Ken Stevens, the man behind Belgium's Miss Earth franchise is one of the national pageant directors who hold court in the hearts of many Miss Earth fans who be-friend and follow him in various social media platforms. His pageant - Miss Exclusive, considered to be the biggest pageant across Belgium is also widely viewed by pageant fans as a major feather in Miss Earth Organization's cap.
Two reasons that endear Stevens and his team to the Earthlings and possibly to the people within MEO itself.
Reasons that in a way give them a strong emotional connection or "hold" among the ME pageant fans. No wonder why Belgium is one of the countries that the ME fans have been rooting, wishing and praying for to finally snag a placement in the annual competition and why a Miss Exclusive is almost always included by the Earthlings in their hotpicks for possible placers and sentimental favorites.
Frustratingly, though not really surprising, despite sending delegates with attributes of possible winners none of the the Misses Exclusive that competed at Miss Earth ever managed to reach the on-stage competition. So far, the team only has a bronze medal, courtesy of Elizabeth Dwomoh who won it for Miss Friendship on 2015, to show for their four years of participation.
Thus we need to ask, why and what's wrong in the way ME-Belgium is doing for the competition? Especially now that they are sending their best and strongest bet yet this year for the title. Because I must confess, I really am worried that Caro van Gorp might end up suffering the same fate of her predecessors.
I really am worried that Caro van Gorp might end up suffering the same fate of her predecessors.
In the surface, it will be very easy to say that Stevens and his team had been doing everything right to prepare and make their queens competitive. Miss Exclusive is one of those national organization who invited reigning queens to Belgium, they sent their winners to Manila for training and even dressed them with creations by Filipino designers to further endear them to the Filipino pageant fans. But, alas! They were to no avail.
Personally, I believed that the main problem with Belgium's team is their failure to seize available opportunities to their advantage. They've been failing to translate their emotional capital or connection with the Earthlings to farther their interest.
Note, if there's anything to be said about the Earthlings, that will be that they love to talk and engage each other in a discourse or discussion. Not only about Miss earth but most especially about the girls who are competing and will be competing for the national and the international Miss Earth pageants. They loved to discuss the girls' potential and predict the would be outcome of the pageant. The ME fans are invested to the pageant that way.. Frustratingly, the Belgian team is remiss in giving the Earthlings something to talk about their candidates. As beauty pageants, especially Miss Earth, are turning to become battles of delegates' branding and marketing, MEB is failing to give the fans the kind of stuffs that will make it easy for the fans to connect the Miss Exclusive titlist to the Miss Earth title and see the Belgian delegates to be befitting of the international crown.
Gee, almost every year, the Belgian delegate is always among the earliest national delegates to be named and crowned but almost always none of them have anything to show and made us say "Hey! she's a true environmental advocate" or "Look, she's working hard to promote environmental projects!"
Beautiful they may be but photos like this do not make the fans connect her with the Miss Earth crown
Heck, even while writing this, I need to fight the urge to scratch my head as I again reminded of that day I wasted time watching their Livestream of their winner having a day in spa and one other video while the winner was grocery shopping! It felt like watching "Big Brother" reality show.
Sure, its nice to see how the girls are being prepared for the competition. It's good or even inspiring to see their transformation, but more than those glam shots and poolside photos it will be much nicer to show the girls in action as ambassadors for mother earth.
Frustratingly, the Belgian team is remiss in giving the Earthlings something to talk about their candidates. MEB is failing to give the fans the kind of stuffs that will make it easy for them to connect the Miss Exclusive titlist to the Miss Earth title
With that, I also wanted to point out that MEB is missing much in not taking the time advantage that they have to showcase their girl's fitness to be Miss Earth. It seemed they overlooked the fact that Miss Earth is one, if not the only, pageant where the competition begins even before the would be contenders pack their bags for their departure to the host country. Since last year, we all know that the MEO has opened for the delegates another means to make at least the quarter-finals (top 18) of Miss Earth - by winning the best eco-video award and by being adjudged as the "Eco-warrior" awardee.
While there's no way of knowing how your delegate's eco-video will fare in comparison to the others, a delegate's chances of winning the eco-warrior award is something that can be strengthened if not ensured by the quality and quantity of projects they performed since their crowning in the nationals.
Although the MEO has yet to identify whom they will invite to sit as judges for this year's contest, we expect that the people within the organization and its affiliates (such as the regular judge, the Green Man - Matthias Gelber ) are already following the candidates in social media for the vetting process.
Consider this, take a quick look and comparison on the outputs and projects done by the already named delegates for Miss Earth 2019, how does Caro van Gorp will fare in the battle for the "Eco-Warrior" award?
Of course, I am not saying that Caro cannot make the cut via the usual route of performing well in the pageant's preliminary competitions but why not take advantage of all the avenues available to get that elusive placement?