Why a Booktrail?
2000s: A man comes up with an unusual way of making money
Good Scammer
What you need to know before your trail
Good Scammer tells the story of Clive ‘Bangaz’ Thompson, an orphan born in west Jamaica raised with no love, education, or prospects of ever getting a decent job. He designs an ingenious business model that brings millions of dollars annually to the little villages around the sandy inlets of the Jamaican coast, making himself a vast personal fortune and a hero to his community. He achieves all of this without using a knife or a gun or even the threat of violence.
Many people see scammers as simple criminals.
But Bangaz’s life, when seen from his perspective as a victim of the theft and duplicity of slavery and colonialism, tells a different, more complex human story. Through his eyes, our sympathy and smiles justifiably remain with him and his righteous band of reparation bredren.
Travel Guide
Jamaica
This is an island and community where sadly we tend to associate financial scams as having come from. This turns the tables and shows how one person might fall into that trap of being a scammer and what happens when there is one scam too far.
It shows the inequality of a country where the filthy rich live side by side the abject poor. The locations are very well evoked as is the culture and the language – plenty of patwa – local dialect to get used to.
“Everyting we tek from dem, dem tek from we first,” Maas Henry tells his young protege, the book’s main character. “Never forget that.”
BookTrail Boarding Pass: Good Scammer
Destination/Location: Jamaica, Negril Author: Guy Kennaway Departure: 2000s
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