Sometimes, our children’s activities drag us into interesting worlds we would never otherwise have experienced. Such was the case this evening. Our daughter’s dance troupe was performing at the Palais des Beaux-Arts as the interval act during the 2010 finals of the Future Model Contest Belgium. The twenty-five finalists, divided into age groups, had to go through their paces – freestyle, boxers/bikinis, dinner jacket/evening dress – in front of an at times partisan crowd. Two aspects of the experience were particularly noteworthy. The first is that, like boxing, this is clearly an activity where immigrant youngsters can hope to make a breakthrough. Indeed, few of the finalists were Caucasian in appearance and even then we spotted an Eastern name or two. That explained, in part, the partisan crowd. These were not just parents and siblings rooting for their daughters and sons; these were people of modest means hoping for an economic lifeline. The second remarkable aspect was the sheer courage of the young people up on the stage. It takes guts to parade in a bathing costume in front of a whistling, cheering, jeering, catcalling crowd. I hope all the finalists make breakthroughs; they certainly deserve it.