The Miss Seychelles contest will now be held on Saturday August 23 starting at 7 pm at the Tequila Boom, a week earlier than planned. This comes on the back of the Miss Intercontinental organized here last year at the International Conference Centre.
This will be the first time that any beauty representative takes part in the Miss World beauty pageant, after the country hosted and funded two extravaganzas; in 1997 and 1998, which cost the tax payers millions of dollars.
It is also interesting to note that the Miss Israel crowned Miss World at the Mahe Beach hotel in 1998, revealed immediately thereafter that she had been allegedly brutally raped by an Arab, some days prior to strutting her stuff on the catwalk in the Mahe Beach gardens.
Linor Abargil told the British and Italian press how she was slapped, tied and subjected to a horrifying rape ordeal. The 1997 Miss World venue was the Plantation Club, then acclaimed as the best tourist establishment in Seychelles. Today it has been closed down and will soon be sold off to friends of powerful people in government. The Plantation Club saga is shrouded in mystery and secrecy involving influential SPPF stalwarts.
What is worth noting though is that each of the pageant held here, cost Seychelles $ 6.5 million. This was revealed by presidential communications adviser Gilbert Pool who said it was hoped that the exposure would help increase tourism flow here. That was in addition to paying the Morley’s Miss World Organisation $ 2 million for the privilege of hosting the event here.
For the Seychelles’ cash-strapped economy- reeling from a foreign exchange crisis- such lavishness was totally uncalled for. No sponsor showed up and we had to foot the bill alone in foreign exchange no doubt. The pageant was not broadcasted on any mainstream TV station. It appears that unless the pageant is held in Europe, it gets minimal media attention. On each occasion it was held here, the winner got a mention in the news item overseas and the venue was not even mentioned.
Recent venues have been South Africa and China. This year’s contest will be staged on October 4, in Kiev, Ukraine. The 1998 extravaganza was followed by a gala party on a luxury boat on the River Seine in Paris, during which a parcel of land on Desroches Island was allegedly auctioned off. The owner is still a mystery to this day.
There were special Paris-Seychelles flights by Air Seychelles to bring the 90 contestants here and take them back. A special Antonov flight was chartered to bring in the stage and broadcasting equipment, as well as foodstuffs to feed the beauties, one of whom said;
“I’ve never seen so much fruits in my life.” She was obviously not referring to “frisiter or bannann gabou”.