How will the Miss World pageant handle the Miss Honduras situation? [edited title]

Cafe Society
1

Maria Jose Alvarado was chosen as Miss Honduras in April and was supposed to be competing in the Miss World pageant which is scheduled for this Thursday.

But five days ago, Maria Jose Alvarado and her sister Sofia Trinidad were apparently abducted. The police have suspects in custody but it appears they have not learned the current whereabouts of the missing women.

Now obviously the main concern is the fate of these two women. But the Miss World pageant is also an issue. How will they address this?

I checked their website. They’re just talking about the upcoming pageant with no mention of this story. Will they simply follow through on that and not mention the missing contestant? Will they have the Honduran runner-up step in to fill her spot in the pageant? Or will the organizers address this topic during the pageant? And if they do address it during the pageant, how do they handle it? You don’t want to have a moment of silence for somebody who is still officially considered alive.

2

Isn’t that the the job description of the runner up? If the winner can’t fulfill her duties, the runner up steps in?

3

They have both been found shot dead. Her boyfriend and an accomplice are in custody. The answer to the OP’s question is

4

*The case has caused consternation in the notoriously violent central American country, home to the most dangerous city on the planet.

San Pedro Sula, just over 30 miles from Santa Barbara, is the murder capital of the world with more than 1,200 killings a year among its nearly one million inhabitants.

Its murder rate of 169 per 100,000 people far surpasses anything in North America or much larger cities like Lagos or Sao Paulo.*

I found the above quote in an article in MSN news. Geez, and I thought places like some of the big US cities were bad.

5

Out of respect for the dead, Honduras should not send the runner-up to the pageant.

This said, I have always wondered why, when a young woman dies, but not a young man, people invariably say, “she was so full of life”. At the risk of sounding cynical, it sounds inane. Any living person is, by definition, full of life in every cell. It also sounds patronizing in its generic perkiness. Was she full of potential, full of ideas, full of it, full of anything besides the most basic condition of being alive?

6

Well, saying “she was so full of life” when a guy dies would be confusing at best and incredibly offensive at worst.

7

Ummm, are you guys English speakers? “Full of life” is an expression meaning engaged, full of spirit and vitality. Pretty much the same as saying they " loved life".

8

http://www.heraldextra.com/lifestyles/announcements/obituaries/kenneth-eric-nielson/article_aa36c9b4-b43c-5659-a9f4-e2c5aaf2bb73.html
http://www.goerie.com/strong-vincent-student-victim-of-fatal-crash-remembered-as-incredible

So, I guess that’s not really a thing.

9

There’s plenty of room below that level of murder for things in the big cities to be bad.

10

Are you? The question wasn’t, “What does this phrase mean,” it was, “Why is this phrase only applied to dead women?”

11

That is not my experience. In my experience, any young person’s death inspires comments about the decedent being full of life, having his orher whole life ahead of him, and so forth.

Cynical is not quite the word I would use to describe your attitude. Android is closer. You sound like Data from Star Trek: The One With the Hot Ginger Doctor. When a young person dies, particularly in a violent and obviously unjust way, it reminds people of their own mortality in an even-more-uncomfortable-than-normal way. It causes them to have the urge to speak well of the deceased and to attempt to assauge the suffering of others. Those are not bad urges.

12

Any thoughts about the circumstances of the murder itself? I have been reading the boyfriend killed her sister because he was jealous that the sister danced with other men at the boyfriend’s birthday party. Don’t people switch back and forth among multiple partners at birthday party dances?

13

Reported for title change - it says “Miss Universe” but it should say “Miss World”. (Calling Miss World “Miss Universe” is sort of like calling Miss USA “Miss America”.)

14

Done.

15

Thanks. I initially thought it was the Miss Universe pageant and that’s what I had written. I realized my mistake and changed it to Miss World but I overlooked the thread title.

16

Actually the person who raised the question said,

If serious, this would indeed represent a basic misunderstanding of the idiom.

The expression is not limited to women.

17

So …

If this one city is the murder capital of the world, why does everybody here seem to like to rag on the US for it’s murder rate? It seems like any time there is a discussion of institutionalized violence, the US is declaimed at full volume to be the EVIL Empire of murder and violence. :dubious:

18

It’s not. And who cares if it was? It’s not remotely sexist in meaning or intent.

19

My guess is that this is because the US are perceived as being one of the most developed countries in the world, and some people may feel that it is jarring that such a developed country has murder and violent crime rates that are rather higher than other countries with a similar level of development.

I guess that, unfortunately, the Honduran murder rates are not considered worthy of surprise because there may be a somewhat widespread feeling of “Honduras is not an advanced society; you can’t expect much more of ‘those types’” :frowning: :mad: :frowning: