HE DEFIED THE ODDS AND CHANGED THE MEDIA LANDSCAPE IN GUYANA
When Guyana’s history books are being re-written, the name Glenn Lall is certain to feature. Glenn Lall’s life is the story of a Wakenaam boy who began his life as a businessman in Stabroek Market.
He slept in stalls there, because he couldn’t afford rent in the city. Years later, he rescued an ailing venture and transformed it into Guyana’s largest newspaper. A self-taught man, the lessons of Glenn’s life is clear…hard work and a strong belief that nothing is impossible.
He has survived some vicious attacks, memories of which still move him emotionally. He survived torture at the hands of criminals, presided over Kaieteur News when people unknown firebombed his printery. He persevered after gunmen killed five of his pressmen on duty. His Regent Street business, Bhena’s Footwear, attracted grenade attacks, but he was not to be deterred.
He said that his many friends encouraged him to pack up and leave Guyana. Had he done so, there would never have been a Kaieteur News and his other business establishments in Guyana.
He believes that he has found his purpose. Making a difference in people’s lives brings total satisfaction to him. It is even more fulfilling when one makes a difference in a country.
It was an uphill task to even convince him to talk about his life. He insisted that his work at the newspaper speaks for itself.
The seventh of nine children, including six girls, Glenn’s life was hard. His mother was a single-parent and the family was forced to struggle to make ends meet.
On many days in the beginning, the family had only milk and rice to eat, or a dish of rice mixed with onion, salt and pepper. Even today salt and rice is one of Glenn’s favourite dishes.
From an early age, this lad showed that he was a “hustler”. He had natural marketing skills, so much so that, when his school, St. Paul’s Anglican, wanted to sell the vegetables from the little garden patch the students managed, the teachers naturally turned to their best marketing person…Glenn.
A QUICK HEAD
Glenn was a quick learner in school, especially in Mathematics, and even today he could recite 2 to 20 times tables at the drop of a hat.
One day he was said to be caned by the head teacher in front of the class, Glenn refused to stick around; walking out while the head teacher was still speaking. He admits laughingly, that he went back next day and explained to the angry headmaster that he disagreed with being flogged without an opportunity to defend himself. The head teacher, impressed, agreed to relent and just gave Glenn additional work to do. This shows Glenn’s strong headedness from an early age.
At the age of 12, he attended school three days a week just to facilitate taking vegetables back and forth from Wakenaam to his big sister, Bibi Hashna Khan, in Stabroek Market, where she had a stall.
He also caught iguanas and salempenters (large lizards) and would take them to Georgetown for sale.
Leaving school at 15, the boy was quickly becoming a man. He continued taking vegetables to Stabroek Market from Wakenaam until he decided to move to Georgetown three years later. Like most other stall holders dealing with vegetables, Glenn’s sister was living in the stall and he slept there too.
Despite the cramped conditions, Glenn liked the market life. There was money to be made. He was doing what came naturally to him…marketing. With a “big mouth”, the teen managed to lure shoppers with his bargains on greens. In the evening, when there were leftovers, Glenn was given opportunities to sell them and keep the money. It was an opportunity he grabbed.
The tomatoes and cucumbers were sold quickly. He even helped sell the vegetables of other stallholders. “I would have 20 bags of boulangers (eggplant) and sell them out before the other stalls sold three.”
This was taking place outside the market, on the wharf. It was but an indication of how aggressive he was at selling things.
A HUSTLER
At just 18 years old, Glenn had managed to save enough money to buy a stall of his own in the market. He had been doing a brisk business in cigarettes, sardines and other foodstuff. His clients were mainly the miners at Bartica.
There was a huge demand for foodstuff in the 80’s. It was big business. The “trading”, as it is known, had started. Glenn, with his quick mind, recognized the opportunities. He knew where to find a steady supply. When his little brother Reazz came to town, he gave him his grocery stall to run.The money was good. When a headmaster was earning $20 per day, Glenn was netting up to $300 daily on profits.
At just 19, Glenn met Bhena, a Wakenaam girl, at Empire cinema where he had gone to see a movie. She was just over 17. Within months, the two eloped but the couple had to wait for Bhena’s 18th birthday before they could marry. Of course, the relationship met with disapproval from the families.
By then, Glenn had started trading between Guyana and Trinidad. He was taking gold jewellery and other commodities and bringing back goods in demand.
In 1984, Glenn’s daughter, Teshawna, was born. Shortly after in 1985, with life looking good, Glenn acquired a US visa and decided to take a chance for an even better life. Glenn stocked his stall and left his young wife in charge.
With no plans, Glenn arrived in New York in September 1985, with a few dollars in his pocket. He knew no one and had no place to stay. After being dropped off at a street corner with his handbag by a sympathetic Trini cab driver, the Wakenaam boy struck up a conversation with two Guyanese sitting on a bench. One happened to be a real estate agent.
“He told me I was crazy to come to America not knowing anybody.”
Glenn managed to secure a basement for US$50 per week. The first night, with no windows in the little room that barely had a little cot and stove, Glenn overslept until the next afternoon.
Having no watch and not knowing that in a basement you won’t see the light, Glenn kept thinking it was still night. At 3pm, he came out of the apartment to the disapproving looks of his landlord. “He told me cat will eat my dinner if I wanted to live this way.”
The next day, he visited a job agency and after paying US$58, he found a job measuring cloth. He worked there for three days and was fired for asking for a better job with the same pay.
Glenn landed another job at a distribution company that dealt with sodas and cigarettes. As a clerk, he was charged with being the last person in line to verify outgoing orders from customers. He caught the eye of the manager after somehow, a large quantity of cigarettes passed by several workers who were checking off also. Glenn picked up the discrepancy and sent the boxes to be repacked.
The manager, after finding out that Glenn was unhappy with his pay, gave him a raise of pay within a few days of starting the job.
“There were Guyanese who were working there for years and did not get a raise, but I got it in a few days because the man saw my ability and honesty.”
Glenn enjoyed this job because he was able to work overtime with pay. He quit after three weeks and returned home. He had missed his wife and newborn baby.
“Had I chosen to stay in America, I would have lost my wife and baby daughter.”
RETURNING HOME
Always having his business thinking cap on, Glenn did not come home empty-handed. He pooled his three-week earnings together with what little cash he had left, and bought goods and returned home. This was the start of his international trading.
At Stabroek Market, Glenn played a pivotal role defending stallholders’ rights. At one point, the mayor (then Compton Young), raised the rent, and the businessman took up the case alone and carried him to court. The judge applauded him for the stance but could not find in favour because a body of people was required.
Glenn also took on city council when a decision was made to raise parking tickets to $100. He protested and it was reduced to $40. Glenn was given permission to change his grocery stall to a clothing store, and then after renovating the stall, the permission was rescinded by the Mayor Mavis Benn.
Glenn visited her office every week for 68 weeks to get that denial reversed. In the 68th week, the mayor relented and gave consent for the stall to sell clothing.
The mayor made it clear that she could not tolerate Glenn’s persistent behaviour any longer. It was another indication of his determination.
When thieves proved a problem in the market, Glenn got heavily involved in community policing and received authorization to build a special lock up in the market.
INTERNATIONAL TRADING
With the footwear and clothing stall doing well under the management of his wife Bhena, Glenn concentrated on trading.
It was the heyday of suitcase trading. Goods were taken out and more goods were brought in. Simple things like baby beads made money. Taking 10,000 at one time, it netted him thousands of dollars in profits. The ready West Indian in New York markets were more than happy to buy. There were other indications of Glenn’s business savvy. On one occasion, he had an order for cutlasses (machetes). Despite the restrictions by the Guyana Government, Glenn managed to buy several hundred.
Unaware that customs at JFK would have had an issue with the machetes, Glenn took them to the US in search of sale. However they were confiscated.
He went back the next day, and after pleading, his goods were returned to him.
Glenn had been given a seizure slip. Being the canny businessman he was, he showed the seizure slip to his customers and told them that it was the last shipment and that he could not bring anymore.
Worried customers agreed to pay three times more. He netted thousands of dollars also from that deal.
Although the money was good, life was tough. On one occasion a flight cancelled and Glenn had to sleep outside of the airport in the cold with 17 suitcases because at those times you were not allowed to sleep in the airport after hours. Officers at the airport felt sorry for him and allowed him to sleep behind a counter in the airport where no one could have seen him while they watched his suitcases.
By the time he was 21, Glenn owned a car better than his landlord’s.
The landlord commented, “You don’t have a house to live in, but you buying fancy car.” Little did he know that this was the start of Glenn creating his own image.
In the late 80’s, business was looking good. The businessman was eyeing more opportunities. With his stall doing well, he invested in minibuses and a dredge that a friend built for him.
He vowed never to repeat the mistakes he learned from these ventures. “Dredging…if you cannot live in the backdam, don’t put down a dredge. It is like a minibus…you have to be the driver. Get into something you are comfortable with.”
HOME INVASION
It was in 1989 that the first major tragedy struck the businessman. Bandits entered his home and tortured him. His life was spared because one of the bandits said that Glenn was a good man since two days prior Glenn had given him $100. This experience toughened the businessman.
MORE ACQUISITIONS
The earlier 90’s saw some major changes in the Lalls. They owned several stalls now in Stabroek Market. With the help of his wife and his friend Tony Yassin, Glenn purchased a property on Regent Street, now known as Bhena’s Footwear. Ten years later the businessman and his wife opened a Bhena’s Footwear in New York.
KAIETEUR NEWS
In 1993, a reporter at Stabroek News, Shaun Samaroo, who had covered the criminal attack at Glenn’s home back in 1989, came to him with a business offer. He was interested in doing a weekly newspaper and wanted Glenn to invest C’dn$100,000.The business proposal presented to Glenn showed that the newspaper venture had the potential to generate huge profits.
The proposal said that the company would print 50,000 copies weekly at a cost of $1 million. Advertisement revenue would have been $1.5M, giving a profit of $500,000 a week. The money – C’dn$200,000 – that Glenn and Samaroo had, could not buy the press. That is how another partner from Canada, Mohamed Sharief, after seeing the same proposal, came on board.
The publication began as a weekly in 1994. Glenn invested in a Saffon Street property and put down what would later become the main office for Kaieteur News.
People were not enthusiastic about the new newspaper, Kaieteur News. With few reporters and poor sales, Samaroo sold his shares.
A frustrated Glenn took charge. His friends thought he was crazy. Never one to back down from a fight, and with his investment under threat, Glenn threw his energies into his toughest challenge ever. He admits that nothing could have been harder.
“I could not see myself as a loser. I told myself that I am going to make it work. I asked for help and advice and I was getting it. I was even told to close the newspaper and to open a medical centre or a funeral parlour among other things.”
But a determined Glenn was not daunted. Even his wife Bhena, who saw their savings being eaten away, was getting worried.
Glenn took his daughter, Teshawna, then 10 years old, and visited markets, selling the newspaper himself. When people gave him a $100, he asked them to leave the change with him.
Glenn tried everything to make Kaieteur News work, from scantily-dressed girls to funny stories. He was begging reporters from other newspapers to help. It was so frustrating that he went home one night and passed out in his driveway. He was still doing his trading and plowing monies to pay staffers.
But gradually the paper was taking hold. It broke the story about a gynecologist raping his patients. That was the turning point. Guyana anxiously awaited the next update.
The business proposal presented to Glenn showed that the newspaper venture had the potential to generate huge profits.
The proposal said that the company would print 50,000 copies weekly at a cost of $1 million. Advertisement revenue would have been $1.5M, giving a profit of $500,000 a week.The money – C’dn$200,000 – that Glenn and Samaroo had, could not buy the press. That is how another partner from Canada, Mohamed Sharief, after seeing the same proposal, came on board.
The publication began as a weekly in 1994. Glenn invested in a Saffon Street property and put down what would later become the main office for Kaieteur News.
People were not enthusiastic about the new newspaper, Kaieteur News. With few reporters and poor sales, Samaroo sold his shares. A frustrated Glenn took charge. His friends thought he was crazy. Never one to back down from a fight, and with his investment under threat, Glenn threw his energies into his toughest challenge ever. He admits that nothing could have been harder.
“I could not see myself as a loser. I told myself that I am going to make it work. I asked for help and advice and I was getting it. I was even told to close the newspaper and to open a medical centre or a funeral parlour among other things.”
But a determined Glenn was not daunted. Even his wife Bhena, who saw their savings being eaten away, was getting worried. Glenn took his daughter, Teshawna, then 10 years old, and visited markets, selling the newspaper himself. When people gave him a $100, he asked them to leave the change with him.
Glenn tried everything to make Kaieteur News work, from scantily-dressed girls to funny stories. He was begging reporters from other newspapers to help.
It was so frustrating that he went home one night and passed out in his driveway. He was still doing his trading and plowing monies to pay staffers.
But gradually the paper was taking hold. It broke the story about a gynecologist raping his patients. That was the turning point. Guyana anxiously awaited the next update.
Glenn was even called by a Government official who asked him to tone down on the doctor.
“I asked him if it was his daughter or wife, what would he have done. He said go on, do your thing.” It gave Glenn the courage.
By then too, Glenn and his editor-in-chief, Adam Harris, had also come up with what would become the most popular piece for the newspaper…“Dem Boys Seh”.
That satirical column, wildly popular for its language and for poking continuous fun at everyone, especially officials, was born after a visit to Palm Court in the ’90s, by the two.
A miserly businessman was prowling at his friends’ tables and not buying. Wanting to poke fun at the man, without it appearing in the mainstream news, “Dem Boys Seh” was born.
By the early 2000’s, the crime wave, sparked by the escape of dangerous criminals from Camp Street, caught Guyana in its grip. With a few of his beloved reporters who were willing to work the hours, Kaieteur News was keeping Guyana up to date on developments.
The images of bodies and details soon pushed Kaieteur News ahead of all of its rivals, including the other independent daily, the Stabroek News. Its simple approach of using down-to-earth language was loved by a hungry reading public.
People who did not have access to the media suddenly found that the pages of Kaieteur News were open to them. The paper moved from strength to strength. Glenn has had his fair share of setbacks but he has dealt with them in the way he knows best—never giving up!
In late 2002, grenades were thrown into the Kaieteur News printery in Eccles, severely damaging the press, bringing operations to a halt for awhile.
On August 8, 2006, Glenn’s work took yet another hard hit. Gunmen invaded the Eccles printery. This time, the attack was deadly. Five pressmen were executed in cold blood.
It would have brought another man to his knees, but not Glenn Lall.
That very night the newspaper’s press was started up and the edition, complete with images of the horrific attack, was printed. The incident had left another deep scar on a battle-worn Glenn. He moved his press to Saffon Street, where the head office is located.“If the idea behind the attacks was to ask us to tone down, it failed. We continued to do our work in a bold, fair and fearless manner. People need to understand the role we play.”
Glenn pays close attention to his operations. He boasts of knowing every nut and bolt in the press. It was not unusual, in the beginning of Kaieteur News, where he was a virtual unknown, he would sit with vendors, to assess the attitude of customers to the different newspapers.
Glenn admits that the newspaper has instinctively given the people what they want. “A newspaper product is about informing… educating. I can only give you what is out there, nothing more.”
Kaieteur News has become a passion for Glenn. It’s his life. “It boils down to our purpose. The newspaper brings out a completeness in me, in what we do each day.”
The newspaper has editions in New York and Florida and an online version. The New York edition, especially, has been a source of much pride.
Kaieteur News has been in the forefront of investigative reporting in Guyana, focusing mainly on corruption. “When there was crime around 2002 and several years after, we reported on it. We kept abreast. In 2007, the attention shifted to corruption and we have kept abreast. It is what we do.”
Glenn insists that his newspaper is not an “opposition” mouthpiece.
“It is sad that Government sees a newspaper speaking the truth and would consider it an opposition. I don’t see us as opposition. I see myself and the newspaper as wanting decency, law and order, democracy, transparency and accountability, and justice for Guyanese. Is this wrong?”
The businessman insists that Kaieteur News is not in the business of removing the Government. “I would love for them to do what is right. Not a few people getting rich and the masses living in poverty.”
The development of the Kaieteur News has not been without its immediate attraction. There have been significant offers to buy out the newspaper…All have been rebuffed.
Glenn, of course, had started long ago to plan for the next phase of Kaieteur News, for continuity of the legacy he has built.
“I definitely do not want it to fold. It would like for it to continue. For us to continue to give Guyana what it wants by reporting what is fair and what is the truth.
“People applaud and commend me for my bold stance and bravery in not being afraid to expose wrongdoing from top to bottom.
“I would say to them, it is not my strength; it is not that I am brave; rather I believe that I am doing the will of the Creator.”
CHARITY
Glenn’s impact on Guyana has not been all business. With his close friend, Tony Yassin, he has been sponsoring a medical outreach programme called Guyana Watch, which has seen phenomenal growth in Guyana for over a decade.
Glenn has used his newspaper to raise monies for tsunami and earthquake victims far beyond the shores of Guyana.
He even helped to establish a fund for the Lusignan massacre victims. He has helped to fund schools as far away as India. These are just a few of the charities that he has been involved in.
Glenn advises our youths that they must find their purpose in this life and work towards it. He states that you must do what you enjoy doing.
Glenn credits his wife, Bhena, for being there every step of the way. He recognizes that his big sister has helped to start his life in Georgetown and Mr Yassin has also been a mainstay for him at Kaieteur News. He states that “We are never alone in this world. And we have so many others we are thankful for.”