AFTER-THOUGHTS FROM 2008 MISS UNIVERSE
There was a bit of “uptightness” */if there’s such a word/ to it. The audience were strangely “behaved”, edgy and there wasn’t much “fans” that came. It was dry, dry, dry as a nerd's convention.
I've been attending Miss Universe & Miss World live for the past years and never seen an event as “bland” as this…
Is it because the lady Vice President was there, sweetie? The President himself snubbed the worldwide event, maybe he was still in bed */it was quite early in the morning/. Sorry to say but there was a bit of “we-are-a-bunch-of-communists” looming above the whole ambiance. I certainly did not enjoy it. No cameras for the non-Press people. Whatever.
Where were the unruly */but fabulous/ Boriqua fans? The Mexicans made their presence known alright but where were the Asian fans? It was more of a diplomats-and-embassy-employees-get-together.
I wasn’t surprised with Thailand’s Best National Costume Award. */It was painstakingly chosen from 897 designs on a national level/ I just knew it would be the one. ไชโย !!!
Although online forum posters “encouraged” massive cheating and rigging the online voting…nope, their candidate did not make it. Sorry, sweetie. MUO has learned their lesson. The Miss Photogenic Award was scraped out because of this. I was told.
From where we were seating... We were quite sure Spain would win. But when she came out with that “fresh-out-of-the-living-room-window” evening gown…we changed our mind and picked the USA. But still...
When she dove butt-first on stage…we shifted to Russia because there won’t be any thrill at all if we chose Venezuela. Venezuela is a safe choice annually.
It was the right girl. Venezuela was loving it. During commercial breaks, she was very natural and at ease. She keeps talking to other candidates unlike Colombia and Dominican Republic who are sooo into the audience. Colombia reminded me of Thalia -- that Mexican soap actress.
During the whole program, Morgan, Pisanu and I, wasn’t choosing where our money went. We bet online for Japan, Korea, Canada and Singapore. Only Japan made it, but not quite enough though. So, we lost $3,000 on betting. Fokken out!
Riyo came out wearing a tux! Japan won’t stop with these “statements” to the last moment, would they? She just landed again in MU history as the first */and only/ to do such! You are forever genius, Miss Ligron -- Utterly genius!
I don’t think Miss Universe would come back to Vietnam soon, sweetie. It was a disaster. It was supposed to be enjoyable, not uptight. It’s about time to bring it to Europe, so the girls won’t be walking around with their sweaty dresses and oily make-ups. */Pfffft!/
I've been attending Miss Universe & Miss World live for the past years and never seen an event as “bland” as this…
Is it because the lady Vice President was there, sweetie? The President himself snubbed the worldwide event, maybe he was still in bed */it was quite early in the morning/. Sorry to say but there was a bit of “we-are-a-bunch-of-communists” looming above the whole ambiance. I certainly did not enjoy it. No cameras for the non-Press people. Whatever.Where were the unruly */but fabulous/ Boriqua fans? The Mexicans made their presence known alright but where were the Asian fans? It was more of a diplomats-and-embassy-employees-get-together.
I wasn’t surprised with Thailand’s Best National Costume Award. */It was painstakingly chosen from 897 designs on a national level/ I just knew it would be the one. ไชโย !!!Although online forum posters “encouraged” massive cheating and rigging the online voting…nope, their candidate did not make it. Sorry, sweetie. MUO has learned their lesson. The Miss Photogenic Award was scraped out because of this. I was told.
From where we were seating... We were quite sure Spain would win. But when she came out with that “fresh-out-of-the-living-room-window” evening gown…we changed our mind and picked the USA. But still...
When she dove butt-first on stage…we shifted to Russia because there won’t be any thrill at all if we chose Venezuela. Venezuela is a safe choice annually.
It was the right girl. Venezuela was loving it. During commercial breaks, she was very natural and at ease. She keeps talking to other candidates unlike Colombia and Dominican Republic who are sooo into the audience. Colombia reminded me of Thalia -- that Mexican soap actress.During the whole program, Morgan, Pisanu and I, wasn’t choosing where our money went. We bet online for Japan, Korea, Canada and Singapore. Only Japan made it, but not quite enough though. So, we lost $3,000 on betting. Fokken out!
Riyo came out wearing a tux! Japan won’t stop with these “statements” to the last moment, would they? She just landed again in MU history as the first */and only/ to do such! You are forever genius, Miss Ligron -- Utterly genius!I don’t think Miss Universe would come back to Vietnam soon, sweetie. It was a disaster. It was supposed to be enjoyable, not uptight. It’s about time to bring it to Europe, so the girls won’t be walking around with their sweaty dresses and oily make-ups. */Pfffft!/
-- Sofia in Nha Trang
15 July 2008
15 July 2008
41 Comments:
hmm...there was no asian in the top 10,right? that's sad.
The Latinas dominated this year.
4 Latinas and a euro girl. That's lame.
Anonymous comment - deleted.
Grant.
I love colombia, she looks refreshing, I wish she could have won!!!If u could have bet for the sure win candidate like venezuel, u could have rearned a lot..still for me tali (miss colombia) is the best..I want to marry her, build her a mansion and pay for her taxes!
Whoa~ miss Thailand's costume is so beautiful!
This an honest-to-goodness, blow by blow review, Sofia. Elle, Vogue, Preview, Cosmo, or FHM should give you a writing assignment. I had my heart out laughing at the statement that this year's MU's a convention of the nerds. Haha.
I agree. This year's pageant was bland and boring. Riyo Mori saved the night with that sexy tux though. I think she's my favorite Miss U ever.
Misterhubs
To be honest, I was not so excited about this years Ms Universe. Probably because I had doubts about our representative......
To be honest, I don't find her so beautiful....sori po.
too bad....not even 1 Asian made it to top 10.....I am Filipino, but I am also Asian.
i agree, it was bland and almost lulled me to sleep. also, i knew venezuela was heavily the favorite (among the vietnamese), but did she really had to win despite the off-tangent final answer?
i completely missed it. was away on my own jamaican vaction... oh well... from sofia's account, it didnt sound like i missed much to begin with.
I totally agree that the Miss U finals this year was a bit boring. I was betting for Misses Colombia and Mexico. By the way, I find this blog very informative and entertaining - with a good dose of witty remarks, humor and sarcasm (sometimes). I’ve been reading anonymously for almost 6 months now and this is my first time to comment. I would just like to say that as a Filipino, I can’t help but be saddened by another tirade against us in the above accusation/subtle-sarcasm. I read almost all of the previous entries here (including the comments) and I know that during the starting months of this really great blog, a lot of Filipinos had given various insensitive negative comments and other personal and below-the-belt remarks not only to the subject-post but also to the authors and other SEAsian races. So, on behalf of my fellow [stubborn] countrymen I would like to apologize to the authors Pisanu, Morgan and Sofia. Now, I hope you guys can all move on and continue sharing with us readers your wonderful insights and posts [less – sarcasms and personal invectives against your fellow SEAsian Filipinos] that will help build stronger ties among us Biseaners [if ever there’s such a term].. hehe… peace and mabuhay to all! :-) p.s. - to the anonymous poster: shame... shame... another senseless accusation that just because ms. sofia is a thai, she's just jealous.. tsk.. tsk...
well i guess it is their blog. even thought they're trying to promote ties between the southeast asian countries, kanila pa rin ito. mga opinyon nila lang yan.
kung gusto mo iaccept, its up to you. pero i do agree na may konteng hostility toward the archipelago. ma-blame mo ba sila? ang Pilipinas ang Perlas ng Silanganan! kailangan lang natin ayusin yung ekonamya natin, and we're good to go! =P
Mabuhay!
ps. basta next year, sana yung ipapadala naman nating, may more appeal, parang si kurara chibana ng 2006.
i hope i won't catch sofia on a bad mood when she gets to read my comment. i would really like to comment to this post since it first got posted about the insult ms. dansk gave to the philippines again. i thought it was a bit uncalled for and immature.
pretty much how thebudlights has verbalized it, i can't blame sofia for her tirade, she's got a couple of not-too-nice experiences with filipino bloggers. it would be fair enough to "bomb" the philippines because of those people, but it was unfair to us people who were nice to your blog.
but still, its her blog. and it will always be her call.
Hi Sofia,
OMG job well done on the bold review. I hope to hear more of you here on bisean!!
I must agree, the Philippines winning Miss Photogenic around 3 times consecutively makes it look like there was vote rigging involved. But hey! We have to put into consideration the GAY/BI population in the Philippines and the OVER obsession we have over beauty pageants! You can prove this by the fact that almost ALL our Filipino bloggers have had at least one post on MISS U every year. The point I'm trying to make is that, WE DO have the power to work together and put together those votes to BAG on the prize! I must say, our bet this year was not VERY promising. This shows the less enthusiasm shown in voting for best in costume. Miss Thailand definitely deserves it too.
More power BISEAN!
-BITUIN.
Wohooo the Latinos rule it again :) I am kinda sad no Asians got it, was hoping someone might get to the top tho but I am happy that Latino Power shows it all!! Whoops, I mean I hope Asian beauties win as well
The Vietnamese should've learned from the Chinese. Every year there are five Chinese competing for all the beauty contests (China, Singapore, Hongkong, Malaysia, Chinese Taipei sometimes)but nobody ever won since time begun. For the last two years, Chinese promoters held the Miss & Mr. World franchise & what do you think happened? In 2006, Mr. China won as Mr. World, the next year, Miss China won as Miss World (the tactic in the last was very smooth- they chose finalists mostly comprised of Africans, they probably though Miss China will stand out among the Africans so nobody will notice when pull the fast one). Miss U may never return to Vietnam again, lost opportunity
But what does winning a beauty contest mean anyway? Japan has 2 Miss U but I just had a vacation for 3 days in Tokyo & I saw exactly one Japanese girl whom I consider pretty in that time. My American companion didn't agree, he didn't see anybody pretty. HE also said somethinng like this: "Better the Japs hide behind anime!" Racist American?
probably, it's not the time yet to be held in the 3rd world like vietnam
Akhyari: FYI! A couple of MISS U comps have been held in the Philippines (yours truly 3rd world elegance) and MIND YOU it has been bonggacious and Imeldific!
GO south east asia! xD
Yo guys, i meant no harm at all. Vietnam is totally different from Manila, or mexico. Probably, miss universe is not too attractive for vietnameses as they are bz with their livelihood.
no heart feeling pls
*** 4 anonymous comments -- deleted.
What was it about, Grant? Was it really bad? If it was anonymously signed obviously just a bunch of cowards.
IF they really have some good points (even if it was really annoying) they should sign it and have a link back.
Anyways, thanks for doing your job Grant. See ya in a few days.
Absoloute bad comments --
IP Address: 124.217.26.163
Viccinity of Angeles City, Pampanga, Philippines
Searching exact location.
Identifiable. Full disclosure.
I don't know about any of the other comments but I left several (about 3) anonymous comments on here that was remotely "bad". This forum allows anonymous comments in the first place so I don't see how that goes against any rules and I never insulted anyone. I'm sorry but when you post something bashing a country's efforts and even call it a "disaster" there is likely to be a rebuttal. None of my comments were overboard. And I shouldn't even be required to divulge personal information. I simply stumbled across this post online anyway! If you don't want anonymous comments, then by all means stop allowing them.
I'm sorry I made a mistake in the last comment, I meant none of my comments were remotely bad. Although the IP address you posted isn't mine so I guess you weren't referring to my comments (and seeing as how I don't live in the Philippines either)
I just wanna add...
How come MUO did not recognize that people might be cheating when Puerto Rico was winning it year after year?
Hi everyone. I saw Miss U on TV and it was not as bad as Sophia described it. I'm sure it's a totally different experience seeing it live. On TV though, it was appropriately paced and directed well save for that ho-hum act that sang during the swim suit competition and the hosts. Arrrrgh.
Anyway Sophia, you must know by now that the Philippines is a pageant-crazy culture. Name it and we most probably had a pageant for it already. It is not surprising for Philippines to win Miss Photogenic every time just because of the sheer number of Filipinos all over the world eagerly monitoring the Miss U competition. :)
I met a former contestant a while back and she said that to make it to the Top 15, you have to be a judge's favorite during the pre-pageant. If not, then you do not stand a chance. Obviously, this year it was the Latinas who caught the judges' eyes. Miss Venezuela was not the prettiest nor did she have the best body, gown or answer but the judges certainly wanted her to put on the crown because she consistently scored high. That's just the way it (unfairly) works. And I'll take it. :)
Pau
Pau, we were there LIVE. In Nha Trang. BISEAN was there till yesterday the 18th and was hopping around the city for 2 weeks.
This account was written as a live audience.
Huge difference on how you guys see on telly.
And Nguyen, thanks for the input. But I guess you weren't in Nha Trang too.
4 BISEAN authors expereinced the whole dang thing for 2 weeks.
Thanks to all of you guys for the comments.
But our editor deletes what he thinks the authors (me, Sofia, Morgan, etc.) might not like. So it's his call. We pay him to do that.
FYI.
I couldn't agree more with Pisanu. You see, this post is of an audience's opinion and none of us can contradict on this one.
What Sofia did was a review of what SHE saw as an audience and not as a media person. So we should respect this post. We can't say that this is wrong and the other is right. This is a blog anyway, not a magazine. ^^,v
I don't know Miss U is still famous nowadays. Nobody from Europe wins but what does it mean when you see a pretty girl every 10 minutes in Champ Elysees (Paris) or Amstersdam & as Greeneyedmonster said he saw exactly one pretty girl in Tokyo in 3 days? Is it being Eurocentric or just being fair? Japan has more Miss U title than any European country but I don't think Japan is famous for feminine beauty either. Does anybody goes to Tokyo for the girls?
I guess all this fuss are products of insecurities from countries who aren't sure they are beautiful. The Latin Americans are determined because that's the only asset can be proud of (but like in Venezuela, their population is 50% Indian so the winner doesn't really represent the whole country). But Asians? Really, I don't want to deflate egos here, but...
Asians are famous now in managing their economies but PURE Asians... BEAUTY? BWAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
No, I'm not being racist, beauty has no nationalities, but I think when you see one beautiful pure Asian for every 10000, does that mean his nation is beautiful? In Manila, when you go to a girl exclusive school, you see all these mestizas & you say, hey, Filipinas are beautiful! But you go to a public school or to a Chinese school, are you as confident to say Filipinas are beautiful?
Reality check, everyone.
At least, Manila has more mestizas than everybody else so I'm not wrong when I say see the most beautiful Asians are in my neighborhood. Not only 50% mestiza but 51%, 60$, 75%, 90%, even 100% European but still Asian because that's the way girls are in Manila
btw, I didn't watch the Miss U & nobody among my friends watched it so I don't know what Pau is saying that it's still famous in Manila, maybe among the fags who sponsor these girls to showcase their creations because that's the way they become famous, they get to be interviewed on TV if their girl wins
I think we should act like the confident Europeans, anyway, the girls we send owe their beauties to the European genes anyway. I just saw Jennifer Barrientos last night on TV & I think she's rather beautiful. I'd rather have sex with her tha Riyo Mori. I saw MOri in that Donald Trump cable program "The Pageant Place" where she was featured with some US national beauties & looked like their servant. That's probably the reason Donald Trump chose a real beauty this time because he wants the program to rate
Well part of one of the comments I left was that of course you guys are entitled to your own opinion, I was just expressing mine (and especially as this is your blog), thanks for taking the time to respond though.
As for browneyesonly, I told myself it wasn't worth it to even post a comment, but all I have to say is, as cliched as it is, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Certainly many asians (or most of the world) have admired European beauty whether due to colonial mentality or whatnot, it doesn't matter, I'm not going to get into that here. But whether or not one finds Japanese girls attractive or Chinese, etc, blah blah it's all up to the individual. As long as people find other members of their own race attractive there's nothing wrong. And by the way, that fuss you're talking about in my humble opinion has nothing to do with specific countries' insecurities. But then again that's your view. Miss Universe isn't a big deal in Europe but guess what, Miss World is a huge deal in Europe and less so in North/South America. Same deal more or less.
Beauty pageants such as these used to be huge decades ago (much moreso than now) in the US and Europe, but as time goes by they have stopped NOT because countries have become more secure but because beauty pageants are increasingly viewed as archaic and sexist contests of superficiality.
In my view, it's no more superficial then most of the pop culture entertainment industry in the world today..just that beauty pageants may be more upfront about their superficiality.
As for myself, I prefer 100 percent pure asian beauty to European beauty.
korek, browneyes, but even 25% mestizas are pretty though of course the 75 percenters look down on the half-half but that's mestiza snootiness, their problem
But you're right, since Manila has the most numbert of Europeanized (word right?) girls in Manila, then it has the most beautiful girls in the trying-hard Orient
Hey somebody used my name. I didn't write entry above but I agree with what he said. So I'll just cut & paste his comment but I'll edit it:
korek, browneyes, but even 5% (yes, even 5% mestizas could be beautiful in a Malay previously hybridized by Arabs) mestizas are pretty though of course the 75 percenters look down on the half-half but that's mestiza snootiness, their problem
But you're right, since Manila has the most number of Europeanized (word right?) girls in Manila, then it has the most beautiful girls in the trying-hard Orient
I agree we can afford to be smug like the Europeans. Every year they lose but does anybody believe they aren't the epitomes of beauty?
But I'll respond to Nguyen. The reason Donald Trump is alternating Asia & Latin America is because presently it's only those places that're really interested in these kinds of "fuss" & where he could still generate somewhat big business . The reason why Miss World is being shipped from Africa to Asia (India & China) regularly is because not enough business is being generated in Europe or USA so your assertion that Miss World is big in Europe is wrong. Beauty contests are no longer big business in those areas. Bet the winner of next year's Miss U is Asian, that's because Trump is a big businessman, he knows where his bread is being buttered.
Beauty contest is a business, my friend, & those who show the most interest will be given the crumbs along the way to encourage them.
Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, & that's just where the problem is because there is such a thing as bias to the point of delusion
Lol greeneyedmonster "he knows where his bread is being buttered", makes my mind wonder something else dirty :P
is there something i can do for you sofia to change your mind towards filipinos and the philippines? a massage perhaps?
Honey-sweetie anonymous...and what gave you the impression I hate the Filipinos and the Philippines?
Maybe it just so happen that the people that keep irritating me and our blog comes from there and it doesn't mean that I'm generalizing -- it just so happen, capisce?
Alhtough I am being outright with the things I don't like, I guess I am also as open with the things that pleases me...
EXAMPLE -- Shangri-La Cebu, the Embassy @ The Fort, Pearl Farm, OH-OH! EL NIDO! and...whatelse?...Dusit Hotel Makati, Rockwell Mall, Greenbelt Mall...and that stupid deep-fried chicken skin munchies that I can't stop eating.
There sweetie...is everything crystal clear?
Where should I send the plane ticket for that massage? <3
capito sofia.
like what you've mentioned on one of your earliest blog posts, one reminder that pisanu mentioned to you was to never forget to please the filipinos
i would understand why he would say that. filipinos have this tendency to engage on some ego-tripping spree. of course, the fact that we were once the richest country in this region is still etched within our egos and it frustrates all of us about our present circumstance that's why some filipinos in this blog would mention our country even on topics that doesn't necessarily mention ours.
and of course, the bashers and haters here are all filipinos (although one pretented he was from north america-thanks for proxies). you guys were just educated and mature enough not to publicly and casually mention the names of those people and their blogs who would come to your site as anonymous and have the balls (or the lack of it) to make hate comments here.
if not for your last comment, i wouldn't have thought you got some filipino loving over there.
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