The Mahfoods: continuing a rich family tradition

**Tropicana** · 03-22-2009, 09:44 PM

Re: The Mahfoods: continuing a rich family tradition

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Dr.Dudd</div><div class="ubbcode-body">This page reminds me of an old asying.
Youe have been really studying jamaican history. The real history.
I notice that you have also learnt the jamaican strategy of ignoring people as if they are not there well at will.

This is usually lost on people who have not grown up in the Jamaican culurte.
they tend to think that we need technology to ignore others.

If they evern knew.... </div></div>

Yes I have been coached by some on here on the art of ignoring and have mastered it well. I believe CEW was the first one WAY back. However, as a transplated yardie however I did need the technology to ignore others. Still not perfect yet and I found britisha's reminder helpful. It's a wonderful gift. I will continue to work on it.

**Tropicana** · 03-22-2009, 09:46 PM

Re: The Mahfoods: continuing a rich family tradition

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: neutral</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Interesting read,...wonder how long it will take before the mahfoods buy out and "sellout" jamaica...lol ! </div></div>

Well Butch Stewart owns half of Jamaica, Chris Blackwell the other half :razz: so I guess they're next. They're well on their way. There is a new crop of 40 something millionaires down there mostly Jamaican whites and lights (if I can call them that). De men deal with nothing but super models. That is another story to be discussed one of these fine days.

**Tuff Gong** · 03-22-2009, 10:12 PM

Re: The Mahfoods: continuing a rich family tradition

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: neutral</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Interesting read,...wonder how long it will take before the mahfoods buy out and "sellout" jamaica...lol ! </div></div>
LOL just listening to most of the arguments against the so-called 21 Families throughout the years they already have.

One family that was never named in the 21 Evil-Families-The-Rock was, the Duncans.
It so happen that D.K. Duncan who became a Dentist, a Politician, an arch Socialista, Minister of National Mobilization, GenSec of the Party and Member Of The House Of Representatives from East Central St. Andrew the Constituency where I was born and raised.

The same Area the Chinese and Whites were driven out of their homes and business. As I have said before the Chinese still own their proprieties but the Jamaican Whites abandoned their holdings, one of which was the alignment center where the Comrade Refugees took up residence.

It was suppose to be our Community Center but today the same Comrade Families and their many offsprings, friends and Families still occupy the premises.
The Jamaican Whiteman businesses were never restarted and other than some Dances, no legal commercial venture was ever again conducted on that property.
It became a rapist’s hangout, a storehouse for imported guns and shottas and place to buy bush weed sometimes, the better herbs already had their delivery points.

I mentioned D. K. Duncan because his kids and his wife all did well and their financial house became one of the top money makers in Jamaica, this in the 90s where similar to the 70s the PNP was again in power and again wrecked the economy.

The point is, some new people joined the rich, kids that grew up with us, that are roughly the same age as us were able to make money, tons of money in a Post Slavery Jamaica...only problem is they were progenies of the destructive forces that destroyed the supposedly One Love Jamaica. The Blacks who followed them and tore up white Jamaican businesses and homes are still poor and even more half-starved today.

**britisha** · 03-22-2009, 10:17 PM

Re: The Mahfoods: continuing a rich family tradition

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Tropicana</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Dr.Dudd</div><div class="ubbcode-body">This page reminds me of an old asying.
Youe have been really studying jamaican history. The real history.
I notice that you have also learnt the jamaican strategy of ignoring people as if they are not there well at will.

This is usually lost on people who have not grown up in the Jamaican culurte.
they tend to think that we need technology to ignore others.

If they evern knew.... </div></div>

Yes I have been coached by some on here on the art of ignoring and have mastered it well. I believe CEW was the first one WAY back. However, as a transplated yardie however I did need the technology to ignore others. Still not perfect yet and I found britisha's reminder helpful. It's a wonderful gift. I will continue to work on it. </div></div>

What reminder Tropicana?

**Seveen** · 03-22-2009, 10:17 PM

Re: The Mahfoods: continuing a rich family tradition

ignore and ignorance not too far apart

**Tuff Gong** · 03-22-2009, 10:24 PM

Re: The Mahfoods: continuing a rich family tradition

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Seveen</div><div class="ubbcode-body">ignore and ignorance not too far apart </div></div>LOL!

**Tuff Gong** · 03-22-2009, 10:53 PM

Re: The Mahfoods: continuing a rich family tradition

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Tropicana</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: neutral</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Interesting read,...wonder how long it will take before the mahfoods buy out and "sellout" jamaica...lol ! </div></div>

Well Butch Stewart owns half of Jamaica, Chris Blackwell the other half :razz: so I guess they're next. They're well on their way. There is a new crop of 40 something millionaires down there mostly Jamaican whites and lights (if I can call them that). De men deal with nothing but super models. That is another story to be discussed one of these fine days. </div></div>

Really?
Why not call out the names of these nouveau-millionaires?
People like these three in the article below, now knee deep again in politics, who use their influences and connection to bury themselves so deep, they are strategically involved in every second of every hour of everyday of life on the Rock?

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black'">Peter Bunting: the visionary driving DB&G</span>

<span style="font-style: italic">BUSINESS LEADER SPECIAL
Observer Business Writer
Tuesday, May 06, 2003</span>

When <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black'">Peter Bunting and Christopher Dehring</span> got together a decade ago to sketch the broad outlines of a plan for a Wall Street-type, boutique financial outfit, their very choice of name - Dehring Bunting & Golding - would send a subliminal message to the market that a young, brash trio had arrived.

Yet, only those closest to Bunting would have known that despite his public image, this reticent individual was an unwilling convert to the world of entrepreneurship.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black'">"I am a reluctant businessman," he accepts. "I am at heart a public servant. I never saw myself as being in business."</span>

Nevertheless, Bunting is in business, and as the numbers suggest, in a big and very public way.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black'">At the end of December, his publicly traded DB&G reported total assets of $24 billion, shareholder equity of $687 million, and had posted nine-month net profit of $183 million. Today, Bunting's 11.5 million shares in the company are worth over $120 million</span>.

Bunting, 41, is truly a corporate enigma. Urbane and modest, he relishes the fact that he types his own correspondence; he farms coffee for fun 4,000 feet up the Blue Mountain, and harbours ambition of being a teacher. That noble profession, he reckons, would allow him to transform Jamaica, not with sophisticated financial products, but by directly influencing young minds.

His appetite for this role was whetted recently during an address to some 400 high school students from central Jamaica who had participated in a leadership breakfast that was sponsored by DB&G.

"What I really enjoyed about the experience is that the youngsters are not cynical and resigned, as we are as adults," he says. "It was for me personally, a moment of great inspiration."

The last of four children, with seven years between he and his closest sibling, Bunting grew up on a 360-acre dairy farm in Free Town, Clarendon.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black'">"My father placed a high premium on education so he sent us all to boarding school," noted Bunting who attended St Cecilia Preparatory School in Kingston.</span>

Young Bunting earned a government scholarship to St George's College, having been among Jamaica's top performers in the Common Entrance Exams. He was also awarded a scholarship to Campion College, then a private school for Jamaica's rich - based on his performance on the school's internal exam. He opted for Campion, but continued living at St Cecilia's boarding home for the first two years of high school.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black'">At Campion, Bunting and Dehring were in first form together, and were among the four blacks in a class of 26 students.</span>

"It was the first time that I got a different perspective on the two Jamaica that existed in the same county," he remarked. "It was an interesting social experience because I remember noticing that in my class were primarily Whites and Chinese. By the time I reached third form it became a grant-aided school so more blacks began to enter."

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black'">Mark Golding, who later became a partner in DB&G, entered first form when Bunting and Dehring were in sixth form.</span>

"He (Mark) likes to remind me that he voted for me as house captain," says Bunting.

It was while at Campion that according Bunting, he made a transition into "somewhat of a rebel".

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black'">"I remember at the time lots of people were migrating. In that whole ferment somehow I identified myself as a bit of a rebel. I remember I was going to turn a Rasta. My shoe lace was always in green and gold, and I began attending Twelve Tribe meetings. I never wore locks my father would have had an heart attack."

He remembers it as a period of heightened political debate and awareness.

"In the late 1970s only three people at Campion were socialist: Chris was one, Tracy Melhado, and myself." At Campion, Bunting also met Peter Reid, who became a vice-president of DB&G during its early years. His father, Vic Reid, noted author, inspired Bunting "in terms of struggle and revolution". He also met through businessman OK Melhado - the father of Tracy Melhado - then opposition leader, Michael Manley and other "movers and shakers".</span>

Bunting remembers giving thought to taking off a year or so after high school, but quickly shelved the idea after a brief talk with his father.

"That's an interesting decision," remarked Bunting senior. "Where are you going to live?" he inquired.

Young Bunting's idea was to afford his father the pleasure of his company during his year-long hiatus from school.

"Well", came the response, "if you are not in school, it means that you are a big man and two bulls cannot rule in one pen."

As a compromise, his father outlined a series of employment options on the dairy farm - from milking cow - to cleaning the barn.

"I decided that university was not such a bad option after all," resigned Bunting.

He remained uncommitted however to any specific career path, a decision which was eventually made for him by his classmate and Campion track star David Moore who had himself applied to study at McGill University in Canada. Moore got Bunting an application form, and submitted his name for an engineering degree.

Bunting says while in high school he wanted to study literature, but was encouraged to pursue the sciences by his father.

[At McGill, he discovered that engineering was a professional degree, which allowed for very little opportunity for exposure to non-core courses like literature and history in which he had an interest.

Bunting completed his engineering degree in 1983, but had no doubt about his disinterest in the profession.

His option was to pursue an MBA in finance, which he did, on a scholarship from the University of Florida, a starkly different environment from metropolitan Montreal.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black'">"Montreal is a cosmopolitan city, and the downtown campus afforded us real exposure to the world and all the different cultures. There were lots of East Asians and other nationalities. It was really as dynamic environment."</span>

In contrast Florida University was, according to Bunting, "a deep south experience"; the community having lynched a black man just weeks prior to his arrival.

"It was my first serious exposure to racism," he said.

During spring break of the final year of his MBA programme, Bunting came to Jamaica, and did eight job interviews. He got an offer from Citibank.

"I was so impressed by the efficient way with which they handle everything that even though I did not previously had any thoughts about banking, I accepted it."

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black'">In that batch were some of the most outstanding young bankers to have emerged in Jamaica during the period. They include: Andrew Cocking, now deputy president of Capital & Credit Merchant Banking Group; Chris Dehring; Michael McMorris who later became chief executive officer and capital partner in Knutsford Capital Merchant Bank, which was later sold to Pan Jam; Peter Reid, now an executive at Scotiabank; Ann Shirley, former CEO of CIBC Jamaica; Howard McIntosh, former managing director of Corporate Merchant Bank.</span>

"We used to call Peter Moses - head of Citibank in Jamaica - the dean of the school of banking," quipped Bunting, who started as an account manager in the bank's corporate banking group.

"It was an excellent training ground", he says of his two-and-a half year Citibank experience. By the time he left the bank he was the manager of specialised finances where he was responsible for putting together corporate finance types deal.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black'">One major project he recalls is the debt to equity conversion programme that the Edward Seaga regime pursued in the late 1980s as a strategy of reducing Jamaica's external debt. Under this programme, entrepreneurs who wanted to invest in Jamaica could buy the government's debt at a 60 per cent discount - from the commercial banking consortium that held them - and surrender them for conversion at the face value at the point of investment. Most of the investment through this project went into the garment sector.</span>

Bunting's major move came at the beginning of 1988, when a group of investors led by OK Melhado and Cliff Cameron, approached him to head up a merchant bank they had on the drawing board.

"At age 27 I was being asked to leave a secure position at Citibank to start this bank from scratch," he said.

In fact, Cameron, who was the largest shareholder and who became chairman of the bank, recalled that at the time, it was Bunting who interviewed the shareholders to establish if they had the strength of capital, commitment and business ethos to successfully operate a bank.

"It was amazing, he interviewed us," Cameron recalled of the time.

Manufacturers Merchant Bank with the minimum prescribed capital base of $5 million was formed with Bunting as CEO. At the time, Eagle and Pan Caribbean were the established and well-known merchant banks.

"It was exciting," noted Bunting. "From the start it was a success. It took off very quickly and was profitable from day one."

Manufacturers was created just ahead of the late 1980s frenzy of banking start-up with institutions like Capital and Credit, Corporate Merchant, Horizon, and Knutsford Capital, among others, following.

Bunting says he started Manufacturers Merchant with his secretary from Citibank and was joined by Cocking as his number two man - in charge of marketing within two months. "We had a great time. We did lots of interesting deals like vendor financing, and traditional loans. We introduced instruments that did not require withholding tax."

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black'">Part of Bunting's compensation package was an equity stake in the bank. But he said, within two years, his public sector orientation began to take hold of him. So when Michael Manley, who had won the 1989 general elections, offered him an opportunity to be part of his public sector management team, he agreed. He became vice-presidency of the National Investment Bank of Jamaica (NIBJ), where Asgar Alley was president.

Bunting had maintained his contact and friendship with Manley while he was abroad studying, and remembers helping to host him when he visited McGill in the 1980s.

"When he was elected in 1989 I became a sort of private sector market advocate - always sending him ministry papers on liberalisation," recalled Bunting. "After a while he said 'why don't you come and show me'."</span>

At NIBJ, Bunting was placed in charge of privatisation, and within nine months, took over as president.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black'">"We were the vanguard of the liberalisation programme," he says. "We used to meet with the World Bank, IMF, IDB."

He was also on the board of the PCJ and chaired its committee that dealt with the deregulation of the petroleum sector.</span>

"At the time the entire pricing structure of the industry was regulated by the government - all prices and margins," recalls Bunting.

In fact, prior to working at NIBJ - and while still at Manufacturers, Bunting was chairman of the committee to deregulate the petroleum sector, which was completed in six months.

"We developed the policy basis for privatisation through the ministry paper no 34," he says. "The privatisation started under Seaga, but it became more comprehensive - and included assets like Carib Steel, Cement Company, NCB, Government Printing Office, hospital services."

While at the NIBJ, Bunting was one of three government officials who visited the Dominican Republic prior to liberalisation in the early 1990s to study the experience of that country which had gone that route a few years before.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black'">"At the time everybody agreed it was necessary - but in the future," he recalled.

Bunting became one of the inner circle advisors to Manley that he said included Peter Phillips, Anthony Hilton, Desmond Leaky, among others.

"It was an exciting time," he said.

In 1993 he ran in the general elections on a PNP ticket, and defeated the incumbent, Hugh Shearer.

He was named parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of Health in Prime Minister PJ Patterson's cabinet . In 1994 he was seconded to the transport and works ministry to work on Air Jamaicas privatisation. In 1995 he resigned as parliamentary secretary.

But by the time his political career had begun to unravel, Bunting was already deep in the world of business.</span>

It had started back in 1993.

"I was having lunch with Chris (who was general manger of Corporate Merchant Bank at the time) and he said, 'we done it for other people why not for ourselves'," recalled Bunting.

The high school friends immediately began to sketch the outlines of a business plan on the napkin. "The idea was to create a corporate finance boutique, to bring companies to the market, to do corporate finance. That was the concept."

At a second meeting Mark Golding, now an attorney at law, was brought to the meeting.

"Next thing I know Chris called me and told me that he had resigned from his job - so there was no turning back."

The company began with an initial capital of $37.5 million, raised from a combination of private investors and an initial public offer. Of that amount, the holding company - DB&G Holding subscribed (19 million shares) 51 per cent. Within the holding company, the three investors together held the majority shares. The three had to come up with $12 million.

Bunting raised his $5 million by selling the 7.5 per cent stake he had earned in Manufacturers Merchant Bank by way of sweat equity.

The other shareholders in the holding company were businessman Barclay Ewart Phillip Martin from Caribbean Fencing, some members of the Hart family from Montego Bay, and another Montego Bay businessman, Earl Harriot.

"These were really people we had done business with, and developed relationships with so when we were going out to start we approached them," said Bunting. "We did a private placement that went out to a few hundred individuals and gave a commitment to list on the Jamaica Stock Exchange."

Dehring became CEO, and Bunting, chairman. At the time he was president of the NIBJ.

At the beginning of 1995, Bunting joined DBG full time while he remained a member of Parliament.

At the end of 1996, Dehring left DB&G to join the West Indies Cricket Board as marketing director. Bunting went over to DB&G full time in 1997 as executive chairman.

The investment bank survived the meltdown that hit the financial sector in the mid to late 1990s, but by Bunting's recollection, the pace of growth came to a crawl because of the changes in the market.

"In the mid-1990s the business we had anticipated was not there," he says.

"There was a downturn in the stock market, there was high interest rates turmoil in the financial sector. We started to diversify."

Around 1997, DB&G began trading foreign exchange, having acquired a cambio licence. The company then got into the funds management business, providing investment advisor for clients, in a manner similar to Jamaica Money Market Brokers.

Then the opportunity came to acquire Billy Craig Merchant Bank, one of the scores of financial institutions that had ran into problems during the meltdown.

"Billy Craig gave us a presence in the western end of Jamaica - Sav and Mandeville It allowed us to begin our diversification into the retail end of the market," explained Bunting. The Montego Bay and Kingston branches were merged into DB&G's existing operation at those locations.

The Billy Craig acquisition took nearly two years to be consummated - from 1996 to 1998 - because DB&G discovered that the company was more perilous than had been anticipated prior to the due diligence.

"We realised that they had negative capital so we approached Finsac and did a joint rescue where we both injected capital to make the company viable," Bunting said.

The merchant bank with assets of around $450 million became a subsidiary of DB&G.

"The main thing that we got was the branch network and some good staff particularly in the branches," noted Bunting; Osmond Jackson in Sav; and Chorvelle Johnson in Mandeville. They have done phenomenally well.

The acquisitive CEO then cast his eyes at Eagle Unit Trust, which had been placed on the market for auction in 1999.

Initially Pan Jamaican Group won the bid, having bought the company for $97 million, but backed away from the deal when the government removed the tax-free status from the earnings from the unit trusts.

DB&G bought the unit trust for $115 million in 2000.

The unit trust gave DB&G a backdoor entry into the brokerage business - the company having from as far back as the early 1990s applied for a seat on the stock exchange but resisted the $20-million price tag.

"We saw it as broadening out product range," says Bunting. "It gave us an equity fund...From day one we had planned to get into the brokerage business. This was out of frustration and our own way to get into the equity market. There was no overlapping between their client base and ours."

Eagle had assets of $1.6 billion consisting of $1.5 billion in money market funds, and $100 million in equity funds.

The equity fund now has $600 million and posted tax-free returns of 46 per cent last year.

At the time of the purchase the unit trust had a book value represented by cash and stock of $85-plus million, which meant that B&G paid a $30-million premium for the asset.

But Bunting says that the premium was made back within the first year of operation.

Last year DB&G paid $15 million to acquire a seat on the Jamaica Stock Exchange - less than what the exchange was demanding 10 years before.

Bunting says it has been one of his company's best investments to date. The reason, he says, is that the acquisition was done with minimal physical investment and without having to employ additional staff. For the first 11 months of operation, the brokerage earned commissions of just under $40 million.

"Part of the strategy is to diversify our income stream," says Bunting. "It also complements the unit trust business."

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black'">DB&G has also in the past two years done some mega-deals from which it has earned fee income. For example, last year, it successfully floated a $3.5 billion 30-year bond for Highway 2000 project.

"We did a lot of research internally to see how these infrastructure-type projects are financed, and came up with an inflation index bond," explained Bunting. "The bond gives a return which is three to four per cent above inflation. Nobody had raised 30-year money prior to that issue in Jamaica</span>.

At the end of 2001, DB&G also raised US$100 million for the government, which had earlier made an unsuccessful attempt to raise the funds on its own.

"Last year we did several private fund-raising for the government - billions of dollars," noted Bunting.

Bunting speaks with obvious pride of what he describes as the high quality staff at his company and the level of returns that shareholders have enjoyed.

"If you had invested $1,000 in DB&G in 1999," he pointed out, "today that investment would be worth $15,000" - a feat he said not easily matched in Jamaica.

At present, DB&G has eight branches and 140 members of staff. Bunting says that the branches are run as semi-autonomous units, like a franchise, where the products are provided and the managers and employees are required to provide the quality service to make their branch profitable.

"Our branch managers are the key. We tell them to think of it as a franchise - as your business - you have the product, and must manage it and price it. Their compensation is a share in the profit from their branches, paid each month in arrears."

The rest of the company operates with what Bunting describes as a flat organisational structure.

"It is really a flat organisational structure, they are largely self managed," he stresses.

With Bunting as executive chairman, there is a president and chief operating office, Garry Sinclair.

Bunting focuses on the strategic side of business - acquisitions, personnel, sales and marketing, while Sinclair oversees treasury and operations.

Bunting believes that what is critical for DB&G going forward is for the organisation to remain flexible to respond to Jamaica's changing economic environment.

"We have reinvested ourselves several times and expect that in this volatile environment we will continue to do so. Our purpose has been to be a catalyst for growth and development for our customers, shareholders and staff."

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black'">...and even when they are caught robbing the Till they still escape without any sort of Punishment</span>:

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black'">Bunting recants - Apologises to Shaw</span>
<span style="font-style: italic">published: Thursday | May 22, 2008

Edmond Campbell, Senior News Coordinator</span>

**Tropicana** · 03-23-2009, 12:53 AM

Re: The Mahfoods: continuing a rich family tradition

Not sure what purpose it serves Tuff Gong or what this proves other than to provide more evidence of what I was saying in my first post in this thread and the 30 page thread that is still in the GD but here you go as requested:

Jamaica's most eligible bachelors - lots of lights and near Whites. I thought the majority of people in Jamaica were Black.

<span style="font-style: italic"> <span style="font-weight: bold">Brian Jardim (left), </span>one of two principals poses with Sandals owner and <span style="font-weight: bold">his father, Gordon Butch Stewart </span>(centre) and Giora Israel of Carnival cruise line</span>

<span style="font-style: italic"> Gypsy girl, Paula Byles; waitress, Candace Hart and<span style="font-weight: bold"> <span style="font-size: 14pt">biker Sheilagh Jardim </span></span>dressed to party all night at Groovy Grouper's Halloween party.</span>
<span style="font-style: italic"><span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="font-size: 14pt">Brian Jardim</span> </span>the superhero Batman pose for the cameras during Groovy Groupers Halloween party last Saturday night. </span>

Guess his super-model dating days are drawing to a close:

<span style="font-style: italic">Ian Dear and lady love, Carla Marzouca, were out at Dr Christopher Tufton's after-Budget reception in St Andrew early last year </span>

<span style="font-style: italic"> <span style="font-weight: bold">One of Montego Bay's most eligible bachelors has struck his name off the 'available' list. </span>Margaritaville Caribbean's/Blue Beat by the Sea operator, Ian Dear, refused to allow the new year to start without a diamond on the finger of the woman who stole his heart, Carla Marzouca.

The two became engaged on January 1. Carla and Ian, we await the date of the wedding. Congratulations.

</span>

<span style="font-style: italic">Brian Jardim (left) and Ian Dear (right) owners of Margaritaville, flank their banker Donovan Perkins, CEO of Pan Caribbean Financial Services. </span>

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Margaritaville Caribbean is the brainchild of Jamaicans Brian Jardim and Ian Dear. With years of experience between them in the hospitality industry and real estate development, the duo has created fun and exciting places that the whole family can enjoy, where both locals and visitors can kick back, relax and have a good time. Cool places on the waterfront where good food and drink flow and the fun never stops. In a word … Margaritaville!

In 1994, the duo opened their Hip Strip flagship Margaritaville Montego Bay, quickly followed by Margaritaville's alter-ego, Marguerite's Seafood by the Sea, right next door. This elegant and intimate waters-edge seafood restaurant is today acknowledged as one of the island's finest, offering a premium selection of seafood specialties and the freshest Caribbean lobster.

The following year, Brian and Ian unveiled the second restaurant in the chain, the 'Ville Negril. At the water's edge along Negril's world-famous beach, the 'Ville Negril is as casual and laidback as the bohemian town itself. Well-known for its wet and wild foam parties, the 'Ville Negril is Jamaica's Spring Break Capital.

In 2000 the duo joined forces with Jimmy Buffett and became the Caribbean franchise holders for Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville. The deal was sealed in 2001 and Jamaica joined the Jimmy Buffett family with the opening of Air Margaritaville at Mo'Bay's Sangster International Airport.

The 4th largest Jamaican Margaritaville, at Island Village in Ocho Rios, debuted in February 2002. Parrotheads flew in and locals flocked to the restaurant to witness Jimmy's electrifying performance in celebration of its opening.

Air Margaritaville 2 opened in 2005 and today there are a total of five assorted airport locations. On New Year's Eve of the same year, Marguerite's debuted a cool, sophisticated after-dinner lounge called Blue Beat Jazz and Martini Bar. The hotspot features nightly live jazz and Mo'Bay's best martinis.

2006 proved to be a busy year for Margaritaville Caribbean, with the February opening of Margaritaville Turks & Caicos at the Carnival Grand Turk Cruise Center. Just six months later, their seventh restaurant, Margaritaville Cayman, opened along the waterfront in George Town, Grand Cayman. With waterslide swim up pool bar and 2 stories of fun, Margaritaville Cayman is the biggest and boldest so far!

More Caribbean locations are opening soon, so watch this space!
</div></div>

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Brian Jardim and Ian Dear have exported their concept pool bar/restaurant, Margaritaville, to the Grand Turks, with a US$4 million investment that makes this latest venture, the largest in the growing chain.

The concept bar and night spot which is anchored in Jamaica was officially opened in Grand Turks on Friday, as one of the featured attractions on a 13-acre pier facility that was developed at a cost of US$64 million (J$4.1 billion).

The facility, the Grand Turk Cruise Centre, is a collaborative effort between the government of the Turks and Caicos Islands, Carnival Cruise Line International and Margaritaville.

The Margaritaville investment was through a combination of debt and equity, with Pan Caribbean Financial Services providing the debt funding, company officials told the Business Observer. They said that the Turks facility was the largest within the chain.

Dear and Jardim began the concept sports bar on Gloucester Avenue in Montego Bay in the late 1990s. They later expanded it to Negril, then Ocho Rios and Sangsters International Airport in Montego Bay.

The investments by the Jamaican entrepreneurs and the cruise line form part of the US$200 million that has been attracted to the tiny British islands over the past three years, Turk's chief minister, Michael Misick disclosed on Friday.

</div></div>

Source

**Tuff Gong** · 03-23-2009, 01:41 AM

Re: The Mahfoods: continuing a rich family tradition

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Tropicana</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Not sure what purpose it serves Tuff Gong or what this proves other than to provide more evidence of what I was saying in my first post in this thread and the 30 page thread that is still in the GD but here you go as requested:</div></div>
What were you saying because you have provided no evidence that slavery and the Mahfoods caused Black Jamaicans to be forever poor?

I have provided evidence to prove that Black Jamaicans with the aid of Politicians made themselves poor while enriching the White Jamaicans, Children of Politicians and Blacks who managed despite the odds, to get ahead.

The victims were all Jamaicans the cause was some Jamaicans!

**Tropicana** · 03-23-2009, 01:54 AM

Re: The Mahfoods: continuing a rich family tradition

One more time, the last time we discussed this a few months ago, I provided you with a list of books and articles that go into this subject in detail and I even hand transcribed several paragraphs from one of the books I have. So, if it makes you feel good, go ahead and deny that I have presented you with evidence. Wish I could dig up the old thread as I am certainly not going to bother typing all of THAT again when you clearly will again disregard it.

Seeit deh:

Page not found - Jamaicans and Jamaica - Jamaicans.com

http://www.jamaicans.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=872694&page=7

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Tropicana</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Tuff Gong, mi know you know this already but since you asked for it, hopefully, this is enough information:

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> In the English-speaking Caribbean, black and Indian, descendents fo slaves and indetures from Africa and Asia, hold poltical power. <span style="font-weight: bold">Economic power and HIGH SOCIAL STATUS,</span> owever, still reside generally in what can be termed a PIGMENTOCRACY of <span style="font-weight: bold"> whites, neo-whites, Chinese , Jews, and Syrian-Lebanese</span>. <span style="font-weight: bold">In Jamaica</span>, for example, a celebrated <span style="font-weight: bold">21 families </span>with residency and citizenship right in North American and Europe, <span style="font-weight: bold">dominate the local sectors of manufacturing, construction, and distribution </span>that has developed since the end of World War II. </div></div>

Source:

U.S.-Caribbean Relations: Their Impact on Peoples and Culture

Edited By Ransford W. Palmer

Also read this book in its entirity for the historical framework:

Slavery and Social Death

By Orlando Patterson

Download this:

Jamaican political processes: A system in search of a paradigm
Author: Carlene J. Edie

Purchase and read these again:

Small Garden . . . Bitter Weed: Struggle and Change in Jamaica .
by George Beckford and Michael Witter . London Zed, 1982

Rex Nettleford, Identity, Race and Protest in Jamaica (New York: William Morrow,
1972)

The Sociology of Slavery: An Analysis of the Origins, Development, and Structure of Negro Slave Society in Jamaica (Studies in society) by Orlando Patterson (Hardcover - Jun 1969)

I KNOW you've read them Tuff Gong. They are a MUST for anyone who wants to understand the dynamics of race, class and economic oppression in Jamaica.

</div></div>

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Tropicana</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Yes I have but if you want to ignore it, feel free. Go back and read what I typed. Are you going to tell me that Garvey was making this up?

Manley didn't invent the 21 families. It's fact and others wrote about this before Manley.

I am not going to take the time to type these out like I did the others but read for yourself:

<span style="font-weight: bold">Black Identities By Mary C. Waters</span>

Black Identities

All these people couldn't be wrong Tuff Gong plus those of us who are Jamaican have NUFF examples from our own families and communities.

<span style="font-weight: bold"> Light Skinned Privilege « Tariq Nelson</span>

Here some Jamaicans share their experiencs and I am just going to post 1:

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> Any black person who claims that colorism is not real in this day and age has either just by some mere stroke of luck never experienced it (isolation, etc), are the beneficiaries of it, and/or are simply prevaricating. This is not just an African American issue—this is a black issue.

In many parts of Africa and the Americas black women are using skin bleaching creams to lighten their skin—which is very dangerous to one’s health. Lighter skin women in Jamaica are called “brownin’” and in North America “red bone”. Some women you will find their faces, necks, and limbs light, but the other parts of their body are their original hue.
</div></div>
[quote] Darker skin children, I have seen this too many times to count, are usually teased and called all sorts of names by other blacks who might be 1-8 shades lighter than the one they are teasing. This does go both ways but more much often lighter skin is praised and darker skin is looked down on–perhaps because lighter skin is closer to “white”.

Obviously being dark skin does not turn you into a criminal and I don’t think that is what Dyson was trying to say by any means. Instead, I think he meant that there are often negative connotations linked with having dark skin and those negative connotations often result in the nightly news report that blares: “Cops are looking for a black, male suspect, about 5’9, possibly driving…etc). The image in most minds is that of dark skin black male, not a light skin black male. Dark skin people seem to be more “incriminating” and threatening than lighter skin black people—especially to most white people.

Those same negative connotations are linked to one child feeling neglected or left out because he/she is looked down on for having dark skin, not paid as much attention to for having dark skin, or looked at as the less “pretty”/”handsome” one for having dark skin. </div></div> <div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">

Beyond skin color, colorism is also related to eye color. Black people with hazel, green, etc eyes—eyes other than the common brown—are often praised for having “pretty” eyes. Most of these people tend to be lighter skin and/or mixed. The good hair/bad hair issue, perms, natural hair and such are products of this. One thing is for sure, European colonization, all in all, did a number on the black psyche–(including Ethiopia, where the country was only occupied for 5 years by Italy)

</div></div>

http://tariqnelson.com/2008/07/24/light-skinned-privilege/

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Tropicana</div><div class="ubbcode-body">No I am not going to start typing pages out of books and transcribing Garvey's speeches. He licked out against light skinned Blacks because of the discrimiantion by them that was rampant in Jamaican society and he and WEB Dubois fought bitterly about it.

Read this again and note the bolding this time and I ahve quoted other similar sources on the previous page and I am not going to type and transcribe anything else. </div></div>

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">It appears that the social differentiation based on colour which prevailed in 1838 must have remained fairly static for nearly a century, the tempo of slow change quickening somewhat during the 1920's, experiencing a greater quickening in the 1930s, coming in for accelerated motion in the 1940s with the river of knowledge finding itself in spate in the 1950s and 1960s.

Up to the 1920s conditions were superficially little removed from those described by Grant Allen as prevailing in the 1860s. Roughly speaking a discernible "touch of the tar-brush" disqualified the victim of circumstances from close social relations with the Whites. For it might lead to marriage and marriage might bring the dreaded "throw-back" (or reversion to colour) in the offspring. Many a dark member of an apparently white family was a cause of shame and embarrassment to the humiliation or frustration to himself.

Roughly speaking, Black and Coloured Persons "knew their place", the line being drawn at free acceptance in business, with due respect paid and graciously received, and with tacit exclusion from the homes of the Whites. The relations between Joseph Gordon (the Scotsman) and his coloured son, George William Gordon remaining typical for several generations up to and after the 1860s. </div></div>
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
Some few persons of colour had what might be called a flair for society and might be admitted; but an awkward situation arose when he aspired to marriage. A coloured doctor or lawyer (particularly in the country towns) might live down the social disability by sheer outstanding merit. <span style="font-weight: bold">By and large, persons of marked colour were not on visiting terms with the whites, nor were they readily accepted in the more exclusive clubs in Kingston or in some rather snooty country towns like Mandeville.</span>

White and coloured children mingled freely at school without any inhibitions whatever. When they grew up. however conditions solidified as above indicated:
</div></div>

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><span style="font-weight: bold">The blacks long continued in a lower social category than persons of colour; and, with kinky ("pepper-grain&quot

hair, the very dark man suffered the social ostracism of the blacks. Apart from the competitive Civil Service (first put into operation in 18E5) there were little or no white-collar jobs available to the blacks. They were also excluded from the social life of the whites and persons of colour except in limited measure in the homes of the Missionaries; and they were generally excluded from social admission in the homes, hotels and clubs.</span>
For the blacks, a vicious social and economic circle prevailed. Denied economic opportunity, it was long before they enjoyed the amenities which economic resources usually bring: education, care of the person.

One is reminded of R. L. Stevenson's In "A child that is not clean and neat, with lots of toys and things to eat, he is a naughty child I'm sure or else - his dear Papa is poor". </div></div>

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> <span style="font-weight: bold">Between 1890 and 1896 in Jamaica in one of the boarding schools for secondary education not a dozen black Jamaican boys passed through the school.</span>

<span style="font-weight: bold">In the 1920s some relaxation in the exclusiveness of the clubs based on shades of colour took place by reason of two factors: one being the filip given to sports particularly tennis and later golf (cricket had long had some very moderate effect), </span>the other being the progress to adult life of old school friends o: various shades, coupled with the outstanding personal intellectual achievements of men of color (and more rarely of women). In the meantime then was a good deal of relaxation on the question of marriage between whites and near whites and other.. known or appearing to be coloured.

<span style="font-weight: bold">It was however during this period that a black lady of culture and comparative wealth with her children was denied admission to a public children's party at Myrtle Bank Hotel in Kingston. It was difficult to decide which was the more surprised, the hotel manager at the lady's naivety in seeking admission or the lady at being refused admission.</span>

</div></div>

<span style="font-weight: bold">Source:</span>

MONTHLY COMMENTS
Jamaica by Ansell Hart
Volume 5. (August 1962 – July 1964)

http://www.demercado.com/Volume%205-Final--exceptno8.htm

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Tropicana</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Not so fast. You're forcing me to dig through my library. Check out the West Indian Perspectives Series edited by David Lowenthal and Lambros Comitas. MY EX APPARENTLY HAS 3 OF MY BOOKS.... I did see them at his place but I didn't realize they were MINE.

The one that I have "The Aftermath of Sovereignity" was published in 1973.It's the last in the series and talks about these issues. It's a collection of articles that were written BEFORE Manley (the son) came on the scene and it speaks about the families that control the economy of Jamaica and the fact that the light skinned Blacks, Chinese, Jews, and Syrians had a privilleged position and were discriminating against the darker Blacks. So it wasn't just Manley. The other writers like Patterson. Nettleford, and Fernando Henriques also spoke about these issues. All of these people and Garvey could not be lying. </div></div> <div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">

In a second I will list the volumes in that series.

<span style="font-weight: bold">Consequences Of Class And Color. West Indian Perspectives </span> - THIS is the one that discusses these issue in depthand talks about the discrimination and the fact that dark skinned blacks were the victims of prejudice. It also talks about the domoinance of the Jews, Syrian, Chinese, and light skinned Blacks in the economy. It was published in 1973 and it is a collection of articles from before Manley came on the scene.
<span style="font-weight: bold">Work and Family Life : West Indian Perspectives </span>- LOWENTHAL, DAVID ...
<span style="font-weight: bold">Slaves, Free Men, Citizens, West Indian Perspectives </span>- COMITAS ...
<span style="font-weight: bold">The Aftermath of Sovereignty: West Indian Perspectives </span>

Maybe I had better re-order the whole collection from Amazon while it is still available.

</div></div>

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Tropicana</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Not so fast. You're forcing me to dig through my library. .....</div></div>
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Tuff Gong</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
<span style="font-size: 20pt"><span style="font-weight: bold">Well you still win;</span> </span>I mean it is all in your library. I will however save the links and keep coming forward to the post so I can refresh my very limited library. Make sure you post the <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black'">isbn</span> as well my friend. </div></div>

So don't tell me I haven't presented evidence because I have and this was not the first time.

**Tuff Gong** · 03-23-2009, 02:03 AM

Re: The Mahfoods: continuing a rich family tradition

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Tropicana</div><div class="ubbcode-body">One more time, the last time we discussed this a few months ago, I provided you with a list of books and articles that go into this subject in detail and I even hand transcribed several paragraphs from one of the books I have. So, if it makes you feel good, go ahead and deny that I have presented you with evidence. Wish I could dig up the old thread as I am certainly not going to bother typing all of THAT again when you clearly will again disregard it. </div></div>

The forum has a great search engine. Maybe you should search for the subject, refresh yourself as to what you really posted the extent of my replies. In any case this is not a road to travel for me because it does not any the question of the Mahfoods’ culpability in hold Black Jamaicans back. Indeed there are many Black Jamaicans who were and are successful under each of the period of demarcation of Jamaican history since slavery.

**Tuff Gong** · 03-23-2009, 02:08 AM

Re: The Mahfoods: continuing a rich family tradition

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Tropicana</div><div class="ubbcode-body">So don't tell me I haven't presented evidence because I have and this was not the first time. </div></div>

Well you have presented not one shred of evidence here or there to demonstrate the Mahfood’s culpability in destruction of the ambitions of Jamaican Blacks.

**Tropicana** · 03-23-2009, 02:08 AM

Re: The Mahfoods: continuing a rich family tradition

I have bumped the entire thread to the top of the board. It is impossible to cut and paste everything we discussed.

Page not found - Jamaicans and Jamaica - Jamaicans.com

http://www.jamaicans.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=949107&page=7

And you did end that discussion by saying YOU WIN so I don't know why we are re-visiting it.

**Tuff Gong** · 03-23-2009, 02:11 AM

Re: The Mahfoods: continuing a rich family tradition

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Tropicana</div><div class="ubbcode-body">And you did end that discussion by saying YOU WIN so I don't know why we are re-visiting it. </div></div> LOL.....was it about the Mahfood's destroying Black Jamaicans and stopping them from making progress?

**Tropicana** · 03-23-2009, 02:11 AM

Re: The Mahfoods: continuing a rich family tradition

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Tuff Gong</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Tropicana</div><div class="ubbcode-body">So don't tell me I haven't presented evidence because I have and this was not the first time. </div></div>

Well you have presented not one shred of evidence here or there to demonstrate the Mahfood’s culpability in destruction of the ambitions of Jamaican Blacks. </div></div>

Read the material I posted. It describes in far more detail how the system worked and how the Syrians, etc. were given a leg up and the Blacks kept down even read the little I have jsut re-posted in this thread.

It's quite interesting that these people left their own countries because of persecution (e.g. Jews, Syrians, Lebanese) and then some of them turned around and turned up their nose at Black people and think they are better than us.

The Mahfoods: continuing a rich family tradition

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