Gambia-L:

By the grace of God, sooner rather than later, I'll be doing a feature
article - for the L and the Newspapers in the Gambia - on the success story
of a Multi-Millionaire British Gambian entrepreneur, Mr. Rene Carayol; and,
please, do watch/look out for it, because it is going to be worth reading!!

Modest Rene Carayol last night agreed - in principle - to grant me an
exclusive interview - the first he is giving to a Gambian Journalist - on
the secrets of his success in the UK. In fact, later today, he would call me
and tell me the date and time for the intended/envisaged interview.

Rene's story is inspiring and very positive, especially at a time when not
many good things are written about blacks in the Western Media; and he is
surely a living proof (to the fact) that with hard work, determination and
dedication, a lot can indeed be achieved.

Gambia-L, there is a lot of stereotyping, or negative reporting, in the
Western Media, as far as the black people are concerned, but I can tell you
that there is indeed a good number of blacks, doing very well, in every
sector of the British Economy, for instance, and yet nobody hears about
them. Their success stories go unreported.

In Britain, things reported, most of the time, in the Media, about blacks,
are negative, or the coverage still fits into the stereotype view of black
people.

You can, therefore, imagine how elated I was, when Sandra told me that she
read somewhere, in the Voice Newspaper, which is a leading black paper here,
that a British Gambian was in fact one of the richest and most successful
entrepreneurs in the entire black community in the UK.

Anyway, for those of you who do not know him, well, Rene Carayol, 41
year-old father of two kids, is now "the most influential person in British
publishing", and this fact is even acknowledged by the Guardian Newspaper,
which is a well respected broadsheet newspaper here in the UK.

In January 1999, Rene Carayol and his nine fellow Directors bought the IPC
publishing empire, at around £1 billion Pounds Sterling. IPC, a titanic, is
today the largest Consumer Magazine Publisher in the whole of Europe. Rene
Carayol is IPC's Chief Executive and also heads its Information Technology
Department.

Since he took over, there must have been a 300 per cent increase in the
number of blacks who now work for the IPC company.

Rene Carayol's parents came to Britain, from the Gambia, in the 50s, I
believe. He comes from the same family as Adelaide Carayol-Sosseh, now
Adelaide Carayol-Gaye, and Mrs Mary Carayol-Ngum, wife of teacher Nyapali
Ngum. Mrs Mary Ngum once worked at Radio Gambia doing programmes for the
School children.

So, Gambia-L, to know more about how Rene Carayol got to the top - via
stints at Dixons, an electrical retailer here in the UK, Marks and Spencer,
Pizza Hut, and now IPC - you better watch/look out for the exclusive
interview where he would be revealing it all to me.

Ebrima Ceesay,
Birmingham, UK

PS: My unimpeachable source in the Gambia has thrown more light on the Lamin
Juwara story which I posted yesterday to the L.

By the way, Lamin Juwara was the Counsellor at the Gambian Embassy in
Washington DC. Now, what happened, according to my source, was that when the
Gambian demonstrators went to the Embassy to express concern over the tragic
events of 10 April, John Bojang, the ambassador, was not in at the time.
Lamin Juwara, however, was reportedly at work.

So, Lamin Juwara then called Ambassador Bojang on his (Bojang's) mobile
phone, and informed him that some Gambian demonstrators were already in the
Embassy building, to submit a petition and, as such, he, Bojang, needed to
come, to attend to them.

John Bojang, however, reportedly exploded on Mr. Juwara and accused him,
among other things, of letting, or allowing, the demonstrators in the
Embassy. Lamin Juwara reportedly attempted to explain to ambassador Bojang
what happened, and how it happened, but John Bojang reportedly would not buy
what Lamin Juwara was saying.

He, therefore, reported Juwara with the authorities in Banjul, for the
alleged inefficient way and manner in which he, Juwara, had handled the
demonstration, as a result of which Lamin Juwara was recalled to Banjul with
immediacy, by the Gambian authorities. I hope this has clarified things a
little bit.

Katim Touray: Thanks for the help/advice. It is appreciated!
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