Oalaaaaaaaahhhh... Miss Endonesaaaaahhh!!!

In only a few minutes, Nadine Candrawinata has successfully pushed aside Zinedine Zidane, got into the limelight of Indonesia's gossipsphere and became the very core attention of the archipelago's 230 million people (both there and abroad), its countless infotainment programs and newspapers' commentaries.

I don't need to make further description, of course, as I know that almost all of you -- if not ALL -- are very aware of the Miss Universe pre-competition interview incident. I would, however, like to share my five cents here.

First, English is not our mother tongue, so arguably the idea of a non-English speaking Miss Indonesia is acceptable.

Yes, I did write "arguably", because, as a friend said, being a young, modern, URBAN girl, Nadine should've been familiar with the language. It's everywhere, from the Hollywood movies to chicklits to blogs. Heck, she must've been singing and memorizing American popular song lyrics too! Sadly, like to many Indonesians, all these don't automatically guarantee her fluency in English.

Which is why her biggest mistake would be trying too hard to speak in English, while she could've used an interpreter's service. Minor grammatical errors here and there are forgivable, but she completely reversed the actual meaning of the sentences. Not to mention referring Indonesia as "a big city"! No wonder it takes the dilligence of an ant to explain about Indonesia to American people -- even an Indonesian native can't tell a "country" from a "city"!

Second, the esssential issue here is actually the way Miss Indonesia delivers her views about things that really matter to her. Yes, Nadine did tell that she wants to work to fight against children's poverty, discrimination of women, etc. So she dreams of working with UNICEF -- which somehow makes me curious whether Angeline Jolie had inspired her. Who knows, probably the next thing we see is she adopting an unfortunate toddler from a poor family in Menteng Pulo, hehehe... Well, apart from the noble aspiration itself, I am a bit disturbed that she hasn't been... er.. quite articulate in elaborating (if you could call it "elaborate" anyway) her answers. And what was it about those gigglings and stuff??? Yeah, we can understand that she might have been nervous, but at least she could try to look SERIOUS.

Truthfully, after Indira Sudiro (who happened to be our first Putri Indonesia, if I'm not mistaken), I couldn't see a really qualified Miss Indonesia - not even our beloved MP Angelina Sondakh. OK, make an exception to -- you may not agree with me, but I think she IS intelligent -- Alya Rohali. Come to think of it, if you notice, the Jakarta's Nones seem waaaaaaaaaayyyyyy more qualified. Alya was certainly an Abnon alumnus, as well as some other beautiful-smart women we know like Vivi Aleyda Yahya, and so on. By the way, when I say "qualified", it refers to the supposedly "Brain-Beauty-Behavior" principle of Misses Universe. One may contend that the brain factor has never really been considered in this pageant competition, but I always find the Misses World and Universe are generally smart women, especially those from India.

But Putri Indonesia... sheesh.. A friend advised that the recruitment process for the candidates has been messed up since the very beginning. In my opinion, it's not messed up. It's deliberately arranged that way, based on a very economical, pragmatical thinking. You see, a Putri Indonesia should sign a contract to be a spokesperson for the sponsor company for -- CMIIW -- a year. The company doesn't need a smart women to model their products; they just need a beautiful lady. Yes, of course they'll have to invest some money in the pageant license etc., but the publication they get from doing the event surely exceeds their expenses, hehehe...

There's another thing. I googled Nadine's name and found some interesting things. Her "official" biography stated that she speaks fluent Indonesian, English, and German. We already know about her English. Given her half-German background, one may assume that she speaks German like a native. Well, another site says that she "had done some courses in the Goethe Institute".

Hehehe.. can we sue the company for a public deception? *winks*