Mon June 2, 2003 04:02 PM ET By Robin Emmott

PANAMA CITY (<a href=reuters.com>Reuters) - Panama will host the 2003 Miss Universe pageant on Tuesday night in a carnival atmosphere and, in the tradition of international beauty contests, a whiff of scandal.

From Albania to Venezuela, 71 beauty queens will show off their poise, curves and quick wit in a contest that mixes parades in swimsuits and evening gowns with questions such as: "What makes you blush?"

The organization barred Miss Russia, Maria Smirnova, from competing discovering she had posed topless in Playboy in 2000. She was replaced by 20-year-old Olesya Bondarenko.

Last year's winner, Russia's Oxana Fedorova, was fired because she failed to fulfill the responsibilities of Miss Universe, the first time a winner had been relieved of her post. Runner up Panama's Justine Pasek took over the crown.

This year, doubts over whether Venezuela could afford to enter this year's Miss Universe contest were only resolved a week before the final.

Miss Venezuela's sponsor, television channel Venevision, said it could now obtain the funds needed to send entrant Mariangel Ruiz to the contest, despite currency controls imposed by Caracas to stem capital flight.

"I have to thank God for bringing me here," Ruiz, a delighted 23-year-old economics student, told Reuters as she prepared for the contest at a convention center overlooking the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal.

Miss Universe, jointly owned by property tycoon Donald Trump and NBC Television and launched by a swimsuit company 52 years ago, draws a global television audience estimated by organizers at 600 million people in 176 countries.

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Sunday, June 01, 2003 By: Gustavo Coronel

VHeadline.com commentarist Gustavo Coronel writes: Forgetting for one moment the Venezuelan situation let me share with you information on a superb writer you might want to try...When my son gave me Tolkien's "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" as presents, back in the 80s, I developed an interest for science fiction/fantasy literature and started mining what turned out to be a gigantic reservoir of human imagination.

For a while my favorite science fiction writer became Arthur Clarke, on the strength of "Chilhood's End" and "Rendevouz with Rama". One day, however, I chose at random a book by Jack Vance and I was hooked for life. The book was "The Anome" and was the first volume of the Durdane trilogy. This was serendipitous, as science fiction readers are familiar with the enormous offering of this type of literature in the shelves of bookstores, not all of acceptable quality, I must say. In this lottery type of random choice I won first prize.

The Durdane trilogy proved to be totally enjoyable in three levels: the description of the world and regions where the stories took place. The stories themselves and, best of all, the wonderful language employed by Vance. For those who love words and phrases, Vance's work is a source of endless delight. A very apt comment by "Locus" says that Vance's characters "dwell whitin elaborate structures of social and linguistic artifice, in societies as intricately elegant as Faberge eggs...". Vance's prose is pure music, both rythmic and melodic. His prose is to, say, Asimov's what Tchaikovsky's music is to, say, Elgar's...

While Elgar based his second symphony practically on a single, beautiful theme intensely utilized, Tchaikovsky keeps bombarding us with wonderful melodies, one after the other, without expanding much on any one, like telling us: "there are many others where this one came from..."

In "The Anome," the action takes place in Shant, described by Vance as "made up of cantons only alike in their mutual distrust. Each regarded as Universal Principle its own customs, costumes, jargons and mannerisms and considered all else eccentricity". The ruler of Shant was The Anome, the faceless man. His authority derived from the torc which everybody carried around the neck. It contained an explosive which could detonate by remote control. Whoever broke the law of The Anome would lose his, her head...

The story of the trilogy has to do with the transformation of this reign of terror into a society of free men, a transformation led by a young musician called Etzwane, assisted by an envoy from Old Earth. The story is reminiscent of "The Lord of the Rings" in the sense of showing how a small and inexperienced, but determined company can change the course of history.

I became addicted to Vance. I read the Durdane trilogy, "The Gray Prince," "Big Planet," "To Live Forever," "The Dying Earth" and his relatively recent trilogy "The Cadwal Chronicles," besides other lesser work. Here is the starting paragraph in "Throy," book three of "The Cadwal Chronicles":

"Halfway along the Perseid Arm, near the edge of the Gaean Reach, a capricious swirl of galactic gravitation has caught up ten thousand stars and sent them streaming off at a veer, with a curl and a flourish at the tip. This strand of stars is Mircea´s wisp". How is this for melody and rhythm?. Pure Tchaikovsky, I would say., complete with drums and trumpets and background violins.

Some local girls in "Araminta Station," book one of the chronicles are described in this manner:

"The Yip girls are known for their docility... and also for their absolute chastity unless they are paid an appropriate fee....".

A business visit goes like this in "Throy":

" Mr. Yoder will see you now. His category is 3b. No doubt you will recognize this and conduct yourselves with decorum....."

A tall, gaunt gentleman entered the room... spoke in a flat metallic voice: May I inquire your identities?

"I am Commander Glawen Clattuc and this is Commander Chilke of the Cadwal Constabulary... Our status is high."

"Cadwal? I have never heard of the place...

Sir, it is well known to educated persons...

From "The Eyes of the Overworld", a volume which deals with the adventures of the picaresque Cugel we read:

"Cugel pushed the heavy iron-bound door and entered the inn. He stood in a vestibule. To either side were diamond-pane casements, burnt lavender with age, where the setting sun scattered a thousand reflections. From the common room came the cheerful hum of voices, the clank of pottery and glass, the smell of ancient wood...

The landlord stood behind a counter.. his expression was as placid and calm as the flow of the river..

"I strongly desire a private chamber with a couch of good quality, a window overlooking the river, a heavy carpet to muffle the songs and slogans of the pot-room...

The landlord replied: "I fear you will be dissapointed... the single chamber of this description is already occupied by that man with the yellow beard sitting yonder... Lodermulch..

"Perhaps, on the plea of emergency, you might persuade him to vacate the chamber...

"I doubt he is capable of such abnegation... but, why not put the inquiry yourself?. I, frankly, do not wish to broach the subject...

Cugel, surveying Lodermulch's strongly marked features, his muscular arms and his disdainful manner ... was inclined to join the innkeeper in his assessment of Lodermulch's character. "It seems," he said, "that I must occupy the pallet."

In "Big Planet" Vance describes a group of travelers arriving at a city called Kirstendale, "where everybody is a millionaire..." The inhabitants walk around dressed in garments of remarkable complexity and elegance... The city had been settled by a group of some 30 families with their servants. Even the servants behaved with great dignity and sophistication. The city was "clean as new paper, bright with polished stone and glass, gay with flowers."

The travelers are invited to stay at the villa of Sir Walden Munchion, where they are treated and fed like kings. The day of their departure Sir Walden excuses himself from seeing them off since he will be occupied... They are taken to the Monoline station where the porter who brings their suitcases to the cabin is ... Sir Walden. The secret of the city is revealed. "For every hour of swanking around as an aristocrat, everybody puts in two working in the shops and homes and other tasks". Instead of one life they live two...

I hope that you will try Vance some time. You would encounter wonderful worlds, heroes of every description, truants, noble deeds, sorcerers, quirky characters, crisp dialogue like the best champagne brut.

Vance is already in his middle 80s. He likes to play jazz, is an amateur carpenter and a mining engineer. He lives in Oakland. Jerry Pourcelle says that "Jack Vance has perfected the trick of creating new worlds so deceptively real that after a while your own home seems imaginary...."

In Venezuela this is a very useful writer to have in your desk at all times ... and I do!

Gustavo Coronel is the founder and president of Agrupacion Pro Calidad de Vida (The Pro-Quality of Life Alliance), a Caracas-based organization devoted to fighting corruption and the promotion of civic education in Latin America, primarily Venezuela. A member of the first board of directors (1975-1979) of Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), following nationalization of Venezuela's oil industry, Coronel has worked in the oil industry for 28 years in the United States, Holland, Indonesia, Algiers and in Venezuela. He is a Distinguished alumnus of the University of Tulsa (USA) where he was a Trustee from 1987 to 1999. Coronel led the Hydrocarbons Division of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) in Washington DC for 5 years. The author of three books and many articles on Venezuela ("Curbing Corruption in Venezuela." Journal of Democracy, Vol. 7, No. 3, July, 1996, pp. 157-163), he is a fellow of Harvard University and a member of the Harvard faculty from 1981 to 1983.  In 1998, he was presidential election campaign manager for Henrique Salas Romer and now lives in retirement on the Caribbean island of Margarita where he runs a leading Hotel-Resort.  You may contact Gustavo Coronel at email gustavo@vheadline.com

By ROBERT DOMINGUEZ NY DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Forget about the battle between Ruben and Clay on "American Idol."

For many New Yorkers, the most compelling story line on TV last month was whether Rosaura and Luis Mario would find true happiness on "Gata Salvaje."

The popular Spanish-language soap opera, or telenovela, ended its year-long run Friday on Univision (Channel 41) with boffo ratings.

In fact, despite being aimed at Spanish-speaking households,"Gata Salvaje" - "Wild Cat" - drew more viewers here than both WCBS/Channel 2 and UPN/Channel 9 from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. during the May sweeps period.

It beat out such established shows as the syndicated "Entertainment Tonight" and "Hollywood Squares" on Channel 2 and "The Hughleys" and "The Jamie Foxx Show" on Channel 9.

This wasn't the first time a Spanish soap scored that high in the ratings — and it likely won't be the last.

This week, Spanish-speaking audiences are getting their own version of a TV reality show.

“Rebeca," which will have its debut at 8 p.m. tomorrow on Univision, is being touted as the first interactive telenovela: The audience decides which of Rebeca's three suitors will win her heart by voting over the Internet.

“I love telenovelas because they're so dramatic," said 28-year-old Dapheney Rodriguez, 28, of Queens, who has been an avid telenovela watcher since she was a child.

“Even though the plots are basically the same — it's always a guy and a girl falling in love, then breaking up, then marrying each other at the end — you still get hooked," Rodriguez said.

These shows — and their incredible popularity with everyone from teens to grandmothers — have created their own superstars, too.

Thalia, the Mexican pop singer, is considered the Susan Lucci of the Spanish soaps. Now the wife of former Sony music honcho Tommy Mottola, Thalia hasn't acted in a telenovela in more than two years. But she is still revered by fans for her roles in mid-1990s hits, such as "Maria la del Barrio" ("Maria of the Neighborhood").

Other well-known soap stars are Venezuelan actress Gabriela Spanic, who was in the popular "La Usupadora" ("The Usurper"), and Fernando Colunga, who has played the love interest for both Thalia and Spanic on several series.

Even Salma Hayek, nominated for an Academy Award this year for "Frida," got her start on a Mexican soap opera.

Many story lines on the Spanish soaps are about class struggle as well as romance. The character of a poor, lower-class young woman ends up marrying her rich Prince Charming — but only after myriad troubles, tribulations and humiliations.

"They're a little bit like fairy tales that allow the audience to escape to other worlds," said Clara Rodriguez, a professor of psychology at Fordham University.

"They're like a Cinderella story where the heroine always wins out over evil, and she's swept off into a land of comfort and love and security," Rodriguez said.

Most shows are produced in Mexico and Venezuela. But some recent ones, such as "Rebeca" and Telemundo's upcoming "Amores de Mercado" ("Barrio Love") on Channel 47, are set — and made — in the U.S. to appeal directly to U.S. Hispanics.

Unlike American soaps, the Spanish shows run for a set length of time, most often three to six months.

"We usually try to have a happy ending," said Mauricio Gerson, Telemundo's senior vice president of programming. Originally published on May 31, 2003

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Wednesday, May 28, 2003 By: Alan Large

British educationalist Alan Large writes: In the autumn of 2002 I traveled to London with three students from the school where I teach in Lincolnshire, England. William, Hafiza and Toni were about to become the “Britkidz” whose visit to Venezuela was to be a feature in VHeadline.com some weeks later. We were to meet the Venezuelan Ambassador to the UK, Alfredo Toro-Hardy ... the embassy was an elegant, though slightly jaded, house of Georgian origins that stared across the busy road to the Natural History Museum in West London.

Our entry into the embassy and brief wait set the scene for the meeting with the Ambassador. We were greeted in a warm and slightly informal manner and sat in comfy leather sofas as we waited for our meeting with the Ambassador. I had only met one Ambassador before this ... an American who was trying to balance his official duties with a natural flair for taking an interest in those whom he encountered. The result was a paradox, someone who you could engage with, but not enough time to make it worthwhile ... he moved on to the next engagement having barely scratched to surface of the first.

We were shown into the Ambassador’s study. “Good morning, sir” (I’m not comfortable with official titles, and “Your Excellency” didn’t seem to fit the building or the room which was both business-like and friendly at the same time). Just for a second, I thought my family doctor had a new post as Venezuelan Ambassador, but perhaps it was just his long-lost older brother. Having overcome the surprise of the visual, I found the man and the embassy were one and the same: business-like and friendly. For about fifty minutes we had the undivided attention of an obviously intelligent and educated man who has a deep-rooted commitment to his country and who has the communication skills to ensure his “mixed ability” audience (of a disengaged student, one with a bubbly personality, a would-be sophisticate and a balding teacher) were both entertained and educated about his homeland and his role as Ambassador.

So why this long introduction?

Simply that it sets in context the man and his book: Reading Alfredo Toro Hardy’s book “The Age of Villages” was a similar experience, and was no surprise to me. The book covers a vast range of modern issues, it puts across its message quietly and effectively, and provides that same experience I had in visiting the Ambassador in London ... I came away from the embassy (and the book) better informed than before either encounter. I had not been force-fed in either encounter but gently and persuasively led along new paths.

At university, more years ago than I am prepared to admit, I was lectured by those who had masses of facts to impart and others who knew their facts but could paint the bigger picture. Sometimes it is easy to get lost in the facts but in “The Age of Villages” Alfredo Toro Hardy navigates his way through these with the astuteness of one who has not only educational pedigree but also the experience of world events at the sharp-end. Undergraduates will welcome the clarity of clearly defined hierarchies (… ”in first place … at the regional level…”). The references to other authorities, briefly quoted to add weight to the smooth-flowing commentary, but students will need to read this book fully as there is no index by which specific issues can be pin-pointed.

 “The Age of Villages” is a comfortable read ... it may be my own prejudices which create this “comfort zone” but I found myself both agreeing with much (and feeling a little smug, “that’s what I thought”). The carefully constructed line of argument has a smooth logic which, to readers such as myself, who have too little time to keep up with everyday demands, let alone read about world events, will find satisfying as we are led through a maze of different influences which are shaping the world around us.

Toro Hardy allows the reader to get to grips with the contradictory forces of globalization and increasing local pre-occupations.

As I see and experience the impact of refugees moving in greater numbers into my home town, through reading this book I gain greater insight into why this is happening ... and possibly more importantly ... why I and many friends feel the way we do about such issues.

I would struggle to explain this to a wider audience ... Toro Hardy does this by bringing together a multitude of factors, each clearly explained. These build up into as full a picture as non-specialists such as myself can cope with, and yet make the reader feel they are not ignorant of the wider world. To achieve this broadening of horizons whilst staying within a “comfort-zone” is to be applauded.

In conclusion “The Age of Villages” seems a very good read, but there are a few issues to take up. In providing the reader with clarity and order Toro Hardy could be criticized for taking away the need to think and judge for one’s self. The nature of the subject matter means the book was out-of-date before it was published ... we now know the USA’s response to Saddam’s Iraq and the outcome of that war. Perhaps some editor with an eye to quality commentary and comment on the “big world picture” will entice the author to contribute to a regular column ... students of current affairs and those who seek a thoughtful perspective on our fast-changing world would be well-served by more of Alfredo Toro Hardy’s gentle but incisive writings.

Alan Large Alan.Large@queen-eleanor.lincs.sch.uk

Isabel Allende on feminism: "We are 51 percent of the population; we can do it. So get on your high heels and fight, ladies."

By Christy Karras The Salt Lake Tribune

    Sometimes, the most accurate pictures are made from a distance.     Isabel Allende's My Invented Country is a view of a place, its customs and its people, through the eyes of one looking back after years of exile.     It is full of cheerful generalities ("We Chileans are envious; we Chileans enjoy funerals; the Chilean loves laws") but also contains particular memories that increasingly pop up, Allende says, as she gets older. Like those memories, written gems pop out of her memoir. One example: "My clairvoyant grandmother died suddenly of leukemia. She didn't fight for life, she gave herself to death enthusiastically because she was very curious to see heaven."     The book is written in an honest and straightforward manner, almost as if she were answering a reader's question: "Where did you come from?"     In person, Allende speaks much the same way, with a conversational thread that addresses many subjects but hangs together, expressing her opinions candidly but always avoiding the impression of hauteur. Impeccably dressed, looking slender and younger than her 60 years, she gave The Salt Lake Tribune an interview when she traveled to Utah earlier this year to help open the new Salt Lake City Public Library -- a rare event, since she almost never travels when she has just started a new book.     My Invented Country began as an assignment from National Geographic, which asked her to write an essay on her sense of place. "The only place I could think of was Chile," she said -- an odd realization, since she had not lived there for nearly three decades.

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    Allende grew up in Chile but left after half her family was forced out of the country by a CIA-backed coup against its elected socialist president, her father's cousin Salvador Allende, in 1973 (Allende points out that the date was a Tuesday, Sept. 11).     During Allende's term, "I have never felt so alive, nor have I ever again participated so closely in a community or the life of a nation," she wrote in the book. The government was removed by a Cold War America fearing socialism in any form and replaced with Augusto Pinochet's military government, and "democracy was replaced by a regimen of terror that was to last sixteen years and leave its consequences for a quarter of a century."     She calls her take on life "half and half, good and bad," a description that also fits her depiction of Chile itself. In the 1960s and '70s, the country was mired in economic depression, but she remembers it filled with pristine nature and resilient, hospitable people. "I have traveled a lot, and I have never seen any place as beautiful as the south of Chile -- lakes, volcanoes, wonderful rushing rivers -- it's like Switzerland but rougher," she said.     The text ranges from fuzzy sentimentalism to clear-eyed realism to sharp sarcasm. Allende looks on her childhood, for example, and writes, "In those days there was no such term as 'abused children,' it was accepted that the best way to bring up little ones was with a strap in one hand and a cross in the other."     Allende also describes going through most of her life believing she didn't fit in anywhere -- a feeling that ultimately led her to write. "It gives me a sort of perspective which is the perspective of the outsider, which is good for a writer," she said.     As a child, she loved to read, but "there were no role models for women to be creative in any way," she said. She worked as a teacher and a journalist, but it was a long time before she dared think of herself as a fiction writer.     In 1981, she started writing a letter for her grandfather, who was dying in Chile. The result was The House of the Spirits, arguably the most beloved of her 10 books.     "From the first page, I knew it was going to be something different," she said. "By the end of the year, I had 500 pages of something, but I still didn't know what it was." After her mother and engineer husband read it and picked out all the mistakes, she had a coherent story. At a time when women writers were largely frowned upon in South America, the only publisher willing to take on the manuscript was in Spain. Her book quickly took off in Europe, then elsewhere after being translated out of Spanish, the language she still uses to write.     She wrote even while holding other jobs and raising children. "It's nice to have a room of your own and some time, but if you don't, you do it anyway. This is like making love when you're in love: You do it behind a door, if you have to."     Allende calls America home now, and she loves many things about her adopted country. Here, she is surrounded by children, related by blood or not, and friends she invites over on weekends.     She is still deeply affected by memories of the fear, suspicion and violence that overtook Chile while she became an exile, roaming first to Venezuela and then to the United States. Now, she is wary of attempts to bring democracy to Iraq. "How can you impose democracy and the American way of life anywhere?" she asks. "That's what the Nazis tried to do, impose their way of life on the rest of the world. I have seen a lot of violence in my life, and I know it never has a good effect. Never. Everything comes back to you, if you live long enough. And if it doesn't come back to you, it comes back to your children."     Allende has long been outspoken about social and environmental issues. In Chile, Allende's relatives and acquaintances discouraged her views on women's rights, but she was and remains an outspoken feminist, willing to criticize women who comfortably sit back and enjoy the fruits of their predecessors' labors while women around the world go without.     "The women who think that feminism is personal are those privileged women who have access to education and health care in industrialized nations, in urban areas," she says with fervor. "The rest of the world -- Africa, Asia, poor America -- those women have not heard the news yet. Take a look at your sisters."     Her message to other women: "Make fun of all this stupidity, and change the world. We are 51 percent of the population; we can do it. So get on your high heels and fight, ladies."