Race, age questions fuel Miss World Fiji fiasco

In this April 15, 2012 photo released by Imagine South Pacific, beauty contestant Torika Watters poses for a photo on a beach on Tavarua Island, Fiji. A beauty pageant in Fiji that has turned into a fiasco has sparked a debate in the island nation about race, age and ethics after Watters was replaced as winner of the Miss World Fiji pageant by fellow contestant Koini Vakaloloma. (AP Photo/Imagine South Pacific, Shiri Ram) EDITORIAL USE ONLY

In this April 15, 2012 photo released by Imagine South Pacific, beauty contestant Torika Watters poses for a photo on a beach on Tavarua Island, Fiji. A beauty pageant in Fiji that has turned into a fiasco has sparked a debate in the island nation about race, age and ethics after Watters was replaced as winner of the Miss World Fiji pageant by fellow contestant Koini Vakaloloma. (AP Photo/Imagine South Pacific, Shiri Ram) EDITORIAL USE ONLY

In this April 15, 2012 photo released by Imagine South Pacific, beauty contestant Koini Vakaloloma poses for a photo in the surf on Tavarua Island, Fiji. A beauty pageant in Fiji that has turned into a fiasco has sparked a debate in the island nation about race, age and ethics after Vakaloloma replaced Torika Watters as winner of the Miss World Fiji pageant. (AP Photo/Imagine South Pacific, Shiri Ram) Editorial Use Only

First came complaints that the winner of the Miss World Fiji pageant looked too Western to represent her country. Then her age came under scrutiny. And now, with the 16-year-old's crown lost, one of the judges says the contest was rigged from the start.

The pageant has turned into a fiasco in this South Pacific nation of about 900,000. The pageant's director is avoiding questions as fans of the fallen beauty queen, Torika Watters, flock online to support her.

Watters was crowned Miss World Fiji last month by an international panel of judges led by New Zealand supermodel Rachel Hunter, winning the opportunity to represent the country at the world competition in China in August.

Soon after, however, dozens of people posted messages on the Miss World Fiji Facebook page questioning whether Watters, who is of mixed racial heritage, represented Fijian beauty or was simply a mirror of Western ideals.

Two weeks after she won, Watters wrote on her Facebook page, pageant director Andhy Blake told her she couldn't compete for Miss World because she is too young. The international competition requires contestants be at least 17 years old, but Watters said Blake previously assured her "it was fine" because he had received a waiver for her entry from international organizers.

Organizers of the Fijian event over the weekend announced a new winner: Koini Vakaloloma, 24.

A message on the Miss World Fiji Facebook page Tuesday said that Watters had voluntarily stepped down and that reports connecting the decision with racism or her age were "untrue."

"Despite all the negative hype surrounding our event, we continue to defend against all allegations and accusations," the message said. The Facebook page appeared to have been removed by Wednesday.

Blake could not be reached Wednesday. A message on his phone said "Sorry, I've taken a short break after a very successful show."

Neither Hunter nor the Miss World organizers returned messages Wednesday.

Another of the six judges, Fijian fashion designer Hupfeld Hoerder, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the judging was a sham.

He said there was no note-taking or judging criteria during the competition and that from early on, Blake had pressured the judges to name Watters the winner. Hoerder said that he tried to argue with Blake to no avail and, in protest, refused to attend the final night's crowning ceremony.

Hoerder said the contest has painted Fiji in a bad light and that the country shouldn't send any representative to China.

"Everyone is playing the race card, saying it's racism," Hoerder said. "But this is about ethics, and an event that was unethical."

Watters, who couldn't be reached for an interview this week, said on her Facebook page that she left Fiji's capital to be with her mother in the town of Nadi and wants "to get on with my life."

"I left Suva and the entire pageant fiasco ... because I was becoming very uncomfortable with the situation," she wrote. "I was worried about the lies, the deception, the lack of transparency and the lack of professionalism."

___

Follow Nick Perry on Twitter at http://twitter.com/nickgbperry

Associated Press

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AUTO INSURANCE: Student Auto Insurance

Technological advancements, cost cutting and more supply of fuel, have made cars all over the world a common facility, that is used by people from all age groups. Today, almost all high school and college students drive cars. At times, immature actions by students result into petty accidents and car damages, which are expensive to repair. Insurance companies provide people with a variety of policies, when it comes to auto insurance. The auto insurance for students is a kind of policy that is a specially tailored to meet the demands of the student community.

Student Auto Insurance

After the insurance policy is purchased by vehicle owners, their cars are 'covered' by the policy. It means that in case of an accident or mishap, the insurance pays compensation to the policy owners. Every policy owner has to pay a specific amount annually to the company, which is known as a premium. The policy also has a certain date of maturity, after which the car does not come under the insurance coverage, and a particular sum of money is returned to the policy owner.

The insurance rates for such policies are always high due to the fact that legally recognized driving experience of students is bound to be very less. There are several other factors that are considered while deciding the rates of insurance premiums, for auto insurance for students. The specifications of the car, the score of the student in the driving lessons, criminal record and record for violations of traffic rules are some of common points that are inspected by the company. This expensive auto insurance is also often clubbed with a health or liability insurance. Thus, if the student commits a traffic rule volition or faces a severe accident most of the expenses are taken care of by the insurance company. There might be cases when the injured person in the car crash sues the student for damages and personal injury. The health and liability insurance, in such cases prove to be of help, as the auto accident settlement is paid by the insurance company. Thus, it can be concluded that an auto insurance is a necessity for any student who drives.

How to get a Cheap Auto Insurance for Students

Here's what you can do.

??? In case you are availing auto insurance as a college student, then make it point to have good grades on your final year school certificates. There are many companies who would offer you a discount on the basis of your merit.
??? The second step that you can follow is that, never break any traffic rules, especially during your high school days. A record for rule and law violation will fetch you a very high rate of premium.
??? If it is feasible, then consider purchasing a car with high mileage and lower horse power. You might also add security features to the car. Such cars that have a higher security and lower horse power will fetch you with a low rate premium insurance policy.
??? In order to have very good auto insurance quotes, you may also consider taking good driving and safety lessons. Insurance companies offer lesser premiums to customers who have scored well in such classes.

It is high time that we accept that the world is full of uncertainties and one person's life is full of unpredicted events. Hence, it is better to be wise before than weep later. It is very important to follow traffic rules, have a proper driving license, etc. One must never drive after consuming alcohol. It important to respect and follow such rules, an auto insurance for students covers many hazards, but it does not cover a very important aspect - life.

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Sending Queries to Literary Managers About a Screenplay

Erik Bork is best known for his work as a writer-producer on the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers and From the Earth to the Moon ? for which he won two Emmy and two Golden Globe Awards. He has also worked on the writing staff of two primetime series, sold original pitches, and written pilots and screenplays for most of the major studios and networks. He teaches in National University?s MFA Screenwriting Program, and was rated ?Cream of the Crop? in Creative Screenwriting?s ?The Best Script Analysts and Consultants.? You can check out his free??Ten Key Principles Successful Writers Understand,?? Please read and enjoy the article he has contributed.

When I work with writers giving feedback and guidance on their material and career paths, I often end up giving advice about how to gain access to agents, managers, and producers ? which seems to most writers to be the biggest challenge of this business.

The common conception is that ?who you know? is ultimately the key thing, because you can have the greatest script in the world, and if nobody in the industry will read it (because they don?t know you, and you weren?t referred to them by someone they trust), nothing will come of it, right?

True enough. However, this statement misses one key part of the equation: the industry is?desperately hungryfor marketable material and writers. And it always has been and will be.

No matter how few paid writing jobs or script sales there might be compared to the number of people who would like to have them (and that will forever be an outrageous ratio), the fact remains that the ?development? side of the business is always on the lookout for more ?stuff they can sell.?

How desperate are they?

Last year I met a very legitimate, big time manager of working screenwriters at a writing conference I was invited to speak at (where writers had also paid to get five minutes to sit across from the likes of him), and asked him about the best way to ?get access? to him and others of his kind.

Here?s what he said:

Send him an e-mail.

What kind of an e-mail? The kind with a quick description of the script you want him to read, and consider representing. The kind that he gets dozens of, every week.

I know, the prospect of ?cold queries? seems like a huge long shot, and compared to a personal referral, perhaps it is. But it?s not necessarily worse than the five minute ?pitch fest? approach, because ultimately what a manager (or agent, producer or executive) is looking at, in both cases, is the content of the story being proposed. It?s either something they think could be sellable (in a pitch or a short query), or it isn?t.

This particular manager said he gets about 100 such query e-mails a week.

And he asks to read the script for about 80 of them.

That?s right, 80 out of 100.

Another high-end manager I met at the same conference confirmed that this same process works, and also said she also gets about 100 a week, but she only asks to read about 10 of the scripts. She?s tougher on the loglines and synopses than he is. (And it?s possible that some are even tougher ? and that agents, for instance, will be harder to get the attention of than managers, due to the differences in what they do and how they do it.)

Here?s the one thing they both agreed about, though, which is really the key point I want to make:?out of the scripts that do get to them, they have only have interest in less than one script a week ? and maybe as few as a handful each year.

In other words, regardless of the synopsis in the query, the script almost always fails to impress them as something they could do something with (or?the writer as one they could ?sell?).

The big challenge, then, is not so much about getting your material in front of the professionals who can help you. It?s making sure that the script you put in front of them will really impress them, when you do. This is the hard part. And this is what is rare, highly valued, and highly sought after.

Of course, we all know this, on some level. But writers often seem to think the ?access issue? is at least 25%, or even 50%, of what determines whether a screenwriter gets their work sold and produced. And they tend to put a lot of time and energy into trying to ?crack the code? of getting their work to the right people in the right way.

But it?s really not that complicated or hard. It requires a little research and diligence (and a thick skin), but getting your logline and premise or synopsis in front of these kinds of people is fairly simple.

There are multiple sources online where you can find e-mail addresses for managers, as well as producers ? such as?Itsonthegrid.com?and?IMDB Pro. The e-mail should be addressed to a specific individual. The manager I spoke with recommends you provide the logline and genre of your script, then a paragraph or two synopsis of the story (not a tease, but a real synopsis that explains the story).

Below that, you might include any important contests you?ve won, or other impressive writing background you might have ? though that is strictly optional.

Many will not be as generous as this manager, in terms of being impressed enough by the query to ask to read the script. In some cases, it will have to really sound like a viable movie they could sell ? or at least a viable writer who is very much on the right track.

But getting the ?read,? at the end of the day, is not the key thing. What?s key is delivering with a script they think has a chance, that they can really do something with when they get it.

I guess it depends on your viewpoint whether this is ?good news? or ?bad news.? But I will tell you it?s what people inside the industry all tend to believe. They?re not trying to keep out marketable writing and writers. They are just so bombarded by material that isn?t marketable, in their view, that they have to put up somewhat of a wall to allow them to focus on serving their existing clients ? which, trust me, is a very full-time job.

But these walls are not as solid as you might think. And they all want what you pitch and send to them to be something they think could sell and get produced. They?re really on your side in that. The tough part is creating such a thing. I know, because I grapple with this challenge myself, as a professional writer (and consultant to other writers) every day.

**************************************************************************************************

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According to the Wall Street Journal, Google will partner up with multiple Android handset manufactures to produce several Nexus-branded phones each year, rather than releasing just one. More »

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Hospital debt-collection company Accretive Health has hired President George W. Bush's former top health official, Mike Leavitt to helm a panel of former politicians devising rules for hospital billing.

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MacBook Pro and iMac with next-gen Ivy Bridge processors crop up on benchmarks (update)

Yup, Apples are bound to flow beneath the Ivy Bridge at some point, but how much of a performance boost will they deliver? If you're happy to hold onto a little skepticism, then two unexpected appearances on the Geekbench site could offer some early answers. The first purports to be an unknown 'MacBookPro9,1' laptop powered by an Ivy Bridge Core i7-3820QM running at 2.7GHz, which achieved a benchmark of 12252 -- that's around 17 percent better than a current equivalent Core i7 15-inch or 17-inch MacBook Pro. The second benchmark comes from an 'iMac13,2' running off Intel's next-gen Core i7-3770 desktop chip clocked at 3.4GHz, which only merits a score of 12183 because it's hobbled by 4GB of RAM. If you exclude memory and compare only the CPU integer and floating point scores, then you're looking at a roughly nine percent gain over a current 27-inch iMac with a 3.4Ghz Core i7-2600 processor. Now, these benchmarks could be faked, or represent non-final hardware, but the motherboard codes look valid (see the source links) and they generally tally with what we've come to expect from Ivy Bridge: a healthy oar-stroke forwards, but nothing that would frighten the fish.

Update: 9to5Mac has done some digging and come up with a few more interesting tidbits about the upcoming MacBook Pro refresh. For one, code pulled from the Mountain Lion beta appears to indicate that the Ivy Bridge machines will boast USB 3.0 and a new GPU in the NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M. The site also claims that the laptops will be slimmer than the current gen, a rumor that's we've been hearing for quite some time now.

MacBook Pro and iMac with next-gen Ivy Bridge processors crop up on benchmarks (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 May 2012 08:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink CultofMac, MacRumors  |  Geekbench (1), (2), RevoGirl's Blog, 9to5Mac  | Email this | Comments

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