MISS WORLD 2014 IS WHITE SOUTH AFRICAN

 

Miss World 2014 is no big surprise...white girl Miss South Africa, Rolene Strauss, 22. Both of her parents are in the medical profession, and Rolene is a fourth-year medical student herself. She is probably fluent in that racist language Afrikaans. On the one hand, a most disappointing result. On the other hand, Julie Morley robbed the Donald blind, as Rolene would have been one of the non-Latina faves in next month's Miss Universe. A far better result for us would have been Miss Hungary, Edina Kulcsar, winning the Miss World 2014 title. Alas, she placed first runner-up. Second runner-up was Miss United States of America, Elizabeth Safrit. Rounding out the top five were Miss Australia, Courtney Thorpe, and Miss England, Carina Tyrrell, also a medical student (at Cambridge nonetheless). Completing the top 11  were Miss Brazil, Julia Gama; Miss Guyana, Rafieya Husain; Miss India, Koyal Roana; Miss Kenya, Idah Nguma; Miss Mexico, Daniela Alvarez Reyes; and Miss Thailand, Nonthawan Thongleng. The 64th annual gala ceremony was held at the Excel London ICC Auditorium, and included a tribute to Bollywood actor, humanitarian, and Miss World 1994 Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. This year's host were Welsh actor and TV presenter Tim Vincent, Miss World 2013 Megan Young, and Mr World Canada 2013 Frankie Cena.

Despite the fact that there is no longer a swimsuit competition during the live finale and the increased focus on humanitarian causes, Miss World remains controversial in its home-base of the UK: 

The pageant at the ExCel centre is expected to be targeted by feminist protestors who argue that it degrades women and is old-fashioned. They were rallying support on Twitter under the hashtag #missworldoldworldmisogyny. "The sexist idea that women should be judged on the basis of their appearance influences the way that all of us feel about ourselves as women and the way that men view and treat women," one of the groups backing the protest, the London Feminist Network, argued on its website. (Source: AFP)

Rolene is right there, in  the middle.

 Roomies dished on each other during the pre-show

 Rolene is the third (white) South African to wear the Miss World crown, after 1958's Penelope Coelen and 1974's Anneline Kriel (who ascended to the crown after the winner, Miss UK, was dethroned for being a mother).