Pageant News Bureau - Miss Universe 2000

All photos from Cyprus courtesy of Miss Universe Organization

Friendship wins out

By Michael S. Arnold
Special to the Pageant News Bureau

NICOSIA, CYPRUS — In the run-up to the Miss Universe finals, reporters looking for a spicy angle have focused on the ways that geopolitical realities have intruded on the beauty contest.

Miss Lebanon, Norma Naoum, for example, refuses to speak with Miss Israel, Nirit Bakchi, reportedly on the orders of her government, which is demanding an Israeli withdrawal from the zone it has occupied in southern Lebanon for the last 22 years. Despite apparent progress in recent negotiations over the fate of Cyprus, a divided island whose northern half was occupied by Turkish troops in 1974, the Turkish contestant boycotted the pageant when the Greek Cypriots refused to allow her to enter Nicosia across the barbed wire marking the island's fault line.

China, which aspires to annex the breakaway island of Taiwan, insisted that representative Lei-Ann Chang wear the sash of Miss Chinese Taipei. Miss Zimbabwe, Corrinne Crewe, has said that despite her pride at representing her country, she might leave her homeland if black squatters incited by President Robert Mugabe continue their violent attempts to repossess farms owned by the country's white minority.

Zimbabwe

Chinese Taipei

Despite all this, the most noteworthy feature of Thursday's press jamboree was the evident camaraderie among contestants. The Czech Republic's Jitka Kocurova bent to kiss Miss Trinidad and Tobago, Heidi Rostant, who whispered to Ms. Kocurova to wipe the lipstick stain off her cheek. Miss Malta, Jolene Arpa, who came to the the interview session in casual pants and running shoes, jokingly stood on tiptoes to be photographed next to colleagues whose stiletto heels put them head and shoulders above the rest of the crowd. Israel's Ms. Bakchi is universally characterized as the clown of the group who keeps the other contestants in stitches.

Czech Republic

Trinidad and Tobago

Malta

Indeed, many said that after three weeks in Cyprus preparing for the various stages of the competition, the most valuable thing they had gained was a set of friendships that would outlast the weekend's competition.

"It's really strange how we all come from such different backgrounds and yet we have so much in common," said Miss USA, Lynnette Cole. When they're together, Ms. Cole said, the contestants talk about their families, their boyfriends, or lack thereof, about anything but who will outshine whom in the competition.

USA

Several of the contestants appear to embody the multiculturalism that increasingly is turning the world into a global village and overcoming national and ethnic barriers. Africa's Miss Namibia, Mia de Klerk, is white and blond and speaks Afrikaans. Ms. Rostant, of Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean, also is white. Switzerland's contestant, Anita Buri, has jet black hair rather than the blond locks one might expect from the land that produced Heidi.

Namibia

Switzerland

Several of the contestants criticized the use of politics in the contest by Lebanon's Ms. Naoum. Though they are staying on the same floor of the Hilton — in fact, just three rooms apart — Ms. Naoum hardly manages a “Good Morning” if they happen to pass each other alone in the corridor, Ms. Bakchi said.

"There's no place for that sort of thing here,” said Miss Egypt, Rania Elsayed, whose country was the first Arab state to make a grudging peace with Israel. "We're not here for politics and warfare. We're here for friendship and beauty and intelligence.”

Egypt

Ms. Elsayed, in fact, says Ms. Bakchi has become one of her closest friends at the pageant, frequently coming to her room to talk and laugh, bringing her gifts from Israel, and joining her for most meals.

In general, Ms. Bakchi said, the contestants realize they're all in this together. All miss their families and friends, and several said that, win or lose, they're eager to get the pageant over with so they can get back to everyday life.

"After all this, what it comes down to is which one of us wants it the most at 4 o'clock in the morning Saturday [the time in Cyprus when the pageant is held]," said the USA's Ms. Cole. "But win or lose, I know I have my kids [the elementary school students she teaches] to go back to."

Michael Arnold, a journalist based in Jerusalem, is covering the Miss Universe Pageant for the Pageant News Bureau.

Cyprus, May 12, 2000

Friendship wins out