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Why She Lost: The Interpreter.
CATEGORY : [Thoughts] 2007/04/10 05 : 38
I have been wondering why Kurara could not become Miss Universe 2006 for a long time, and now I think I found what she missed.

I was pretty skeptical about the crawning of Miss Puerto Rico. She is beautiful, but so is Kurara. Let's forget about I am a Japanese and I am a fan of Kurara, but I was too doubtful the final judge. If the world adores the appearance of Latin Beauty, how could asian beaties fight in the Universe. Having read the article which is available from <http://criticalbeauty.com/MU_Telecast_2006.html>, I reached a certain reason. Rafael Robert Delfin starts his review from

" MISS PUERTO RICO WINS MISS UNIVERSE
But Samurai Queen steals the show"

I quite understand what Delfin wanted to mean. His article seems to be bitter indeed as he continues:

WE LOVE THE SAMURAI QUEEN : I attended a Miss Universe party (no, not in Los Angeles) but in Boston at the new residence of my dear friends Steve Mocanu and Harrison Gonzalez. Four other guests (three of whom had never seen a Miss Universe telecast) had been invited including Maria Lekkakos, Miss Massachusetts USA 2004, a former rival of Shandi Finnessey in Miss USA 2004. After the top ten finalists were narrowed down to top five, all of us unanimously agreed that Miss Japan should win based on her personality, style, sincerity, multilingual skills, and of course, beauty. Initially, I had wanted Miss Switzerland to win based on looks alone, but she lacked personality. I didn't care much for Miss Paraguay, who I thought was rather pale and lacked energy in the swimsuit segment. There was no doubt that Miss Puerto Rico was the most beautiful, and since it is a beauty contest, it is only fair that the most beautiful should win. But Kurara Chibana took our breath away. It was more than her persona and supreme projection on stage; it was her ability to connect with the audience. During the first round of Q & A, she acknowledged the roaring audience for their support; she became emotional, almost doing a Yulia Lemigova, the second runner-up from Russia in Miss Universe 1991 who was choked by her emotions during the Q & A segment, but won the audience with her shining sincerity. To this day, Yulia is still very much loved and adored by pageant fans. Kurara is the new Yulia, and she will be surely remembered for a very long time.

WHY SHE LOST : It might have been Kurara's response to the final question that cost her the title. Each of the five finalists had to pick a question out of a bowl, and the question that Kurara had picked was the one made up by Miss Paraguay: "If you could change something in the history of humanity, what would you change and why?" Responding in Japanese and translated into English, she answered: "I believe there is not so much difference between men and women... only biggest difference will be the physical power of a man and sometimes men exploit his power and if we can only relinquish that kind of violence and also the kind of exploitation, we'll be better." Huh? Human nature is not the same as humanity. I wonder if the Japanese interpreter had misunderstood the question in English. Usually, questions with philosophical bent are not appreciated much in Anglo-Latin pageants. Perhaps in Asian or European ones, yes. So if Miss Japan's question sounded philosophical, naturally she had to respond philosophically because she had been culturally programmed to do so. Compare her profound response with Rivera's somewhat fabricated and unoriginal response to Glebova's question regarding the definition of success.



So, now we all see what a wrong point was. The little gap which happened between two languages when they were transmitted. It was a tricky misunderstanding but it became a big matter. Being a Japanese, to grasp the term "humanity" seems to be difficult. Therefore it could be understandable that the interpreter chose "ningen" as "humanity" but actually that was not quite right to translate. The way she interpreted for Kurara was "Human Nature" rather than "humanity".

You can watch how she and her interpreter did the final question from here: You may have to skip to 3'48".

According to Dicstionary.com, "humanity" means

1.all human beings collectively; the human race; humankind.
2.the quality or condition of being human; human nature.
3.the quality of being humane; kindness; benevolence.

But, Oxford Advanced Learner's English Dictionary difines:

hu•man•ity /hju:'maen{shwa}ti/ noun
1 [U] people in general: crimes against humanity
2 [U] the state of being a person rather than a god, an animal or a machine: The story was used to emphasize the humanity of Jesus. * united by a sense of common humanity
3 [U] the quality of being kind to people and animals by making sure that they do not suffer more than is necessary; the quality of being humane: The judge was praised for his courage and humanity. opp inhumanity
4 (the) humanities [pl.] the subjects of study that are concerned with the way people think and behave, for example literature, language, history and philosophy—compare science


Well, so it was taugh for both. We cannot blame on the interpreter. But I just wish if Kurara could approach a bit father with her answer becasue she was nearly there. Delfin seems to be a huge fan of Kurara as he adds the stinging remark that

Everyone knew that Zuleyka had undergone plastic surgery to improve her looks, or rather she had been subjected to cosmetic enhancements to attain the look that Trump desired. But Zuleyka is not any different from her predecessors (Denise Quiñones, Iris Casalduc, Carla Tricoli, Cynthia Olavarría) - all of whom had been under the knife to improve their looks and to increase their chances of winning. When you try to sell a product, you have to make sure that it looks and tastes good; otherwise, no one would buy it. Magali Febles, the national director of Miss Puerto Rico Universe, had been testing the waters and she knows what kind of look would or would not sell. Not to mention her special connection with MUO. Yes, dear readers, it's true that ever since Trump took over MUO, the emphasis has purely been on looks. Forget personality or intelligence. As long as you can express yourself very well, regardless of the content of your spiel - and look stunning at the same time - then you're in.

I was dissapointed to know this reality that Miss Perto Rico beauty was not natural. It is dissapointing. Then, Delfin concludes


So that's it, folks. Until next year. Congratulations to the Isle of Enchantment for producing a beautiful queen. But to many of us, the Samurai Queen reigns supreme.



Well, Miss Universe is a beauty pageant, its about the beauty whether it is natural-born or artificially-made. I still believe that Kurara was the strongest and she showed her persona, and wish the best luck for the new Miss Universe Japan to seize the title in Mexico.



PR


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