BB-2-hhhh • Meeting with John Palmer, 10/5/78

BB-2-hhhh-1

Sharon Amos

John Palmer
Wings of the World Ltd
7119 Laurel Canyon Blvd. Unit #4
North Hollywood, Calif 1605
875/2090

5/78 Richard and Sharon (10/5/78) 4:00 PM

-this man saw Karen on the street and came up to our van and asked if he could talk to her about some business proposal to help him in his bird business/ he said he had heard about us in the US and was looking fo us

-Richard and I were told to go talk to him/ Karen called him at the Palm Court Restaurant and apts and made an appt for us

-he is an exporter of birds/ I heard they were illegal to export and so asked him/ he said no, not at this time, tho the govt could in the future try to regulate this business more

-he travels throughout the world to buy various species of birds for sale in the US / varieties of parrots especially

-Guyana is a major source of birds/ there are no regulations concerning care of export

-they have the largest selection here in the Caribbean/ neighboring counties are restrictive Problems here: (and why he wants us to be involved)

-trappers cannot afford to care for the birds

-there is a scarcity of proper food (sun flower seeds is best)/ they are now eating corn and rice which isn’t that good for them (We could looke into raising sun flower seeds for bird trappers????) or peanuts are good too

-there is an unavailability of bird shelters until the birds are ready to export

-there is a high mortality in transit/ birds are crowded together too much

Palmer wants a dialogue with us in regard to possibility of trapping birds, or holding birds here for the trappers or breeding birds (he said any one or a combination of the above would be profitable)

-he said there are many trappers in the NWD/ Jonestown could be a sanctuary

-Macaws bring in $50-$100 Each/ orange wing amazons $5 each (but they are available in large numbers plus other varieties)

-the govt. gets 25% of what the exporters sell the birds for

-last year $200,000 US was made by exporters

-John Palmer said he will return to Guyana but doesnt know when/ in the meantime, he will write up a detailed plan indicating various ways we might participate in the business

OTHER COMMENTS ETC.

-this man is a blond obviously capitalistic young man, about 35,

-he feels Guyana is a Marxist dictatorship and he doesn’t like it/makes no bones about his dislike of socialism

-he said all travel agencies are going to be nationalized next week/ said “aren’t you afraid they’ll nationalize your land”

-he lived 5 years in London, 5 years in LA (Melrose and Spaulding is his present address but he travels a great deal) (maybe someone in the US could do a C (FU) and see what they could find out)

-he said that he had heard about us at the American Embassy office in LA/ had heard Karen’s name, or he thought it was Karen’s name (might be Paula’s/ I asked how come they knew of us, he said he didn’t know we’d have to ask them

-said he had read about us in NEW WEST MAgazine/ I told him that since this wasn’t favorable, why was he contacting us/ he said (OVER)

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didn’t always believe what he read and even if it was true he didn’t care much (as this was a business proposition)

-we showed him the pamphlet Model Jonestown community and told him about the medical program, care for seniors and children/ how we bring in native peoples for care etc – he said it sounded good/ I got the pamphlet back from him just in case he was a person related to the conspiracy/ told him it was my last copy, he said we could send it to him

-he was straight out about his feeling this was a dictatorship here in Guyana

[Handwritten notation: “I asked for his card & he gave one to me – I have it here”]