Article appearing in theGuyana
Chronicle, 2nd of October 2005
Jasmine Herzog
Article by NEIL MARKS ,GUYANA CHRONICLE SUN 2/OCT/05
A beauty
who’s not in the least bit afraid of ‘creepy,
crawly things’
‘Winning the Miss
World pageant or placing has absolutely nothing to do with intelligence.
It all has to do with luck.’
From catching and
preparing caimans and snakes for the export market
to gracing the catwalk for top designers, Jasmine Herzog
seems to be a young woman of many contrasts.
This is what the
hazel-eyed, 5’10” beauty is taking with her to Sanya,
China
in early December when she vies for
the Miss World title, in the hope that it will make an impression - hopefully, a very
big one at that.
At just 18, the
Libran beauty has already completed two years of studies in Biology
at the University
of Guyana, and
when she resumes, will be making the switch to Veterinary Science.
She just loves animals
– dogs preferably, having had 10 once. Unfortunately, that
number is now down to four owing to illness and death.
Actually, Jasmine
grew up around animals. Her
father, Kurt Herzog, a Swiss, came to Guyana some 30
years ago, fell in love with the country - and Jasmine’s mother - and
decided to get into the wildlife export business. As
a result, Jasmine is no stranger to the interior and its wild creatures.
Be it caimans, snakes,
cockroaches, or spiders, Jasmine has come up close and personal, and,
as mentioned at the outset, would even jump into the caiman pond, collect
the animals, and prepare them for export. “My
father trained me to handle them,” she said. She grew up at Annandale
on the East Coast of Demerara, under a very
strict upbringing.
“I was never a fussy
person. I don’t go to clubs. I can probably count the number of times
I’ve been to a club,” she says.
Being raised under
a strict environment meant receiving corporal punishment.She
remembers having to select her own cherry whip and not being “allowed”
to sneak in. Today’s all too
familiar clichéd story of dreaming of growing up and becoming a beauty
queen is not Jasmine’s line. “I
was content dreaming of becoming a princess, not a queen,” she laughs.
However, pageantry was
foreseeable. At age 14, she
started modeling for today’s top designer, Michelle Cole. Cole
was apparently looking for a tall, fair-skinned, skinny model. Someone
passed on Jasmine’s name and number. From
then on she started modeling and has graced the catwalk for the likes
of Derek
Moore, Roger Gary, and most of the local designers you can think of.
So how did the pageant
thing happen?
“I sat down, thought
a lot about it and decided I was going to enter Miss Guyana World 2005,”
she said. In fact, she was the
first girl to enter the pageant, and remained the only one for a long
time to come before others began to show up.
‘I knew I could do it,”
she insists. “I’m not a vain person. I just felt I was beautiful and
smart enough to compete and win, and it worked out for me. However,
I never took the other girls for granted. I knew they wanted to win
this thing just as badly as I wanted to.” She
is confident she won the pageant fair and square, despite the many innuendos
being thrown around to the contrary.
She, it seems, stepped
right into the interview with this newspaper, prepared to tell us off
about what was written in a gossip column in our weekend entertainment
guide, Weekend Confidential.Jumping
to conclusions, perhaps?
“People are not
stupid. I am not stupid, I know what was written was about me,” she
snapped, obviously not taking too kindly to the rumour.People say
she talks too much, and is much too confident for her own good. She
calls it being assertive. “I
think I’m assertive and I have the drive to compete. I’m beautiful and
smart. I need to believe that, and make others know that,” she says.
She feels it’s the right attitude
to have heading into the Miss World competition. “I’m
not just going to Miss World. It’s my job to go out there and shine,”
she posits. But whatever negative
energy she’s had thrown her way just after being crowned was erased
when she visited GUYEXPO.The
public’s acceptance of her is what fuels her drive as she takes on the
international stage.
Guyana’s
best showing at Miss World in modern times was Olive Gopaul
who received extensive acclaim from the international media. “Olive
didn’t win, but she certainly did turn a lot of heads. I plan to turn
a few heads more,” Jasmine said.
She leaves for the
Miss World competition the last week in October. She will spend just
under two weeks in London and then move on to Sanya for the competition.“This
is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Even if I don’t win, I plan on
making an impression,” she says.
She believes winning
the Miss World pageant or placing has absolutely nothing to do with
intelligence. She feels it has to do with luck. “You
just have to go out there and get noticed. If you get picked, you’re
in,” she reasons.“Of course,
you have to be smart. If you’re dumb, it will show. But what counts
is the way you look, and making sure common sense comes out of
your mouth when you speak,” she adds.
There are a number
of competitions that can fast-track delegates of Miss World into the
finals. These include athletics, talent, modeling and swimwear.Jasmine
says she will concentrate on the modeling.
Her wardrobe to
China is being put together by Derek
Moore and Michelle Cole. The
Miss World pageant is scheduled for December 10. For
Jasmine, wining the Miss Guyana World title and moving on to the international
competition is another chapter in her “adventure” life, and she intends
to “explore” it fully!
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