Barbadian duo are longest serving Searchlight employees

As SEARCHLIGHT celebrates its 20th anniversary, we take a moment to focus on our two longest serving members of staff — who are both coincidentally from Barbados.

For Jude Knight and Neal Jackman, who began working with the company in 1997 and 1998 (respectively), fitting into the Vincentian culture and way of life has gone relatively smoothly — albeit with a few bumps along the way.{{more}}

Both Jude and Neal initially started working for the company on a part-time basis, while they were still based in Barbados, working at The Nation newspaper. And when presented with the opportunity to relocate to St Vincent and the Grenadines, they both took the plunge and didn’t look back.

Jude Knight – Chief Sub-Editor

In 1997, at the request of his then boss Harold Hoyte (The Nation), Jude began working with Searchlight, laying out the newspaper in preparation to be printed in Barbados. This meant travelling to St Vincent from Barbados on a weekly basis. He would arrive every Monday evening, work throughout Tuesday and Wednesday into the wee hours of Thursday morning, then catch a flight that same day – taking diskettes, ZIP disks and later compact discs, with the laid out pages to the printing press.

This went on for six years.

“It was very difficult,” admitted Jude. “I hardly got any sleep, and I had to move from one job to the next with no rest in between or vacation… It got a bit too hectic, and I had to choose between The Nation and Searchlight.”

Jude recalled that it was hard leaving his children behind, but he made the decision to move because he felt it would benefit them all in the long run.

Up until 2006, Jude would still travel to Barbados to carry the pages to be printed; that is until the company decided to transmit the pages via the Internet.

Jude explained that although the job has provided some challenges along the way, he has not regretted his decision, and has stuck it through.

“I love my job; I’m good at what I do. Even when I’m not feeling 100 per cent, I give 100 per cent. I like a challenge; I saw Searchlight as a new challenge to me. Put any project in front of me and I will get it done!”

However, Jude almost moved back to Barbados a few days after relocating to SVG, after he was attacked by five men one night in a robbery attempt. He suffered serious damage to his shoulder, along with cuts and bruises, and was left shaken by the incident.

“I decided to stick it out,” he recalled. “I didn’t let it deter me.”

One of his most memorable experiences came when he was sent to Taiwan, representing the Searchlight newspaper, in a Vincentian contingent comprising several local media practitioners. Jude said that it was very rewarding, in that he had the opportunity to learn about a culture that was entirely foreign to him. While there, he visited many media houses and universities, and got the chance to meet new people and sample their food and music.

Being chief sub-editor at Searchlight means that Jude is the chief page designer and headline writer. He also supervises the production staff — which includes the graphic artists and other layout staff.

Jude said that he is proud to still be an integral part of Searchlight’s operations because it has been like nurturing a child and watching him/her blossom. He has encountered and become friends with many persons over the years — both within Searchlight and the wider community — imparting his knowledge to and learning from them.

“I keep up to date with things,” he explained. “I talk to people all around town… that’s how I made a lot of friends.”

In particular, he said that he greatly enjoyed working with Norma Keizer, who was the founding editor at Searchlight, and still misses her presence in the workplace.

In his limited free time, Jude enjoys fishing, shooting at the gun range, dabbling with new technology (computers, cameras etc) and listening to music from a variety of genres. He is the father of two daughters, and has two grandchildren.

Neal Jackman – Senior Graphic Artist

“I do what needs to be done for the company to shine.”

This is how Neal’s contribution to Searchlight newspaper can be summed up. Having designed the paper’s original masthead in 1995, while an employee at The Nation, Neal took the plunge and joined the team as a full-time employee in 1998 — opting to make the journey on the MV Windward instead of by plane.

Of SVG, he said: “This is an awesome country to live in, as long as you do for yourself, and do not sit and wait for people to give anything to you. St Vincent’s natural beauty is legendary, recorded and tranquilizing.”

Fitting into the Vincentian way of life was easy for him, as he had visited our multi-island nation several times before migrating here; and having frequented the Cheapside Vegetable Market in Barbados as a youngster, he had the opportunity to meet a lot of Vincentian traffickers.

“If I seem at home here, it is because St Vincent became my second home by naturalization, long before I ever saw its shores.”

Over the years, like Jude, Neal has seen many employees come and go at Searchlight, and sometimes it’s not immediately apparent to him when someone no longer works here.

“I have been so busy on the job I did not know the others had left,” he recalled. “Especially because people who leave Searchlight seem not to be able to stay away from the office. They come by every week.”

As senior graphic artist, Neal is responsible for the design of all advertisements that appear in the newspaper — whether they are from customers or our own. He described graphic design as being something that is in his blood, and he decided to pursue it as a career because it is what came most naturally to him.

“Out of the options in art that a person can have a future with, graphics leads the list. Each product that you touch in a supermarket or bookstore is first touched through design by a graphic artist.”

Neal explained that working at Searchlight over the years has been a very interesting period of his life, and that through the job he has had the opportunity to meet many business persons and to experience SVG’s unique cultural practices.

One of his most memorable highlights on the job was doing photography on an annual Garifuna pilgrimmage to Balliceaux.

“The experience was an eye-opening one, which everyone in the region should experience, because it brings more light to the long line of injustices Caribbean people suffered.”

In terms of his own family back in Barbados, Neal said that he is missing them more now than he has in years gone by.

“I know that I have a role to fill there and that I must return, probably next year. Currently, I try to see them every couple years or so.”

In his spare time, Neal is an active member of the Kingstown Baptist Church, keenly involved with several groups. He also serves on the executive of the SVG Squash Association, has a passion for furniture design, hiking, boating, creative writing, mountain biking and off-road motoring.

Describing himself as someone who likes to study, Neal recently gained a Distinction in a UWI/Carimac course in Online Journalism, and is currently on the final leg of a counselling course at the UWI Open Campus.