KHAMAL GEORGES

One gov­ern­ment min­is­ter has come out in sup­port of Hol­ly­wood ac­tor, Michael B. Jor­dan, us­ing the name “J’Ou­vert” as his rum brand, eye­ing po­ten­tial gains this coun­try can de­rive.  

Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Fi­nance, Bri­an Man­ning MP, ac­knowl­edges that the com­ments made in the trade­mark doc­u­ment about the mean­ing of J’ou­vert were un­for­tu­nate. Ac­cord­ing to the trade­mark reg­is­tra­tion page, the word J’Ou­vert does not have any mean­ing in a for­eign lan­guage, a state­ment which has an­gered cit­i­zens. 

How­ev­er, Man­ning says Jor­dan, well known for his role as Erik Kill­mon­ger in “Black Pan­ther”, has apol­o­gized for the com­ments, and the next step should be cap­i­tal­is­ing on any po­ten­tial ben­e­fits.

“Some of the com­ments made in the trade­mark doc­u­ment are un­for­tu­nate, but he has come out and apol­o­gized,” Man­ning said.

“The Gov­ern­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go should work with Michael B Jor­dan to de­vel­op this rum in­to a glob­al brand,” he added.  

In fact, he be­lieves if this is suc­cess­ful, some of the pro­ceeds from the sales, “should be con­tributed to de­vel­op­ing lo­cal arts and cul­ture.”  

“If he would con­sid­er this, I am sure this is some­thing the Gov­ern­ment would be will­ing to dis­cuss,” Man­ning in­di­cat­ed.

Man­ning could not say whether there have been any of­fi­cial ef­forts by the Gov­ern­ment to reach out to the Hol­ly­wood Ac­tor.  

The sit­u­a­tion es­ca­lat­ed since Sun­day, af­ter In­sta­gram posts showed the launch of J’Ou­vert rum with a box set and a brief de­scrip­tion about the ori­gins of the word. The box al­so con­tained bot­tles of An­gos­tu­ra Bit­ters. 

“He has apol­o­gized, we all make mis­takes, but I think it is still some­thing we can use to ben­e­fit Trinidad and To­ba­go,” Man­ning told Guardian Me­dia.

Man­ning hopes this coun­try and the Gov­ern­ment can work close­ly with Michael B Jor­dan.