Vietnam can’t lose with Miss Universe 2008

Dr. Doan Thi Kim Hong and Paula Mary Shugart, Chairwoman of the Organising Board of the Miss Universe pageant contest

VietNamNet Bridge – The government has approved Vietnam as the host of the Miss Universe pageant 2008. With $15 million in funding needed, where will the money come from? Dr. Doan Thi Kim Hong, Chairman of the CIAT Advertising and Trade Fair JS Company, which is one of three organising partners of the Universe JS Company, outlines some details.

The government has approved organisation but has it agreed to financially support the event?

According to our plan, which was approved by the government, the funding will be raised by the member companies. However, we can only organise this event with the approval of the Government and under the guidance of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and other relevant agencies.

Miss Universe 2005 in Thailand was half financed ($7 million) by the Thais Government and the rest by organisers but it still incurred a loss of over $1 million despite available infrastructure. Have you and your partners considered the financial burden of this contest, as we have to build all new facilities?

Our funding was raised by the three member companies of the Universe JS Company, the CIAT Advertising and Trade Fair JS Company, VIET CEO, and Hoan Cau Nha Trang. We have arranged the $7 million necessary for the contract between us and the Miss Universe organising board.

After signing, we will set up our own board that will raise funds through sponsorships and investments from both local and foreign companies.

It is estimated that the pageant will draw over 500 businessmen wanting learn about Vietnam’s business and trade environment. Despite possible difficulties and losses, this event will focus international attention on our country and should heighten Vietnam’s global status. That alone meets our definition of success.

As both businessman in and citizens of Vietnam, we are proud of doing our part to market Vietnam’s image to the world.

Do you think that local and foreign companies will invest in this event?

The Universe Company is prestigious and its members have substantial experience in acquiring valuable sponsorship. CIAT has 20 years of experience organising events. We have held many international festivals in Hanoi, Hue, Da Nang, Nha Trang, Vung Tau and Dak Lak so we have diverse and strong relationships with local and foreign companies.

I hope that businesses will see it this as a wonderful opportunity to advertise their brands, not only at home but also to the rest of the world.

What worries you the most about your upcoming October negotiation?

How to meet the deadlines, but with the support of the Government, I feel assured. Moreover, the Miss Universe board expects Vietnam to host the pageant; all that is left are the details.

Sources: Gia Dinh & Xa Hoi) and Vietnam Net Bridge

New Law Sets Rules For Beauty Pageants, Others

Under a new law, Gaming Act 2006, anyone wishing to organise a game of chance including beauty contests, sales promotion, television reality shows and SMS quiz games will need to acquire authorisation from the Gaming Commission first.

Recurring contestants’ complaints about non-delivery of promised prizes, viewers’ doubts over transparency in the scoring of television reality shows and public concerns over the methods used to determine games of chance using mobile phone SMS could be things of the past.

A not-so-new law, Gaming Act 2006, which revised and consolidates the laws relating to gaming activities is beginning to flex its muscle with the coming into being of the Gaming Commission under the Ministry of Interior whose business is to regulate, control, monitor and supervise the operation of games of chance in this country.

Under the law anyone wishing to organise a game of chance including beauty contests, sales promotion, television reality shows and SMS quiz games will need to acquire authorisation from the Gaming Commission first.

For the past few years, considerable furore has been raised in public over unpaid prizes for beauty pageant winners. In one case, a reigning Miss Ghana had to go to court to claim her prize and in another, the organisers resorted to paying the prize in instalments.

In yet another pageant, the contestants were told after the show that they should consider their participation as charity.

“That will not happen again, the Gaming Commissioner Mr Alex Baafour Gyimah told Showbiz, “My office demands that any organiser of such a pageant has to come to talk with us.”

Mr Gyimah said that game of chance organisers are expected to meet three simple requirements. First they are to visit the offices of the Gaming Commission located in Fortune House on the premises of the Department of National Lotteries in Accra to present their proposal to the commission. “At this stage, we will discuss the proposal and determine whether the game can be run.

The second requirement is for the organisers to apply in writing stating the nature of the game, the prizes to be given and the manner in which winners will be determined. Organisers are expected to pay GH¢50 as application fee.

Finally, the organisers are expected to convince the commission that they are adequately resourced to carry out the game of chance and be ready to pay five percent of the net value of prizes to the commission after the event.

“Our job is to protect the public,” Mr Gyimah said. “Our intention is neither to discourage people from going into promotions nor to criminalise promotions” but he was quick to add that the commission has the authority to invoke sanctions for non-compliance as set out in the Gaming Act.

Mr Gyimah expressed satisfaction with the co-operation that his office has so far engaged with almost all of the television stations which carry reality shows on their networks. He said that since the commission sent letters round a few months ago, all prospective organisers of reality shows on television have been to the commission to discuss their shows and to seek authority.

Only a few months old, the commission is yet to take off strongly but even at this stage, Mr Gyimah appears quite satisfied with what has been achieved with regard to their monitoring and supervisory roles.

“We have been quite busy poring over newspaper adverts, listening to radio and watching television for news of any game of chance activities and it is in the interest of organisers and promoters to talk to us first to avoid having their programmes brought to an abrupt end”, Mr Gyimah said.

“We expect honest dealings on the part of game organisers and not to take the public for granted.

Story by Nana Banyin Dadson

Source: Modern Ghana

Colombia's beauty obsession reaches even to prison

Inmates take the spotlight at prison pageant

Angie Sanchez, the eventual winner, walks the stage during the prison beauty pageant in Bogota, Colombia. Scott Dalton: For the Chronicle

By JOHN OTIS

BOGOTA, Colombia — You could call her "Miss Death Squad."

Jailed for supplying weapons to illegal right-wing paramilitary assassins, Angie Sanchez is now, in a manner of speaking, a queen of the convicts. The slim 21-year-old took top honors in an annual beauty pageant at the Good Shepherd women's prison here.

A penitentiary may seem an odd place to display glitz and glamour, but the prison's warden puts on the beauty contest each year in an effort to boost the prisoners' morale and break the monotony of life behind bars.

"This is a time when they don't have to think about being in jail and can focus on being beautiful women," said warden Jenny Morantes. The prison holds 1,166 women as well as a handful of toddlers, who are allowed to live with their mothers until age 3.

Besides, comparing beauty is a national obsession in Colombia. The country comes to a near-standstill in November during the weeklong Miss Colombia pageant, while scores of smaller contests crown Miss Coffee and Miss Petroleum, to name just two.

Breaking stereotypes

Most budding beauty queens in Colombia are well-to-do teenagers with a coterie of advisers who prep for months by exercising, dieting, practicing on runways and contemplating cosmetic surgery.

The prisoners, by contrast, are often women from poor or working-class families. Many are in their 20s or 30s. Most are married or divorced. Some have children. Nearly all are tough women doing hard time in the massive, concrete guardhouse.

They eat greasy prison food and get little exercise, making it difficult to obtain or maintain stereotypical beauty queen figures. Some sport tattoos on their arms, legs and torsos.

But as the prison beauty contest nears, they get professional help from hairstylists and manicurists, who volunteer their services.

"These are people, just like everyone else," hairdresser Alfonso Llano said as he twisted braids and used a blow-dryer on one of the contestants. "Maybe they made mistakes, but they are here to pay for their crimes and to move on."

Besides Sanchez, contenders in the recent contest included a mother of three sentenced to 14 months for stealing CDs, a woman convicted of forging documents, and a Spanish tourist imprisoned for trying to smuggle 9 pounds of cocaine to her homeland.

"I needed the money," said Isabel Cavallos, a housewife from Valencia, Spain, who packed the white powder in her suitcase. "But they caught me at the airport."

Sought money, excitement

Sanchez, one of six children born into a family of poor farmers, dreamed of studying languages or working as a forensic anthropologist. But lacking the money for college, she ended up waiting tables at bars and restaurants for $70 a week.

One night, Sanchez met a group of paramilitary militiamen who had fought Marxist guerrillas but later became heavily involved in death squads, extortion rackets and drug trafficking. Sanchez, who was obsessed with Tom Cruise and his Mission: Impossible films, was drawn to their seemingly exciting lifestyle.

Soon, she was working for the gunmen. For double her waitress pay, she became a courier, dropping off weapons to paramilitaries.

The gig ended when a fight broke out at a paramilitary party. Police arrived and found a pistol and a grenade. Sanchez and her colleagues were arrested, and she was sent to Good Shepherd prison on charges ranging from weapons possession to membership in an illegal armed group.

"I never killed anyone," Sanchez said. "And I never thought I'd end up here."

And now, the final question

Despite her derring-do with the paramilitaries, Sanchez said she was nearly too nervous to take part in the beauty pageant. But she was nominated by her colleagues in Cell Block 2, so on the day of the contest she took a tranquilizer.

Wearing a purple evening gown and strutting before hundreds of screaming inmates, Sanchez appeared to win over the audience with her charisma and her answer to a question posed by one of the judges: What does the word "liberty" mean to you?

Speaking into a microphone, Sanchez replied: "It means that we can have new opportunities in life because we all make mistakes."

When the judges announced the winner, Sanchez received a silver crown and a massive boombox. Then, her ecstatic friends from Cell Block 2 paraded Sanchez through the prison on their shoulders.

A few days later, Sanchez reflected on her victory. It hadn't exactly changed her life — she's still behind bars awaiting trial — but she speculated that her crown could come in handy when she returns to court in November to appeal for her freedom.

"Maybe it will help with the judge," she said.

Source: Houston Chronicle