A ridiculous mix of high politics and low culture is splashed today in French major papers: the Miss France comitee has decided to boycott the Miss World contest, to be held on November 30 in Nigeria. Sylvie Tellier, Miss France 2002, wants to protest against the death penalty sentence pronounced in Nigeria against Amina Lawal, a 30-years old nigerian woman condemned for adultery.
It seems to me it is the right of Sylvie Tellier not to participate on ideological grounds, however thin it might be. After all, if the Miss World contest was to be held in Dallas, nobody would have boycott it, although the death penalty is as much popular in Texas than in Northern Nigeria.
But here comes Antoine de Villejoie, président of the "Miss France-Miss Europe-Miss Univers" comitee, and he wants to sue. He believes it is his own right to decide on such high-level matters, and he wants to overthrow Sylvie Tellier. He wants a new Miss France contest on the first week of October, and I say, right, the more the merrier.