Beauty or Brains?

Question and Answer (Bb. Pilipinas 2008)

Janina's Message to her critics

If I were to choose from the two, I would prefer brains. But if both are present then its a bonus. The recent Bb. Pilipinas 2008 pageant has created a buzz not only here in our country but also around the globe. This is because of the controversial winner of the Miss World Title Janina San Miguel. At presstime, the video of the question and answer portion posted on YouTube.com is at more than 1.4 million hits, and commented almost 15 thousand times. Some insulted her because she was not able to pull out a good answer plus the mistakes in her grammar and some defended her saying that she should be a given a chance to prove herself.

I tend to laugh at those who gave negative comments on the video because they themselves commit mistakes on their grammar. As much as possible, I dont want to correct grammar of others because I myself commit those mistakes. I see lots of bloggers making the same mistakes whenever I do blog hopping but I'd rather be silent for them not to get hurt. My suggestion, read your articles again and look for your mistakes. That is what I do because sometimes I tend to do articles on the spot (like this one) and is not able to check my grammar. So even if you have posted an article, you can edit your mistakes if you found one.

Now with regards to the Bb. Pilipinas pageant, I've read an article of Dolly Anne Carvajal, an entertainment writer of Inquirer.net, that the percentage for personality and intelligence acounts only for 20% of the criteria for judging and 80% for face and figure. Now doing my math, a candidate can really win even without answering a question right? A candidate can still get a 90% or less, since intelligence is only 10%. I really think that the criteria should be changed. Why not give a 2o% or 30% for intelligence?

Although English is not our first language, we've been known to be one of the best in this language, that is why foreigners outsource jobs here in the Philippines. The call centers are good example of this. They like Filipino workers because we can communicate well. In my opinion, our representative to an international pageant should be also good at this language because it reflects us. But let us give Janina the chance to prove herself. She should take the advice of former Miss World 2nd runner up Ruffa Gutierrez to study speech lessons and thereby improving her communication skills. She still has the time to prepare.

I also included here the video of her interview giving a message to her critics. I salute her for being tough amidst this controversy. Let us wait and see what's gonna happen. After all, everybody can win if the criteria is like that. I don't blame her for that. So my message to the organizers, wake up! We are being laughed at!