"Cairns City In Australia Plans Mayoral Reception For Catriona
Gray," says a PH headline by Krissy Aguilar (20 December 2018, Inquirer.Net, lifestyle.inquirer.net).
City Mayor Bob Manning says the Cairns City Council holds a grand reception for
any "local people who have achieved world championship status."
Hmmm.
Yes Sir, Mayor Manning, Cat was your local, being born there on 06 January
1994, and she grew up there. As Miss Krissy says, Cat studied high school and
graduated from your Trinity Anglican School, TAS. In fact, as TAS says in a
Facebook post, Cat was at school "a house captain, lead singer in the jazz
band and a school chorister."
Thank you for taking good care of Catriona Elisa Magnayon Gray! Until she
left Australia when she was 17, in 2011.
Now, Mr Mayor, your claim about Cat that "she'll always
be a Cairns girl at heart" we Filipinos will take it with a grain of salt.
First, note that Cat's mother is from the Philippines and Cat's grandmother
from the father side is from Scotland; they met in Queensland and had a single
child, who is Cat. If you go by parents, which you have to, Cat is half
Filipina and half Scottish. No blood of Queensland.
If you look at the above image, the girl being crowned as
Miss Universe 2018 has the word "PHILIPPINES" on her sash, doesn't
it? I'm not making that up; that image is from the Miss Universe, MU, Facebook
webpage. MU does not consider Cat an
Australian, does it?
No Mr Mayor, Cat is not
"another wonderful Cairns success story" as you assert. And no Sir,
Cat is not "a Cairns girl at
heart" as you claim. ANN says (20 December 2018, "Cairns City In
Australia Wants Grand Reception For Miss Universe 2018 Catriona Gray," PH.News, ph.news.yahoo.com)
very clearly: "Gray rarely talks about her Australian heritage in
interviews and (she) identifies as Filipino in public."
Yes, Belle says, "She designed and created the gown she
wore when she entered and won Miss Fashion Australia in 2010" (18 December
2018, "10 Things You Didn't Know About Catriona Gray," GigTrooper, gigtrooper.com).
But she has zero Australian heritage,
Mr Mayor, only the incidence of birth and 17 years residence in your proud City
of Cairns. As a model, she was a model in Australia; then, she "used
modeling money to buy a plane ticket from Australia to the Philippines to begin
a career there, and the rest is history" (Lena Grossman, 16 December 2018,
"5 Things to Know About Miss Universe 2018 Catriona Gray," E! Online, eonline.com).
How does she identify herself? In an interview, she said ("Catriona
Gray Is '9.9' Ready For Miss Universe 2018," Pep, pep.ph):
"I wanted to represent the authentic Filipino culture so I traveled and I
researched."
Mr Mayor, Cat's career was realized, run aground, redirected
and made a universal winner in these 7,000+ islands called the Philippines.
But if you insist: Where were you Mr Mayor, when Cat
competed in Miss World 2016 and lost?
Did you encourage her as one of yours?517
Comments
Post a Comment