British firm under fire for staging beauty pageant which 'props up Mugabe

British firm under fire for staging beauty pageant which 'props up Mugabe regime'
By Colin Freeman
(Filed: 04/09/2005)

A British company has been criticised for organising a beauty contest in famine-hit Zimbabwe to help to improve the country's poor international image.

With four million Zimbabweans facing starvation, a Nottingham-based company, Miss Tourism World, is arranging for 100 "stunning" models to strut down the catwalk in Harare.

Promotional material for the pageant describes Zimbabwe as "one of many magnificent countries to be found in Africa", but makes no mention of the famine that the United Nations fears is about to engulf the country.

The company, which hopes to televise the event to up to a billion viewers, says it will "help to amend the country's tourism profile". Critics, however, say it is bolstering Robert Mugabe's pariah regime.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/09/04/wzim04.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/09/04/ixworld.html


WHATEVER next: A Saudi women's olympic swimming team?