Miss Universe and… Moral Misery
One cannot help but be joyful with the triumph of the young Nicaraguan Sheynnis Palacios.
HAVANA TIMES – At my age, many commercial trivialities no longer arouse interest, even if they dazzle, like a beauty contest. And not because I wouldn’t say I don’t like beauty. Although it may be, as some disrespectful young people say… when you reach old age, it is to walk with the gravedigger behind you. As everything that is born dies, all of us, at any age, have a gravedigger behind us…
Indeed, I am always interested in everything related to my country, such as the triumph of the Nicaraguan Sheynnis Palacios, because it is also out of the ordinary and trivial. How can one not be moved by the victory of this girl? Those who have lost their sensibility, which is to live half alive, cannot be moved.
With everything we know about how beauty is commercialized, about the natural female vanity, and the legitimate aspirations of women worldwide with these contests, one cannot help but feel happiness for the triumph of this young Nicaraguan. And, why not say it, also feel healthy joy at seeing a whole people euphoric, as they have not been in many years, because they have lacked reasons to rejoice.
A well-deserved joy. Just as young Palacios deserves all the tributes that Nicaraguans can give her, people are still paying tribute to her from the moment the news was instantly known on the Internet, which does not allow to ignore events of any importance or delay their dissemination. The Internet also offered and continues to provide images of the demonstrations of jubilation of the Nicaraguans for the success of their beautiful compatriot. This is not petty patriotism nor parochialism but a noble human feeling of solidarity.
If someone does not feel it or does not want to understand it as such, it does not matter. It is a natural fact that there is no unanimity in everything. But it is unnatural to refuse to understand it and instead show unjustified resentment against those who understand it genuinely and sincerely.
One of the obsessions of an older adult is not to pay attention to the nonsense that some public figures say daily just because they have the means to say it. Something that does not surprise anyone either. That is what freedom of speech is for. The problem is that this freedom is taken away from others. And since this is so, at least we aspire to the right to listen to ideas, even if we do not share them. To listen to news with some originality, not just a gruesome adjectivization of everything and against everything that exists.
This substantive—adjectivization—just came out of me, and it seems necessary to remember the cultural ill-effect of the bad habit of adjectivizing everything for no reason; that is, using qualifying adjectives (in this case, disqualifying adjectives) to try to devalue a fact, a phrase, a sentence, or people. And this is worse when they do not match reality. Then, with these adjectives, the official that uses adjectives only self-portrays himself or herself.
For example, (for Rosario Murillo) to describe as destructive coup d’état mentality, a spontaneous demonstration of joy, such as that of the majority of the population of all the cities of the country, for the crowning of Miss Universe to a beautiful compatriot, is to deny the right to express joy, which is meanness, especially in a country where the reasons to rejoice have practically disappeared.
It is crazy and disproportionate. And to denigrate those who participate in a celebration without political undertones, only with legitimate national joy, is an attitude derived from dementia, which is something to be concerned about because then it is… the irreversible loss of mental faculties, as interpreted by dictionaries.
In this collective demonstration of wholesome joy in recognition of the well-deserved success of Sheynnis Palacios, there has been no sign of verbal violence, much less physical, against anything or anyone. Only two names came out of the mouths of the crowds cheering the night of Saturday, November 18, from the squares, streets, and Nicaraguan homes: Sheynnis! and Nicaragua!
To call this taking rude advantage makes no more sense than the official obsession to offend. Or, to be more precise, it is coarseness to confuse reality with their morbid wishes. This is done only by those who have perverse feelings and feel they are the center of the universe. Those who think that if the looks and applause are not for them, then they are against them, even if nobody is thinking about their smug personality.
This overflowing and unjustified egocentrism can only come from an abusive public official, for whom a demonstration of popular joy is only valid when her employees parade in front of her flower-filled grandstands, shouting slogans and carrying flags of her blessed political sect. In addition, since she feels she owns the people, she thinks they should ask her permission even to laugh.
The blue and white flag seems to offend her or provoke anger, to see it waving freely and joyfully in public acts and waved by the hands of Nicaraguans still at liberty. To harbor such feelings is to neither conceive nor tolerate that thousands of Nicaraguans show sympathy voluntarily, without anyone forcing them.
The sincerity and spontaneity of this demonstration of popular joy lie in that nobody expects to receive anything from a young woman who only has humility and beauty. What she will get for her triumph has already been earned by her without harming anyone and making us all happy. Or almost everyone, if you subtract the envious persons. Nor does she have companies, businesses, banks, or political power with whose resources she can hire sympathizers to applaud her.
Let’s see part of the collection of (Rosario Murillo’s) adjectives lavished against those celebrating the triumph of Sheynnis Palacios:
Selfish. There can be no selfishness in those who express wholeheartedly their affection to someone who deserves it without asking or expecting anything from Sheynnis Palacios.
Wicked. There is no wickedness in those who are sincere in applauding those who have not asked for it, nor do they get angry or feel hatred towards others when they do things they cannot do.
Moochers. They are not those who live on account of their honest labor. The moochers are those who, besides not working to produce anything of value, enjoy wealth.
Vulgar. How can those who sincerely express their joy without bad manners but with healthy pleasure for another person’s success be vulgar? Besides being enraged by the success of others, vulgar are those who offer up their sympathizers.
Terrorists. Those who practice this abominable crime organize themselves, plan, and choose their targets or victims. This was not done by those who did not participate in the organization and selection of Miss Universe. So… where is the terrorism of those who demonstrated only armed with joy for the triumph of the beautiful Nicaraguan?
Coup mongers. In massive and dense public demonstrations, in gestures of joy, people hit each other accidentally but inconsequentially. This is normal. What is abnormal is that the real coup mongers, especially if they are guards, act with machine guns in their hands to throw out a ruler, even if he had been democratically elected.
There have been coup mongers like these in Nicaragua and all over the world. But there are coup mongers, apparently civilians, who use the power of their guards to strike at peaceful coexistence, for which they began by violating the Constitution. None of those types of coup mongers…were in the plazas of Nicaragua on Saturday, November 18 of this year of our Lord, 2023.
Enemies of peace. Peace is not only the absence of war. There is peace when there is national harmony, a tacit agreement of coexistence, life with serenity, work in a calm state, and family rest. In short, there is peace when people are not harassed for no reason.
Are they not acting against all these concepts of peace, those who do not cease to operate against Nicaraguans, Sheynnis, and her followers?
There is no room for more adjectives. But with the adjectives that are left, they can elaborate their tiny dictionary. So, they can make their violent small Larousse dictionary.
At the margin of these pages:
*Since Saturday, November 18, 2023, Nicaragua attained universal renown for the beauty of an unassuming compatriot…
*Since January 18, 1867, by the poetry of the world-famous compatriot (Ruben Dario), we have gained the pride of being Nicaraguan…
*Since September 15, 1821, we have had to live under the narrow and perverse universe of dictatorships…
*As we can see, in recounting these three national anniversaries, we go from front to back…
*And if we make a spiritual retrospective, we would be with three victories and one defeat: the victories are: with Rubén Darío in poetry, Sheynnis Palacios in beauty, and against Somoza in politics; we are winning the historical game 2 to1.
*The bad thing is that the mourning with the second dictatorship… has been extended with a long extra inning!