''The Nation" at 30 - A success story By Rickey Singh
Guyana Chronicle
December 1, 2003

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IT IS seven years younger than Barbados, this Eastern Caribbean nation that officially marks its 37th independence anniversary on Sunday. But in its 30 years of existence, the 'Nation Publishing Company' has evolved as more than an integral partner in nation-building and promoter of Caribbean cooperation and integration.

It stands out as a symbol of the indigenous vision and non-traditional entrepreneurial initiatives among a class of Black Barbadians whose competence and commitment could well be emulated across the Caribbean Community - and not only in the media business.

In the some 20 years I have had the privilege to write this weekly `Our Caribbean’ column, no one at the Nation has told me what to write, or not to write. Such has been our mutual respect. It does not mean that I am always right, or that the editors always agree with what I write.

I say that to underscore the fact that what I write today about the Nation Company is simply the humble expression of appreciation of a journalist of the Caribbean region with a comparatively long working relationship with what today exists as one of the leading media enterprises in CARICOM.

Does this mean that I am always excited or in agreement with the 'Nation' publications for which I write. No. This may also be true about other newspapers for which I have the opportunity to write. Disagreements can also be mutual.

But I am also conscious of the meaning the 'Nation' gave to "freedom of the press" and in fostering freedom of expression over the years, when I recall, out of my own experience, the challenge it confronted in the 1980s.

It had refused to genuflect to pressures over publication of my `Our Caribbean’ column, in the wake of the United States military invasion of Grenada, against the backdrop of "anti-communist" hysteria in the region when so many were wrongly and maliciously labelled "communists".

That sense of journalistic independence, crafted and sustained by Editor-in-Chief Harold Hoyte, is not to be minimised. It has served the 'Nation' newspapers and the nation of Barbados very well over the years - as politicians and influential corporate and social interest groups would be aware, though not expected to acknowledge.

The story of the 'Nation organisation', as edited by Harry Mayers in `Against the odds’, the book that was launched in November 1998 at the 'Nation’s 25th Anniversary Awards Ceremony, is there for all who are interested in being so informed.

But what the 30th anniversary of the younger 'nation' of the nation of Barbados reminds me, is the contrast between sloganeering and reality. Warts and all, the 'Nation' organisation's claim of being "people-focused and "caring" can stand the challenge of being a mere marketing device or strategy.

If others, and more than non-staff contributors like me, could make their own independent assessment of the prevailing spirit at its work place, the opportunities afforded for employees in decision-making processes and participation in ownership, the facilities for workers, and the politeness in dealing with the general public, it should not be difficult to come to appreciate the importance of employer/employees bonding that have contributed to making the 'Nation' the Barbados success story it embodies.

Not that there are no disagreements, tension, or even occasional conflicts. These happen even in the best of families, much less a corporate interest like the Nation.

But to follow the public statements of President and Editor-in-Chief, Harold Hoyte and Sir Fred Gollop, Chairman of the 'Nation Corporation', there is no hesitation on their part to share the remarkable achievements over three decades with the people who have made it all possible - the workers and the growing extended family of readers as well as all those involved in its various community-based programmes and activities.

*(This article is reprinted, courtesy the Nation newspapers of Barbados, from Rickey Singh's `Our Caribbean’ column that appears weekly in the 'Weekend Nation').