Word: abboud
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...grey, brooding Lebanese mountains of Akkar, the ancient Abboud family owns the good land. The Abbouds say who shall represent Akkar in the Chamber of Deputies in Beirut, and their men are duly elected. The power of the Abbouds is such, say the peasants in the villages, that their henchmen have been known to test new rifles with peasants for targets. But four years ago, Mohammed el Abboud, the chieftain's only son, dared to challenge a Lebanese as powerful as himself: Hussein el Oweini, one of the new republic's richest men and a friend...
Sugar into Alcohol. Shortly before World War II. the French interests who controlled Egypt's sugar-refining business started selling their stock at a high price in the hope of buying it back later at a lower figure. For two years, Abboud quietly bought up all the refinery stock he could lay hands on in the Cairo and Paris exchanges, got a seat on the refinery board and took over the management...
...Abboud spotted another field that would fit nicely with his sugar business: he forced a foreign-owned distillery of industrial alcohol, the only one in Egypt, out of business and set up his own. Other postwar Abboud projects: a $7,400,000, 300,000 tons-a-year nitrate fertilizer plant financed by an Export-Import Bank loan, the first in Egypt, and a half interest in the contracting of a $10 million hydroelectric project on the Nile...
Cadillacs & Chris-Crafts. All these interests keep Abboud busy from 7 a.m. to 9 or 10 p.m. (with two hours out for a midday nap). Nevertheless, he still finds time to enjoy such playthings as a stable of six Cadillacs, a string of Arab stallions, three houses (but only one swimming pool), a private plane and three Chris-Craft speedboats...
...What's the secret of my success?" muses Abboud. "It's no secret at all. Just looking around for the best opportunities and knowing when to take advantage of them. Just making it my business to know the people who count. Just keeping everlastingly on the job. That...