Reader Alpha who got his inspiration reading anti Chavez Venezuelan blogs to open his own blog, Free Opinion Venezuela, has been voted the best blog in the readers awards of the Deutsche Welle. He won in the Dutch language blog category with a 26% vote share, which is almost double of the runner up. This is noteworthy result as there is only one vote per IP address. Please, do visit his blog to congratulate him and encourage him to continue. We will need all the help we can get to tell what happens in Venezuela next, now that Chavez seems determined to close Globovision.
We will notice that this got him his first radio interview of what I hope will be many as consistent and rational bloggers do reach the main media. We will also notice again that as usual no one is a prophet in his own land as people like Miguel or me get more notoriety outside Venezuela than inside. Not that Spanish language blog writers in Venezuela get much media exposure either at home........
But the news gets better as Yoani Sanchez from Cuba won the jury prize as best blog of the year. Period. It is important to remind readers that the extraordinary freedom that Cubans experience force her to send through e-mail her posts to friends outside so that they can publish her blog. When will Venezuela News and Views start being published through e-mails? With the imminent closing of Globovision the time might be closer than what you think.
Meanwhile I also invite you to visit her blog, Generacion Y, and leave a congratulatory note. Her fight is also our fight as Chavez subsidies to that repressive regime keep it alive, barely.
-The end-