Last Two Women Standing

As expected … Rachel Gupta of India and CJ Opiaza of the Philippines were the two last women standing in the Miss Grand International 2024 finals. It was a bloodbath and no doubt both deserved their placements as the winner and the first runner-up. There was no cooking show whatsoever and for the first time Filipinos were content with the result and there was no after-show bickering. Filipinos were actually in an appreciative mood … as they even went to the extent of leading the crusade of greeting Miss India with heartfelt congratulations in person and in print.

What marred the show was not Uncle Nawat’s doing …(that’s what I thought) but Thae Su Nyein  - Miss Myanmar’s temper tantrums where she unabashedly cried her heart out for just settling the second up. Htoo Ant Lwin … the National Director even grabbed her crown and removed her sash … as she was escorted outside with the histrionics of a five-year-old child. That is what one gets when you expect a lot … and when the moment of truth comes … you fall short of your towering expectations. 

The height of this brewing controversy was Miss Myanmar shown crying … BAREFOOTED … she must have removed her shoes to show her protest. And the National Director was on a war path …  as videos of him were circulating … cursing kibitzers in full regalia as they secretly recorded the juicy tidbits of what is going on behind the scenes. In his social media, the National Director has only two words: Goodbye … Forever!

Who was really at fault here? The news from the grapevine says there is something fishy again and they said it involves some under-the-table deals that involved money (allegedly in exchange for winning some special awards … or was it the title? My advice to everybody: “ Chill ... and let us be prudent and have some self-control not to jump to conclusions right away. Let the story unfold … for sure the involved parties will shed light on what really happened.”

As of press time, we haven’t heard if Uncle Nawat has already given some reaction … after the fiasco when he shipped ASAP the candidates out of Cambodia because of his tiff with the Cambodian organizers … it looked like the organizers are really fishing for another scandal.  Publicities to them … whether negative or not …what counts and what matters is that the pageant world is talking about MGI once again.