AT the 15th edition of the Caribbean Culture Queen pageant held in St Kitts and Nevis, Guyana’s Shemina Peroune emerged as the Queen of the prestigious franchise.
Peroune’s win has been dubbed historical as it is the first time Guyana has won the title. The young woman who is an aeronautical engineer, not only walked away with the crown, but with other titles such as Miss Photogenic and best-interviewed delegate.

Peroune captivated many with her performances at the local pageant that was held recently in Guyana and at the regional pageant held on August 7.
But it was her answer to an ‘extremely demanding’ question about humanity that secured her win.

Miss Guyana was asked, “Considering the present issues of poverty and poor democracy occurring in Haiti, do you think that Haitians who migrate illegally to other countries should be deported or granted asylum?”

To which she gave an excellent reply, hence winning the hearts of the audience as well as the judges:

“I strongly believe there are many ways that we can mitigate certain problems like that, as poverty is something that is quite prevalent in Haiti, and the means that they are seeking to mitigate it would be the way that they best know how to, which would be to just go trying to migrate illegally. Now I stand here to say I believe in inclusivity and I believe in making decisions according to your situation, and I also believe that, as a nation, we should be able to help these persons and allow them to have better opportunities.

With that being said, I think they should neither be in an asylum nor be dealt with in another manner, but I believe there are many ways we can deal with this, and neither of those options is best suitable.”