In the news business it is simple and easy to write articles of the deaths of young black Belizean men, after all we’ve become immune and desensitized as a result of the frequency with which Belizean young men are taking their own lives. But when it comes to writing about the death of a young black man such as Keith Swift it is not as easy a task to do for various reasons. Most in the media had grown to know him, like him and admire him for the passion and ease with which he executed his job on a daily basis. By any measure, he was a young man that had contributed, through the media, so much to Belizean society and had the potential to contribute so much.
There is no way that all that Keith did can be encapsulated in a single essay so I’ll limit myself to the interaction which I had with him. It began in 1998 after the government at the time had decided to dismantle the Broadcasting Corporation of Belize, the only government operated media entity in the country. At that time Keith was employed there and I think there was a move by the powers that be, to ensure that everyone who was employed there had somewhere they could go for employment. For Keith it meant the move to Channel 7 as a news reporter. From the onset, though I never verbalized it, I had come to appreciate his coming on board at the television station. At the time I had been there for a couple of years already serving in various capacities and at the time I was a cameraman.
Very often from the beginning it was quite evident that Keith had a knack for reporting, he had just been extracted from the radio medium and dropped into the shark waters of the television medium where no mistakes are forgiven and every blunder is forever etched in videotape to be viewed and reviewed for years to come. What can be said is that Keith fit in quite snugly taking on the lighter side of the news; the beauty pageants, the odd stories that no one else would touch: Valentine’s day shopping, Voxpops, catering classes, there were never any holds barred with Keith. He would take on any and every single story assigned to him. He would immerse himself in every story that he did and from a cameraman’s perspective (we sometimes give guidance in stories) I was always amazed that you could get Keith Swift to do just about anything. If it were to test food on camera which he did not particularly like or to wade in knee deep sewer infected water, he’d quite readily do it. Of course he’d come up with the comment: “I hope Channel 7 reimburses me for my pants and shoes.” Or he’d say, “that thing taste bad” none the less he’d play up to the camera, give the convincing smile and move on to the next story.
It was amazing to watch him work on his stories, there was never any sense of order to the preparation of his stories, often time I’d wonder how it was that he was able to come up with comprehensive stories for the newscast when upon seeing him gather the information and put it together there was no real order. I guess and all can testify that really, he knew what he was doing. After years of working with him I had come to respect him for his work and great ability to execute with extreme accuracy. And while he was accurate and fearless in front of the camera what few knew is that he was not the most athletic or well coordinated individual. You’d have never known from looking at him on screen but when a story called for his moving in tight spaces or climbing onto moving objects, he was not the most agile. What we have to give to him is that despite the challenges that the job offered he was able to surmount them and present a pleasing story to the viewers.
The years in the media trenches however did make him seem insensitive, however what must be realized is that the insensitivity of asking “how you feel?” after the interviewee had just lost a loved one was not a question that only Keith asked; the reality is that most reporters ask it we simply choose to not include it in the story. In passing Keith once told me that he had learnt and lived by the philosophy that “if you ask stupid questions, you get stupid answers, and that is what the viewers want.” In the years of interaction I learned so much from Keith and I hope that to some degree he learnt something from me.
I grew to respect him so much so that even after leaving Channel 7 I relied heavily on him. Very few people knew this but he was in fact a contributor to the Guardian Newspaper. In fact when I became editor, he was one of the first persons whom I recruited to assist me in preparing the newspaper. I’ll miss him in that regard but I’ll miss him even more because he was a friend and colleague. We had our differences but within seconds those would disappear and what always remained was the respect and friendship which we shared for over a decade of working together.
Rest in Peace my friend.Â
