Although Libya has exhibited a flair for the dramatic in its dealings with the rest of the world, it might just outdo itself this week when it plays host to the Miss Net World beauty pageant, writes Willa Thayer The final ceremony of the Miss Net World beauty pageant in Tripoli this week promises to include elements of the sense of drama that the country's leadership has displayed to the outside world. This time, though, Libya seems intent on using that sensibility in a manner that might eventually benefit it. The event, which takes its name from the selection of the winner by an open vote over the Internet at the pageant's Web site, www.missnetworld.tv, is being taken by Libya as an opportunity to tell the world that it is open for business and tourism. Explaining the pageant's concept and the decision to hold the final ceremony in Tripoli, its founder Omar Harfouch told Al-Ahram Weekly by phone from Paris, "I want Miss Net World to be an intelligent contest. As the girls are beautiful, and every human being is sensitive to female beauty, I have given the pageant the slogan 'Beauty will save the world'. For that reason, we decided to hold the event in Libya, which is just coming out of an embargo after 10 years. Libya has definitely chosen to live in peace with all other countries, according to its leader's [Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's] recent speeches." Libya is sparing no effort as it rolls out the red carpet for the event, having sent three private jets to Europe last week to pick up organisers, contestants and their entourages. "The girls, I think, will have the best trip of their lives. They will all be received like ambassadors, or even as though they were the president of their country," Harfouch says. And while part of the interest in the event surely relates to a view that beauty pageants in the Middle East are like a fish out of water, the participation of hopefuls from Turkey, Tunisia, Lebanon and Morocco in the penultimate round of the contest should go some way towards dispelling this notion. Only Miss Net Morocco, "Nadia", made the cut from 45 to 25 contestants, and is now awaiting the results in Tripoli of the final round of voting, which closes on 2 November, the day of the final ceremony. Beauty pageants, however, have been no stranger to the region in recent years. During any given week, Beirut seems to host such a spectacle or its sister event, the model search contest. A privately owned Lebanese satellite channel, Future television, leads the way in broadcasting the extravaganzas to regional audiences. Consequently, that Lebanon, from which Omar and his business partner and brother Walid hail, would produce international beauty contest pioneers came as no surprise to my Egyptian colleagues and friends. While the viewer of any of the Beirut contests could be forgiven for thinking that they were staged in a European capital, the Tripoli event will leave its audience with no doubt about the identity of its host country. Foregoing the traditional bathing suit contest, Miss Net World participants will instead parade about in jeans and T- shirts sporting Colonel Gaddafi's face. The T-shirts -- the handiwork of Italian fashion designer Roberto Cavalli -- are, Harfouch says, to be sold at Cavalli boutiques around the world. The appeal of these items, in Harfouch's words, lies in Gaddafi being a sort of a "romantic, revolutionary symbol". Other sartorial highlights will include contestants sporting the uniform of Libyan army officers as they strut their stuff to a soundtrack proclaiming, "Beauty will save the world." To drive the message home that Libya has chosen to be a peaceful member of the international community, contestants will make a commemorative visit to the site that the US bombed in 1986. There Miss Net USA, whose attendance was confirmed only weeks before the event, will give a speech about the importance of peace. All the contestants will perform a folkloric dance, and release doves into the sky. For all the strangeness of that commemorative visit, with its addition of a distinctly Libyan dimension to beauty queens' traditional concern for "world peace", there is no mistaking the message of conciliation that Libya is trying to send its former enemy. In that respect, Libya's hosting the pageant stands out from other images that the country has recently presented of itself to the outside world. From the colonel's contingent of beautiful female bodyguards, the day-long closure of international communications and airports last week in mourning for the Libyans killed during the Italian occupation, to the government's threat last week to withdraw from the Arab League -- its second this year -- such actions have been a source of wonderment and sometimes vexation in the Arab world and abroad. To ensure that Libya's message is delivered not only to the US, but to the West in general, the commemoration of the 1986 bombing will feature in the screening of a montage of contestants' travels around the country along with 'day in the life' shorts showing Miss Net Germany and Miss Net USA convincing their families to support their decision to travel to a country that has yet to entirely shake off its renegade image. Harfouch called Miss Net USA's visit to Libya "symbolic", however, if we are to take his word for it, he and the Libyans are not the only ones interested in the odyssey of Tecca Zendik from Los Angeles. "Not only has the State Department given her [Miss Net USA] permission [to visit Libya], but the person who she dealt with said, 'all of us will vote for you and we hope you will win.'" The pageant is a public relations coup not only for Libya, but for the Kiev-based Harfouch brothers, who appear to have achieved an impressive measure of 'synergy' among various communications media with their contest. Having sold advertising on their Web site and the rights for coverage of certain aspects of the pageant to a private British company that has, in turn, sold rights to various Western outlets, the event gives every appearance of being a moneymaker. (Viewers in the Arab world will have to wait until after Ramadan to see the event on Future TV.) Beyond the benefits for Libya and the Harfouchs' reputation, Omar eagerly pointed out that the event is an instance of the democratisation of a beauty pageant. Noting that only one of the Middle East entries made it to the final round, he says, "I don't want to do an unfair contest and have a lot of Arabs in the final round just because we are going to an Arab country and I was born in Lebanon." During the penultimate round, some 700,000 people cast votes, while the first 12 hours of voting in the final round drew 135,000 people to the site. Omar says that he expects millions to visit the site during the final round. And with the eyes of net-surfers from around the world watching and selecting from among 25 fetching Miss Nets, it seems unlikely that the winner will receive anything near 100 per cent -- unlike some contenders in other contests in the region.
