There is an old time religious song that goes something like this -

“ Life has its joys and sorrows too,

Sometimes the mists will hide our view

There’s only one thing to do

Just keep on looking up!

Chorus

Keep looking up, your God is still the same today,

Keep looking up, he will not fail you come what may,

Keep looking up, the darkest clouds will roll away

So do not doubt, but keep on looking Up!”

What a tragedy for all of us at the OBSERVER group of companies!

Our managing director and chairman of the OBSERVER Media Group did not have the time to say farewell to Antigua & Barbuda and the Eastern Caribbean. In fact, to the whole world when he signed-off on his regular daily show “Voice of the People, “on Friday afternoon, for by the early hours of Saturday morning, he was dead.

A suspected massive heart attack had robbed the listening public of the sound of the familiar voice that had played a cat-and-mouse game with enemies and friends, and in which the familiar sound of “Cut he off and let’s get somebody else” had endeared him to thousands of his listeners.

The man Winston Derrick is no more. This view is but the lighter side of his multifaceted personality.  Along with his brother Fergie who pre-deceased him, they fought a valiant battle to obtain freedom of the press in Antigua & Barbuda when a tyrannical Antigua Labour Party (ALP) government bluntly and consistently refused to grant a radio license to the fledgling OBSERVER Radio.

Their equipment was seized and permanently confiscated. In the process, Winston, who manned the microphones, was arrested in a massive police raid. That Winston and Fergie persisted and fought the case all the way to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London, after being rejected by all the processes open to them in the Caribbean has been a demonstration of the persistence and tenacity of purpose of both brothers.

They held it to be a basic constitutional right to be able to communicate with their fellow citizens in the same way as the government-owned, Antigua Broadcasting System, and the private, Bird family-owned ALP radio-station, ZDK. Both of these stations enjoyed a monopoly to the exclusion of all other citizens who ought to have been equal under the provisions of the constitution.

The results were astounding. A Privy Council win for Winston and Fergie caused a media revolution in Antigua & Barbuda. The hands of the clock could never be turned back again.

Fergie’s death brought out a maturity and sense of vision, purpose, and management skills in Winston that gave the company a new vigour and a new life and propelled it into a new direction. He not only increased the number of staff, but also altered its direction to include the addition of a television station, which Winston was in the process of establishing.

Alas, this caring, family-oriented man who always found the time to continue to have a constant, ongoing relationship with his wife, children and grandchildren, his brothers and close relatives, is no more.

This man whose career had included that of a restaurateur, hotel owner and pioneer of a jointly owned media enterprise, in which he performed the role of reporter, editor, printer and director, did not realise that he had come to the end of a career in which he had been dubbed a Moses, an entrepreneur, a job-provider, a leader and a patriot. A man of the people!

We could heap superlative accolades ad nauseam but the shocking fact is, that Winston Derrick, the man who pioneered the OBSERVER group to its highest heights, is dead.

As Christians, we have the assurance that he held on to the promise of eternal life and know that he would not want us to keep on sorrowing like men without hope.

In this first editorial after his death, we know that he would utter the sentiments of that old religious song. We commend it to his wife and family. We commend it to our staff, his work family. We commend it to all of his friends and all those whose lives he touched, as we attempt to make his dreams a reality:

“Keep looking up, your God is still the same today,

Keep looking up, he will not fail you come what may,

Keep looking up, the darkest clouds will roll away,

So do not doubt, but keep on looking – UP ”

Yours in deep, heart-felt, sorrow and sympathy – the OBSERVER Media Group.