Just when I thought that the international pageant market had been saturated, I learnt of yet another "international" pageant. The Princess of the World pageant aka Miss Europe & World Junior has been held in the Czech Republic on 5 occasions since 2003. And needless to say, the Czech Republic has either won or placed or won a subsidiary award at every edition of the pageant.The pageant started out in 2003 as the Miss Europe Junior pageant with contestants from Europe. It then became the Miss Europe Junior Open pageant with most of the contestants from Europe and a handful from the rest of the world. It is now the Miss Europe & World Junior pageant with 40 contestants from across the globe competing this year.
The pageant is open to contestants aged 16 to 23 who must reside in the country they represent. It is also a pageant "with a difference" (aren't they all these days) insofar as, apart from the standard swimsuit and evening gown competitions, the contestants must have personality and charm (yeah, so what). And get this, the contestants must be computer-literate and be familiar with the internet (big deal, every man and his dog are on FaceBook).
Ok! So enough with my snide comments already. South Africa has been represented at the pageant each year for the last 3 years, but without any success (which surprises me since our reps haven't been too shabby). Although the first two contestants qualified by winning a pageant organised by that dodgy crowd from the Far East Rand, the local directors now appear to be the Miss Earth SA organisation.
Our list of representatives at the pageant is as follows:
2006 Marilyn Ramos
2007 Simone Prinsloo
2008 Anzel Venter
2009 Kim Senogles
Kim Senogles (pictured above) is a former Miss SA Teen finalist and was also the runner-up in the 2008 edition of Miss Earth SA. She is 21 and 1,71m tall. She is also a drama student at UCT and is a member of the SRC. Let's hope she can crack the Top 3 at the pageant, and break the drought at the pageant.
Perhaps we should start our own international pageant to guarantee a high placement every year because we certainly ain't making the grade at other pageants. Germany has Miss Intercontinental, China has Miss Tourism Queen, Japan has Miss International, Philippines has Miss Earth, Poland has Miss Supranational (I heard Haiti will be organising the Miss Supernatural pageant, LOL) ...... and they all finish near the top every year without fail.
We can call our international pageant Miss Rainbow International. That would tie in with the whole (imaginary) rainbow nation theme. Then again, maybe not.