It was in April 1969 that I took on my first job as an agronomist with the Firestone Rubber Plantations in Liberia. The plantation was a kind of American enclave in the country with its own hospital, grocery shop, golf course, library and its own Coca-Cola bottling plant. For the world news we had to rely on the weeklies Time and Newsweek.
On one trip up-country, we visited an isolated plantation managed by a British planter. It was there that I first saw the Guardian Weekly and concluded that this was precisely the independent view of news that I had been missing so far.
Ever since 1970 the Weekly has accompanied me wherever I have gone. During those many years one period still stands out: 1972 till 1974. At that time I was employed at the University of Hawaii, working towards a doctorate in “tropical soils and agronomy”. It coincided with the Nixon presidency and the famous Watergate scandal. We will never forget the front-page article upon Nixon’s re-election: Can the US stand four more years of Richard Nixon? Some 18 months later, Nixon had indeed resigned over Watergate, its cover-up and the “tapes”.
It was an amazing story in which your form of independent journalism has been of incredible value. In today’s world with its abundance of questionable (fake) news through social media, your role is becoming ever more important.
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