At bottom, the job of a journalist is to tell stories effectively, to get to the heart of the matter as directly and elegantly as possible while crafting a compelling narrative. Keith Swift was a master at this, as he demonstrated in this story:
Doris Staine,
"Me love school."
Keith Swift, Reporting
"4-year-old Doris Staine, who will be 5 in December, wants to go to school but she can't because no school will accept her."
Lisa Staine, Mother
"No school didn't want to take here."
Keith Swift, Reporting
"The reason is because Doris was born with spina bifida - a condition which affects the spine by splitting it in two. She can move her legs but she struggles to walk."
That story went on to win a top regional honour in the 2008 Sagicor Award for Best Television News Report. But for Keith, it was about more than just the story, he actually advocated for his special cases, such as Ash-Lyn Young in 2004.
Keith Swift Reporting,
"At 3:30 hundreds of Holy Redeemer Primary School students filed out if their classrooms into the compound, but as she's been doing for the past two weeks, Ash-Lynn Young walked out of the principal's office to meet her mother at work. This standard five student hasn't been allowed to sit in class for the past two weeks. Why? You might not believe it, but it's all because Ash-Lynn's mother Sharon Flowers refuses to let her daughter sell soft drinks during recess. With her daughter of school and no resolution in sight, as you might expect this mother is outraged."
Sharon Flowers, Ash-Lynn's Mother
"My child has not been in classes, my child has been going to school every single day but has been held in the office so she has just been sitting in the office for two weeks with no class work."
And from those big themes, to small causes, Keith Swift's work was always guided by a social conscience, whether it was this family stuck in a hurricane shelter for Christmas 1999 who he collected food hampers for, up to a new bike for this boy.
And with that hug, Keith proudly handed over this special Christmas gift.
And that same commitment to cause is what fuelled a prolific period of production during the floods of 2008, when Keith swift and his camera-man Alex Ellis embedded themselves in the south – driving over 300 miles every day – leaving early and returning very late and very wet to produce a package every day – a discipline no other journalist covering the story matched.
Keith Swift, Reporting,
June 4, 2008
"And the scene is even more dramatic here on the Coastal Road where the violent flood waters washed away the Mullins River Bridge, disconnecting the villages of Mullins River and Gales Point from southern Belize."
June 5, 2008
"I am walking on the main road in Gales Point. Normally it separates the two lagoons but now the water is knee deep and instead of two, there is now just one big lagoon. "
That went on for two weeks – but Keith was never reluctant to pick up and go out again the next day, no matter where the next trip took him – he was down for whatever:
Keith Swift, Reporting,
May 8th 2008 Santa Rosa
"This is Santa Rosa then – a thriving Guatemalan village on Belizean territory- complete with a school building. The illegal settlers, seen here in a 2007 meeting with the OAS, had made Belize their home – building homes, even a school, and planting crops. All of this on Belizean territory – and it seemed at times that no one was able to stop them."
May 13th 2008, Caye Caulker Dredging
"And there is a lot of concern onshore about what's happening here offshore because for the most part Caye Caulker is still a fishing village. Lobster is its cash crop and the season opens in less than a month. And that's why fishermen say that dredging at this time could be disastrous."
Nov 30th 2007, Spanish Lookout
"Nestled in the foreground of the Maya Mountains - the predominant Mennonite community of Spanish Lookout was built on agriculture and farming. But in 2007 the cows in Spanish Lookout now graze alongside oil wells."
June 16th 2008 Houston "We are now inside the Reliant Stadium and it is nothing compared to what we saw outside. It is about 17 minutes to game time and you can barely hear me because the crowd inside is just wild. "
But take out the props, the exotic locations, in the end it was still about the story, and no one put words to action, no one told the straight story as well as Keith:
Keith Swift, Reporting,
Nov 12th 2008 Chon Saan Palace, 7 on the inside
"It is work Lee Mark Chang knows all too well. He now manages Chon Saan Palace but isn't exempt from kitchen duties. He is as meticulous and multi-talented in the kitchen as he is in business. He can make a mean plate of chicken chop suey and personally does special orders like this one, where a customer requested these two groupers fresh from the aquarium."
"It was an easy catch but in the kitchen there was a mad dash to prepare the fish in 15 minutes. Lee Mark first clubbed the thrashing fish, and then he gutted them and then scaled them. They were then sliced and seasoned with a special sauce. Flour was added and then the pair of groupers were tossed in the fryer. A few minutes later they were taken out and arranged on a platter – and lunch was served."
And every night, that's just how Keith Served it up for us.
