Sooo.. a friend of mine called me last night while I was out at dinner and goes, "Congratulations!" "About what exactly?" was my response. "Your Ahlan Masala nomination of course!" said she. Oh crap... here we go again, I thought.
For frequent readers of Ahlan Masala you might have read that I have been nominated under the category that is something along the lines of successful young female in business for the second year in a row. Last year, my Mother and I had both been nominated (I guess hers being the same category minus the "young" part) and we both had heard about our nominations the same way I did yesterday- through a random call from someone who probably thought to congratulate us. Both of us independently asked for our nominations to be withdrawn, and conveyed our surprise and irritation that the magazine didn't even think to ASK or INFORM us of it in the first place. So you will understand my surprise at being nominated yet again for the same award, the second year in a row.
First of all, let me start of by saying I have nothing against Masala and love flipping through its pages while I'm bored and getting my hair and nails done. I also recently posed for a feature that the magazine did on Bloggers... so really, have NOTHING against them. I do wish they'd stop nominating people without asking them if they have any issues with said nomination or without even informing them about it, but that's a different story. What I do have a problem with, is the way the winners of the awards are decided upon.
For most of these magazine awards that are conducted, the decision of the winner is made by either one of two ways- either by Voting by the general public or by a panel of judges. In a small country like the UAE, or specifically a tiny city like Dubai, I really can't think of too many people who would log in to vote on awards such as these, unless they know or work for the person being nominated. Thus in the end it boils down to a popularity contest, and I've heard stories of people who insist their entire company and their friends' entire company vote for them and make them win. When the winners are chosen through a panel of judges, it all depends on WHO you know and how much schmoozing you do to make sure you walk away from the awards ceremony with a little memento in your hand. Thank you, but neither scenario are for me.
I remember being on the panel of another prestigious award called the "Superbrands" which nominates the most popular brands through the country and publishes a book that includes the names of all the other, well, "Superbrands" around. The year I was on the panel was also the year Jumbo won the "Superbrand of the year"... without me allowing to vote for my own brand by the way, so it's not like I tipped the scales in our favour. While the voting process was very fair with an esteemed panel of judges on there, etc, I found something extremely curious- that despite being nominated and widely recognized as a Superbrand, your name would only be allowed in the book (and hence, have any acknowledgment of your super status) if you agreed to pay quite a hefty sum to appear in the book. You know what I call that? ADVERTISING! Yet, you'll see a whole host of companies (including us!) who wear their Superbrand status with pride, where the consumer doesn't quite realize it doesn't mean a lot at all.
Back to the Awards- yes, I'm very flattered that someone out there thinks highly enough of me to nominate me, and I'd like to thank that person or persons a lot for that! Having said that, I don't really think too much of awards in general and would like to think that Jumbo is an institution that is larger than a person or a family, and would be overjoyed if it were to win any sort of awards (fairly) that it deserved. In the meantime, I've asked for my nomination to be withdrawn from the Ahlan Masala awards and wish my fellow nominees good luck for the same! May the best (wo)man win.
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