To be or not to be?

To be or not to be? These six literature’s famous words will not, tonight at Crossroads Hotel in Lilongwe, be the soliloquy of Hamlet—a character pondering death and life in William Shakespeare’s 1627 tragical play called Hamlet.

Neither, again, will these six famous words be about Hamlet thinking about life and death, pondering a state of being versus a state of not being.

Tonight, these six famous wordswill preoccupy the minds of the three judges who, after catwalks and displays, will decide who the cap fits to represent the Central Region edition in the 2016 Miss Malawi finals.

The daggers, already, are drawn among the 10 Central Region finalists who, in the profiles The Nation has been running, prove they are all ready for the prize.

This puts the three judges—former Miss Malawi Blandina Mlenga Khondowe, event organiser Tadala Chihana and marketer Wilkins Mijiga—in Hamlet’s position to ponder who will or will not carry the Central Region flag to the national finals slated for April next year.

The stakes are already menacing for the Central Region to put up a grand show after the Northern Region, on November 5, handled its share with utmost glitz and glamour.

The Northern Region settled for Lilongwe Technical College journalism student Tadala Uta, Mzuzu University student Miwasy Nyirenda and entrepreneur Vanessa Mtegha.

However, spokesperson for the event, Teresa Ndanga, is upbeat, saying all is set for the showdown.

“The number of contestants is now at 10 from the expected 13. One pulled out while another just lost a close relation, as such, she will contest in Blantyre,” she said.

Ndanga, who is also the director of news and current affairs at Zodiak Broadcasting Corporation (ZBS), noted they expect stiff competition for the spot in the finals.

Nation Publications Limited (NPL) and Zodiak Broadcasting Station (ZBS), managers of the pageant, decided to hold the event under the theme Over Population to test participants’ understanding of the burden of rapid population growth and, if at all, they can offer viable solutions to the problem.

The Southern Region is expected to hold its show on January 28 with the finals slated for April.

But for tonight, the ball to ponder, like Hamlet, is in the hands of the three judges.

To be or not to be? That is their question. n