Once a day, every day…
First, nothing I say in this post means that we want you to stop voting or us once a day, every day, until the 15th ! OK?! But I thought I should write this now, while we’re doing well, in case everything I say here seems less sincere later should our luck turn (we’re currently coming second). Besides, I need to get back to the real business at hand, which is writing and thinking about Zimbabwe and Zimbabweans.
Being selected as finalists in the 2005 Blog Awards has been good, regardless of whether we finally win or not.
The majority of people in our country are cut off from independent news sources and, for that reason, many feel that the world has forgotten about us or doesn’t care that deeply about what we’re going through. This blog, and our Sokwanele articles, tries to give voice to the lives of as many ordinary people as we can - that is why we called our blog ‘This is Zimbabwe’. Being selected as a finalist feels like recognition for the experiences and lives of ordinary people in Zimbabwe; not simply recognition for the blog and our work. For us, the first is much more important than the second.
We’ve had people discovering us for the first time, as a result of the Blog Awards; again, that gives us a wider audience - more people exposed to truth which is the reality of our lives. We are thrilled about that.
We’ve had emails, kind comments and thoughtful efforts on other sites to drum up support for our blog. And we know that this is because all of these people care about our country and are glad of an opportunity to do what they can. It has been a big boost for those of us writing and working on this blog to visibly see that people do care. Just look at how warm, generous and moving this is, for example (from ResurrectionSong):
Finally, it gives us a chance to campaign for other bloggers who have supported our efforts in the past, and who have clearly shown that they champion peace, freedom and democracy for all Zimbabweans.
Publius Pundit, for example, has been nominated in the Best Group Blog category. We only recently realised that his blog was inspired by the Orange Revolution in the Ukraine and we love the fact that he would so fired up about a peaceful revolution that he’d commit himself to writing for change every day! And Normblog is a finalist in the Best UK Blog category. Norm has consistently picked up on key Zimbabwean stories and written about them. Norm has also been a solid guy in helping Sokwanele to get greater exposure for some of our more critical stories. We really appreciate that. So, thanks, you guys!
So when you all vote for us (once a day, every day), please will you consider swinging by those categories to give these two bloggers a Zimbabwean thank-you by voting for them too.
December 8th, 2005 14:58
[...] This is Zimbabwe is on the short list for best Mid Eastern/African blog - so check their blog and go and give them a vote. Why are the Middle East and Africa lumped together in one category? Surely there are enough awards to allow each region its own award? [...]