janina san miguel, just right for ms world

thanks to the internet i was able to get a scoop on this:

paolo bediones: janina, how are you?
janina san miguel: fine.
paolo bediones: alright, so you won two of the major awards - best in long gown, best in swimsuit, do you feel any pressure right now?
janina san miguel: no, i don’t feel any pressure right now.
paolo bediones: confident! alright! please choose a name of the judge.
paolo bediones: we have miss vivian tan.
vivian tan: good evening.
janina san miguel: good evening.
vivian tan: the question is, what role did your family play to you as candidate to binibining pilinas?
janina san miguel: well, my family’s role for me is so important b’coz there was the wa- they’re, they was the one who’s… very… hahahaha… oh i’m so sorry, ahhmm… my pamily… my family… oh my god.. i’m… ok, i’m so sorry… i… i told you that i’m so confident… eto, ahhmm, wait… hahahaha, ahmmm, sorry guys because this was really my first pageant ever b’coz i’m only 17 years old and ahahaha i, i did not expect that i came from, i came from one of the top (taft) 10. hmmm, so… but i said that my family is the most important persons in my life. thank you.

janina san miguel, 17, was candidate number 15 of the recent binibining pilipinas peagent. she was crowned bb. pilipinas-world which means she will represent the philippines at the upcoming miss world beauty peagent.

i’ve read that she had just won as a runner-up at a beauty contest in the university of the east.

it’s quite amusing how the buzz she created on the various media and social channels underscores some points about most filipinos.

-most filipinos who have been baptized with the literacy of the english grammar have evolved as ruthless grammar nazis. filipinos seem to have that extra sense to spot almost any faulty sentence construction, pronunciation, and subject-verb agreement towards other people but themselves. the filipino people appeared to have developed the habit of criticizing and making fun of people who can’t fluently communicate with the english language as if it was a crime.

-our loyalty to the english language is one clear proof of our colonized mentality. seems like we haven’t realized how our unconscious view of english as the superior language put as in front of a double-edged sword. it works for us in such a way that we can connect and communicate to the world, to america, and to other countries who speak the language. this could mean more job opportunities(?), an advantage during job interviews, and our easy assimilation of the culture and ways of the english speaking nations.

on the otherhand, our attempts to use the english in almost every aspect of our lives, makes the communication process more vague and confusing. take for instance the public officials who would speak the distorted english language during tv interviews. most of them can hardly convey their message to their audience, and that was never a good thing. people from the government would debate, discuss and brawl using the (again, distorted) english language, which brought more chaos and confusion to the air. will it hurt if they speak filipino in the court or in the senate hearings? can some expert correct me on this one, is it really prohibited to converse in filipino during government proceedings?

-filipinos love to pay attention to mundane things that actually shouldn’t be taken that seriously. say for example the pregnancy of a teen starlet, or the fight of lolit solis and annabelle rama. really, would it make you any richer if you know any tiny detail about their personal issues? in the case of the recent bb. pilipinas pageant, well, it’s a beauty peagent, what do you expect. and besides, even if she screwed up her answer to the question, she may have other qualities that the judges were looking for. she has the body, and the looks. isn’t that what beauty pageants are all about? come on, the organizers should’ve just staged a national quizbee for women in gown and swimsuit if they were really eyeing for smart girls in the competition. having the brian-beauty and body combo is just a plus. but it’s usually the beauty and the body package (plus the pseudo humanitarian personality) that stands out in these competitions.

the judges did nothing wrong. they did their job; that is to evaluate and judge the contestants based on their overall performance. let’s show some love and quit bashing the girl. let’s pardon her for leaving her brain, perhaps at the dressing room, since it appeared that she had enough confidence in her spirit to back up her beauty and body.

she’s charming, though. what’s the fear about her representing the country if she can’t communicate well in english? she can use an interpreter/translator. other candidates do that. i bet she can provide a more concrete and logical answer if she will be given the chance to speak in her native tongue.

besides, isn’t amusing that the politics of the beauty pageant industry is also in sync with the politics of the philippine government? beauty over quality. that’s the fad of this era. good economy over effective and quality governance. a seemingly peaceful image tamed and repressed by political fiascos over the loud clamor of freedom.

the philippines is lucky to have a candidate to the ms world beauty pageant that (in one way or another) represents the irony of the country; a reigning queen of beauty and body sans the commonsense and wits.

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now feast yourselves over these links:

bb pilipinas

youtube video of the actual question and answer portion

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