Posted on 05/11/2006 9:10:14 AM PDT by CarrotAndStick
Immediately after he pulled off his '72 coup against President Oboto in Uganda, strongman Idi Amin -- full title: His Excellency President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea, and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular (and also, curiously, King of Scotland) --decreed Africa should be for Africans. One of his first decisions as lord of beasts and fishes was to eject all the Asians -- some 40,000 or so, who were third generation descendants of Indians who had come to work for the British colonial administration during the days of Empire and who, when the British Empire was dissolved, created commercial enterprises.
Not for nothing had Amin been mentioned in a dispatch, when he was on the British side during the Mau-Mau uprising, as "virtually bone from the neck up, and needs things explained in words of one letter."
Having decided to eject the country's wealth-creators, he further ruled that these people, uprooted from their country of birth, could take with them only what they could carry. They had 90 days to get out.
The crisis this provoked in Britain at the time has been softened with the passing of the years, but because they were Commonwealth citizens with British passports, the government, in the face of almost universal opposition at home, did the right thing and decided to give them refuge. So 40,000 ethnic Asians arrived in an alien, monocultural group of islands in the clothes they stood up in and the one suitcase holding the meager possessions they had managed to carry with them. Their confusion and distress at having had to leave their country of birth and all their possessions to come to a cold, damp, hostile island must have been almost unendurable.
Back home Idi Amin distributed the property they'd been forced to leave behind among his friends and presided noisily over the decline of Uganda. The Asians, meanwhile, were billeted in drab refugee centers until they found their feet, and they displayed a resilience that still astounds.
What a difference two generations can make.
The British high-circulation Asian newspaper Eastern Eye, in conjunction with The Daily Telegraph of London, has just published its annual list of Britain's richest Asians. In all, six from East African refugee families made it into the top 10.
Number one is Mike Jatani, one of four brothers who started the Lornamead Group (beauty products) in 1978, eight years after the Amin explusion. Today, their company, started from scratch, is worth £650 million ($1.2 billion).
According to The Daily Telegraph, the pharmacy sector is the biggest, with the Mehta brothers (8th) and husband and wife team Navin and Varsha Engineer (12th) between them accounting for £300 million -- over half a billion dollars.
In the fashion segment, one of Britain's best loved women's clothing chains, offering outstanding fashion value for money, is New Look, owned by one Tom Singh, whose Indian parents brought him to England when he was one year old and set themselves the task of peddling goods from door to door. Tom Singh and his wife opened their first store in 1968. By the mid-1990s they had 200 stores. In 1998, they sold the chain to a venture capitalist for £156 million and Singh took a role as non-executive director. In 2004, New Look returned to the private sector and Singh rejoined as managing director. Sikh Tom Singh's in the No 6 slot. Also in fashion, Shami Ahmed, who created Bloggs jeans, comes in at No. 13.
Another Sikh, Jasminder Singh, born in Dar-es-Salaam, with his Radisson Edwardian Hotel chain, comes in at No 5.
The only new entry to the top 20 this year is an entrepreneurial travel boss at no. 18 with £95 million, displacing the fetchingly described "curry magnate", Sir Gulam Noon. Last year, Noon was 16th on the Asian rich list with £100 million, but now with just £85 million doesn't merit a place at the Asian top table. (The displaced Noon has been otherwise engaged in the traditional British rich man's sport of trying to buy a peerage under the table -- the second such Asian businessman caught in Tony Blair's latest wheeze to raise money for the Labour Party -- an encouraging demonstration of just how integrated Britain's Indians have become.)
Steel parts tycoon and cricket-enthusiast Lord Swraj Paul (he rather sweetly lists his membership of the MCC -- the world famous Marylebone Cricket Club -- on his resumé and contributes time and money to helping disadvantaged boys take up the game), is No 3 and worth £450 million. He and his wife recently managed to get Non-Resident Indian status from the Indian government, which means they will have the right to settle in India one day. Who comes around goes around.
Those expelled from East Africa were third generation immigrants to Africa, and had created assets and wealth. Which is why Idi Amin was so interested in them. Now, those families are again third generation immigrants, this time to Britain, and again they are rolling in wealth. How was this extraordinary feat accomplished twice?
How does one account for a group of people who came from the Third World to the First World with nothing but a suitcase, within three generations, overtook around 99.5 percent of the natives in terms of wealth?
Like the Chinese, ethnic south Asians have a reputation for possessing shrewd commercial instincts and a willingness to sacrifice short term advantage (i.e. going to work for someone else in return for a regular salary) in the service of a long-term goal. The entire family stays focused.
Those families in the 1970s were indeed strangers in a strange land. They didn't waste time on regrets. They hunkered down and got to work. The parents of Tom Singh traipsed around neighbourhoods peddling goods from door to door for years. As did others. They were thrifty. They worked long hours. They saved their money and reinvested it in themselves. Indians keep it all in the family and the mates of their children marry into the business also. Tom Singh's parents amassed some money from their door-to-door peddling, but it was their son Tom and his wife who opened the family's first store, and subsequently 200 more.
Another key to ethnic Indians' success is, they do not look to banks for money. If money is needed, they look within the family or extended family, offering a part of the business by way of repayment.
The three richest British Asians were excluded from the Eastern Eye/Daily Telegraph list because their business interests lie primarily outside the United Kingdom. Numbers two and three would be the notorious Hinduja brothers, whose fortune is estimated at around $8 billion.
Finally, not only the richest British Indian, but Britain's richest-ever individual come together in the person of international steel panjandrum 54-year old Lakshmi Mittal, born in Rajastan and whose £14.8 billion fortune puts him third in the world after Bill Gates and Warren Buffet.
Queen Elizabeth of Great Britain is worth $818 million.
Val MacQueen is a TCS contributing writer.
Pinging...
Must read ping!
Must read ping!
Unfortunately, I stopped reading after this.:)
A great story!
If Uganda hadnt chucked these pioneering entrepreneurs out, it would have been far far better off.
After Idi Amin, King of Scotland threw out the South Asians, and confiscated their property.. Ugandas economy went into free fall. This small percentage of the population was the most productive, and provided employment to their fellow Ugandans.
Contrast with what has happened in Zimbabwe. If ever there was a lesson to have been learned....
There is a contrast or is it more of a comparison? It appears the Idi and Mugabe are of the same philosophy - dig in with both hands and see who can burp the loudest. All-in-all it appears that Massa Robert has the greater staying power, I don't know if the 'King of Scotland' is still alive and well in Saudi Arabia but it would be small loss to hear that he is gone! What a mess for all of Africa!
Sorry, I meant "compare"....
The king of scotland went to the big haggis in the sky a couple of years ago.
| Posted by Mike Bates On General/Chat ^ 08/20/2005 1:59:37 PM CDT · 2 replies · 135+ views Yahoo News/AFP ^ | 8/20/2005 | Yahoo News/AFP The family of late Ugandan dictator Idi Amin threatened to sue the producers of the "The Last King of Scotland," the film version of the acclaimed novel about the notorious despot's rule. Amins eldest son, Taban Amin, said the family might sue for defamation but at least deserved millions in compensation for the depiction of his father in the movie which wrapped up on-location shooting in Uganda earlier this month. He said the family -- consisting of his prolific father's 42 children and several widows -- would seek four to five million dollars from Cowboy Films, which is producing 'Last... |
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| IDI AMIN STILL DEAD! ^ |
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| Posted by Chad Fairbanks On General/Chat ^ 11/04/2004 11:07:17 AM CST · 14 replies · 251+ views Free Republic ^ | 11/04/2004 | Chad Fairbanks No. Really. CBS said so. |
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| ARAFAT ANNOUNCES FROM HOSPITAL THAT IDI AMIN IS DEAD ^ |
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| Posted by RedBloodedAmerican On General/Chat ^ 11/04/2004 11:06:13 AM CST · 8 replies · 355+ views MSNBC | 11.04.04 | MSNBC |
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| Dead Cannibal: Africa a quarter century after Idi Amin ^ |
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| Posted by JohnHuang2 On News/Activism ^ 08/20/2003 2:04:45 AM CDT · 140+ views FrontPageMagazine.com ^ | Wednesday, August 20, 2003 | By Michael Radu Dead CannibalBy Michael RaduFrontPageMagazine.com | August 19, 2003 According to the news agencies, Idi Amin, a.k.a. "Big Daddy" or, more formally "His Excellency President for Life Field Marshal Al Hadj Doctor Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular" has died on August 15. Amin's name was synonymous with tyranny during his presidency of Uganda, from 1971-79. Amin's career took him from illiterate national boxing champion to chief of staff, "doctor" to military dictator, mass... |
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| Saudis Pay Respects to Idi Amin (Cannibal barf-alert) ^ |
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| Posted by atomic conspiracy On News/Activism ^ 08/19/2003 5:02:51 AM CDT · 8 replies · 176+ views Arab News ^ | 8-19-03 | Salah Fareed Amin’s Neighbors Remember the Man They Knew Salah Fareed • Special to Arab News JEDDAH, 19 August 2003 — While reactions to the death of Uganda’s former dictator Idi Amin were mixed in Uganda, residents of the Al-Safa district here responded with sadness to the passing of a popular neighbor whom they remember as a good man. Amin, who died in Jeddah where he sought exile after his government was ousted in 1979, was perhaps the most famous resident of the neighborhood. Saad Al-Harthy had been living next door to the former strongman for the last five years. “He was... |
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| Idi Amin -- Telegraph obituary ^ |
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| Posted by dighton On News/Activism ^ 08/17/2003 6:56:21 PM CDT · 4 replies · 1,018+ views The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 08/18/2003 Idi Amin, the former dictator of Uganda and self-styled “Conqueror of the British Empire” who died on Friday aged around 78, was one of the most reviled individuals in recent history.Six foot four and, at his peak, 20 stone, the former heavyweight boxing champion of Uganda appeared to relish his monstrous reputation. Subject to “visitations from God”, and reputedly boasting a collection of human heads extensive enough to require its own deep-freeze, Amin was popularly considered to be deranged.This impression was reinforced by claims from one of his surviving physicians that he had at various times administered treatment for hypomania,... |
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| Ugandans pray for (Idi) Amin ^ |
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| Posted by dennisw On News/Activism ^ 08/17/2003 6:08:52 PM CDT · 9 replies · 141+ views 24hournews ^ | 17/08/2003 17:12 - (SA) Ugandans pray for Amin17/08/2003 17:12 - (SA) 1975 file picture of Idi Amin Related Articles Amin who? Assassinating Amin considered Idi Amin buried Few tears for Amin Death of 'Big Daddy' Kampala - Hundreds of Muslims on Sunday gathered at Uganda's main mosque to pray to God to judge leniently former president Idi Amin, who has died in exile in Saudi Arabia. The mosque at Old Kampala Hill, where British explorer Captain Lugard erected the first building of the city, overlooking the current city centre, was filled to capacity, with more people praying from outlying grounds. "To say that Amin... |
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| Uganda newspaper - Idi Amin is dead ^ |
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| Posted by HAL9000 On News/Activism ^ 08/16/2003 4:33:32 PM CDT · 10 replies · 288+ views The Monitor (Kampala, Uganda) ^ | August 17, 2003 | David Kibirige Former president Mr Idi Ami Dada is dead. Amin, 78, passed away at exactly 7 a.m. Ugandan time on Saturday. Sources said that Amin's latest wife, whom he married a few months ago, was at his bedside when he died. Her name was not disclosed. Amin's family members in Kampala declined to comment on the death of the former leader. They said one of his sons, Mr Jaffer Amin working with DHL courier company, is the only one authorised to talk about his father's death. Amin had been in a coma at King Faisal Specialist Hospital in the Red... |
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<< A great story!
If Uganda hadnt chucked these pioneering entrepreneurs out, it would have been far far better off. >>
It is indeed a great story and as I've elsewhere observed, one of which all, post-expulsion involved -- including the British who welcomed the Sub-Continent-descended former East-Africans into their home -- have every reason to be very proud.
But one aughtn't forget that at the Idi Amin stage of the game, the former British empire's most stupid bloody nugu and his gang were just throwing out the bath water.
They had already, long before, thrown out the baby.
The British-descended baby, that is.
And with it any hope of ever again knowing the equality under the law and wealth and prosperity and social justice and fine schools and universities that had long already been all of British Africa's [And, come to that, all of British Asia's and British Oceana's and British Caribean etceteras] in colonial and immediate post-colonial days.
Here's another great story:
http://www.forbes.com/global/2006/0508/018.html?partner=globalnews_newsletter
Blessings - Brian
Ah yes, the Ambanis. The two brothers hate each other, though.
Thanks for the link!
They dont hate each other. They just had a succession disagreement.
Thanks for posting... Reliance is an empire. It has the potential to bring tremendous change to India... and it already is doing so. They certainly dont do anything on a small scale.
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