2014 Winners of Godfrey Chin Prize for Heritage Journalism

From http://www.guyfolkfest.org
The Blog was nominated for the the Godfrey Chin Prize for Heritage Journalism which is being managed by the Guyana Cultural Association of New York Inc and won Second Prize.

The first Prize went to Gaiutra Bahadur for her amazing blog around her book Coolie Woman : The Odyssey of Indenture.

The second prize was shared with Dmitri Allicock who authors Oh Beautiful Guyana.

The third prize went to Ingrid Griffith for her one woman production Demerara Gold 



A brilliant writer had told me a few weeks ago that he could not do a blog because he could not bear to write anything which people would not read.

Most of the posts on this blog do not get 40 visits, and I am not sure how many of those are those spammers.

I would never pretend to be call myself a journalist, but it seems that the definition of journalism is evolving in terms of story telling and writing about being in a place even if few people are interested.

My head is swelling with the idea of the high grass I am grazing in, but there is a kind of consciousness now of taking this a bit more seriously than just put down anything which comes to mind and not edit for mistakes.

There is a kind of feeling about responsibility too as a citizen, to keep writing something about this place which is not about its politics but about things which we do  to make it liveable, writing in a way that says that we are here because we want to be and not because the PPP has made it paradise, or the PNC continues to restrain the development of the pardise or because we cannot make it anywhere else or because we are bound here by some idea that 'we could make a difference' and it is easier to make a difference here than in Iraq or Afghanistan or the United States.

Writing that says that Guyana is beautiful and is ugly and that it is possible to experience both the ugliness and the beauty at the same time.


I am glad that others are writing in and about Guyana - Youth Blogs Gy is a recent collaboration among young people.

I hope that others would write more, especially those who feel constrained by their situation.




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