Get to Know Maria Sarungi Tsehai...
Sporah: What are your strengths?
MS: My strength is my ability to listen and encourage people to talk about themselves. I also believe that I have been blessed by God to have very good judgment of character and I always trust my instincts.
Sporah: What are your weaknesses?
MS: Some people who are close to me sometimes consider it my weakness – my generosity! People say that I am taken advantage of. But I do not believe it’s true because I have never regretted giving. I love the Swahili saying “Tenda wema uende zako”. I do not expect gratitude but I do expect the person to take advantage of whatever I gave him/her and move on from one point to another.
Sporah: What makes you very angry?
MS: I get very angry about liars and any form of bullying. I really loose my temper at times like this. I value honesty more than anything and I always tell people around me – tell me the bad news I can live with it, but if you lie you loose my trust!
Tanzania And Beauty Pageants
Sporah: Do you honestly think that Tanzania will ever have any control over the achievement of beauty pageants! why?
MS: I think the question in itself is based on the wrong premise. Why do we want to ‘control’ achievements? We have to work for them. And if it is about achievements, Tanzania has made its mark with the likes of Flaviana Matata and Miriam Odemba, but also with girls who may not have placed but garnered media attention like Hellen Dausen, Illuminata James in Miss Universe, Rehema Sudi and Richa Adhia in Miss Earth. I think what we truly lack is the support that other countries get from their governments and national media. This is not only financial support but moral support. I am happy that the media in Tanzania has started providing us with more support and I hope to eventually see the government on board as well. For example, wherever the pageant is held like this year in Brazil, the Tanzanian embassy in the country should provide full support for the titleholder and the pageant, because the titleholder will be our Beauty Ambassador in a very important and large media event. As I said I hope this year the government will be able to see the importance of this.
Sporah: What would you like to see more in beauty pageants in Tanzania? and why?
MS: I would like to see and achieve more preparations for the girls, in this case I am not talking about preparation of the winner but also preparation before they compete in the national pageant. There are many girls who have potential but when they are competing nationally they are not groomed and are not ready to compete internationally. They need at least one year of training and grooming to achieve the level that is needed. This challenge is what I am currently trying to address and overcome. More of my plans will be forthcoming soon.
Did Nelly Kamwelu Deserve to Win?
Sporah: Some people are unhappy with Miss Universe TANZANIA 2011? Some people think that Nelly Kamwelu did not deserve the crown for Miss Universe TANZANIA 2011, break it down for me!
MS: I am confident that the panel of judges was very serious about their choice and unbiased, and chose the best girl to win the crown. It is an insult to the intelligence of the judges to say that they would sit and allow results that were not in their favor to be announced. They were shown the results including the tabulation of the scores before the results were announced, because our pageant does that in order to avoid such problems. Each judge is given time to scrutinize the tabulation and make any remarks. However the final count has to be respected by all. This is how our competition goes. But I would like to discuss the word ‘deserve’ Let me remind you that when Flaviana Matata won, I heard back remarks that she was the wrong choice because nobody sends a girl without hair to beauty pageants, some on blogs and in the streets even dared to call her ugly, ‘mshamba’ because she answered her question at the national pageant in Kiswahili and they called her other horrible names (She placed 6thinternationally). When we crowned Richa Adhia as Miss Earth Tanzania, there were comments that she would not represent well Tanzania because she was of Indian origin (she was top 16 in swimwear). When we selected Miriam Odemba to represent us at Miss Earth, I heard people say that I made a mistake because Miriam was too old and had too much ‘scandals’in her past (she was 1st runner up). When Hellen Dausen won, some said that she was too short there were even rumors that she is Kenyan (she was featured in Profiles Magazine and was one of the most photographed Africans).
My response is simple – look at the achievements of these beautiful young girls! Why make beautiful young women’s lives miserable with horrible comments and criticism when the people talking are not aware of the judging system and the standards, and have no idea who these girls really are? Personal preference is one thing and professional assessment is another thing.
I do not know what the excuse is this time for the naysayers, but what I say is that money, time and most importantly energy of people have been invested in making this beauty pageant a success for 5 years. We take this very seriously and have no reason to do otherwise. The winner in Tanzania is not judged only to be a local beauty pageant winner but the ultimate goal is for that girl to represent us internationally and do well.
Random thought:, cannot believe this discusion actualy came up, this girl is hot... idk...i woulda been a bit shocked if she didnt win
The Definition of beauty
Sporah: What is your definition of beauty?
MS: Beauty is all-encompassing – it is not just about having perfect features, or perfect body measurements, it is about the combination of a beautiful face, body and a beautiful inner self. Now the catch is that inner self. The question often is not who was the most beautiful but who could project her inner self best.
Read the Rest of The interview on iMagazine
No comments:
Post a Comment