SEEING DOUBLES

THE NEW ERA OF JAMAICAN PAGEANTRY USHERED BY 2014 QUEENS

Jamaican Queens Laurie-Ann Chin and Kaci Fennell caught on the coast in their first ever photograph together as beauty queens.

(In White) Mis Jamaica World 2014 Laure-Ann Chin with (In Black) Miss Jamaica Universe 2014 Kaci Fennell

JLP vs PNP, Mobay vs Kingston. Ficton vs Privilege; Jamaicans love choices and even more so choosing one over the other. A hot topic for the past decade has been the underlined separation of the Jamaican organizations of Miss Jamaica World and Universe. Many neighboring island nations have opted for the marriage of the two pageants whether by dual or single ownership of the franchises - one such island being Bahamas. In Jamaica, there is no definitive reason or purpose given (publicly) as to why we almost never see the winners of a given year in any partnership whatsoever, until now.

Arguably two of the most talked about beauty queen wins in 4 years; Kaci Fennell and Laurie-Ann Chin were snapped by Skkan photographer Kareen on the north coast last weekend. The two were photographed (above) in stunning pieces from the Sol by Drenna Luna resort collection. Miss Jamaica World Laurie Chin opted for a white with sleeve number while Miss Jamaica Universe Kaci Fennell opted for the more fitted option in black, both with high slits.

Now, I know a lot of you reading this may be saying this is much ado about nothing but you cannot dissolve the undeniable fact that when you saw this picture you felt some type of ‘proudness’, some type of hope. Andrew and Portia (excuse my manners) in a photo together is a rather rare occurrence similarly to a flier with a Digicel and a Lime logo in place. Here stand two beautiful young ladies and ambassadors of our trying nation on a break from preparing to represent our country on the world stage like true champions. Now think about the upworthiness that could come from charitable and other partnerships of both queens and their franchises! This 'Jamaican Way' that speaks life into the mistruth that there simply isn't 'room' or 'enough' to go around for competing enterprises has got to stop somewhere. We love money, I do, we all do! So, on that same note we need to take in account the subject of solidarity and the power within it. “One one cocoa full basket”, so hear me out; “two two cocoa? OVERFLOW basket”.

If there's a takeaway from this it would perhaps be that ‘hope springs eternal’. This may be an army of one but if you love Jamaica and you want to see us excel on a global level then your automatically with me on this. I say, 100 likes, shares and retweets for #SOLIDARITY.

#celebrity #people