Mrs. Botswana Writes Open Letter to Mrs. World Pageant: Why Weren’t Black Women Allowed?

This article is full of lies and blatant misinformation. Your argument is flawed but even more egregiously you are spreading ridiculous misinformation. Golo mo ke tshele! Did you think that no one from Botswana would read this? 1st of all you are NOT the first person from Botswana to compete in Miss World because last year Emma Wareus was 2nd Princess and she is from Botswana. Another thing you fail to mention. Miss Universe 2011 is Angolan! Another thing Miss Universe 1999 was FROM BOTSWANA! You should know better than to say that African beauty isnt celebrated or appreciated, get over it. You are NOT beautiful and thats the reason you didnt make it. it has nothing to do with race! the 3 women i mentioned above PROVE IT. Suck it up. O mompe all my friends agreee! Stop whining ebile o maaka selo ke wena sies kga… ga o swabe!

Oh shit! My bad… i feel very foolish now. I am so sorry. Its just I am really annoyed by people who use race as an excuse for failure. I apologize profusely. I had no idea there was a Miss and a Mrs World. That being said she still has no argument all this proves is that at a second rate pageant show for older women there is racial disparity but at the more reknown prestigious shows there is little or less racial disparities than she would like us to think. She does her readers great disservice by omitting the facts about the Pageants i mentioned above from 3  black winners of crowns at these pageants. 2 from her very own country and the other from our neighbour Angola. Ommiting these facts is tantamount to lying.(lying by omission) Also if you wanted to look at racial disparities in beauty pageants I would suggest not looking at the one that no one cares about or pays much attention to. YOU use skewed information to advance your agenda. I hope you are reading this Nomalanga.. Botswana women are beautiful, i know that, you know that. Stop feeling sorry for yourself Mpule Kwelagabe paved the way for all you and Emma Wareus and Leila Lopes prove that black women can make it on the most prestigious pageants. Sorry about my over reaction and for calling you a charlatan( not my proudest moment) but really of you are going to write something ebile o le Mrs Semang-mang make sure that you give people the whole picture not just pick and choose inconsequential facts from an inconsequential pageant to prove your point.

Race
card!!!! The judging
panel should be made up of the best people in their fields e.g. fashion, finance,
beauty etc…Not chosen because of the race!!!!! Why should there be a black woman in the top 14? Why
should they just give us a spot for just being black and leave out other women
who earned the spot??? Think about the black women who have entered, Maybe just
maybe up to now, the black woman have be found not to be good characters, or
simply represent charities that are not in dire need etc….. So they DON’T REPRESENT
THE BEST OF THEIR COUNTRY so cant be in the top 14!!!! As for the statement: “most accomplished women in the world”
really then why do u need MRS. World????? ALSO YOU SHOULD BE SPENDING MORE TIME
WORKING ON THE FOUNDATION, INSTEAD OF SPENDING THE MONEY ON PAGENTS: “ I am in
the process of building a foundation in Botswana that will encourage the
education of young Batswana, especially girls” R U REALLY??????!!!!!!!!!!

I want to first congratulate Mrs. Botswana for writing her letter with the same dignity that she no doubt displayed in the competition. I on the other hand will not be so polite, because I know better. Unlike most of the negative posters on this sight, I was not only there on the night of the finals I am speaking from further personal experience. Mrs. Botswana did not write her letter because of sour grapes. She was also not saying that there should have been a quota in place for black women. What she was saying was — and I totally agree — with black women making up about 14% of the total women competing it would seem reasonable that at least one black woman would make the top 14 (which was actually the top 15).

And please do not accuse Mrs. Botswana of being bitter because she lost. Nothing could be farther from the truth. If anything she is bitter because of the process that was not only not fair it was in my view, at the very least, not legitimate.

Now before anyone accuses me of being bias toward black woman, you should know I am not black. In fact, my preference is usually white woman. I can’t help that. But I’m also not blind to beauty no matter what the skin color or nationality. And with 13 women to pick as finalists (the last two were not actually chosen by the judges as finalists) I would have picked at least one black woman that night. Beauty is relative but if the judges were being honest I cannot see how they could not have done the same. But they didn’t. At least it appears that they didn’t. I’ll explain that later.

I need to clarify a few things for those who don’t bother to get the facts before they start judging or speaking out on things they know nothing about.

1) it was the MRS. WORLD competition not the Miss World competition (a simple fact that even the husband of Mrs. America couldn’t get right for about the first thirty times be belched out “MISS AMERICA!”)
2) the competition is open to married women from the age of 18 on up (so the “old women” comments only magnify the ignorance of those making them – as if their comments didn’t expose enough negativity about their poor character on their own)
3) unlike the various “Miss” competitions, the women of Mrs. World are generally quite accomplished on their own merit, most of them are mothers and to their credit they just happen to be beautiful (as if beauty is a fault for which someone should apologize – according to many posters).

But there are problems with Mrs. World that go way beyond the issue of black women in the finals. And in understanding them it should explain the seeming racial imbalance. I think to begin to understand, the following questions need to be asked. And they need to be asked enough times until they are answered.

1) why was there no oversight on the judges’ final tabulations? (who knows if who we are told they picked are actually who they really picked?)

2) how could the judges possibly give unbiased choices when they were all hand-picked by Mr. Marmel?

3) hypothetically, would you trust the decision of a panel of judges who chose Mrs. Antarctica as the winner of a competition, in that country, when four out of five of them were also from Antarctica?

4) how could Mrs. Congeniality and the Mrs. who was chosen by a “random” drawing ever win the crown when they were not chosen by the judges in the first place? Does that mean the supposed scoring system of 25% swim suit, 25% evening gown and 50% interview didn’t really mean a thing?

5) was it simply a coincidence that at least three of the final 13 chosen women were from Florida where the competition was held; or that Mrs. Panama was in the finals when Panama is the current host country for Mrs. World 2012; or that Vietnam was the host country for 2009 (a former Mrs. Vietnam was one of the 2011 judges and still wishes to host the competition again) and Mrs. Vietnam ends up in the finals; or that Mrs. America and Mrs. North America both made the finals (though Mrs. North America was a very classy woman) as America always seems to do; or that Mrs. Korea also made the finals when Korea was the planned host country for 2010 until plans changed?

6) if Mrs. Peru was actually chosen as first runner-up (when I am sure I heard her named as second runner up by the host, Florence Henderson) why was her name called first to leave Mrs. Vietnam standing next to Mrs. America?

7) why did Florence Henderson call out Mrs. Poland as the first runner up when she wasn’t even in the top three? (in actuality, I thought I heard her call Mrs. Panama. Someone must have the video of the last three but you won’t see it on youtube from Mrs. World because they can’t show it without doctoring it).
why was Mrs. Vietnam standing next to Mrs. America in all the final pictures if she wasn’t the first runner up?

9) in the video of the finals on youtube why was Mrs. Peru raising her arms in confusion standing next to an equally confused Mrs. Poland?

10) why did Mrs. Poland and Mrs. Peru walk off the stage during the crowning of Mrs. World? (as seen in the final video on youtube)?

One thing I can say with all certainty, is that more than just the black women who competed in Mrs. World 2011 were shortchanged and disrespected by the Mrs. World organization. It would appear to me that most of the women never had a chance (from things I have said here and things I have not) because without a doubt too many of the positions on the final 15 were already taken. From my calculations I’d say about seven women had a spot no matter what. Which is why there were 15 positions instead of the usual ten. Why 15?  Why not ten like it has always been? Because with 15 it’s easier to hide judging that is not honest. Unless of course you know where to look.

I have much more to say, but I’ll save it for when people start asking the right questions.

I, for one, am proud of you, Mrs. Batswana. You are wearing your country’s crown well. And yes, you and about 45 other women never had a chance. From my perspective, Mrs. World owes you and all the rest much more than simply an apology. But I’m afraid you’ll never get either. Unless of course… We’ll see.