Miss Angola Crowned Miss Universe 2011!

There were a record 89 delegates that stepped onto the stage for the 60th Miss Universe pageant last night, the most since 2006 but only one could wear the crown.   Last night one of them did so in historic fashion.

For the first time since 1999, we have a winner from the African continent.

25 year old business student Leila Lopes from Angola won the 60th annual edition of the pageant that took place this year in Sao Paulo, Brazil    The 1.79 m  (5 feet 10.5 in for the metrically challenged ) beauty is the first African delegate to win the title since Mpule Kwelagobe of Botswana won it in 1999, the fourth African descended woman to do so and the second continental Black African to win.



The Miss Universe pageant powerhouses, the USA, Puerto Rico and Venezuela got their reps into the Top 16, but failed to advance into the Top 10.   It also extends the USA title drought.  Last time we won it was 1997 and I still argue the point that had either Rachel Smith or Crystle Stewart not fallen in back to back years, that USA pageant title drought would be over.

Frankly, I wasn't expecting Miss USA 2011  to get any further than that, wasn't feeling her.  Other Top 16 nations were Miss France, Miss Kosovo, Miss Colombia, Miss China, Miss Angola, Miss Australia, Miss Brazil, Miss Netherlands, Miss Ukraine, Miss Panama, Miss Costa Rica, Miss Portugal, and Miss Philippines.

I am surprised that Miss Venezuela nor Miss Puerto Rico advanced further

Top 10
Miss France, Miss China, Miss Angola, Miss Australia, Miss Brazil, Miss Ukraine, Miss Panama, Miss Costa Rica, Miss Portugal and Miss Philippines.

Top 5
Miss Angola, Miss Ukraine (1st runner up) Miss Brazil (2nd runner up), Miss Philippines (3rd runner up) Miss China (4th runner up)

For those of y'all who hate on pageants, peep what journalist Connie Chung had to say about her role as one of the Miss Universe 2011 judges.

“I know my job and I'll be tough, but fair,”she said. “You have to keep in mind that these women are not objects just to be looked at. They're to be taken seriously. I want to choose somebody I take seriously and the world takes seriously, too.”

When asked during the interview phase what physical trail she would change if she could, the new Miss Universe smoothly answered the question this way.

“Thank God I'm very satisfied with the way God created me and I wouldn't change a thing,” Lopes said “I consider myself a woman endowed with inner beauty. I have acquired many wonderful principles from my family and I intend to follow these for the rest of my life.”

Congratulations to the new Miss Universe 2011 queen Leila Lopes!.

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Audrey Mbugua Video

I've talked about and posted some links to Kenyan trans activist Audrey Mbugua's essays here on TransGriot, and was pleased to stumble across some YouTube videos of her speaking about trans issues 

Once again, it points out that transpeople do exist on the second largest continent on the planet, and the voices of transpeople based there like Audrey and others across the vast African continent need to be heard in the global conversation occurring about trans human rights issues.

Gaddafi Bab al-Aziziya Tripoli Compound Overrun

Seems it's even clearer that a decisive tipping point has been reached in the fight to topple the Muammar Gaddafi regime in Libya after rebel forces made a lighting dash into Tripoli and seized control of most of the city with the exception of the Bab al-Aziziya military compound that was still under his control.

It was the symbolic nerve center of the regime and was surrounded, assaulted, and finally overrun by rebel troops.  Watching the reports on CNN and MSNBC and seeing the jubilant troopers firing their weapons in the air as more troopers and civilians stream into it to get a look around it and hunt for souvenirs of this historic day.   

In the meantime the eastern oil hub town of Ras Lanuf has fallen on the road to Gaddahi's hometown of Sirte.   Still no signs of Gaddafi or any of his family members, but the chase to capture them is on.   

Gaddafi's Goin' Down

The Arab Spring rolls on as the list of authoritarian rulers in the Middle East gets shorter.   Less than a week after we see pictures of Hosni Mubarak standing trial in Egypt and Bashir al-Assad channeling Mad Magazine's Alfred E. Neuman as calls for him to step down and end his family's 40 year rule of Syria get louder, there was stunning news coming out of Libya.

Muammar Gaddafi has ruled Libya since he and a group of military officers led a September 1, 1969 coup d'etat that toppled King Idris I and set up an authoritarian regime.  After the people power led revolutions in neighboring Tunisia and Egypt toppled long time leaders of those countries, the Libyan people rose up in revolt starting on February 17.   A National Transitional Council was organized on February 26 to organize the anti-Gaddafi resistance and govern the areas under rebel control with France becoming the first nation to recognize it as the legitimate Libyan government on March 10.   That list of countries recognizing the Libyan Republic is now up to 32 nations.

On March 17 the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1973 on a 10-0 vote with five abstentions that set up the legal basis for international military intervention in the Libyan civil war.  It established the no-fly zone, demanded an immediate cease fire, and to use all means necessary short of foreign military occupation to protect civilians. 

Two days later the NATO air attacks began supplemented with with Tomahawk cruise missile strikes from US naval ships to secure the no fly zone

After six months of inconclusive fighting, things have been breaking the rebels way on the battlefield.

The Libyan rebels while dealing with dissension in their ranks, have expanded control from Benghazi, the eastern sectors of the country and the Nifusa mountains, broke a siege of the western rebel held city of Misrata, and captured Zawiyah which contains a critical oil refinery.    

It's why the speedy dash the Libyan rebel forces conducted into Tripoli was such a surprise.  Quickly advancing 20 miles under cover of NATO airstrikes, they captured the base of the elite Khamis Brigade commanded by Gaddafi's son, surrounded the key Mitiga airbase and pushed into the capitol city meeting little resistance while doing so   They captured Martyr's Square and allegedly two of Gaddafi's sons in the process.

As to the whereabouts of Muammar Gaddafi, he's suspected to be holed up in his sprawling Bab al-Aziziya compound surrounded by loyalist troops.

Of course the National Transition Council wants him taken alive, and that might not be what Gaddafi wants to happen seeing that he's facing international indictments and a potential trial for crimes against humanity.


But it looks like the Libyan civil war has reached a decisive turning point, and i's going to be an interesting few days to see how the endgame plays out.