Miss Arua was rigged

We witnessed corruption firsthand... at a beauty pageant.

A couple of weeks ago we met a man named Moses. He is a local Ugandan and a salesperson for Club - the only beer that tastes mildly good warm.

We thought we had a great setup with our constant supply of cheap crates. And when he invited us to the Miss Arua contest and requested for a few of us to be judges, we thought it would be a great idea. But as it got closer to the beginning of the pageant, I think we were all questioning whether or not it was the best idea for members of an NGO (that puts a focus on gender mainstreaming) to attend such an event. We decided to go for the cultural experience - or at least that was our lame excuse.

Emily, John and Trevor were announced to the audience of about 500 as, "International judges from Canada!!" With a couple of laptops on the table, they were essentially made into a spectacle.

In Uganda, we've noticed that many people stare at us because we're white. We even have a special name (Mzungu) so that when we're walking around town, the locals have a distinct way to call out to us. Although it's difficult to explain without experiencing it, I know the locals have good intentions so, we just comply. This pageant was a little out of hand though, even aside from the clear agenda that we were being used for a certain image.

When Moses approached John before the contest began to tell him that he had already decided the winner, the whole thing went downhill pretty quickly. Well, as far downhill as it can go from a beauty contest that is solely based on looks. Not to mention, the "musical artists" that were performing songs via lip-syncing in between the rounds.

It was hell.

As soon as the contest ended, we rushed out of the venue immediately. I know why I don't like beauty contests but this was unreal. The amount of anger I felt that night was out of control but the feeling of my heart shattering into pieces was definitely trumping the anger.

Typically we hear about corruption within a government but there is a direct connection between those governments and that particular beauty pageant. Moses could be viewed as the government officials that will be ousted eventually and only look bad in the eyes of those who know about the corruption. Those of us who knew about what Moses was doing and didn't confront him, out of a feeling of powerlessness, are the members of the ruling party that passively partake in corruption by working in direct accordance to those committing the crimes. While the girls in the competition and the naive audience are merely the citizens of the country that no longer have a choice in who is running things.

The Miss Arua contest was a small scale operation but it affected so many people. Essentially, I took part in that small scale corruption because instead of standing up for my beliefs after discovering the true nature of the contest, I remained seated until the end of the show.

That's just it. The Miss Arua contest was not a contest at all but rather, a show. The funniest part (although I probably shouldn't laugh) is that Moses lost the computer that he was using as an accessory for the "rich," white judges.

I'm not too concerned for him.