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Whoever chooses Miss Universe (the judges, Donald Trump, the Universe itself) will certainly have a hard time this time. In a strong group with several standouts, there’s no consensus on who will walk away with the crown.

The second oldest and most traditional pageant on the globe, does not show the same glamour and enchantment of decades ago (girls selling lemonade wearing bikinis and high hills on the sidewalks of Las Vegas cannot be defined as “high class”, or “glamorous”…), but still, it remains the most exciting beauty dispute on the imaginary of thousands of pageant fans, especially in Latin American countries and in the Philippines.

It’s funny to visit the different “message boards” and see how the fans from different countries truly believe the candidates from their respective countries are the best, no questioning allowed! Nationalist feelings (or blindness) are common place in any kind of international competition, it’s true, but perhaps it becomes even more widespread when it comes to beauty pageants, after all, can an international competition be more of “anyone’s game” than a beauty contest??

Beauty can be found virtually everywhere!! Yes, there are countries with famous “beauty schools”, such as Venezuela (#1, no question asked), Colombia or Puerto Rico, but an island nation with a small population, like for instance Grenada, can send a marvellous candidate to Miss World or Miss Universe and walk away with the title (it actually happened in 1970, Miss Grenada was crowned Miss World that year!).

Trinidad & Tobago has two Misses Universes, Iceland won the Miss World title three times, Botswana beat the odds and was crowned Miss Universe 1999, and the current Miss World hails from tiny Gibraltar!!

With all that said, the obvious conclusion is that even though Miss Universe tends to favor its target market (Latin America), theoretically anything can happen on Monday night, and here is my take on what might happen, starting with the African candidates:

AFRICA

Two standouts come from Africa: South Africa and Ghana. Both have stunning faces and are included in most pageant observers’ lists of favorites. I see South Africa with an extra edge in the region, perhaps finishing in the top 10.

OCEANIA

Anything can happen with both Australia and New Zealand. New Zealand has its most competitive delegate in Miss Universe in ages, and Australia, although not a huge favorite, like last year’s Rachel Finn, did her homework in the Presentation Show and could take a spot in the top 15. If both make the cut, it will be well deserved. If they don’t, most people won’t even notice. You see what I mean?

ASIA

After an 11-year-long drought, the Philippines finally came up with a competitive candidate who can take it all. A shoo-in for the semi-finals, Miss Philippines has the most appropriated name for a Miss Universe: Venus! She’s been doing everything with perfection, and can conquer the so dreamed 3rd Miss Universe crown for her country (why not?).

Three other countries are competing strongly in Asia: Korea, who was a Miss World semi-finalist in 2009 and is looking even better now, Japan, another strong candidate from Ines Ligron’s school with a “Ryio’s vibe”, and surprising Thailand, who did so well in the Presentation Show and is suddenly in the game. Four Asian beauties among the semi-finalists? Why not? They all deserve to be up there.

In time: do not underestimate India – a true natural Indian beauty who certainly rocked in her personal interview with the judges.

EUROPE AND THE MIDDLE EAST

A country with little pageant tradition, especially in Miss Universe, Ireland has a front-runner this time around. The Angelina Jolie look-alike Irish stunner tops many lists of favorites and would certainly be a breath for fresh air for the Miss Universe pageant, in case she’s elected. Then there’s the pre-favorite rep from Russia, who possibly has the most perfect face in the competition, but doesn’t show much life on stage. France is incredibly beautiful, but was incredibly shy on stage as well (the problem most Europen beauties face, as a matter of fact…). Miss Ukraine did quite well in the preliminaries and shall be in the top 15.

Albania, Poland, Spain, Belgium, Kosovo (will the streak continue?), Czech and Slovak Republic (the Slovak beauty is a bombshell, but had the worst styling in the preliminaries), Denmark (a sentimental favorite), Greece (why such a horrible evening gown??), Switzerland, could get one or two spots, but won’t go further than the ‘top 10?.

For some reason I see potential in Israel, an unconventional beauty that I would love to see in the top 5 (yes, the top 5!). Who knows…

CARIBBEAN

The Caribbean has once again reserved some great surprises for the Universe: Trinidad & Tobago is one of the strongest contestants in this year’s pageant, and Jamaica, who’s actually no surprise (she did very well when competing in Miss World 2007), could also be fighting for the crown.

Haiti

Curse you howl, curse yooooou! *shakes fist*

Right so uh.. 25 things about myself? This.. could be painful.

1: My full first name is Jenna, I go by Jen for one reason and one reason alone. I got SICK TO DEATH of my name being mispronounced as "Gina" with a hideous nasal whine as English people for some moronic reason tried to imitate my accent. -_- To this day the name "Gina" automatically makes me shudder, it's like nails on a chalkboard to me man.
I decided "Jin" was less annoying.

2: I'm really short, like, 5'2". I always wear 3 inch platforms, which is mostly just because I love freaking huge clompy boots, but it also means people freak out when I take them off and shrink. Every single time people are like "WOAH!? Where'd you go!?"

3: I used to have my lip pierced, which I think you can see in this rather um.. old picture. It gave me endless trouble and eventually I took it out after my lip swelled up for no reason. Never got a chance to put it back in because a few days later I ended up in hospital you know, giving birth. Lol. Kinda took priority.

4: Speaking of which, when this picture was taken I was about 5 months pregnant. Not that you can tell. I didn't start showing till about 7 months tbh, I just woke up fat and was all "WOAH!? What?"
Anyway, my now husband bet me I couldn't fit in the box (We were moving at the time) and I was like "I SO can!" so I climbed on in and well... yeah. I WON!

5: I'm dyspraxic, something I didn't actually know for sure till I was 22 years old!?? I always struggled with memory issues and directions, but having a label really made me feel better. Meant I didn't feel like I was just stupid.

6: I went to university to study Archaeology, but after a year of poor health and really crappy lecturers, I quit and switched courses. I was concerned if I continued with Archaeology my love of the subject would just die, so I took a course in Computer Animation and special effects. I hated it, the university LIED about what we'd learn and I suck at 3d shit.
Even so, despite hating the course and having a freaking baby half way through I managed to get a 2:2, so go me.

7: I moved to the UK when I was 14, I was born in NZ. My parents randomly decided "hey, let's move to England for 2 years, explore Europe, do all that overseas shit. It'll be great."
6 months after arriving in the country they filed for divorce. 11 years later and i'm STILL HERE. Eugh.

8: I love the colour green. in fact, allmost all my clothes are either green, brown or black. I also love really ugly plaid and hideous patterns, not sure why, they just amuse me.

9: I also LOVE skirts, and really would rather just wear them than having to deal with pants. Pants are lame, and they seldom fit me right (See the whole short remark earlier). Most of my skirts are knee length or longer though, just because I prefer the style.

10: I love vintage clothing, especially the 1930s and 40s. And i'm a little um.. obsessed with hats. Why don't people wear hats so much any more? Hats are fantastic and seriously, there's little in the world more damned sexy than a guy in a fedora and trenchcoat... but uh... that might be my Noir obsession talking there. Ahem.

11: My favourite movies of all time are Fargo and Edward Scissorhands. Which is a somewhat random combination would't you say? I love Coen Brothers movies because they're always insane and always keep you guessing, and I love a lot of Tim Burton's stuff for the dreamlike fairytale quality. Edward Scissorhands never fails to bring a lump to my throat.

12: I'm a roleplayer. Started out with chatroom rp and when I started university, joined the role play society (yes, they exist lol).
I don't have a favourite system, but my favourite game setting is the Planescape Campaign setting from AD&D. Why? Because it's totally unlike any other fantasy setting. It's strange and philosophical and surreal and I freaking LOVE that.

13: I'm Wiccan, though i'm pretty lackadaisical in my observation of this faith. Sure I observe most of the sabats, when I remember, but i'm not about to stop everything just because it happens to be Beltaine or whatever. Also, most other neopagans piss me off for being pretentious twats. I try to ignore them, especially when they try to tell me HOW to observe my own fricken faith.
A perfect example of this is a group of people I was doing some thing for the BBC with, who INSISTED as a practising witch I HAD to have a craft name. Uh why? I'm quite happy with my real name thank you very much.

14: I can read Tarot, though I fully accept it's fairly vague and often difficult to interpret or understand. Especially when the person you're reading for is being uncooperative and not telling you ANYTHING about themselves. Grrr.

15: I love old school adventure games, especially the Lucasarts adventure games which I grew up with. My father introduced me to the joys of gaming a