By: Critical Beauty Correspondent Marcelo Cedeño
People in the pageant world tend to judge or look for theories to try to understand the results in every single pageant.
I have not been involved with Miss Earth since 2006 and this year I had the chance to be back. I would like to take this chance to give my two cents in the whole result controversy. As I shared before this is the second Miss Earth Pageant I attend and my experience was pretty much the same as the first time.
Several people wrote me and asked me who my favorite was and I honestly did not have a favorite. If I had not attended the pageant I would have probably said it is clear that Panama would be the winner, however inside the pageant there was talk about her being difficult. Some thought she was going to make it because of Panama broadcasting the pageant and because of all the training she had. I had little one on one interaction with the girls and the times I interacted with Panama she was very nice to me, however, people, and not one or two but several that I have talked to said to me "she and others are not going to make it." They have given a lot of headaches to the organizers.
Let's face it, this is a job, and as any CEO or HR manager you would agree that you want the best person for the job. You know how difficult it is to deal with a trouble maker in the work place and if the Miss Earth organization decided that Philippines was the best suited for the job, they have the right to choose her.
Even though I was not involved last year I can be certain that Jamie Harrell was the best woman for the job. A friend of mine recently expressed his huge disappointment for her winning last year and I said, the one thing pageants have taught me is to never judge a winner based on what you see on TV or pictures. What I always, always, always tell girls is that pageants are NOT won on stage but behind the stage and what goes on behind the scenes the general public never gets to see.
I will confess that before my arrival to Vienna I was not taken by Angelia, but the moment I met her during rehearsals I said to myself Holly Sh*** she is going straight to the finals. There is just that special quality that most girls don't have. It is called genuine charisma. Most girls were exhausted and annoyed because they were rehearsing so late after a full day of activities, travel and a dinner but I noticed Angelia was still going, big smile on her face and very approachable. There is just that element of serenity and peacefulness on her which stands out when you interact with her. I learned about her journey a few days before the pageant and I thought she was quite remarkable. Because of the pageant taken place in Austria, the Miss Earth Organization was apparently too busy doing all the prep (taken a pageant overseas is a huge project) that they basically left her on her own. She apparently took that as a challenge and did everything by herself, getting in touch with Jamie and many other people to learn about Miss Earth. She is a self made beauty queen.
Never heard about her whining, bitching or complaining. She was there to show she was the best for the job and her face and body language exuded joy.
I could trash the pageant because my girl did not make the top, but I have no reason to do so. Pageants are very subjective and as Jamie told me "I can not be sure that I would even make top 15 this year or the year before I won because every year you have a different set of judges and they have different taste so there is no reason to argue about that." Only because I think this girl or that girl should have won or should have made it does not mean the judges are going to agree.
I am personally satisfied with the results and I find Angelia to be a deserving winner. I am not surprised at all with any of the top 4, as a matter of fact Brazil and USA were heavy favorites in Vienna but not so much online.
I never sensed or felt favoritism towards any girls and although one can argue about the results, the reality is nobody will ever know who really did stand out behind the scenes and who was the most consistent throughout the pageant. This is not a photo, modeling or fashion contest. This is a job, a hard job which should be done by someone who is willing to do so.