Scandal rocks Miss Asia Pacific World 2011

**bonner** Mon Oct 17, 2011 4:02 am

From Critical Beauty:

• INTERNATIONAL PAGEANTRY was rocked by heavy scandal this past week when several contestants of the first edition of the Miss Asia Pacific World (MAPW) pageant protested their mistreatment and abuse by the Korean organizers. The pageant finale was held at the Busan Yachting Center in Busan, Korea on October 15. Hours before the finals, three contestants videotaped their harrowing experience with local pageant authorities who had been accused of irregularities in the competition. Some of these irregularities included the placement of certain delegates in the talent competition even though they did not compete, and the geographical ignorance of the judges for awarding Best National Costume Africa award to Guyana and Best National Costume Europe award to Puerto Rico. Also, Miss Cameroon won the Best Talent Africa without ever setting foot on stage. The video was uploaded on YouTube by Miss Guyana Aletha Shepherd .

In the video below, Miss Wales Amy Willerton angrily confronts a non-English-speaking organizer and asks him how anyone can win a competition without even entering it. Willerton then accuses the organizer of lying by claiming that he did not know anything about the judging rules. The drama continues when the police is barred by the organizer to confer with the girls' only translator and when Miss Costa Rica Pamela Peralta starts to break down. On Day 13, the girls (Wales, Guyana, Costa Rica) were fooled into believing that they were going to be driven to the airport, but instead were taken to another hotel as the organizers attempted to convince them to stay. Scared for their safety, the girls rushed out of the hotel and towards the airport where they were followed. Tipped by the organizers, the airport authorities prevented the girls from boarding the plane and held them and their luggage "hostage." What follows is a heated verbal confrontation between Willerton and the airport security staff.

Other complaints raised were the lack of proper food, hotels with no beds, sexual harassment, and judges bribing the girls to stay in the competition and for sex. The girls were also promised that they would each get a hanbok, the traditional Korean dress, but the people who had provided them with the dresses took off with the dresses! Willerton's statements speak volumes of the unprofessional and unethical behavior of the pageant organizers: "It's disgusting. And they offered all of us the option, so we won't leave, of winning the pageant... I don't want to do anything with these people, or work with these people. This pageant is a joke... I don't see the winner ever getting their prize money... And even if the prize money is a possibility, I still wouldn't work with this people because they are sick! They are sick, disgusting, just awful people who should not be allowed to work with women from around the world." Watch the entire video and see the drama unfold:

Watch all of Shepherd's videos on YouTube as well as her website Confessions of a Beauty Queen where she chronicles her experience in Korea from the day she arrived.

On her Facebook page, Willerton posted these comments on October 14:

Willerton's comments reflect those of one irate national director who wrote to me and said: "The top 15 was a WTF! What are some of them doing up there? They slept in a dirty rooms with 4 to 5 girls per room and there were cockroaches everywhere. The hair and makeup crew was just there for the beginning but then left! The girls were on their own. They had only one f---ing rehearsal! People were coming and going backstage to take pics with the girls and there was no security present. The girls also did not have chaperones for two weeks! Should I say more?"

When I asked this director if he had seen Lawrence Choi, the founder, promoter and organizer of the pageant, he said, "I never saw him. And quite frankly, I would rather send the poor girls to hell than back here next year! Never met him at all! Don't know who he is."

I remember corresponding with Choi earlier this year to gather more information about his "new" pageant, as I was eager to promote it. Here's our exchange

**bonner** Sat Oct 22, 2011 12:26 pm

From Globalbeauties

Miss Asia Pacific World: a shameful contest

Earlier this year, a man by the name of Lawrence Choi launched a contest which was supposed to be the revival of the traditional Miss Asia Pacific. He promised national directors from around the world air tickets for the candidates, great cash prizes, and worldwide broadcast of a “magnificent event” to be held in South Korea.

The pageant, which was supposed to happen in the first semester, took place only in October after moving the date three times. First Warning.

Just when the chosen contestants were preparing to fly to the pageant in May, another email was sent to national directors saying: “The competition will be held in October, and the directors will have to pay for the delegates’ airfare (going against what had been originally offered)”. Most directors immediately withdrew. After all these delegates were removed from the pageant’s website, on their Facebook page, organizers said “it had been the work of a ‘hacker’”. They never explained that such candidates had withdrawn from the competition due to their lack of organization and word.

But all of that was nothing compared to what the 40+ candidates had to face once they arrived in Korea.

For instance, Miss Venezuela placed second in the “talent competition”, without having performed! The girls had to sleep on the floor, as there were not enough beds in their hotel rooms; they barely had enough food to eat. And it does not end there: Amy Willerton, the British candidate, fled the competition along with other girls after being offered votes in exchange for sex (READ HERE).

Miss Guyana published a series of videos on Youtube showing some of the most absurd situations which took place in this event.

In the end, an all-Korean panel of judges chose Miss Korea as the winner, something that, at that point, really did not matter (candidates who saw the voting sheets claimed the Korean contestant placed 3rd in reality). Some girls took days to be allowed to return home, because the “host hotel” held them back for not paying their hotel bills, which was of the pageant organizers’ responsibilities.

It is important to note that Mr Choi used the “Miss Asia Pacific” name without legal permit, once this scam clearly has nothing to do with the real Miss Asia Pacific pageant, ran by Filipinos. Things became even worse when the organization added “World” to the pageant’s name, after all, Miss World Asia Pacific is the title the best ranked candidate in the region gets in the Miss World competition.

Earlier this year, Global Beauties was invited to cover and give promotion to this pageant, but refused to do so. It was finally covered by a fan page which shamefully appears as one of the pageant’s “sponsors”.

Lawrence Choi blamed the local committees in each of the three Korean cities for the pageant’s fiasco. However, the man had plenty of time to organize the pageant, which had been originally scheduled for June 4, and it was HIS PAGEANT, which means, it was his responsibility. The winner, Park Sae-Byul, resigned after she found out that organizers would not give her any of the promised prizes -- US$ 30 thousand in cash + US$ 170 thousand in “goods” (whatever that means). None of the winners would receive their prizes after Choi declared the pageant “a failure”.

At the moment, several organizations are taking legal matters against this pageant, among them the owners of the original “Miss Asia Pacific” trademark. Also, a considerable amount of directors who sent delegates to this event have also been sounding off in social media, explaining the situation.

We hope this horrible pageant episode ends in the courts and that Mister Choi and all the parties involved pay for their crimes.

It will serve as an alert to pageant directors: they should be careful with “new pageants” they send their candidates to. Clearly the 47 women who participated in Korea ran serious risk away from home.

Scandal rocks Miss Asia Pacific World 2011

Scandal rocks Miss Asia Pacific World 2011

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