Former Express Editor Raoul Pantin has died, aged 71.
Widely known as a veteran journalist, Pantin had been as a political and business reporter for the T&T Guardian, as well as a playwright and a poet.
Following is the full statement released by former T&T Guardian Editor-in-Chief Judy Raymond on Pantin's passing.
"My first memory of Raoul in person is of him walking around the old ground-floor Express newsroom, decades ago, saying, “This is pressure!” which was a catchphrase of his. It was part of Raoul's carapace, the image he built of himself as a macho, hard-bitten journalist. (There was a bitterly fought but hilarious feud between him and Wayne Brown in their columns over their respective authorial poses, which eventually had to be ended by the editorial intervention of Keith Smith.)
"But there was even more, this time unbearable pressure during the 1990 coup attempt, in which Raoul was caught up as a hostage at TTT. He was never the same again; it left him one of the walking wounded and shattered a lot of illusions, not only about Trinidad but also about himself.
"He soldiered on and eventually in some respects recovered, though it was wishful thinking—or perhaps a wish to keep some things private—that made him write at the end of his book on the coup that he “got on the bus and lived happily ever after.” The next time our paths crossed in a newsroom he was still struggling to deal with the fallout from the coup attempt, but then, it was only in 2007 that he was able to write the book—an indication of how deep a shadow it cast over his life.
"Not too long after July 1990, though, I interviewed him about his writing career outside journalism, and I think he was pleased by that. He was also a casualty of the lack of respect and opportunities available for writers, which were even fewer and further between when he started out, and you have to admire him for persevering against the odds.
"So I'm glad that the groundbreaking movie Bim, for which he wrote the script, came to be recognised as a Caribbean classic before he died. I also remember vividly a production of his play Radio Republic 555 at the Little Carib, which included Express reporter Ria Taitt in the cast. The premise of the play was a news story that the entire country was stuck in gridlock; at the time it seemed like a far-fetched joke, but these days it's often painfully close to the truth.
"Since the news of his death, people are talking about him as a veteran reporter, but I am not sure how many of them were around to actually read his work when he was in his heyday. I think as a journalist, he was at his best when he was on the ball and offered down-to-earth, salty commentary.
"In another country perhaps he could have devoted himself to creative writing full-time and made a living from it. Journalism is a harsh taskmaster; even for those not caught up in a violent insurrection, it can target their fragilities, and the pressure Raoul complained about so insouciantly before July 1990 was nothing compared to the pressure now."