On the passing of Desmond Seales, Editor in Chief of Cayman Net News.
I try not to speak ill of the dead, not out of superstition, but because it's no challenge, like shooting fish in a barrel - in Desmond's case that would be a puffer fish surrounded by piranha.I try and avoid instant canonization of the deceased too - which avoidance in Desmond's case is also like shooting said fish in said barrel; saint he wasn't.
Many a eulogy begins with John Donne's words, No man is an island entire of itself but I think Desmond came to believe he was the embodiment of the Island - something that explains how he came to quarrel, one-by-one, with other self-styled 'big fish' sharing the same conceit.
Cayman probably shaped Desmond more than vice versa. He came to reflect the quirks, contrariness and sometimes garbled logic characteristic of the Cayman Islands, for example how he treated people.
The smiling, welcoming face at the door, which turns away (and turns to thunder) to cuss a servant for being too slow, too noisy, too some-ting, then turns back, smiling radiantly in an instant.Or how he couldn't be wrong about anything even when he obviously was.
The man in smoldering clothes denying he was struck by lightning because he was wearing a tin hat in a thunderstorm. "That hat saved me. Imagine what would have happened if I hadn't been wearing it when that thunderbolt hit".
Cayman Net News had the authentic tang of Cayman culture, being the same gumbo of contradictions. It mixed high moral tone, inspired comment, blunt commonsense and devil-may-care jibes at the powerful with monumental pettiness, political toadying, self-aggrandizement, and random mumbo jumbo. Sometimes all in the same article. Fascinating.
If there wasn't enough news for the day Net News wasn't above 'finding' some or if the news wasn't lively enough, augmenting it.
Eventually he overplayed his hand. Crucial, and fairly recent, events that lead to there being less news and less influence for Desmond were
- outing of his own journalistic source of private government documents, (Charles Clifford) for personal reasons.
- alleged comments (which he denied making) about criminal contacts and police corruption that lead to the fiasco of Operation Tempura - the scale of the fiasco not being of his making.
- publication of letters (of very dubious origin) in Net News about the judiciary that triggered another investigation
These events made Desmond appear, at best, a journalistic Jonah and at worst Byronic including in the sense of being "mad, bad and dangerous to know."
Desmond was much more about politics than news over the last decade but I don't think he was ever really on a side in terms of party politics. He was more like a floating voter, prepared to take a chance on change but also prepared to take his vote elsewhere if electoral promises were broken.
Whatever his faults and failures he was consistent in calling for a better quality of politics and politicians, he believed both had to improve and advance if the Cayman Islands was to enjoy a happy future. This is from an editorial in May 2007.
Effective political leaders should serve in a transformational role, where they are able to outline a vision for the country and instill confidence through their works to transcend personal goals and ambitions for the collective good of the country. This transformational leadership has typically been lacking in the Cayman Islands, leaving the country searching for directionAmen to that.
Bury Desmond's faults with him but let that agitation for better politics be his legacy.
What should his epitaph be? .. sticking to Donne, but paraphrasing him
"...never send to know for whom the press rolls; It rolls for thee"
With fitting irony Desmond becomes headline news in all the local media ... it's what he would have wanted.
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Good stuff baldy. End of an ego I say, but even so it is sad, sad news of a death at a relatively young age - a bright light dimmed. He could be an immensely generous, likeable man if you knew him personally as my family did – he could also be a pain in the neck and as you say he was never, ever bound for sainthood, his only real aspiration was to be taken seriously.
ReplyDeleteHe was at one time numero uno salesman in Cayman and could have succeeded in that line in whatever territory he chose; he withdrew from that cattle market long ago and took up what others described as journalism – but he was no journalist, he could not and did not write for his publications, he knew how to market printed things and editorially he expressed ideas (some good, some bad) and others put these into words. He thought journalism involved simply stirring it because that was what he thought newspapers did. The puzzle is why did he not just stick to marketing and running the Compass a good commercial race but instead he chose to slug it out with whoever he could find to challenge. He should have stuck to advertising salesman – but he came unstuck in real estate sales of course by dint of bad luck and poor judgement – less said about that the better.
Most importantly though he made himself big (as they say of goalkeepers) in Cayman terms and kept his various operations afloat through sheer hard bloody graft (his own and others) and had the vision to seize and embrace new opportunities. Simply put he was a force of nature – OK he had feet of clay but he was an unusually gifted man who was looking for a place in history for himself and his efforts – t’was never to be – he came from Trinidad so he could never really triumph in Cayman in the long run. RIP Des, you were truly a one-off…
"...his only real aspiration was to be taken seriously."
ReplyDeleteI think that's it in a nutshell.
And, contrary to what they say it, looks like hard work can kill you.
Net News' circulation survived so long as Desmond's did ... now who knows?
Thanks Ed.