Mindless Miss
There were times in my childhood when a parent would tell me "You're not using your head." A simple statement that reflected the observation that I knew better than I was behaving and attributed the situation to the fact that I wasn't thinking. The expression came to mind in reading about the turmoil in Nigeria over the Miss World contest. Let's first dispense with a few obvious issues.
One, beauty contests are not important in the general scheme of things, or shouldn't be. Despite what its promoters might say, they're little more than a skin-show, and for people interested in ogling, Victoria's Secrets commercials -- and for that matter, half the Internet -- are far more revealing. Two, this contest is particularly unimportant, even though the head organizer says she's willing set up a tent in Hyde Park herself if she has to, in order to stage the transported event, and, revealingly, she used the first person singular when she said it.
Three, why have the contest in Nigeria, of all places? Would no one else have them? Was it simply because they probably got the venue at a remarkably low cost, or maybe even some baksheesh to locate it in this backwater? Because anyone who'd been paying attention -- or not paying attention but did her homework -- would have seen a nation teetering on the brink of economic and religious chaos and thought, Hey, maybe this isn't the best place to have this contest.
Because Nigeria is a mess. When the power alternates between the religious fanatics and the military, the stage is set for some dicey interchange. Throw in raw meat -- and that's what these Miss contests are all about -- and you're likely to generate some carnivorous behavior. Which is what happened. A reporter wrote an article in a local Nigerian paper wondering if Islam founder Muhammed might not have approved of the pageant and maybe even thought to marry one of the contestants.
Sounds like CNN, doesn't it, when they have run out of everything to say about a story, and they are stretching beyond the bounds of reason, let alone decency? She would have been safer asking the girls what kind of tree they would like to be, but she didn't, and so a whole bunch of psychotic Muslims -- no, it isn't necessarily redundant -- went mad at what they perceived as sacrilege, and starting rioting.
The contest packed its proverbial tent and got out quickly and safely. The reporter fled to the United States, where she's probably guesting on Larry King on her way to an anchor gig on Fox, and they left in their wake a bloodbath. The offended holy's rolled tires filled with gasoline over non-Muslim heads and ignited them, in the name of their god. Hundreds were killed, thousands injured, damage in the millions.
That reporter, wherever she lands, better keep her head down, because a Nigerian deputy poohbah has issued a fatwa, calling for her execution. It is all a stark reminder that many people don't use their heads, and even some who technically think are often mindless.
And that's SetonnoteS...I'm Tony Seton.
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