EDITOR: As a Vincentian living abroad for the past 16 years, I return home for carnival almost every year. Being a former representative of St. Vincent and the Grenadines to Miss Carival, I always ensure that once I do come home for carnival that I attend the Miss Carival Show.

I must say that I was not only ashamed but terribly embarrassed over the judging that occurred this year with Miss SVG being crowned Miss Carival and winning three of the four categories. I am sorry to say, but she should not have even placed! {{more}}

Personally I had Miss Guyana as the winner, taking Best Swimsuit and Best Talent, with Grenada as first runner-up taking the Best Question and Answer segment. Third place could have gone to either St. Lucia or St. Kitts/Nevis, with the Best Evening Gown going to either BVI or Trinidad. However, this is just my opinion.

How this year’s judges came to their decision is mind boggling to me. I was not home for carnival last year, but in 2003, once again Miss SVG was crowned Miss Carival and she should have placed third. Antigua, Miss Shermain Jeremy, in my opinion, should have won the show that year and she went on to represent Antigua at both Miss World 2004 and Miss Universe 2005. Ms. Jeremy even won the Best Talent in the World segment at last year’s Miss World pageant, having not been awarded the Best Talent segment at Miss Carival 2003 to Miss SVG.

How the current Miss SVG must feel knowing that she was crowned Miss Carival and she did not deserve to place. Being patriotic, of course, I will always support the SVG representative, but one must win fairly!

Which leads me to another question; What are the criteria used for choosing judges? Is it that once you hold a professional position in the job market that qualifies a person to be a judge? Or should we be choosing persons as judges who may be a professional, but with some sort of background in fashion, entertainment etc?

I served on the Protocol Committee of the CDC years ago and in those days, four of our five judges for Miss Carival came from participating countries in the Miss Carival show – one judge was local. It is my humble opinion that we should go back to this, based on the fact that the judges being chosen locally apparently cannot be objective. Maybe we should look at getting a whole new Queens Committee as this problem with the judging seems to be happening year after year.

It is very disheartening for participating countries to send representatives to this show, when repeatedly, the judging is biased in St. Vincent’s favour. Personally I agree with certain countries which have taken the decision to no longer send representatives to Miss Carival because of the unfair judging. Why bother to have a show – we are killing Miss Carival!

I will not be wasting my money in the future to attend any more Miss Carival shows when I come home for carnival, it is just too embarrassing!

A former Miss SVG