Forty years is a long time.
Just think of how our world has changed since 1972 – or more specifically February 16, 1972, the day I began my career in broadcasting at Trinidad & Tobago Television (ttt).
We wrote news copy on typewriters in those days – old manual ones. My children and many others from their generation have never seen such a machine.
We didn’t have cell phones and blackberries and computers. The PC was not even invented. Our news was shot on negative film; portable video cameras and videotape came along much later. Even the portable machines weighed 50 pounds!
Sure we had videotapes. A one-hour tape was on a huge metal spool, 12 inches in diameter and the recording machine took up half a room. And if you messed up a live to tape recording you just had to start all over again because editing videotape was not an option. Well, there was a way to edit but just a few of us knew how.
We didn’t have cheap satellite feeds and Skype and 24-hour news so the “world” was not as small and as close as it is today. We relied on the BBC and the Voice of America to tell us how the world was doing. In those days we didn’t even have our own source of wire copy. However, we managed to tell stories and tell them well.
And people remember me for that, even though I left home a long time ago.
In the 40 years since I first entered Television House at 11a Maraval Road, Port of Spain as an employee I have seen and done a lot.
I’ve travelled to places I never expected to see and met people from all walks of life from simple ordinary folks trying to find a way to live, to presidents, prime ministers, kings and dictators. I’ve also met movie stars and international performers.
Among them all, I felt closest to little people, telling their stories and calling on officials to account. My advocacy journalism offended officials and those who had power, but it gave a voice to the voiceless.
My sources were sacred and remain known only to me to this day despite death threats and at least one attempt on my life.
In Canada I had the honour of being a part of the team that inaugurated what was then the world’s second 24-hour all news cable news service. However, unlike CNN, we were a distinctly Canadian service.
I edited the historic newscast that launched the service at 7 am on July 31, 1989 - and thousands more for CBC Newsworld. We produced a dozen a day for nearly 10 years; I lost count after the first few years.
My job offered an opportunity to work with some of the finest journalists and other media professionals I’ve ever known and to be a part of one of the most trusted and respected news organisations on our planet - CBC, The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
I covered all manner of stories during my 40 years and produced and presented many award-winning documentaries.
I interviewed influential people like Donald Woods as well as regional and world leaders; I sat in the White House next to the Oval Office, walked with Michael Manley in the bloodiest election Jamaica ever experienced and reported on the uprising in Grenada that saw the murder of my friend, Prime Minister Maurice Bishop, and the subsequent American invasion.
At the Non-Aligned Summit in India in 1983 I was among journalists covering more than 100 world leaders, including international pariahs at the time like Yasser Arafat. Two countries at the NAM summit - Iran and Iraq - were at war, yet were at the same conference.
At Newsworld we were witness to the end of communism and the fall of the Berlin Wall; we were first to report on the invasion of Kuwait and the war that followed. And yes, we also had superb coverage of the 1990 failed Muslimeen coup in Trinidad & Tobago, thanks to my sources and excellent relationship with leaders and my colleagues in journalism in the country.
We worked hard at providing Canadians with an honest picture of the country in a way only live television could. Canadians would no doubt remember Newsworld's pioneering coverage of the OKA crisis and the horrendous stories of the abuse at the Mount Cashel orhpanage in Newfoundland, told with raw emotion by the victims themselves - uncensored.
I entered the world of journalism during the 'golden days' when we had no agenda other than a commitment to truth and fairness, integrity and honesty. That's the world of journalism I knew; I still try to do it that way. But enough of that for now.
Now after four decades I feel it is time to retire, to spend time with my family, especially my precious grand daughter, Aurora.
However, I cannot imagine life in retirement. There is so much work to do, so many stories to tell. But today I am taking a day off.
Today I also want to say thanks to all the people who have contributed in one way or another to making me who I am.
There are so many of you, from my colleagues and friends to strangers whom I've never met.
Thank you for having been a part of my life in journalism. Thank you for believing in me and supporting me over the years. There are so many of you so today I won't name names; I'll leave that for another time.
Today, I celebrate 40 of the best years of my life. And I rededicate myself to doing journalism the only way it should be done - the right way! (please also read: Epitaph for ttt)
Jai Parasram | 16 February 2012
Just think of how our world has changed since 1972 – or more specifically February 16, 1972, the day I began my career in broadcasting at Trinidad & Tobago Television (ttt).
We wrote news copy on typewriters in those days – old manual ones. My children and many others from their generation have never seen such a machine.
We didn’t have cell phones and blackberries and computers. The PC was not even invented. Our news was shot on negative film; portable video cameras and videotape came along much later. Even the portable machines weighed 50 pounds!
Sure we had videotapes. A one-hour tape was on a huge metal spool, 12 inches in diameter and the recording machine took up half a room. And if you messed up a live to tape recording you just had to start all over again because editing videotape was not an option. Well, there was a way to edit but just a few of us knew how.
We didn’t have cheap satellite feeds and Skype and 24-hour news so the “world” was not as small and as close as it is today. We relied on the BBC and the Voice of America to tell us how the world was doing. In those days we didn’t even have our own source of wire copy. However, we managed to tell stories and tell them well.
And people remember me for that, even though I left home a long time ago.
In the 40 years since I first entered Television House at 11a Maraval Road, Port of Spain as an employee I have seen and done a lot.
 |
| The original Television House building has been rebuilt and now houses the latest incarnation of state TV - CNMG |
 |
| 1994 visit with their excellencies President Noor Hassanali and Mrs Hassanali |
My sources were sacred and remain known only to me to this day despite death threats and at least one attempt on my life.
In Canada I had the honour of being a part of the team that inaugurated what was then the world’s second 24-hour all news cable news service. However, unlike CNN, we were a distinctly Canadian service.
I edited the historic newscast that launched the service at 7 am on July 31, 1989 - and thousands more for CBC Newsworld. We produced a dozen a day for nearly 10 years; I lost count after the first few years.
My job offered an opportunity to work with some of the finest journalists and other media professionals I’ve ever known and to be a part of one of the most trusted and respected news organisations on our planet - CBC, The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
I covered all manner of stories during my 40 years and produced and presented many award-winning documentaries.
 |
| Donald Woods |
At the Non-Aligned Summit in India in 1983 I was among journalists covering more than 100 world leaders, including international pariahs at the time like Yasser Arafat. Two countries at the NAM summit - Iran and Iraq - were at war, yet were at the same conference.
At Newsworld we were witness to the end of communism and the fall of the Berlin Wall; we were first to report on the invasion of Kuwait and the war that followed. And yes, we also had superb coverage of the 1990 failed Muslimeen coup in Trinidad & Tobago, thanks to my sources and excellent relationship with leaders and my colleagues in journalism in the country.
We worked hard at providing Canadians with an honest picture of the country in a way only live television could. Canadians would no doubt remember Newsworld's pioneering coverage of the OKA crisis and the horrendous stories of the abuse at the Mount Cashel orhpanage in Newfoundland, told with raw emotion by the victims themselves - uncensored.
I entered the world of journalism during the 'golden days' when we had no agenda other than a commitment to truth and fairness, integrity and honesty. That's the world of journalism I knew; I still try to do it that way. But enough of that for now.
Now after four decades I feel it is time to retire, to spend time with my family, especially my precious grand daughter, Aurora.
 |
| Aurora Parasram at home in Nova Scotia, Christmas 2011 |
Today I also want to say thanks to all the people who have contributed in one way or another to making me who I am.
There are so many of you, from my colleagues and friends to strangers whom I've never met.
Thank you for having been a part of my life in journalism. Thank you for believing in me and supporting me over the years. There are so many of you so today I won't name names; I'll leave that for another time.
Today, I celebrate 40 of the best years of my life. And I rededicate myself to doing journalism the only way it should be done - the right way! (please also read: Epitaph for ttt)
Jai Parasram | 16 February 2012
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