Candidates in the Miss Landmine beauty pageant, Sut Ai, left and Mom Sam Un, in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Photograph: David Longstreath/AP
Phnom Penh - The organizers of a beauty pageant for female Cambodian landmine victims Monday called on the government to reverse its last-minute decision to prevent the contest from going ahead.
The government Sunday announced that it would call for the cancellation of the 'Miss Landmine' pageant, just days before the contest was to be launched in Phnom Penh.
The Ministry of Social Affairs said in a letter to organizers that the pageant should be cancelled because it threatened the 'honor of disabled people, especially women'.
Morten Traavik, the pageant's director, said despite meetings between organizers and ministry officials Monday morning, it 'looked like the government will maintain its position'.
'There is a lot of speculation about why this has happened, especially now there are increased restrictions on free speech in Cambodia,' he said. 'I was very surprised by this decision and obviously I wouldn't have started the process organizing the event if I hadn't had the input of government.'
It was unclear whether the pageant could go ahead without the ministry's approval, he said.
Twenty landmine victims from around the country entered the pageant, which until Sunday had the support of the government and a range of anti-landmine groups.
A photo exhibition in Phnom Penh on Friday was to be followed by an internet voting campaign to select the winner, who would have been awarded prize money and a prosthetic limb at crowning ceremony in December.
The first 'Miss Landmine' pageant held in Angola in 2007 drew criticism from women's rights and disability groups, who called it exploitative and insensitive to war victims.
But Traavik, a Norwegian national, said the event aimed at 'empowering victims' and helping them to recover from trauma.
'The women involved are very disappointed,' he said.
Hundreds of Cambodians are killed or maimed by landmines and other unexploded ordinance left over from wars and civil conflicts that raged from the 1970s to the early 1990s.
9 comments:
The western NGO is influencing Cambodia with their own ideology agenda of freedom of expression. " Miss Landmine Pageant" the idea that is cooked up by Morten Traavik is a mockery of Cambodia's misery. This is a laughing stock of Cambodia dignity.
We should appreciate Morten Traavik for trying to promote the awareness of the danger of landmines and promote the status of mine victims in Cambodia. The guy will gain nothing from this other than trying to help the mine victims.
the Cambodian leaders are too narrow-minded. They can't see no benefit in this beauty pageant. They think it is denigrating mine victims. In fact the beauty pageant is trying to promote awareness of the plight of landmine victims. To give people more more understanding about their suffering and to give the victims themselves some sort of self-worth, that they are beautiful too.
i think we should pose the girls that were rape by the white guy is better.those who get rape the most win.
The women chose to participate to the show, so they don't think it is something downgrading to them. On the contrary they are proud to show they can do things like normal persons even with their disabilities. Does the word freedom mean anything to you? Thinking in their place about what's good for them, that's what I call downgrading them. And so what you want to do is to hide them from the world and pretend they're not part of Cambodia as if you were ashamed of them? They're already suffering too much, what they need is recognition, at least that we see they exist, and compatize with them. Not to completely ignore them even more. Mocking Cambodia's misery? If you don't want people to mock Cambodia, then make Cambodia a great country, please help each other or give your own contribution. I'm not saying that for anyone in particular. No offense.
The women chose to participate to the show, so they don't think it is something downgrading to them. On the contrary they are proud to show they can do things like normal persons even with their disabilities. Does the word freedom mean anything to you? Thinking in their place about what's good for them, that's what I call downgrading them. And so what you want to do is to hide them from the world and pretend they're not part of Cambodia as if you were ashamed of them? They're already suffering too much, what they need is recognition, at least that we see they exist, and compatize with them. Not to completely ignore them even more. Mocking Cambodia's misery? If you don't want people to mock Cambodia, then make Cambodia a great country, please help each other or give your own contribution. I'm not saying that for anyone in particular. No offense.
is morten traavik a landmine victim too? i wonder if those landmine vitims getting any money from the show. is morten traavik going to have another pagent contest, this time maybe be MISS OBESE beauty pageant. whatever morten traavik had in mind, it's not just the government, it is also many cambodian that are turn-off by the idea. if and when cambodia abtained the type of freeedoms morten traavik thought cambodia is having, then maybe MISS LANDMINE beauty pageant might have a chance, until then cambodia had along way for such freedom. force feeding such ideas into a government and the people minds is very counterproductive for freedom and democracy. the ideas may sound very damn good in the west but maybe not in cambodia. until cambodia obtain such freedoms to that of the west, i believe the vitims prefer to live their lives without having to be encouraged by a non-victim to expose themselves to the country and the world that they're missing limps.
I don't think we should let the victims take care of their own problem. Other people, the non victims, should help. If Traavik intention is really good, then I'll support him. I'm not saying he is good. And none of you really know his real intentions, unless proved otherwise, therefore you have no right to criticize him, neither to praise him. I'm not saying that the idea of a show is that great, I just mean that if those victims really want to do so, then I'll support them because it's their right to do so. I'm not a victim, and if you're not a victim, no matter what you think they might think, you can't really know what they feel, what they really want to do, whether they really want to be forgotten or to show their fate on Tv so that people might think of them and remember they're still there, and PROUD of their fate. Cambodia is not ready, maybe you're right. It's only my opinion but, I think there must be a beginning somewhere. Innovation is not that bad. The idea that people are still affected by the war is an old song. Nowadays most people living in Cambodia are new generations and it's time to do things with them before they start to completely forget and before they start to stop giving a damn thing about what happens in their country in the past.
All right people, let's cut the bullshit. The decision had been made, no Miss Landmine beauty pageant in Cambodia, and that is that, forget it, it's over, cut it out, no more, that's enough. If you still support the idea, start your own "I SUPPORT MISS LANDMINE BEAUTY PAGAENT, DAMN THOSE WHO DON'T LIKE THE IDEA OF PRIDE AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION". Until then, it's old news, get it out of your system people.
1:43PM and 8:05PM, I think there are mix consensus about this issue, let it go.
To 27 August 2009 9:30 AM
Be cool man I didn't do anything to u... Yeah I support the idea. Like u said, it's the IDEA we're discussing, not the fact that a decision has been made or not. Just becuz a decision has been made doesn't mean we dun hav the right to say we dun agree.
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