Venus Raj: Her Major, Major Success in Miss Universe 2010

Everyone's talking about Ms. Venus Raj and her controversial "major, major" answer in the Miss Universe 2010 Q&A. In fact, Yahoo has even run a "major, major" feature video for Ms. Raj and how she almost made it to the crown, had she not "blew" it on the Q&A portion. Truly, this year's Miss Universe 4th runner up has stirred a lot of buzz in the entertainment and social world that it seems people have talked about her more than the actual winner, Jimena Navarette of Mexico. In a beauty-pageant savvy country like the Philippines, this is nothing new. We are a country thirsty for an icon or source of pride and inspiration, and beauty queens like Venus, with her runner up finish, are considered heroes of our time, just like athletes like Manny Paquiao are in our hearts. As P-Noy has put it, her achievement in the recent Miss Universe pageant served as a ray of sunlight in a rather cloudy Philippine image in the international community especially after the tragic bus hostage drama in Luneta.

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I felt a sense of loss personally that Venus didn't get the crown when she was "almost there". She was obviously a crowd favorite, not just by Filipinos but by spectators from around the world. If she's not, then the Miss U venue wouldn't have been shaken by overwhelming cheers and applauses when her name was called as the last Top 15 semi-finalist. Also, I heard Donald Trump made a post-pageant personal annotation that he was actually rooting either for Ms. Mexico or Venus. I see a business and political undertone on this statement. Ms Mexico because, obviously, Trump and the MU Organization have an unexplainable bias in favor of Latinas. And Ms. Philippines, most likely because of Venus inspiring "cinderella-like" story; had she won, it's easy for Trump and his company to market the new Miss Universe, capitalizing on Ms. Raj's rise from poverty to fame and her unique struggles in the province where she practiced catwalk in rice paddies. Trump could have marketed Venus and her Ms. U success along the over-rated theme "dreams do come true" or something like this. This would have been truly memorable.

Then again, this is just "could-have-been" scenario. Venus went home not as new Miss Universe 2010 but as 4th-runner up. Still, she brought pride and honor to her country who really needed it.

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I guess the Q&A portion was played unfairly this time. Why were there different questions when these questions have obviously varying degrees of difficulty? The MU Organization should have stuck to the last year's format of one question for all contestants. In that way, the competition was made apple-to-apple, the stage was levelled and the decision on who deserves the crown will be based solely on how well each contestant answered the (same) question. Sadly, the question asked to Ms. Philippines turned out to be the most difficult, because, as one expert commented, it was a 'psychological' question. They said even US Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama couldn't give a "winning" answer themselves.

Ms. Raj answer was actually "safe" and she answered the question with obvious glow and relative confidence. I just thought what she actually meant wasn't well articulated in her answer. If I were asked of the question, I could have said:

"To be honest, I cannot think of any mistake, let alone any major mistake, in my 22 years right now, because the overwhelming love and support of my family and countrymen have simply made them fade away. There's nothing to correct even if I were given the chance to go back in time because these mistakes, whatever they are, have taught me important lessons in life that have made me a better and stronger person that I am right now, who is ready to take on the world and the universe not just for myself but for my country and people as well. To everyone who supported me, thank you for bringing me here."

Something to this effect. But there's bias in here already since I had more time to think about the answer. I couldn't imagine how Venus felt at that time. She could have been caught off guard by Mr. Baldwin's question.

In the meantime, I look forward to another Venus Raj on the rise. I just hope it wouldn't take us another decade to produce another Miss Universe winner.