She made it to the Top 6 quite alright. Mary EstherWere, the Miss Kenya Universe, oOn her own and with quite a number of fans on Twitter as the show progressed made it past Top 13 and then Top 9 before getting through, lonely African, into the Top 6.
Even when we were starting to wonder what power play was going on at the Miss Universe competition in the Philippines when Miss Colombia and Miss Philippines weirdly kept getting called to each next round. That may have just been our jealousy bleeding green because Unoaku Anyadike, Miss Nigeria Universe failed to even make it through to the Top 13. And more importantly, because both Maxine Medina, Miss Philippines and Andrea Tovar, Miss Colombia were beautiful bombshells in their own rights.
The semi-final phase of the show had already sifted the beauties in and Steve Harvey was about to deliver the “brainy” side of the beauty pageantry. He called Maxine first.
Steve: What is the most significant change you’ve seen in the world in the last 10 years?
Maxine Medina The last 10 years of being here in the world, I saw all the people being in one event like this in Miss Universe, and it’s something big to us that we are one, as one nation, we are all together.
Miss Kenya was up next. All dark-skinned and gorgeous in her red dress and up-do. She had been winning. Then Steve asked her about Trump! The former sole owner of the Miss Universe pageant and possibly the most controversial human on earth right this moment. This was Mary EstherWere, a girl who believes that that we shouldn’t be defined by material things or what we wear, and believes there are no limitations in life (at least that’s what she said when she was called out as one of the Top 13).
If she gave a perfectly “woke” answer, who knows whether Donald Trumps still has ties with the Miss Universe pageantry. In which case she’d have called him out and lost instantly. If she gave an answer that was not in line with what the thousands of protesting Americans at airports in San Francisco and beyond were chanting (as she did), she’d have lost too (and she did). Which is why you may see a #JusticeForMissKenya next time you open your Twitter.
Justice for #MissKenya. Why was she asked a question about the USA/Trump's presidency?? That kinda seems irrelevant to her… #MissUniverse
— kyngxoo? (@sashioh) January 30, 2017
Oh no. That was not a fair question to ask #MissKenya #MissUniverse
— Mrs. Texas US 2017 (@mrstxusuniv2017) January 30, 2017
Whatever anyone’s grievances though, Miss Kenya’s answer was just not right. Even if we sort of agree that it was a tight situation for her. Let’s re-enact shall we?
Steve: Arguably, no US president has had an active first 10 days in office. What are you most excited about, and what most concerns you when it comes to the presidency of Donald Trump? (*insert your best Whhaaaaat face here).
Miss Kenya, Mary Esther Were: (Says something we don’t remember because it was hard not to pity her and her fidgety voice)
“Politics…”
“Let me just start again… Donald Trump, having been elected as president of the United States may [?] not have been the choice of many people living in the United States because of the divided support system [okay] for the outgoing president Barack Obama, who was supporting an upcoming woman president [Whaaaaat??? Hillary Clinton up coming??? didn’t know this], who was supposed to be a woman president, Hillary Clinton. So so many people oppose his position, but I feel that once he took up his position, he was able to unify the entire nation. [No hunnay, he wasn’t].
*Emphasis and block bracketed words are ours.
It wasn’t just the difficult and tricky question she got from the organisers. It was also (and probably solely) because of all the anxiety that deepened the heat in her red dress and made her get many of the facts wrong.
But then why did others get questions like these:
Miss Thailand, Chalita “Namtan” Suansane: Name a curent or past world leader whom you admire and why.
Answer: The king of Thailand. His Majesty has been working tirelessly on behalf of the Thai people ever since I was born. For all the Thai people, His Majesty has been like a father to us. Thank you very much.
Miss Haiti, Raquel Pelissier: On January 21, an estimated 4.8 million people marched woldwide for human rights, women’s rights, and other issues. If you were able to participate, what would you have been marching for?
Answer: One of the women I admire in the world is Eleanor Roosevelt because she fought so much for human rights and I feel like that’s what we need in the world. We are just one. A hundred thousand years ago, 6 species of human lived in the world. Now we are just one. And we all need each other, and we need to respect each other.
Miss Colombia, Andrea Tovar: why do we believe violence is so prevalent in today’s society and what can we do about it?
Answer: I come from a country that does have violence and this is my reference point. And although there are presidents who don’t get along with others, we work together to be able to unite. Campaigns, respect, and inclusivity to be able to have a social transformation that will educate our children.
Wow! We had to ask what Miss Kenya did to earn herself further maths while others solved arithmetics with calculator. But then, guess who elso got a tough one?
The question: Given today’s worldwide refugee crisis, do countries have an obligation to accept refugees, or do they have a right to close their borders? (Another Trump related question by the way)
Miss France, Iris Mittenaere: The country should have the right to open or close their borders. Throughout the world, people can choose to have the borders open or closed. In Europe we have open borders. In France we want to have the most globalization that we can, we want to have the biggest exchange of people that we can. Maybe someday that will change, but now we have open borders. Having open borders allows us to travel more through the world, and to find out more about what’s out there in the world.
Just wow! At this point, we had forgotten about Miss Kenya.
He was able to unify the entire nation? #MissKenya pic.twitter.com/nhPeQlK5D2
— Carolina (@Caromunozb) January 30, 2017
The Miss Universe 2016 coronation night was held at the Mall of Asia Arena on Monday, January 30, or Sunday January 29 (depending on what part of the world you were). Miss France crowned the winner.
Creative mind. Enthusiast. Learner. Multipotentialite. And here, an assistant editor.
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