The JA Blog Awards 2011

It was with a sense of uncertainty that I travelled to the 2nd staging of the Jamaica Blog Awards, held last evening at The Jamaica Pegasus Hotel. Veritas, my experiment in writing, had been nominated for five (5) awards, Best Entertainment Blog, Best Current Affairs & News Blog, Best Jamaica Focused Blog, Best Writing on a Blog & Top Blog Post for 2011.

I had my heart settled on one of the five prizes, Best News & Current Affairs. Many people don’t know this, but the original intent of this blog was to focus exclusively on Politics and Current Affairs. In fact, at it’s inception the blog was called “We The People”. Therefore, I wanted the award to pacify my conscience which was telling me that, in some cases, I had moved too far away from substantive writing in favour of sensationalisation.(Yes, I’m aware of how selfish this sounds…forgive me.) As fate would have it, Veritas won Best News & Current Affairs Blog, but that wasn’t all. To my utter surprise, we also won :

– Best Jamaica Focused Blog

– Top Post of 2011

Best Jamaica Focused Blog was totally unexpected, considering the other nominees seemed to have devoted a significant amount of their material to Jamaica and it’s culture. I wasn’t convinced I had and therefore didn’t expect the award. Top Blog Post came as a total shock. While it was probable Veritas would win, my friend Sean Bennett had written a truly moving letter to his ex-girlfriend, one I found particularly good and worthy of the award. You did good work Sean! For the 2nd time of the evening, I was shocked.

Having copped three of the five awards I was nominated for, I sat back and ate my free plantain chips, courtesy of St. Mary’s Banana Chips.

The next award was Jamaican Blogger of the Year.

This most coveted prize was granted after all the judges selected from all the nominated blogs, the one they deemed best. After giving a brief synopsis of the award, Mr. Corve Dacosta announced that the inagural winner was “Veritas.”

I was floored. Yours truly selected as the Top Jamaican Blogger of 2011, not too shabby at all. 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

Congratulations to all the nominees & winners !!!

THANK YOUs :

I want to take the time to say a huge thank you to some important people.

First and foremost, I wish to say thanks to Michael, the unsung hero behind this blog. Without Michael, the blog wouldn’t be possible. He inspired me to begin writing and motivates me to continue. Thanks Mikey !! 🙂 🙂 🙂

(2) Karen! I devoted the Jamaica Focused Blog award to you because of your unwavering commitment to Jamaica and it’s social development. Thank you so much for your support ! 🙂 🙂 🙂

(3) The Voters ! All of you out there in the blogsphere, Twitterdom and Facebookville. You tweeted, re-tweeted reposted, broadcasted and voted for me. Thank you so much for your support! 🙂 🙂 🙂

(4) The Readers ! To every single person that has ever stopped to click a link I’ve posted and to read my work, I say thank you. 🙂 🙂 🙂

(5) Corve Dacosta & his team ! Sir, the Blog Awards is a novel idea. Continue the good work! #ShoutOut to you all your sponsors and your planning team! Job well done 🙂 🙂 🙂

Thank you all so much!

Veritas – Truth. 🙂