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By Willa Thayer
Al-Ahram
Weekly Although Libya has exhibited
a flair for the dramatic in its dealings with the rest of the world,
it might just outdo itself this week when it plays host to the Miss
Net World beauty pageant, writes Willa Thayer
TRIPOLI, Nov 04, 2002 -- The final ceremony of
the Miss Net World beauty pageant in Tripoli this week promises to
include elements of the sense of drama that the country's leadership
has displayed to the outside world. This time, though, Libya seems
intent on using that sensibility in a manner that might eventually
benefit it.
The event, which takes its name from the
selection of the winner by an open vote over the Internet at the
pageant's Web site, www.missnetworld.tv, is being taken by Libya as
an opportunity to tell the world that it is open for business and
tourism.
Explaining the pageant's concept and the
decision to hold the final ceremony in Tripoli, its founder Omar
Harfouch told Al-Ahram Weekly by phone from Paris, "I want Miss Net
World to be an intelligent contest. As the girls are beautiful, and
every human being is sensitive to female beauty, I have given the
pageant the slogan 'Beauty will save the world'. For that reason, we
decided to hold the event in Libya, which is just coming out of an
embargo after 10 years. Libya has definitely chosen to live in peace
with all other countries, according to its leader's [Colonel Muammar
Gaddafi's] recent speeches."
Libya is sparing no effort as it rolls out the
red carpet for the event, having sent three private jets to Europe
last week to pick up organisers, contestants and their entourages.
"The girls, I think, will have the best trip of their lives. They
will all be received like ambassadors, or even as though they were
the president of their country," Harfouch says.
And while part of the interest in the event
surely relates to a view that beauty pageants in the Middle East are
like a fish out of water, the participation of hopefuls from Turkey,
Tunisia, Lebanon and Morocco in the penultimate round of the contest
should go some way towards dispelling this notion. Only Miss Net
Morocco, "Nadia", made the cut from 45 to 25 contestants, and is now
awaiting the results in Tripoli of the final round of voting, which
closes on 2 November, the day of the final ceremony.
Beauty pageants, however, have been no
stranger to the region in recent years. During any given week,
Beirut seems to host such a spectacle or its sister event, the model
search contest. A privately owned Lebanese satellite channel, Future
television, leads the way in broadcasting the extravaganzas to
regional audiences. Consequently, that Lebanon, from which Omar and
his business partner and brother Walid hail, would produce
international beauty contest pioneers came as no surprise to my
Egyptian colleagues and friends.
While the viewer of any of the Beirut contests
could be forgiven for thinking that they were staged in a European
capital, the Tripoli event will leave its audience with no doubt
about the identity of its host country.
Foregoing the traditional bathing suit
contest, Miss Net World participants will instead parade about in
jeans and T- shirts sporting Colonel Gaddafi's face. The T-shirts --
the handiwork of Italian fashion designer Roberto Cavalli -- are,
Harfouch says, to be sold at Cavalli boutiques around the world. The
appeal of these items, in Harfouch's words, lies in Gaddafi being a
sort of a "romantic, revolutionary symbol". Other sartorial
highlights will include contestants sporting the uniform of Libyan
army officers as they strut their stuff to a soundtrack proclaiming,
"Beauty will save the world."
To drive the message home that Libya has
chosen to be a peaceful member of the international community,
contestants will make a commemorative visit to the site that the US
bombed in 1986. There Miss Net USA, whose attendance was confirmed
only weeks before the event, will give a speech about the importance
of peace. All the contestants will perform a folkloric dance, and
release doves into the sky.
For all the strangeness of that commemorative
visit, with its addition of a distinctly Libyan dimension to beauty
queens' traditional concern for "world peace", there is no mistaking
the message of conciliation that Libya is trying to send its former
enemy. In that respect, Libya's hosting the pageant stands out from
other images that the country has recently presented of itself to
the outside world. From the colonel's contingent of beautiful female
bodyguards, the day-long closure of international communications and
airports last week in mourning for the Libyans killed during the
Italian occupation, to the government's threat last week to withdraw
from the Arab League -- its second this year -- such actions have
been a source of wonderment and sometimes vexation in the Arab world
and abroad.
To ensure that Libya's message is delivered
not only to the US, but to the West in general, the commemoration of
the 1986 bombing will feature in the screening of a montage of
contestants' travels around the country along with 'day in the life'
shorts showing Miss Net Germany and Miss Net USA convincing their
families to support their decision to travel to a country that has
yet to entirely shake off its renegade image.
Harfouch called Miss Net USA's visit to Libya
"symbolic", however, if we are to take his word for it, he and the
Libyans are not the only ones interested in the odyssey of Tecca
Zendik from Los Angeles. "Not only has the State Department given
her [Miss Net USA] permission [to visit Libya], but the person who
she dealt with said, 'all of us will vote for you and we hope you
will win.'"
The pageant is a public relations coup not
only for Libya, but for the Kiev-based Harfouch brothers, who appear
to have achieved an impressive measure of 'synergy' among various
communications media with their contest. Having sold advertising on
their Web site and the rights for coverage of certain aspects of the
pageant to a private British company that has, in turn, sold rights
to various Western outlets, the event gives every appearance of
being a moneymaker. (Viewers in the Arab world will have to wait
until after Ramadan to see the event on Future TV.)
Beyond the benefits for Libya and the
Harfouchs' reputation, Omar eagerly pointed out that the event is an
instance of the democratisation of a beauty pageant. Noting that
only one of the Middle East entries made it to the final round, he
says, "I don't want to do an unfair contest and have a lot of Arabs
in the final round just because we are going to an Arab country and
I was born in Lebanon."
During the penultimate round, some 700,000
people cast votes, while the first 12 hours of voting in the final
round drew 135,000 people to the site. Omar says that he expects
millions to visit the site during the final round. And with the eyes
of net-surfers from around the world watching and selecting from
among 25 fetching Miss Nets, it seems unlikely that the winner will
receive anything near 100 per cent -- unlike some contenders in
other contests in the region.
© Al-Ahram Weekly, 2002. Distributed in
partnership with Globalvision News Network (www.gvnews.net). All
rights reserved.
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