the semifinalists? And a back-to-back? Haven’t Miss Earth learned how Miss Universe was bashed to death in 2009 for giving Venezuela its back-to-back win?
What happened last night was a delight to the detractors and bashers of Miss Earth. These people don’t mind that the organization has nurtured eco-warriors from around the world. They don’t care if Miss Earth is the only Big4 pageant that has coordinated closely with the United Nations. They don’t even give a damn that Miss Earth has actually more followers and grab more headlines than the minor pageants that they promote. What they care about are their negative thoughts about Miss Earth and Miss Earth did nothing but feed their fantasies.
What Miss Earth should have done is manipulate the final results and give the world a winner that does not scream conspiracy theory. That obviously should exclude Miss Russia, Miss Austria and Miss Philippines. Why Miss Earth did not crown a winner that would gain a collective nod like say Miss Panama or Miss Colombia? Or Miss Thailand? Miss Earth can’t afford to have a back-to-back crown for Philippines simply because its critics already called it as a pageant that is biased towards Filipinas – made in Philippines for Philippine beauty queens.
It is of little wonder that so many national organizations are questioning more and more the wisdom of sending a delegate at Miss Earth. Sweden for one, openly questioned it on its facebook account. In the world where beauty is as shallow as a ditch, a physically beautiful woman that was not in the semis will be openly questioned. Whatever is your advocacy is, it doesn’t matter. It also does not matter that your winner will travel around the world to promote environmental awareness. Just pick the beautiful one to make everyone happy.
So what is the future of Miss Earth? Will it retain its Big4 status? That remains to be seen. The Big4 status of a pageant is determined by so many factors. In some cases, a Big4 pageant comes up with results that is described by the expletive WTF. It happens in Miss World, it happens in Miss Universe and it happens at Mss International. And yes, Miss Earth 2015 has a WTF result. The pageant should better shape up and redeem itself next year and the years after that. It should cater the tastes of its audience otherwise it will simply slip into oblivion like what happened to the mafia pageants in the past. For the moment Miss Earth’s status simply hangs in the balance.
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