Did you vote yet? What? You don’t know?
Mich Café was nominated in two out of 33 categories
at the Beirut Social Media Awards 2013. (See Mich
Café up for 2 Social Media awards)
It is a great honor to be recognized by the virtual community and
I am so proud to be a finalist in the Blog of the Year and Lifestyle Blog groups:
Blog of the Year (Category #1)
- Blog Baladi -- www.blogbaladi.com
- Gino's Blog -- www.ginosblog.com
- Beirut Spring -- www.beirutspring.com
- Hummus Nation -- www.hummusnation.net
- Separate State of Mind -- www.stateofmind13.com
- Mich Café -- michcafe.blogspot.com
- Beirut Boy -- guymeetsworld.wordpress.com
Best Lifestyle Blog (Category #4)
- Mich Café | michcafe.blogspot.com
- Let's tlk abt movies -- www.tlkabtmovies.com
- Homos Libnani -- homoslibnani.wordpress.com
- Nads Reviews -- www.nadsreviews.com
- Architecture Lab -- www.architecturelab.net
- If the bag Fits -- www.ifthebagfits.com
Online voting for the finalists goes on until April 25. You can vote
via Facebook or Twitter at www.smabeirut.com.
The awards ceremony takes place at the Phoenicia Hotel on April 29.
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| With Jen on our road trip to Sidon (11/2010) |
Unfortunately, I can’t travel to Beirut for what promises to be an
exciting gala. My friend Jennifer Haddad (@Jennhaddad), will represent me in
case Mich Café makes it to the finals.
Jen is very much part of Mich Café. Some of my favorite posts about
Lebanon were written thanks to her taking me on road trips across Lebanon – to Sidon,
Tripoli, Byblos, Oyoun al-Samak and Ain Anoub.
The Social
Media Awards allow the online community to nominate, vote for and award
bloggers, journalists, content creators, community managers, public
personalities, social media users and celebrities for their efforts in
communication and online creation.
As I always say, it is mostly thanks to the vibrant, active,
friendly and imaginative Lebanese online community that I started Mich Café.
While the competition is stiff in both categories, I would like to
believe Mich Café has a strong chance because it is a journey of love and
passion for the people, places and topics I care about.
Mich Café is I, and as it says on all my social media bios: “Just
happy… the rest is not important!” That is precisely how I feel and exactly how
this is reflected in Mich Café.
This blog is also about reflecting on issues outwith the local and
regional box and spreading my wings further afield -- for instance: to lobby
for education, protest against SOPA/PIPA, back
Internet
freedom in Jordan, and campaign on behalf of prisoners of
conscience in Syria, against female genital mutilation, violence against women,
and especially rape, because rape is rape!
Some of my favorite posts were written during my annual trips to
Lebanon.
One post in particular, “Beirut:
Walking in Burj Hammoud,” published in December 2010, has
been viewed at least 30 times every single day since.
In Love is blind... I list, as much as I can, the reasons why I love
Beirut. I could add one or two every 24 hours.
While visiting, I try to cover as many places and events as I can so as
to acquaint my Lebanese, Emirati, American, British, Norwegian, German, French,
Turkish, Canadian and other readers with the Lebanon I love.
These posts include:
- Off to Beirut in time for Easter
- Introducing Beirut's king of falafel
- Good Friday Mass in Beirut
- Beirut boasts home delivery shisha
- Beirut: Walking in Hamra
- Carved figures come to life in Beirut
- Lighting Downtown Beirut in song
- Beirut's Souk el Tayeb
- Back on the streets of Beirut
- Homing in on Beirut's Pigeon Rocks
- A Beirut walk down memory lane
- Hamra medley dazzles
- Breakfast in Sidon
- A Lebanese wonder: Oyoun el-Samak
- Lebanon's piece of history: Byblos
- Lebanon Cedars fight a “winter revolution”
- Lebanon: The day we drove north
- Lebanon to protest rape law
- Lebanon's blackouts
- Ghassan Tueni, the press baron I knew
- My Nirvana Day in Tyre
- Bahibak ya Libnan
- Turtles tutorial at Orange House
The places, people and stories in these posts, reflect the beauty of Lebanon,
its people, its culture and its food. It is the Lebanon I love and hope to go
back to, while most are trying to leave it.
Mich Café is also a place I celebrate my family and friends:
- Soulmates for life
- Vicky: My mother, my child…
- I mark the day, but love her everyday
- Love is blind...
- What's "home"?
- Dearest Mom…
- A tribute to Breast Cancer survivors
- Dad's 38-year-old Gulf letters
Dubai, my new home is also top of the list:
- Dubai gets my vote for Expo 2020
- Dubai welcomes 2013 with a bang
- Dubai gets its Blue Mosque
- Al Jalila gives Sheikh Mohammed 'a stare'
- Introducing Dubai's falafel superstar
- Dubai sheikha's likeness to her mom
- Trash meets art on Dubai streets
- Happy Birthday Dubai Metro
- Vimto perks up Ramadan in Dubai
- Dubai, city of lights
- Cottage industry at its best in Dubai
- “Quack, quack” at Dubai Media City
- Dubai in flames
- The DIFC, a mini-city in Dubai
- A hidden gem in Dubai
- Ramadan in Dubai
- Dubai's Sheikh Mo goes shopping
- Dubai bird to sing Zayed's name
- Why not 'Garbage Art' for Dubai?
- Graffiti at Dubai's Bastakiya
- Ramadan Taraweeh: A 14-century legacy
- Glorifying Virgin Mary in Ramadan
- Don't miss on dates in Ramadan …
The Social Media Awards 2013 is the brainchild of the American
University of Beirut’s Online Collaborative (AUBOC) in
partnership with Beirut popular RAGMAG Magazine.
The awards are meant to honor individuals and organizations that
have demonstrated an exceptional presence in social media in Lebanon. (You can view the full list of nominees on RAGMAG's
website.)
Do exercise your
right to vote in the “Republic of Social Media.”
