{"id":11818,"date":"2010-09-02T09:34:50","date_gmt":"2010-09-02T07:34:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whalecottage.com\/blog\/?p=11818"},"modified":"2010-09-25T17:30:20","modified_gmt":"2010-09-25T15:30:20","slug":"whale-cottage-blog-finalist-for-2010-sa-blog-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chrisvonulmenstein.com\/blog\/whale-cottage-portfolio\/whale-cottage-blog-finalist-for-2010-sa-blog-awards\/","title":{"rendered":"Whale Cottage Blog a ‘controversial’ Finalist for 2010 SA Blog Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Yesterday was a day of reckoning for the bloggers of South Africa, who had been judged by a committee of three, and voted for by their fans, in\u00a0making the short-list of ten finalists\u00a0in 25 categories of the S A Blog Awards.\u00a0 We are delighted to have been selected as a Finalist in the Most Controversial Blog category, and thank our loyal blog\u00a0readers, friends, commenters,\u00a0and Twitter followers for their votes in making the Finalist selection possible.<\/p>\n

Now we are like Idols contestants, in that we please request your vote for our Blog<\/span><\/span><\/strong>,<\/a> to win in the category (there is no prize, other than a badge that goes onto the blog).\u00a0The Most Controversial Blog category is quite far down the list, and you need to please click on\u00a0our blog name to vote,\u00a0and then to scroll down to the bottom of the list, to enter your e-mail address.\u00a0 You are allowed to vote for us every 24 hours, per e-mail address, until the competition closes on 17 September<\/span>.<\/p>\n

The Whale Cottage Blog had been nominated in a number of categories, including Best Food & Wine Blog, Best Blog Post, Most Controversial Blog and Best Travel Blog.\u00a0\u00a0Being a unique blog that does not fit fully into any specific category (e.g. Food, Travel), we were delighted to have made the finals (somehow we never got to enter last year).\u00a0 The Most Controversial Blog category\u00a0is a new\u00a0one introduced this year, and it seemed to suit us ideally!\u00a0\u00a0 If we have created a unique\u00a0identity for our blog, it\u00a0has been to be\u00a0“independent *\u00a0incisive *\u00a0informative”, and\u00a0it\u00a0is described as being controversial, due to our lack of fear to\u00a0write the truth, no matter the consequences.<\/p>\n

We are in excellent company in this category, with 2Oceansvibe being a fellow finalist – last year its editor ‘Seth Rotherham’ won almost every category in the Blog Awards, and his blog became the benchmark for many of us (this year a blog can only be nominated in two categories).\u00a0\u00a0 The rest of the\u00a0Finalists’ list\u00a0is a little more dubious, sex and swearing broadly summarising the content of the other blogs in the Most Controversial Blog category.<\/p>\n

The WhaleTales newsletter<\/a><\/span> <\/strong>has been distributed for the past nine years, and has been\u00a0the foundation of our writing about controversial issues.\u00a0\u00a0 It has not\u00a0always been easy to be outspoken, in that we have experienced the following:<\/p>\n

*\u00a0 being told to not come back to the Opal Lounge<\/a><\/span><\/strong>, due to an unfavourable review that we wrote (in fact the instruction to not return was issued telephonically by the co-owner before the review was written and published)<\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0being escorted out of Beluga<\/a><\/strong><\/span> by the police during a invited lunch for members of an association\u00a0of guest house owners in Camps Bay, of which I am the chairman, because sister restaurant Sevruga<\/a><\/span><\/strong> received a Sour Service Award on this blog for a Cape Times<\/strong> book launch lunch, which the restaurant handled poorly, both food and service-wise<\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0 being threatened with legal action when we tackled Carne<\/a><\/span> <\/strong>about falsely claiming that all its beef, lamb and game served comes from its Karoo farm and is organic, our most controversial blog post in the two year history of blog-writing.\u00a0 This blog post was nominated for Best Blog Post.\u00a0 The Carne blog post, and its follow up, took investigative journalism of the bravest kind, in obtaining documentation from the suppliers of the meat, and in obtaining (by luck) a telephonic\u00a0admission by a supplier of meat to Carne,\u00a0resulting in\u00a0Carne withdrawing its legal threat, declaring the matter closed, and taking the dishonest claim off their website.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0being on the receiving end of FEDHASA Cape’s attempt to cancel our membership, which\u00a0resulted in my resignation\u00a0as a Director of the hotel old-boys’ club, when I wrote\u00a0about the dangers of small accommodation establishments signing with FIFA’s MATCH<\/a><\/span><\/strong> for the World Cup, over\u00a0the past\u00a0five years.\u00a0 My views about MATCH were not in line with the hotel interests which dominated the FEDHASA Cape Board, and Nils Heckscher, GM of the Winchester Mansions, tried his best to get\u00a0me off\u00a0the Board.\u00a0 Ultimately, we were vindicated in our advice when MATCH cancelled the bulk of its booked small and hotel accommodation throughout South Africa, the Winchester Mansions being one of the hotels badly hit by the cancellation of booked rooms by MATCH.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0 being threatened with legal action by the Cape Whale Coast DMO<\/a>,<\/span> <\/strong>after our blog post of 28 December 2009 raised questions about the conflict of interest created by Clinton Lerm being\u00a0the Chairman of the Hermanus Tourism Bureau and of the DMO.\u00a0\u00a0 Nothing has come of this threat to date.\u00a0 Yesterday we published a follow-up story<\/a><\/span><\/strong> on the DMO’s lack of transparency.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0 writing critical restaurant reviews, without “white-washing” them<\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0 awarding Sweet and Sour Service Awards on the blog every Friday.<\/p>\n

We would also like to recommend the following blogging friends and colleagues, for your vote:<\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0Food & Wine Blog category<\/span>: Cooksister (Jeanne Horak-Druiff), My-Easy-Cooking (Nina Timm), JamieWho? (Andy Fenner) and The Foodie (David Cope) (all of last year’s finalists have dropped out of this category, other than Cooksister and My-Easy-Cooking)<\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0 Best Travel Blog category<\/span>:\u00a0\u00a0 SA Venues and\u00a0Cape Town Travel (Cape Town Tourism)<\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0 Best Twitter Microblogger category<\/span>: Relax-with-Dax, Gus Silber, and Spit or Swallow<\/p>\n

We thank you for your support and your votes.<\/p>\n

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday was a day of reckoning for the bloggers of South Africa, who had been judged by a committee of three, and voted for by their fans, in\u00a0making the short-list of ten finalists\u00a0in 25 categories of the S A Blog Awards.\u00a0 We are delighted to have been selected as a Finalist in the Most Controversial […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[4795,124,22,21],"tags":[7062,2426,4505,1508,7068,7067,7069,6685,3638,7071,85,7078,3113,1434,32378,2992,5541,3946,6813,5912,320,7080,30,7072,7079,595,7081,7065,7073,4331,7076,3401,7064,7074,44,7075,7070,3817,3143,4326,7193,6449,3761,1654,7082,2257,6107,4503,7083,4573,1076,7063,7066,32373,2874,112],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t