 Government last week called for a boycott of beauty pageants that do not have its blessings. According to Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, Manniram Prashad, on Friday, the Ministry will be hosting several seminars throughout the country for pageant co-ordinators and organisers in light of the many substandard pageants that are being staged. According to a government press release, he also noted that the judging process being used in many of these pageants is not in accordance with international standards. He cited recent examples of pageant organisers and franchise holders selecting persons of their choice to represent Guyana. According to Minister Prashad, when this is done it gives Guyana a “bad name” and those with true talent and beauty are not given the opportunity to be showcased. The Tourism Minister said that candidates participating in any pageant should be well trained and should be knowledgeable about the country’s history and current events “so when they go abroad to compete in international pageants, they would be confident enough to make impacting presentations about Guyana’s heritage and culture.” In order to ensure that pageants are being held according to accepted standards, Minister Prashad said that the Ministry of Tourism would only support pageants based on the criteria that trained and skilled co-ordinators and organisers operate under the requisite guidelines. “By abiding by these simple guidelines, a suitable candidate would be able to win over the public and proceed with the blessings of the Ministry of Tourism,” Minister Prashad said. Whenever an event is organised, for instance a pageant, it is for persons from all the ten Administrative Regions of Guyana, and not only Georgetown, he noted. “The pageants must be of high standards in order to portray Guyana in a glorious way, since tourism is on the increase,” he said. Another concern for the Minister is the non-delivery of prizes promised. “At the end of the pageant, the organiser and the franchise holder disappear and leave the contestants with nothing after they would have worked so hard preparing themselves for the pageant.”
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