Beauty contests in serious nation building

I am glad that others have come out against holding the Miss Universe contest in Manila. We needed to come out against it if for different reasons. For me, it is almost to be expected that when a developing or underdeveloped country begins to show signs of more serious nation building it is instantly put down by holding a beauty contest. For the sake of more tourism.

According to a columnist of another newspaper both men and women have signed a petition to the organizers of the Miss Universe pageant. As if a beauty contest were such a momentous event for the country they (both the men and the women) do not want to continue the project to teach President Duterte a lesson.

They are affronted that it should be held in Duterte’s times whose election has been described as a miracle. While most Filipinos, at least 16 million of them do have a cause to celebrate, it should not be through a beauty contest no matter if is “universal.” On the contrary his victory is distinct, historical and worth celebrating for Filipinos but not through a beauty contest.

The Philippines has drawn worldwide attention because it now has a leader willing to break with conventional norms for change. He should not be honored with a beauty contest. I hope many Filipinos will sign the petition for Duterte to back out of the stupidity of a beauty contest that would return us to Neanderthal values.

If that is the reason for backing out of the agreement to hold the Miss Universe contest here, then I and I think many others will line up to sign. The election of a man of the people and good governance is something to celebrate but not through a beauty contest.

Good if the petition would succeed to back out from their agreement with the Philippine government to hold the 2016 competition in Manila. That would be a good thing. It shows maturity and better values than parading women in swimsuits and their national costumes who gets the crown as Miss Universe. Not surprisingly this is not what the petition hopes to accomplish. The organizers would stop the contest as a snub to President Duterte. What?!?

Tourism Secretary Wanda Teo is behind this shallow enterprise and proud to say that it was one of the department’s first programs to attract tourists to the country. Preposterous. It is seen as a noble act to parade women like cattle. I admit through the years the Miss Universe Contest has been trying to improve the quality of the contests like asking the contestants “intelligent” questions. The bottom line is to show that if women can answer intelligent questions, the country must be good and worthwhile.

That is not the reason why tourists come to see other countries other than their own.

I remember a group of travel agents saying that Manila is the envy of other countries because it has the Intramuros. If tourism in the Philippines were to put more effort to reconstruct a medieval city to show what life was like in the Spanish period we would have tourists flocking to Manila. It is one with a history. But there has been no serious effort to do so.

Intramuros has a story to tell that other countries do not have. It is sad that there has been no serious effort to finally rehabilitate Intramuros. We could have a permanent window to a time and life other countries did not have, Moats, walls, bridges, cobbled walks. Tourists would be more interested in seeing a place which was once called the Pearl of the Orient.

Tourism should project the country and its unique history to the world. With apologies to the current Miss Universe, Pia Wurtzbach I hope they will not make her an arbiter of our foreign policy.

This column disagrees with those who hold that this is good for the country because of the money and publicity it will bring in. It is not money alone that we should consider in holding beauty contests but something less obvious. It has to do with the trivialization of more important values and attitudes.

There is something sinister about holding the Miss Universe contest in the Philippines so soon after the victory of a President who has championed change that puts the country on a level of higher values. It douses ambition and the determination of our people to forward after the difficult struggle to achieve reform and shape a better country.

It would put us back into nonsense and the superficial instead of developing women as pillars of our society as scientists, educators and chief executives. They deserve more and valuable successes and accomplishment than winning beauty contests. So why do we accept the holding of beauty contests as “respect” for women. It seems wrong to me.

We are not for beauty contests because it is shallow and inutile. I think the petition is being used as a political and media weapon against Duterte.

Look at the world around us and you will find that serious countries do not hold beauty contests for the sake of money and tourism. That is what immediately connotes that women are inferior. Without saying so, this is what it implies – the value of women comes from having beautiful faces and nicely shaped bodies. It has become the ambition of young girls to become beauty queens instead of developing their minds and their capacity for leadership.

I am not surprised that the DOT Secretary, a woman, should push for it. She is herself a victim of the culture.

The present Miss Universe may be a Filipina but she should not be put on the same level with our President who is head of state. He has better things to do with his time and more problems to cope with than discuss whether we should hold the next Miss Universe contest in Manila.

According to the organizers the Philippines will not be spending a single centavo for the beauty contest. So what? It is losing more, so much more in values, among them the respect for women. With Duterte’s victory we should be seen as a serious nation, ready to take off socially and economically to feed and educate its hungry millions, especially its women.