Last Monday morning I arrived at Bondi Junction to meet the Miss Earth organisers and contestants. The Miss Earth schedule required me to take a whole week out of my usual life which involves working as an environmental planner with Conics and working with the Project Survival Pacific team.
I was ready for a full week of press conferences, pageant training and environmental activities. First on the agenda was getting acquainted with each other… it was wonderful to meet so many like-minded women who had many inspiring stories to tell of their own environmental initiatives and interests. Next was lunch followed by a press conference. For this we travelled to Sunny’s Seafood Restaurant in Hurstville. It was an interesting venue choice to say the least and unfortunately no-one from the media attended the “press conference”. It was a shame as this turned out to be the only opportunity to promote a main cause of the competition which is to raise awareness of environmental issues.
The following day involved preliminary judging of our environmental speeches. As the organiser introduced the judges and listed their credentials, it became apparent that none of the judges were involved in the environmental field nor did they have any experience in this area. I began to question their ability to judge us based on our depth of knowledge and understanding of current environmental issues.
That evening a stretched hummer arrived to take the contestants on a city tour. At this point the legitimacy of Miss Earth as a pageant for “earth-loving participants who will…. take action to protect the Earth from man-made pollution” really started to fade.
The schedule on the following day was booked in for tree-planting, however this activity was cancelled and instead the day was re-scheduled entirely for make up and hair for the preliminary judging that evening which was open to the public. This wasn’t what I had taken a whole week off work for!
The preliminary judging was held at Sunny’s Seafood Restaurant in Hurstville. On my way there we picked up my mum from the airport who flew down from Brisbane to attend the event and support me. The venue was highly inappropriate with the majority of the attendees did not speak English and much of what was said by the MC was repeated in Mandarin. Unfortunately however, the contestant’s speeches and talents were not translated and the majority of the audience was unable to appreciate them.
The evening revealed that the judges were forgetting to grade the girls on environmental awareness and understanding but rather were judging solely on looks. This became apparent when best talent was selected for a contestant who mimed the song “I’m a Barbie Girl in a Barbie World, Life in Plastic, its Fantastic” and a contestant with an understanding of what is really is like to live in plastic, but yet with limited environmental knowledge, was chosen to deliver an environmental speech.
Thursday, Friday and Saturday were scheduled in for training and rehearsals for the final Saturday night show.
As a contestant of Miss Earth I felt we had achieved nothing in the way of raising awareness of environmental issues or to help the environment in a tangible way. I felt like the pageant was focused primarily on beauty and on creating a great ‘show’ for the Saturday night. On Thursday I had made my decision to pull out of the competition based on these grounds.
There were some very talented and environmentally aware women in the competition who are out there really making a difference to our world. The competition failed to recognise the positive difference they are making, and for them and to honour my own principles I officially withdrew my place in the pageant on Friday in protest. I am in the process of writing a letter to Miss Earth Australia and Miss Earth International detailing my concerns.
Thank you to the amazing women I met in the Miss Earth competition who have inspired me and given me hope!
Sydney morning Herald Diary covers Lost Horizons and Miss Earth
What a shame that something with so much potential to provoke discussion on environmental issues turned out to be such a waste of time! Hopefully if they get enough feedback of the kind you’re providing they’ll realise the need to improve on the environmental aspect of the pageant for next year.
Good on you for writing this and for making a stand by pulling out – I can’t believe they hired a stretch hummer! That is insane!
Lol, I’m pretty sure no-one thinks Miss Earth is about the Earth… it’s about the Miss.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WALIARHHLII