The prowess of Clarksdale's premier restaurant owner, Chafik "Akabah" Chamoun, continues to astound local residents in this quaint Delta town. Just when it looked as if he was down and out, the Lebanese innkeeper rebounded with incredible resiliency. Folks in every circle marvel at his resourcefulness and clout.
For years this humble innkeeper of the Khan on 61 known as the Rest Haven Restaurant has lived in uneventful obscurity until the camel controversy. Nobody guessed that he traveled in the same circles as the Vatican, the White House, the Governor's office and various quarters of organized crime. 
But then no one understood how riverboat gambling could come to Coahoma County when no one admits they voted for it, nor how so many horse loving Americans in the deep south can entertain the idea that a camel is faster than a horse.
Now we learn that the Lebanese's resources go far beyond the borders of this country. When news came that the Horseman's Guild had already secured an entry for the upcoming Great Race, the global prestige of the name "Akabah" became apparent. Last Thursday the shrewd restaurateur flew to the heart of camel country, the United Arab Emirates, and met with President His Highness Sheik Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan to solicit support.
Sheik Zayed, a renown lover of camel racing, has spent much energy and money promoting the sport in his country in an effort to preserve the desert heritage for future generations. Chafik learned through his global network that Zayed's generosity had already spread to other nations. According to foreign correspondent Margit Kamelmeizer, the Sheik recently donated 26 camels and 100 million German marks as an annual subsidy to a camel club in Germany.* In an attempt to capitalize on this benevolence, Chafik met with His Highness at the weekly races in Abu Dubai to discuss the donation of a camel for Clarksdale's Great Race.
Correspondents from the Online Register were not allowed admittance to the actual negotiations, but from the flourish of hand motions, broad smiles, laughter and the free flowing libations and passing of the hookah, it appeared some deal had been struck. Whether the Mississippi Delta will see one camel or a hundred is yet to be seen.
From the race track the favored Akabah was escorted to the elaborate camel breeding and training grounds of His Highness Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the crown prince of Dubai. Sheik Mohammed owns 1500 racing camels, a camel reproduction center and state of the art training facilities. His brother, Sheik Hamdan also finances a camel hospital complete with a unique operating table with a hole in the middle to accommodate humps.**
What especially impressed Chafik was Sheik Mohammed's training yard which featured a camel treadmill, a camel shower, special camel footpad trailways, and a camel swimming pool. (Yes, Virginia, camels can swim, though it is easier to make them go through the eye of a needle.)
Chafik faxed blueprints of the training pool back to Jimmy Walker who immediately began the conversion of his backyard pool on Westover Drive in Clarksdale. Walker met Saturday morning at the Rest Haven with Clarksdale Public Works director James Butler to draw up plans for a modest camel stable on land adjacent to the Clarksdale Country Club. Butler said they could guise the project as routine drainage work.
Complications arose when Chafik learned that gaming was strictly forbidden by Islamic law. None of Zayed's skilled camel jockeys would be allowed to participate in the Mississippi event. 
This problem was surmounted, however, when a University of Wisconsin librarian named Bonnie Kamelback e-mailed the desperate Lebanese with a solution. Ms. Kamelback did her doctorate dissertation on "Black-market Dromedary Smuggling In Postwar Eastern Europe." In her research she remembered a vast network of underground camel racing in communist countries and passed on confidential names to Chafik.
Following these leads, Chafik sent his daughter, Vivian, and her husband James Parnell to Romania where they were met at the airport by a strange women who quickly ushered them to an undisclosed location. Within days, bypassing the typical delays, red tape and bureaucratic interference, the couple boarded a return flight with what was presented as a two-year old, adopted infant named Radu. (One wonders again at the international clout of our humble innkeeper.)
The Online Register has uncovered evidence that (despite the expected denials of the Chamoun's) Radu is really Radu Mahlon Romaninsky a 28" tall, 35 year-old Romanian midget camel-jockey reputed as the "Billy Shoemaker" of the European underground camel racing circuit.
Upon arrival back in the States, James and Vivian shuttled the little man into their home in the darkness of night where he remains in hiding. Louise Chamoun has begun acclimating the bewildered Radu to the Delta-Lebanese culture with a steady diet of tabouli, raw kibbie and grape leaves.
As of noon today, the infamous Akabah was still abroad and unable to substantiate or deny these claims.
* According to The Gulf News, UAE; Tuesday, January 7, 1997 Shabaan 28, 1417
** According to "The Dromedary Deries of Dubai," Mary Roach, from American Way
