Uproar over Miss Israel and Miss Lebanon's selfie... but what about Miss Singapore?
mis à jour le 14 July 2015 à 18:32While Miss Lebanon is being slammed for being in a picture with the enemy, we on the other hand were taken in by Miss Singapore's interview where she touched on our country's multiculturalism.
We woke up this morning to quite the international outrage all because of a selfie that had Miss Lebanon, Saly Greige and Miss Israel, Doron Matalon posing together. Now while most of us wouldn't think anything of it, the two countries are technically at war and have since slammed Miss Lebanon for interacting with Miss Israel.
Now this 'diplomatic incident' could essentially have been a moment to change ideas and promote harmony rather than awaken the deep rooted hatred the two countries have for each other - Miss Universe candidates typically call for world peace after all. Instead, Miss Lebanon decided to defend herself by calling out on Matalon's sneaky photobombing efforts.
According to Greige, "Since the first day of my arrival to participate to Miss universe, I was very cautious to avoid being in any photo or communication with Miss Israel, who tried several times to take a photo with me. I was having a photo with Miss Japan, Miss Slovenia, suddenly Miss Israel jumped in and took a selfie."
As the Lebanese government decides to launch an investigation, some are demanding Greige to be stripped of her title. Coincidentally, a similar issue happened back in 1993 and Miss Lebanon, Ghada al-Turk was de-crowned after a photo of her smiling with the Israeli contestant was distributed.
While this 21st century war takes centre stage across various media outlets, here we'd like to divert from the negativity and focus on one proud positive that stems right from our hometown - Miss Singapore, Rathi Menon. The stunning and statuesque beauty gave a brilliant interview where she highlighted Singapore's multicultural community - stressing that for different ethnicities to be living together harmoniously, a whole lot of mutual respect is of utmost importance. Perhaps, those against Greige for being in the selfie can learn a thing or two from Menon's words and not react as furiously as they did.
The 63rd annual Miss Universe pageant will be aired on January 25th.
Tarandip Kaur
