From the [UK] Guardian, BBC:

A beauty pageant for victims of Cambodia’s millions of landmines has been canceled after the government denounced the event as an insult to disabled people.

Khieu Khanarith, a government spokesman, said that the Miss Landmine contest, which was to have taken place this Friday, would “make a mockery of Cambodia’s landmine victims. The government does not support this contest.”

… Last week the country’s ministry of social affairs warned the organizers that the event would damage “the dignity and honour of our disabled, especially women”.

The winner of the contest was to be selected via Internet voting, and would have received a high-tech prosthetic limb. Organizers said the contest was designed to raise awareness of the dangers of unexploded landmines and to enhance participants’ self-esteem. It is estimated that up to 6 million unexploded landmines remain in Cambodia.

Earlier post here.

(Photo from pageant website)

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 6th, 2009 at 10:06 am and is filed under limb loss, media, public attitudes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.