Oh, to have been a guest at the Monaco fete!

Saint Lucia’s new Carnival Queen Wenia Verneuil’s rendition of Aretha Franklin’s You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman truly took away the audience’s collective breath at last Friday’s event; but it will perhaps be most remembered for the contestants’ responses during the interview segment. The question that shook up the house: “A woman has just awoken after being asleep for 20 years. What do you tell her she has missed?”“That’s a really good question,” said Verneuil, seemingly without a response. Six candidates before had only set off an explosion of audience laughter or dead silence. But Ms Verneuil had not stopped thinking. Finally, she said: “The world has improved drastically. The form of communication has developed quite a lot. People depend on social media a lot in this day and age.” Again the house blew up but this time with unrestrained applause.  

Previous replies had ranged from “Although the world has evolved, the woman hasn’t missed a lot,” to “I would tell her she has missed absolutely nothing.” Small wonder Ms Verneuil scored the most points in the interview section.

This reporter was among those who considered her answer a gem. After all, social media has proved quite a phenomenon. But the question never touched on significant occurrences that may have occurred while that imaginary woman enjoyed her big sleep. What if a contestant had offered this as her answer: “You missed some hot beach parties!” What if another had said: “You missed Donald Trump’s performances leading up to his election.” The truth is that the awakened sleepy head never missed social media. Social media is still here for her to contribute to. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the rest. Unlike the election of America’s first black president, a phenomenon come and gone that may not be repeated for another hundred years, if at all!

So did the winner receive more praise than her response deserved? The obviously disappointed culture minister offered an excuse for the night’s non-answers: “I think the environment and the setting threw them off. If the question were phrased differently, I’m sure they would have gotten it. They were clearly nervous and taken aback by the question.”

Will someone please hand Fortuna Belrose an award, for recognizing the problem was in the question?

By the way, why didn’t someone mention the Hollywood-style launching of our CIP? Then again, we all missed it. After all, our government chose to stage the extravaganza in Monaco—“where the money is!”