Poor Miss Universe . . . Venezuelan Dayana Mendoza, winner of the 2009 Miss Universe Pageant, has made a visit to Guantánamo which she described in her blog as most pleasant. Giddily unaware of the political quagmire into which she was stepping, she describes her visit to “Cuba” in quasi-idyllic terms. “I didn’t want to leave,” she gushes, “it was such a relaxing place, so calm and beautiful.” Of the infamous detention camp she has this to say: “We visited the Detainees camps and we saw the jails, where they shower, how the recreate themselves with movies, classes of art, books. It was very interesting.”
The detention camp has been used to hold prisoners classified as “enemy combatants” and both former detainees and human rights groups have charged that interrogators used torture on prisoners. President Obama has ordered the closure of the camp by early next year. Approximately two-hundred and fifty detainees remain in the camp.
Ms Mendoza’s comments have attracted their fair share of derision, especially form bloggers. The BBC quotes one as writing: “My God! Never underestimate the predictability of stupidity.”
Canada’s Globe and Mail quips
In order for Ms. Mendoza to fulfill the dream expressed in her final line, that she never have to leave Guantanamo Bay, she would have to:
a) marry a U.S. soldier quickly and try to secure family housing on the base;
b) attempt to achieve American citizenship and enlist in the army herself;
c) be designated an “enemy contestant,” thus presumably circumventing UN conventions;
d) be a young Canadian boy.
The blog post was removed after it came to the attention of numerous news organizations.
For more on the story (if indeed you can stand more on this non-story), see
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/30/miss-universe-visits-guantanamo/
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/01/miss-universes-blog-adds-to-guantanamo-debate/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7976207.stm
Canada’s Globe and Mail pokes fun at the incident in “Test Your Knowledge as Miss Universe Goes to Guantanamo Bay (No, Really).” See it at http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20090404.TART04/TPStory/Comment
The photo above, of Canadian citizen Omar Khadr, who was 15 at the time of his capture and detention, appeared in London’s Guardian newspaper and can be seen in its original context at http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2008/12/3/1228324217995/Gallery-Guantanamo-Bay–O-005.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2008/dec/04/guantanamo-bay&usg=__dPygQPnM7RGFZ7bg1WeFhhnF6YA=&h=390&w=568&sz=33&hl=en&start=183&sig2=cyo14t2EH9ZCcRcGoZSbFA&um=1&tbnid=NlvpljOffTqQaM:&tbnh=92&tbnw=134&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dguantanamo%26ndsp%3D21%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1T4GGIC_enUS276US286%26sa%3DN%26start%3D168%26um%3D1&ei=egXYSdL1LurrlQe06LjODA
