The Miami Herald, Posted on Sat, May. 17, 2003 BY DANIEL CHANG dchang@herald.com

It's almost like Switzerland missing the Winter Olympics.

Unable to buy enough dollars, Venezuela says it can't compete in the Miss Universe pageant for the first time in 44 years.

Venezuelans consider feminine beauty their second greatest national resource, after petroleum. So the Miss Venezuela Organization's inability to come up with about $80,000 to send reigning beauty Mariangel Ruiz to Panama for the June 3 pageant is an ugly blow.

''This is very painful,'' said Barbara Palacios Teyde, Miss Venezuela and Miss Universe 1986, who now lives in Weston.

Earlier this year, President Hugo Chavez imposed foreign exchange controls.

In the past 24 years, a Miss Venezuela contestant has won Miss Universe, Miss World and Miss International a total of 12 times -- tops for that period. Half the country watches the national pageant, and among Venezuelans, there's sure to be a profound sense of loss. Said Palacios Teyde: ``Never . . . has there been a situation like this.''

<a href=www.orlandosentinel.com>Orlando SentinelFrom Wire reports Posted May 17, 2003

CARACAS, Venezuela -- The country that has won more major beauty pageants in recent years than any other won't be offering a candidate for Miss Universe for the first time in decades.

The Miss Venezuela Organization said Friday that the country's strict foreign-exchange controls, imposed amid a general strike earlier this year, haveprevented the group from obtaining the currency it needs to send a candidate to the June 3 pageant in Panama.

"The decision not to send Miss Venezuela to this prestigious international contest came after we exhausted all our efforts to send our usual and always distinguished representative," the organization said in a statement on its Web site. "But the serious political and economic crisis Venezuela is going through has posed an obstacle insurmountable for the moment."

The president of Miss Venezuela Organization, Osmel Sousa, said Tuesday that hisgroup needed $80,000 for the franchise fee to send Mariangel Ruiz, a tall, 23-year-old brunette, to Miss Universe. The organization has the money in the local bolivar currency buthas not been able to exchange themfor dollars.

Edgar Hernandez, the president of the government agency in charge of authorizing dollar sales, said he was not aware that the organization had applied for the dollars.

Hernandez said he was looking intothe matter and would consider granting the money if the organization submitted an application.

In the past 24 years, Miss Venezuela Organization's contestants have won the three most important international beauty contests 12 times.

Venezuela has won four Miss Universe crowns, five Miss World crowns and three Miss International titles.

Fri, May 16, 2003 06:29 PM PDT by Kate O'Hare Zap2it, TV News

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - A clip from the Wednesday, May 21, second-season finale of UPN's "Enterprise" was shown to advertisers on Thursday, May 15, during the network's upfront presentation in New York. Also on hand was David Greenwalt, showrunner of "Jake 2.0," the new show set to follow the "Star Trek" spin-off this fall.

"They had an ad for 'Enterprise' that made me never want to miss it," he says. "Somebody just kills a million people on Earth. It looks good. Actually, 'Enterprise' looks really good, and I'm happy to be after it."

The finale, "The Expanse," finds a new alien race, the Xindi (pronounced ZIN-dee) attacking Earth and cutting a swath of destruction from Florida to Venezuela. When "Enterprise" returns next fall, the 22nd-century ship, its captain, Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula), and crew find themselves in a frightening new world.

"We thought, 'We've done two years on the show, let's really shake things up, really take some risks,'" says executive producer Brannon Braga. "It turned out to be very inspirational for Rick [Berman, also an executive producer] and I. We ended up coming up with a really cool finale. It's not going to be resolved in one episode, it's going to be resolved in multiple episodes, if not the entire season. It's a big arc."

"We've never tried it, and we thought, 'What the heck?' It did something that everybody wanted to do, which was amp up the danger on the show and redirect it, or, as Rick says, give it a course correction. It will repurpose the crew, redefine them, and give them a seasonal adventure that will test their mettle once and for all and take them into a strange, dangerous place with all of humanity at stake, force them to rise to the occasion."

"In the decade or more I've been here, we've never gone into a season of 'Star Trek' with this kind of feeling, with this, 'Holy cow, we have a direction!' We're not just sitting down and saying, 'What are we going to do this year?' We have a purpose, and it's very exciting. We're just getting back, and we're digging it."

The Xindi, as Braga describes them, are a culture made up of several different intelligent species that all evolved on the same planet. "Some Xindi are giant, insect-like creatures," he says. "Some Xindi are humanoid; some Xindi are reptilian. It's an interesting idea, to me, anyway."

"Sure, we could have made it the Romulans that attacked Earth. But haven't we seen the Romulans for the past 15 years? Do we really just want to keep seeing the Romulans? No. We've got to do new stuff. We've got to keep pushing the boundaries."

"That won't meant hat we won't continue to see familiar species involved in this epic mission, but the main foe, we wanted to be new."

Although he works in one of TV's most venerable franchises, Braga is inspired by what he sees around him. "We're not modeling our show after anyone, but we look at shows like '24,' 'Boomtown,' and you see them breaking convention and getting experimental. That's always something we've enjoyed doing. We've told stories backwards, in circles. We've done a lot of wacky stuff on 'Star Trek.'"

"Whereas 'Enterprise' was a little more grounded in reality the first two years by the nature of its premise, we are now going into a region of space where we're going to start experimenting more."

theage.com.au Saturday 17 May 2003, 10:05 AM

For the first time in four decades, Miss Venezuela won't compete in the Miss Universe pageant because of economic problems in the South American country renown for its beauty queens.

The Miss Venezuela Organisation announced today it was unable to obtain US dollars needed to send a candidate to the June 3 pageant in Panama.

"The decision not to send Miss Venezuela to this prestigious international contest came after we exhausted all our efforts to send on our usual and always distinguished representation," Miss Venezuela said in a statement on its website. "But the serious political and economic crisis Venezuela is going through has posed an obstacle insurmountable for the moment."

In the past 24 years, the Miss Venezuela Organisation's contestants have won the three most important international beauty contests 12 times - more than any other country.

Venezuela has won four Miss Universe crowns, five Miss World crowns and three Miss International titles. The last time Venezuela didn't participate in Miss Universe was 1959.

In January, President Hugo Chavez's government imposed strict foreign exchange controls to stop panic dollar-buying and protect its depleting international reserves amid a failed general strike to force his ouster.

The controls have prevented most private businesses from obtaining dollars. The government had granted $US155 million ($A242.4 million) since January 21, compared to Venezuela's usual monthly demand of $US1 billion ($A1.56 billion).

Miss Venezuela president Osmel Sousa said on Tuesday that his organisation needed $US80,000 ($A125,000) to send Mariangel Ruiz, a tall 23-year-old brunette, to Miss Universe.The organisation had the funds in the local bolivar currency but could not convert them into dollars.

Government officials did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Friday, May 16, 2003 By: Linda Sonderman

Date: Fri, 16 May 2003 17:20:47 -0400 From: Linda Sonderman linda@alpi-group.com To: Editor@VHeadline.com Subject: Re: hitting your head against a brick wall

Dear Editor: <a href=www.vheadline.com>Gustavo has said it all. We who have worked in tourism for years, I've been in the business for over 20 years, have been battered constantly.

I compare working in tourism to hitting your head against a brick wall at least once a day. Every time we (tourism in Venezuela) make some progress ... bang, something happens to knock it down again.

I also compare tourism in Venezuela to another country I know well, the Turks & Caicos Islands.  When we first went to Providenciales (better known as Provo) in 1972, a beach front lot was selling for US$40,000 and a hillside lot with a spectacular view $8,000. There were no more than 500 residents on Provo, no paved streets, no electricity (except for a couple of privately owned generators), one field telephone on a sand dune near the beach, no TV, one small -- 8 room -- hotel, one small store, and the airport was a short coral strip with a small wooden shack for a terminal. At that time the island exported fish and Caribbean lobster or crayfish.

Today, after several changes of government, most with a good tourism policy and an eye towards development, the beach front lot is valued at over $1.5 million and the hilltop lot with a view at $200,000. There are over 15,000 residents; the roads are paved; there are 2 major supermarkets, many grocery stores, and place to purchase almost anything; the major roads are paved and the main road is in the process of being converted into a 4 lane highway; every home has electricity; most homes have at least one phone and an internet connection and there is cable TV; there are a whole slew of hotels and resorts; and a fairly modern airport with a paved runway and an ever expanding terminal.

The island still exports crayfish and fish so what is the difference -- tourism. That there have been favorable tax breaks, favorable legislation and an atmosphere to promote tourism. That is the only difference -- but what a difference it has made in the lives of every resident of the Turks & Caicos.

And, the only "touristy" product that the islands has is beach ...  can you imagine how Venezuela would be with a government that really promoted tourism, that made it easy and profitable for the tour operators and investors to function?

Venezuela with hundreds of miles of Caribbean coast, mountains, Amazonian jungle, a massive Delta, the desert area near Coro, and Angel Falls & the Gran Sabana.

No one could stop the growth in tourism ... but, every government since I have been here (over 20 years) has said that tourism is a priority for the country and none have taken the steps needed to really promote tourism...

Linda Sonderman linda@alpi-group.com Alpi Tour, Caracas, Venezuela