The criticism and negative publicity mounted on the first ever Kigali City beauty pageant is ill-timed and ill-advised. I indeed felt disillusioned when I read an article with a title loudly screaming “Public discontent at Miss Kigali” in the pages of The New Times dated Tuesday, November 6. Upon reading the story, I felt that the authors and their editor fell short. Although it looked like that authors were intending to report what some members of the public had expressed, the article offered no substance leave alone a degree of professionalism. It appeared that The New Times reporters were carried away by the fact that someone was throwing a jibe. Much as we media guys get attracted to piercing stories, we forget that we have to be more cautious than our sources. We ought to look at things from an informed perspective unlike an ordinary person who will easily pick up a phone and call an FM station to voice out baseless views on events. It was therefore quite sub-standard to quote a local FM caller without assessing how he or she placed his or her views. In the article, a caller on Contact FM was quoted as saying; “Cynthia does not deserve the beauty title. Judges must have based on the language, (English), otherwise, Celyse Isimbi, or at least Joseline Muregatete (1st and 2nd runners-up respectively) would have qualified.” This quote serves a tin of worms. Well, let us assume this was said at one point. But, does it make sense at any rate for a print journalist to let this quote pass with support rendered? It’s unfortunate that these misinforming views were heard on FM stations and reproduced by print journalists who by nature of their work are supposed to be in a better position to deliver well-searched information. It’s by nature that human beings with a scrawny IQ will always rush to make ridiculous comments. We would be both unfair to them and the general public. Unfair to them because we would be exposing them to embarrassment, although such people would hardly notice. Unfair to the general public because we would be misinforming them. As such, we have to remind ourselves of our responsibility to contribute towards the development of this country in different aspects, be it social, like Miss Kigali. At the bottom of the matter, negative publicity about Miss Kigali does not lead to a better one or creation of Miss Rwanda. An FM station caller quoted, said that Miss Kigali winner was crowned because she speaks English. What an impractical reason! If that was a criterion used in a beauty pageant, then Miss Universe would always be from the land of Queen Elizabeth. Language does not have anything to do with judgment benchmarks for a beauty pageant. Got it wrong! Let me - once again - take a glance at the issue of assessing the sources of news. Why would The New Times journalists think that this FM station caller had credibility to judge the results of Miss Kigali pageant? Important to note, these FM station callers who call in the morning shows are probably houseboys and girls who stay home listening to radio. We should not go off beam when executing the principle of being the voice of everyone and promote erroneous views. We need to be pretty careful as media people. That aside, I have come to learn that some Rwandans do not appreciate anything provided. Some of us Rwandans tend to think that we deserve everything given to us, thus no need of being grateful. Here are two valid examples; (One) we have never had a beauty pageant of the kind since 1994 until recently.But when it was organized, we never gave the organisers the gratitude they deserved. (Two) when the ministry of Sports, Youth and Culture in collaboration with Lotto Rwanda brought in retired international soccer stars; we went mad because they did not bring Drogba as initially planned. Mother Teresa said that there is more hunger for love and appreciation in this world than for bread. Appreciating each other is a true family value, one that will bail out much of the stress on the planet and help strengthen the universal bond all people have.What you put out comes back. The more you sincerely appreciate life from the heart, the more the magnetic energy of appreciation attracts fulfilling life experiences to you, both personally and professionally. Ends
