Reminiscences

Seba to restart beauty pageants

Ravi Ladduwahetty

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Franchise holder for 12 beauty pageants and retired Chairman of Celsin Ltd and Eastern Engineers (Ceylon) Ltd Sebastian Arthur Clarence Perera reminisces

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Franchise holder for 12 beauty pageants and retired Chairman of Celsin Ltd and Eastern Engineers (Ceylon) Ltd Sebastian Arthur Clarence Perera is waiting till lasting and durable peace dawns in Sri Lanka so that he can promote the country’s tourism from Sri Lanka itself.

Sebastian and Seba to family and friends, has the global franchises for 12 internationally acclaimed brands.

They are Miss Tourism International, Queen of the World, Miss Globe International, Miss World University American Dream Festival, Miss Bikini International, Dream Girl of the Year, Miss Model of Models, Miss All Nations, Miss Model of the World, Queen of the Year, Miss Hawaiian Tropic, Owner of and Miss Asia International, all owned by Charlie See of Hollywood.

The best exposure for Sri Lanka and her tourism could be got when these pageants are held in Colombo and I am waiting for the war to be over so that I can restart the beauty shows here which will give all the international media exposure, Seba told Daily News Reminiscences at his Nugegoda residence.

Beauty pageants

“I held three international beauty pageants in Sri Lanka in 1993, 1997, 1998 and 2002 and also in the Czech Republic, China, Korea and London. It is a great shame that I cannot hold it here due to the war not being over, he said.

When pointed out the popular belief that the war will be over soon with the successful military advances in the North, he said that he and the international community have to be assured that the war had to be 100% over.

The owners of beauty pageants are synonymous with renowned brands of cosmetics and that was more the rule for Seba than the exception. Five internationally acclaimed brands of cosmetics which he gained the momentum for made him the Franchise Director to what he is today.

There were 45 international beauties from 45 countries in Sri Lanka in 2002 when there was the peace process in motion.

Sea’s aggressive foray into the cosmetics business began as a youth of 20 when Max Factor of Hollywood handpicked him as its exclusive agent in Sri Lanka.

They trained me as a professional make up artist and if you are a beauty rep at Max Factor, you should be able to do what you preach, he said.

Perera holds the distinction of developing the local cosmetics industry by setting up the manufacturing operation of Gala Cosmetics House of London with the assistance of the now-defunct River Valleys Development Board during the tenure of Premier Dudley Senanayake. He forged ties to become the first East Asian Manager for Gala based in Singapore for the five brands - Max Factor, Outdoor Girl, Gala, Mary Quant and Miners of London.

“I have been living virtually in a suitcase for 14 years promoting the brands in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, Philippines, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka and with a mere three family reunions for the entire year until I returned to Sri Lanka in 1979, he said.

When you are in the cosmetics business, you get invited to all the international beauty pageants where the cosmetics are used at the platforms of the pageants, he noted, while recalling that it was his prominence in the cosmetics industry which earned him the first break in the international pageant arena.

First Asian

He also became the first Asian to sponsor a beauty pageant in the Far East which he explicitly describes as “a black man doing a white man’s job!”

They say that coming events cast their shadows and his meeting Charlie See of Hollywood (who is also the owner and the founder of the Miss Tourism International Pageant) was his greatest moment. The strong bonds of friendship that developed over the years, had ensued that See offering the pageant franchise to Seba. This resulted in Sri Lanka hosting the Miss Tourism International Pageant in Sri Lanka in 1993. This was also Sri Lanka’s first world beauty pageant.

He returned to Sri Lanka in 1978 where he incorporated Celsin Ltd and Eastern Engineers (Ceylon) Ltd as a franchisee for international beauty pageants, international trade, marketing project development, tenders and up market recruitment.

He also had the distinction of being a Judge at a plethora of international beauty pageants in Vienna, Frankfurt, Moscow, and Kuala Lumpur. The Miss Tourism International hosted in Sri Lanka in 2002 gave lots of publicity to this country with eight mini pageants held in eight exotic locations here, he reminisced.

All the beauties that held beauty titles in their own countries were between 17 and 23 and divide their day between studies and employment. Coming for the pageant to Sri Lanka meant that they lose a month’s salary there in their won countries and I had to do a lot of spade work to get them to come here, he said.

Raving reviews

His strategic expertise in marketing also has been displayed in no small measure by the eight mini pageants leading to the Miss Tourism International in 2002 and the main pageant unfolded before local and international audiences at the BMICH at the time when Sri Lanka got international media exposure. Seba has also got raving reviews in the international media and in almost all the countries that he had been dealing with.

“When you are a Franchise Director, whether you like it or not, you get all the exposure for yourself and the girls who represent their home countries including the girl who goes from Sri Lanka, he said, adding that no mother in the world was willing to send their daughters to Sri Lanka until the war was announced over,” he said.

He is now in full retirement from active business and lives at Nugegoda having shifted from Bambalapitiya where he lived for 30 years. His four children - three daughters are in employment locally and overseas.

Another moot aspect of his life was that he was named Sebastian as he was born on January 20, 1931 coinciding with St. Sebastian’s Feast Day! Moreover, he was also an Alumnus of St. Sebastian’s College, Moratuwa.

Dubai dream turns sour as job losses mount

Dubai’s rapid expansion in recent years provided jobs for millions. But the global financial meltdown has abruptly ended the dream for many people as more and more firms sack staff to cut costs.

Spectacular economic growth, spurred by a robust construction sector, lured people from far and wide to the booming city on the shores of the Gulf, tempted by high pay, low tax and — for many Europeans — the year-round sunshine.

Foreigners form most of the population in Dubai and with residency permits linked to employment many of the people who are losing their jobs face the added upheaval of leaving the country.

“I don’t feel that I was wronged. This is business... But I would have preferred a cut in my salary rather than being sacked,” said an Arab man who was let go by government-controlled property group Nakheel.

Another former Nakheel employee: “Only four days before we were given the termination letter, our director told us in a meeting that the situation was very difficult and that the budget for our project had been cut by nearly three quarters.

“It was too quick,” said the 30-year-old employee who was sacked at the end of November as one of 500 employees — 15 percent of the workforce — who lost their jobs.

Nakheel has its fingerprints on most of Dubai’s iconic projects, including three palm-shaped artificial islands and a cluster of islands in the shape of a world map.

Hot cakes

It unveiled in early October another gigantic project to erect a one kilometre high tower, which, if ever built, would dwarf the unfinished Burj Dubai, currently standing around 700 metres (765 yards) high.

“We have the responsibility to adjust our short term business plans to accommodate the current global environment,” said a Nakheel statement announcing the redundancies, which it described as “regrettable, but a necessity dictated by operational requirements.”

Property sold like hot cakes for the past few years but demand has slumped amid the global credit crunch as panicking investors and creditors fled the market.

All of sudden, the viability of the grandiose property projects has become questionable.

Nakheel’s job cuts programme is one of the largest so far in the United Arab Emirates, but is far from the only one.

Damac Properties, Dubai’s largest private property developer, cut 200 jobs, or 2.5 percent of its workforce, in October.

“We’d been growing in sales by 100 percent a year, but it is not the same now. If the market gets worse, we will have to let more people go,” Damac chairman Hussein Sajwani said this month.

Al-Shafar General Contracting said a few days ago it was laying off up to 1,000 workers as its order book has dropped by three billion dirhams (817 million dollars) since September.

Emaar, the other local property giant, said recently that it was revising its recruitment strategy and reportedly laid off 100 workers last month.

Omniyat has shed 69 jobs out a 350-strong workforce and Tameer has reportedly notified 180 employees that December 31 will be their last working day.

Job losses

The job losses have spread beyond property jobs to the financial sector. Shuaa Capital investment bank, for instance, has cut 21 jobs, or nine percent of its manpower. Companies in Dubai and the rest of the United Arab Emirates were until recently on a hiring spree. Some 640,000 work permits for foreigners were issued in the first quarter of this year, 306,000 in Dubai alone, according to a study published last week.

The study put the population of the UAE at 6.4 million by December 2007, among them 5.5 million foreigners. Over three million were registered with the ministry of labour, i.e. were workers.

Ex-patriate people who lose their jobs in Dubai or other Gulf countries have to pack up and leave within one month, a potential life wrecker for many families.

Employers are supposed to notify the banks of their sacked employees about their contract termination, potentially prompting the banks to demand repayment of any loans before the employee leaves the country.

Nakheel has taken this into consideration by keeping fired employees on its payroll for three months, enabling them to stay until the end of February.

“Our banks will be informed by February 1,” said one of the Nakheel former employees, who added that he was lucky not to have loans to pay, unlike many others in the UAE who took advantage of easy credit over the past few years.

Many Nakheel employees have invested their savings in property being developed by the company and people who are sacked face losing that money.

“We’ve invested in Badrah, in the Waterfront project. What will happen to our investment and how are we going to pay the coming instalments?” wondered another of the Nakheel employees facing redundancy.

DUBAI, AFP

Nomura converts $65 m worth of Elpida bond

Japan’s Elpida Memory Inc (6665.T) said on Monday brokerage Nomura Holdings (8604.T) had converted $65 million worth of its convertible bond, leaving the PC memory maker to redeem the remaining 44 billion yen.

Elpida, the world’s third-biggest maker of dynamic random-access memory, raised 50 billion yen through the bond last year for investment purposes to help it shrink its chips and pack in more power at lower cost.

But its share price tumbled due to concerns of a massive dilutive effect from the bond, forcing Elpida to redeem it under an agreement with Nomura. Elpida shares have rebounded since its announcement of the redemption in December.

They ended Monday up 11.2 percent at 598 yen against the conversion price of 509 yen. Nomura converted 6 billion yen worth of the bond and will receive nearly 11.8 million shares in Elpida, or 9 percent of the outstanding stock as of the end of last month.

The shares are worth 7 billion yen at Monday’s closing price.

Reuters