| Subject: Philippines charms 2009 Miss Earth bets |
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Date Posted: 20:14:01 11/11/09 Wed
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Philippines charms 2009 Miss Earth bets
Miss Earth candidates from (left to right) Guam Maria Luisa Santos, Jamaica Jennae Jackson, Tanzania Evelyne Almasi, Latvia Diana Kubasova, Puerto Rico Dignelis Jimenez and Venezuela Jessica Barboza. Photo By Rene H. Dilan
BY PERRY GIL S. MALLARI REPORTER
Six contestants in the Miss Earth 2009 beauty pageant were all praises for the Philippines when they visited The Manila Times to promote the upcoming contest later this month.
“I love the food,” said Miss Tanzania Evelyne Almasi recalling her experience of feasting on pinakbet pizza. Pinakbet is local dish of vegetables and pork that comes from the Ilocos Region in Northern Luzon.
Miss Puerto Rico Dignelis Taymi Jimenez said that she was impressed with the warmth and hospitality of Filipinos and how beauty queens were treated as celebrities in the Philippines.
She joked about how friendly the Filipinos were, despite the fact that her countryman Miguel Cotto will square off with Filipino champion Manny Pacquiao this weekend.
Besides Almasi and Jimenez, the other candidates who visited The Times were Miss Venezuela Jessica Barboza, Miss Latvia Diana Kubasova, Miss Jamaica Jenaae Jackson and Miss Guam Maria Luisa Santos.
Environmental advocacies
The candidates then related their individual environmental advocacies.
Barboza, seeing that the use of reusable shopping bags was not encouraged in Venezuela, decided to design one with her sister. She managed to convince the shopping malls in her country to mass-produce the bag they designed and encourage shoppers to use them instead of plastic ones.
“I’m proud every time I saw a shopper using the bag we designed. It’s my legacy,” she added.
Jimenez, a lawyer and a journalist, is working with the media and utilizing her knowledge of law to make environmental advocacies constitutionally valid in Puerto Rico. “Everything that we do has an impact on the environment,” she said.
Indifference is something that Kubasova has to deal with in Latvia. She revealed that her country is not very aware of the woes resulting from global warming like floods and super typhoons. Besides educating her countrymen in environmental protection, she’s actively involved in animal protection for the past six years, which includes saving stray dogs and cats.
Almasi discovered that caring for the environment could be effectively taught to young children using games and music. “You don’t have to do humongous things. It’s the little things that count like disposing of your trash properly,” she said.
Jackson expressed alarm that Jamaica’s neighbor Haiti has less than 2 percent of its trees left. “If it can happen to Haiti, it can happen to us,” she said. Jackson is actively involved in leading young people fight deforestation, “It is good to start educating them on these issues while they’re young,” she added.
Santos, an elementary school teacher in Guam, has experienced working with the First Lady of the protectorate concerning environmental initiatives. She is careful to walk the talk in front of her students who know the advocacy she is representing.
“I have a box in our classroom where my students put in items for recycling,” she said. Santos recently led the planting of 23 trees in the Adacao Elementary School where she teaches.
She has Filipino blood. Even though she is based in Guam, she regularly spends Christmas in Las Piñas City (Metro Manila).
She left a profound parting shot on the issue of saving the planet, “The biggest threat is the lack of awareness among people,” she said.
The Miss Earth 2009 pageant will be held on the island resort of Boracay on November 22.
http://www.manilatimes.net/index.php/component/content/article/42-rokstories/5818-philippines-charms-2009-miss-earth-bets
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