I won a Grand Prix!
I’m shocked. My dad just called from Minsk an told me that I won the main award at the 4th National Web Content Contest, organized by TUT.BY. This is the most popular Web award in Belarus, excluding the professional contests among graphic Web designers.
Br23 blog won the first place in blogs category, and the grand prix award from itransition.
Frankly, I was never even hoping to get anything. Several months ago I filled out a form on content.tut.by entry page, just to get a few extra clicks when br23.net gets listed as a participating site. That’s all.
And three days ago I received an e-mail from a TUT.BY manager, inviting me to an award ceremony at the “Belarus” hotel Congress hall, saying that I was nominated for something.
I asked my sister whether she could come to the hotel to pick up the prize (if br23 wins anything), but she was too tired after helping arrested people throughout the whole day: transporting the released activists from the jail 30 km away from Minsk back to their homes in Minsk in her car.
Luckily, dad was just taking mom home, and they were still in downtown, so I asked them to divert from their route and go the “Belarus” hotel to pick up “a piece of paper” for me.
Congress hall at the hotel was full, so they had to stand in the aisle. And blogs was the last category, so they had to wait for an hour. The blog award was presented by the president and owner of TUT.BY himself (TUT.BY is the biggest, most popular and commercially successful website in Belarus), Yuri Zisser.
Dad told me that Zisser said: “The winner in that category is a person whom I know in the virtual world of WWW for at least six years, but whom I’ve never met in real life. I know he spends a lot of time abroad, and I don’t even know where he is right now and how often he comes to Belarus. The name of the winner is br23!”
Dad was quite shocked. He came up to the stage, shook hands with the TUT.by president who handed him the microphone. My dad said in Russian (because he feels more comfortable speaking in Russian, especially in public, when he’s nervous): “Thank you very much. I would like to say that my son finds it very important to spread truthful information about Belarus and our political situation not only in Belarusian or Russian, but in English. Thanks.”
He received a diploma in a frame, an internet card for a free dial-up access from Atlant Telecom (which I clearly don’t need having unlimited ADSL), two T-Shirts (with TUT.by and Atlant Telecom logos), and a glass mug that says “TUT.BY Web Contest Winner.”
Dad left the stage, and was already leaving the hall, trying to make his way to the door, when he overheard someone saying: “Where is that br23 guy?” “What?” he asked. “Go back to the stage. You won the Grand Prix”.
The grand prix was a neat 7-megapixel digital camera from Nikon, provided by itransition.
Waiters were setting up tables for a cocktail party afterwards, but my parents didn’t stay for that. “Everyone is so young there, all those Belarus’ internet gurus. We felt sort of out of place.”
P.S. I would like to thank all my readers! Without your comments and support I wouldn’t have gathered enough motivation to go on blogging. Thank you!
March 31st, 2006 at 9:40 pm
Congratulations!!! Your blog is definitely my favorite on Belarus-related issues.
Warmest greetings from NC, and keep on rocking!
March 31st, 2006 at 9:54 pm
endrus: You should’ve participated too. I think you could’ve beaten me. ;)
March 31st, 2006 at 10:04 pm
Congratulations …you are great man :) and great blog!!! Hope your Belarus will be free soon ..with all my heart ! From Turin Italy
March 31st, 2006 at 10:06 pm
Marco Peiretti: Grazie Mille. :)
March 31st, 2006 at 10:21 pm
Bravo. Your site is a valuable source of fresh information on Belarus and you deserve the recognition! Congratulations.
March 31st, 2006 at 10:26 pm
Віншую Вам! Vinšuju Vam! You deserve the recognition. Your blog is one of the most intelligent, interesting, well-written and up-to-date online sources for things Belarusian. It has been a fount of information and insight especially in these past few weeks, with the presidential election and its aftermath. Keep up the good work. Your heartfelt love for Belarus, her people, her culture and her future come through loud and clear on this blog, and that’s quite noble.
March 31st, 2006 at 10:50 pm
Congatulations from a friend in Norway!
I read your blog with great interest. It is an important source of information on the situation i Belarus. Recently I´ve posted two articles based on, and inspired by postings in your blog. The last one is about Lukasjenkas “dissapearence” and all the rumours. People in Norway are following the freedom-fight, on it´s way toward a democratic, pluralistic Belarus.
Even though the post is in Norwegian, you are very welcome to post a comment!
March 31st, 2006 at 10:52 pm
Gratuluję! Congratulations! I discovered your blog just a few days ago, when I searched the web for news from Minsk. I found here a lot of very interesting informations about Belarus. You are doing a great job!
April 1st, 2006 at 12:06 am
Herzlichen Glückwunsch! You earned that price. Your blog became the most valuable news site from Belarus for me.
April 1st, 2006 at 12:17 am
Hehe congratulations :) You deserved it :) Your blogs have been the best source of information for many many years :)
April 1st, 2006 at 12:27 am
Congratulations! You’re my favorite news source for Belarus. We NEVER hear anything about what’s going on over there. Damn media.
April 1st, 2006 at 1:27 am
BiB: thank you!
April 1st, 2006 at 1:32 am
Hryshka: Thanks a lot!!
> Віншую Вам! Vinšuju Vam!
Nice try! Actually it’s a bit different, it’s just one letter that makes all the difference: “Віншую Вас! Vinšuju Vas!”
Accusative (”vas”) is needed here because “you” is a direct object here (you are congratulating me directly). Dative (”vam”) is used for indirect objects. For example, in the sentence “I’ll give you the book”, “the book” is the direct object, while “you” is the indirect object, so it would be “vam” in that case.
P.S. I actually thought you are an English-speaking Belarusian, because of the nickname/name that you use. It’s very Belarusian. So, how come? :)
April 1st, 2006 at 1:33 am
Rambukk: Takk. ;)
April 1st, 2006 at 1:45 am
Ania: Dziekuji bardzo. I’m very happy you found this journal. And sorry again for deleting your comments by accident the other day.
Marcel: Vielen Dank. I’m also pleasantly surprised that finally there’s some more interest in Belarus’ internal affairs in Germany, on a higher political level.
owndotexe: Thanks!!
> We NEVER hear anything about what’s going on over there. Damn media.
It’s just natural. Journalist choose what’s newsworthy to their audiences. When the country was on the brink of revolution, we did make it to top news almost everywhere…
April 1st, 2006 at 1:49 am
}T{Reme [Q_G]: I owe the biggest thanks to you. When I started this new blog in August 2005 I felt discouraged and depressed. You were the very first person who got interested in the English-language part of this journal. This initial interest from you gave me a very important push. Without you, maybe I wouldn’t even bother with translating stuff into English.
P.S. And your technical help was also very valuable! I’m ashamed to say, I still don’t know how to grab streaming videos. ;))
April 1st, 2006 at 4:53 am
Vielmi dziakuj, esteemed host, for your grammatical correction.
As is obvious from my clumsy grasp of declensions, I’m not an English-speaking Belarusian (but thanks for the compliment!), but an American of mostly Belarusian descent (with a bit of Russian and Ukrainian/Carpatho-Rusyn in the family tree) who learned some Belarusian from his grandparents, learned a little bit more researching my family’s roots and never gets to use it much in America. I still have relatives in Belarus, with whom I endeavor to keep in touch (with the help of a dictionary and a grammar book, and when the mail gets through!).
My first name is Gregory, “Hryshka” being the diminutive of it in the “rodnaja mova” (as you’d obviously know), which is what my grandparents called me — and my relatives in Belarus still do, when they can write.
April 1st, 2006 at 4:56 am
P.S.: GRIN. See how clumsy and linguistically out of practice I am? It just dawned on me that I should have said “vialiki dziakuj…”
April 1st, 2006 at 9:28 am
LOL :D Well thank you :) I really dont deserve so much praise to be honest. I was silently reading your blogs on your former page for a year or so till you closed it down due to people harassing you. All I did was send one email, its not much :) I’m ashamed I cannot understand Belarusian or Russian (yet), so for now Im dependant on the English side of your journal. I’d love to help and support one day by translating :)
There’s a program I use for saving streams, I’ll give you a link to my server so you can get it as well. It’s a bit cumbersome in use but it works, perhaps one day I’ll make a replacement.
April 1st, 2006 at 1:19 pm
Congratulations to a well-deserved price!
Tobias Ljungvall
Sweden
April 1st, 2006 at 3:59 pm
i hope it’s not one of the fool’s day jokes, so i add my congratulations and respect to the brandname br23.net %)
April 2nd, 2006 at 3:38 pm
Adaslaw list u Google:
The language selector for the video lists my native language as “Byelorussian”. The country name is Belarus and the correct name of the language is “Belarusian”.
A quick Google search confirms that “Belarusian” is used way more frequently.
Try searching for “Byelorussian” in Britannica online and it will come up with the results for “Belarusian language”
http://www.britannica.com/ebc/article-9356924?query=belarusian&ct=
Google itself lists the language name as “Belarusian” on the Preferences page ( http://www.google.com/preferences )
See also http://www.pravapis.org/art_belarusian_adjective.asp for the discussion of the issue.
April 2nd, 2006 at 4:15 pm
Hryshka: Yes, it’s “vialiki dziakuj”. :) And thanks for sharing your story. It’s fascinating.
April 2nd, 2006 at 4:20 pm
Syarzhuk: I’ve noticed that Reuters, AP, and AFP started to write “BelaruSSian” in the last 3-4 months. They used to write “Belarusian” before. This strange spelling change is much more serious than a word on Google Video page. Reuters, AP, and AFP are world-leading news agencies. It means if they report about Belarus, hundreds of websites, newspapers, and magazines will reprint their articles verbatim. I don’t know what happened.
April 2nd, 2006 at 9:35 pm
Nu vinszuju! :)) Malajczynka!
April 3rd, 2006 at 6:39 am
You deserved this award and I think it is good news to everyone that such blog as your got this award.
Dalius,
Lithuania
April 3rd, 2006 at 6:53 am
Congratulations bro, you definitely deserve it. I have checked your site almost every hour the last two weeks to see what’s going on down there. Although CNN has shown a little interest in Belarus, this is by far the best source for news and the perspectives of the people that I have found. The stories that we get here in the states are mixed, depending on the source, and having a place like this beats waiting for e-mails to be sent to find out what is happening to your friends. Anyway, thanks for what you do and keep it up.
April 5th, 2006 at 9:10 am
CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! You so deserve that!
*sorry I’m a bit late replying, been offline for a week*!
Mette
Denmark
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