Pageant Drama Continues

It’s almost a month now after the Miss World Fiji Pageant 2012 competition and the drama just keeps getting better and better. At least one thing is certain now; Torika Waters is not representing Fiji in Mongolia this year. First runner - up of the competition, Koini Vakaloloma, will now be showcasing Fiji in Miss World ater this year.

Can you believe it? One month after the Fiji competition, then we get to know who is going to the Miss World 2012. First it was the “native” fiasco. Now, it’s the age debacle. I feel sorry for 16 year old Torika, for getting caught up in all this. I bet this was the last thing she had expected when she signed up for it. On May 13^th, The Fiji Times reported that Torika will be representing Fiji next year in Bali, when she is of the entrant cut off age of 17.

This is what she said to The FijiTimes;

He (Andhy Blake) said he would reserve a place for me among the semi-finalists because I was in Sydney at the time. I told him that I would not be turning 17 until next year 2012, and asked if that mattered, he said it was fine ... . I arrived into Fiji on the 8th of April and came to Suva to join the other contestants on the 11th of April

This seems so silly to me now. How could anyone have overlooked that? I’m pretty sure that the limitations of age for entrants are clearly stated. Unless the Miss World organisation wrote such criteria in some sort of code! You all have to pardon my aggression here, but this is actually not the first time such an incident has occurred here in Fiji. And this is what irritates me the most. I’m sure people of Fiji remember the Fiji Rugby Union (FRU) lottery. Just to brief the ones who forgot, FRU started selling lottery tickets to raise funds for their World Cup team, but on the last day of sales, they decreased the price of the tickets from $20 to $10. So wasn’t this unfair on the ones who bought it for $20. Thus, the winner was not given his prize money. The matter is yet to be decided by the courts. I still feel sorry for the recklessness the winner had to endure.

Do people intentionally don’t want to follow simple guidelines or are they too ignorant? I wish there was something that could be done for Torika. Well, she’s going to Bali next year, but all the drama that went on before that is just amazing. To make matters worse Torika did ask the organiser here, Andhy Blake, if she was of eligible age and he assured her it was okay.

With my basic knowledge of the law, I think Torika has a firm case of negligence in Torts against the organisers here.

This whole fiasco has been closely watched by people across the world. This story is even a hit in the US;

If it’s one thing the Miss World Fiji has got, is publicity and put Fiji “on the map”, but certainly not in a good way.

It will be interesting to see how this whole fiasco ends. I'm just wondering if there will be a competition next year, now that Andhy has decided that Torika will go to Bali next year. Well, I'll keep you all posted.