Jackie’s enthralling experiences at the Miss Universe Pageant

FLASH: FOR MISS SRI LANKA 2007 CLICK HERE

by Zanita Careem

 

Smart and sophisticated chic and stylish, beautiful but still simple and charming. These are the adjectives that came to my mind when I met the reigning Miss Sri Lanka 2006.

Winning the title Miss Sri Lanka for Miss Universe Jackie… as she is fondly known does not end there.

She has plans and she is determined to pursue these just like she pursued the goal of being selected as Miss Sri Lanka. She does not believe that luck or looks alone, suffices she conjures up a goal before her and that it is attainable and she spares no effort to ensure that she achieves it. That’s Jacqueline Fernandez for you. A perfect combination of beauty and brains, the quintessential 21st Century Lankan woman who is all set to create a niche for herself in the world, in which she plans to firmly install the beauty of Sri Lanka on the map of the world.

She has returned after representing Sri Lanka in this years Miss Universe pageant in Los Angeles, California USA.

A Bahrain born beauty even though Jacqueline was not able to bring the coveted Miss Universe 2006 crown, she said that the experience of first winning the Miss Sri Lanka this year and the chance to compete on the international stage was an exhilarating experience. In the course of this adventure Jackie did meet many celebrities former beauty queens, actors and actresses. “The experience was enormous, meeting contestants from other countries, exchanging cultural values, sharing experiences and meeting people were unforgettable said the this young beauty queen.

“For me taking part in this pageant meant putting Sri Lanka in the global spotlight. I felt that the world has a negative perception of this beautiful island and we are only associated with war and devastation. I wanted to change this image and be a Ambassador for my country” said Jackie with much enthusiasm.

Talking of some of the highlights of the pageant she said the friends of the South Asian American Communities, bestowed her with the Kalpana Chawla Award, as the outstanding woman of the year.

Hundreds of VIP guests attended this gala ceremony held at the Disney Concert Hall including 2004 US Presidential Nominee Senator John Kerry, Los Angeles Mayor Anlonia Villaraigosa and Grammy Award winning music producer Rie Worke.

M/s Fernandez was given this title for her outstanding worked towards humanity and for her excellent representation of Sri Lanka. Her immediate response was “it is a honour for my country, as she was one of 13 people to receive awards that evening. She also attended gala dinners with many VIPs present and judged the Miss Sri Lanka USA beauty pageant.

Many offers have definitely opened for me since the contest said Jackie fluttering her eye lids. Dressed in a simple and elegant dress, with her hair tied up, she was amiable, and shook hands with all those who spoke to her at the office of the Island editorial. When we probed as to what was the most unexpected and best experience she has had since winning the Miss Sri Lanka title Jackie with her foreign accent said.

The future holds many great possibilities will you give a try to be Hollywood star “she quipped” of course why not! Actually I am meeting Rie Worke, the biggest producer in the music world having produced music for artists like Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, Jessica Sumpsion and Jenifer Lopez. He has invited me out to discuss what I could possible do in Hollywood, said Jackie with confidence.

She was named as one of the favourites to win the crown by the US media, there were many articles written about her. They described her as worldly having been born in Bahrain, educated in Australia and now works as a TV presenter in Sri Lanka. She was even photographed for page one of the Los Angeles Times California (Orange County Edition).

Jackie has taken part in several major fashion shows in Bahrain including the Jewellery Arabia and visual image shows. True to her word of being a humanitarian social worker Jackie has started her own foundation which currently sponsors 25 tsunami affected children and 30 women left endowed by the tsunami, through loans and cash for work programme. The funding comes through whatever endorsements she makes as Miss Sri Lanka.

She is also the spokes person and an advocate for the eradication of child sex tourists in Sri Lanka. The crown gives Jacqueline Fernandez a good platform to make the world set up and take notice. –Leisure

Blast and counter-blast on eve of president`s return

By Shamindra Ferdinando

The SLFP-JVP honeymoon appears to have come to an end with the Marxist party`s leadership blasting the government over an unexpected move to forge closer bilateral relations with Norway.

Rajapakse last Tuesday called for enhanced ties with Norway when he met Norwegian Premier Jens Stoltenberg in New York. This came against the backdrop of the ruling coalition seeking an alliance with the UNP to tackle national issues.

This drew the wrath of JVP leader Somawansa Amarasinghe who recently compared the SLFP leadership to that of woman practicing the world`s oldest profession. Amarasinghe ridiculed the SLFP`s refusal to abrogate the Cease-fire Agreement (CFA), end Norwegian facilitation in the peace process and de-link the Eastern Province from the North.

The JVP chief said that the SLFP was like a twilight woman waiting on the roadside to go with anyone who comes by. Somawansa warned of street protests, threatening to send President Mahinda Rajapakse home. He challenged the ruling coalition to face the people in parliamentary and presidential elections.

Confrontational politics plagues Sri Lanka?

By Dinesh Weerakkody

The JVP and the JHU talk about the importance of the country being independent and self-reliant without leaving room for succumbing to pressures from outside. But what they forget is that we have very low saving and investment rates, huge infrastructure deficits and poor productivity kevels. Therefore to become independent we need to firstly address these issues. Then to find solutions to these three issues we need to have good governance and a credible president. The same way an individual cannot ever think of being independent without a sound income, it is futile to imagine a country without the ability to generate the required income to supply the basic needs of its people. Therefore when a government cannot fulfill the needs of its people, they have to look to those affluent countries to obtain funds to fund its development programs and also to provide the basic necessities of their people. Thus succumbing to whatever terms or demands put forward by the lender. Very few politicians understand this dilemma. So it is abundantly clear that our desired goal of independence depends on the progress the country makes to improve its economy. Politicians who talk so much about independence and so on without giving priority to economic development should not be taken seriously. Because either they are ignorant or not genuine in their intentions. Therefore, it is the duty of our leaders, be it Ranil or Mahinda to care for the people, find out what their problems are and work for the welfare of its people rather than whipping up nationalism. In fact a recent report highlighted the fact that confrontational politics plagues countries like Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Economy

Sri Lanka’s economic development has today reached a critical juncture. Failed socialist experiments, economic mismanagement, lack of proper training and the conflict have created an economy without a sound economic foundation on which to build. As a result today we have poverty throughout the country. In fact, the World Bank Report on “Poverty and Vulnerability in South Asia” has said that South Asia is the home to the largest number of the World’s Poor; this most certainly includes Sri Lanka. Main contributing factors are the haplessness of the rural poor, who fall victim to economic downturns, unemployment, crippling illness, death, conflict and natural disasters, most often without the social protection programmes such as Insurance, and economic safety nets such as unemployment relief and food stamps. The global oil prices heightened by the Middle East turmoil and internally by a war ravaged economy has affected the Sri Lankan economy. The government according statistics has managed the economy well to contain the fallout. But the ordinary people of this country do not seem to have benefited at all from this 8% growth. Their buying power by no means has increased. Many blame the JVP for the situation in the North. However, the impact of the political crisis and the killings in the North and East is also being felt and if we don’t find a speedy solution in the near future we will end up running a huge budget deficit again, pushing inflation to record levels. The peace process is the number one, two and three priority and that will be the foundation to find solutions for the problems such as overcoming poverty.

Development strategy

In that context, today we need to ask ourselves what development strategy are we comfortable with? The “Trickle down” approach, with government mobilizing all the savings and capital which can be borrowed and letting the group of entrepreneurs invest them in infrastructure, industry and commerce productively to churn out goods and services that people in the country and in other countries will want and pay for. This increase in capital and value to companies leading to competitive advantage, has to necessarily leave the working classes to make sacrifices and be happy with the pittance coming their way, until the wealth that is accumulating trickles down to them. This approach certainly has lost its supporters. While another set of thinkers advocate the alleviation of poverty, total human development and equity as the government’s primary goal. However promoting the decentralization of Government, privatization of public enterprise, quality of education and training of people, technological upgrading, and “private sector as the engine of growth” as its core strategies. It also envisages the participation of private sector, voluntary organizations and other key institutions in implementing Government’s policies and programmes. In Sri Lanka however using this mantra most governments have quietly abdicated much of the government’s own responsibility for enhancing economic growth. In Sri Lanka growth should be a joint effort between the government, the private sector and the NGOs. In this effort the government should be a facilitator for FDI and growth. This is why this country desperately needs a competent and a credible ruler and an efficient government. So the government’s recent bid to convince prospective investors in Singapore to invest is a good thing. Projecting Sri Lanka as an attractive investment and business location would also require the government to improve its governance record, provide constitutional guarantees, invest in developing its human capital, improve our human rights record and manage the security risks effectively.

The right Policy Choices

In Sri Lanka one sees certain obstacles to achieving these goals which mainly is a mindset of some of the entrepreneur classes in the private sector, an inertia ridden senior rungs of the Government’s Policy making machinery, selfish politicians and weak implementation in general. The growth of GDP this year is now expected to be in the region of 7%. This certainly places enormous pressure on external debt. The trade deficit is on the rise while Public Debt had risen. In simple terms we are very happy making future generations indebted. This is not the first time we had opted for this solution. What irks the common man most is the unbalanced spending on non-food imports, for example imports of non-essentials had increased at a time we are still struggling with infrastructure issues.

Also, above all the vulgar abuse of state resources by their elected representatives is also helping to lose confidence in their political leaders. We must get our act together in building the highways, the power plants and other social infrastructure we need for economic prosperity, for which the ADB and many other donors have come up with the funding but reluctant to release due to incompetence in governance.

Pay and Productivity

Productivity is another issue, which is more on our collective lips than in reality. Imagine the “creative” minds of our people propounding the productivity theory”1/2X2X 3” that is half as much people paid twice as much produce three times their output. This sort of thinking can only get us near NIC status . We wish our pay is increased but have no commitment to productivity. Unions bolt at the mere mention of the “word”. We need to link Performance to pay. One Swiss Management Consultant was quoted in a journal saying that it “Costs the entrepreneur the same , whether he hires 1000 idiots or 1000 geniuses” in other words we need to build human capital. One reason which makes even a man whose income is as big as a country’s GNP-Bill Gates calls up 400 computer programmers personally at a time, to encourage them to join “Microsoft .He values talent and knows that his company’s future lies in innovation and upgrading. We must be bold to challenge ourselves in meeting higher goals, add greater value. But it is not all-labour productivity . The private sector as much as the public sector must invest in human resource development, process methodology, R&D and worker training, while conserving energy and economizing on luxuries, so that capital accumulation is rapid and we vindicate ourselves in the eyes of our future generation. So all in all can we achieve all this with an incompetent political ruler or a ruler who is good at promising the sun and the moon, but does not have the capacity to deliver or does not know how to find the money to deliver?

In the final analysis, if are truly become independent like what the JVP wants, firstly we need a competent, credible and a disciplined President, secondly a private sector that does not isolate themselves to their boardrooms and a government that is conscientious about our work ethic and helps to create an environment where private capital can thrive. For all this to happen we would need an assertive society that has the self-confidence.. As the World Bank observed recently strong growth has created an unprecedented opportunity a chance for ending poverty in a generation in South Asia. So if we can all get our act together we could provide an opportunity and a real chance for the poor of this country to emerge from destruction and want. -Financial Times

Transparency Intl. renews warning on poor governance

Transparency International Sri Lanka (TISL) yesterday renewed its warning that the governance and democracy levels in the country were deteriorating and called for urgent action by all parties concerned to re-dress the situation.

In a statement TISL said there was a fast deterioration in the processes of governance at vital public institutions in the country. “Waste of public finances due to the extravagance and greed of politicians, abductions of civilians for ransom, the functioning of independent institutions being dictated to by powerful political figures, the impunity of powerful elements, politicization of the public sector and many other serious lapses which bear witness to the failure of governance in the country,” it said.

The TISL reaffirmed that there is an urgent need to evaluate the working of the methods of governance, particularly the institutional collapse in the recent past due to the non implementation of the 17th amendment, The systematic penalization of independent voices which has distanced the public from the leadership in the country has hindered the ability to understand a resolve to remedy most of these issues.

It also affirmed the need for Sri Lanka to be mindful of basic norms of justice informing the world order as enshrined in international human rights treaties that we as well as the majority of’ these countries are signatory to. No country can afford to be isolated from the acceptance and acknowledgement of such international standards. Sovereignty of the people includes fundamental rights and protection of good governance, without which a civilized society cannot be protected against repression. TISL warned the public that a few short sighted but powerful individuals in high positions are acting in collusion to undermine democratic values for their own survival.

The TISL urged the President, Government, Opposition, political authorities, political parties, and the opinion makers to reconsider their respective positions on governance and democratic values, in order to extricate the country from the present deplorable situation before it is too late. ”It is vital that the voice of the people and the right to dissent be protected and respected to prevent the emergence of greater authoritarianism and corruption in Sri Lanka. Democracy will be protected only if the people stand for democratic values and against repression, while asserting their right to lawfully question the authority of arbitrary actions of all institutions including the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary, all of which belong to the people themselves,” TISL said. -Daily Mirror