Author: John C

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Israel 1979, Remembering Rabbi/Sanadal maker/Pretty Boy Johanan from the time of Roman Syria Palaestina

There is a lot going on on this stamp. I thought I would be writing about a newspaper man  but instead we get to go back in time to the Roman Empire. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

This stamp celebrates the Jewish New Year. So three ancient Rabbis who worked on the post Jewish rejection of Christ Talmuds. The Talmuds explained Jewish law and Theology. Interestingly the stamps emphasize the Rabbis in addition to their Theological work also had trades. In the case of Rabbi Johanan, he was a sandal maker. This sounds strange until you remember the left government of early modern Israel and the importance they were putting on new Jewish arrivals engaging in physical work to help build the new country.

Todays stamp is issue A303, a 13 Pound stamp issued by Israel on Sptember 4th, 1979. It was a three stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents.

In the period after Christ’s death on the Cross, the majority of Jewish people in the Roman ruled area were in frequent rebellion. The Jewish Temple and indeed much of Jerusalem was leveled. For a few years around 130 AD part of Roman Judea was independent under Simon bar Kokhba before being crushed by the Romans. In revenge, Rome reorganized the area as Syria Palaestina, that took away recognition of the area as Jewish and administration was moved to Antioch.

Simon bar Kokhba from the Knesset Menorah

 

One can see how this would leave the Jewish people out in the cold and several Jewish Rabbis worked in the area to preserve the faith. One was Rabbi Johannon who was born the son of a blacksmith but very soon lost both parents. His grandparents saw him taught by prominent Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi. When Nasi died Johanan was only 15 but Johanan spent his inheritance to continue his studies. Afterward he opened a school in Tiberius that was controversially open to anyone including non Jews regardless of whether they could pay. This left Johanan in poverty explaining his sandal making. He was thought of as one of the more liberal Rabbis and his Jerusalem Talmud contributions are in the Gemara.

A German biography of Rabbi Johanan

There was one aspect to Rabbi Johanan that was not taken advantage of by the stamp. He was said to have been extraordinarily good looking. He once extolled while sitting outside the public baths. “Let the daughters of Israel look at me when they come from the public baths,(Mikveh), and their children will be handsome like I am and know the Torah as I do”. I guess having a Rabbi pose nude like a male model on a 1800 year later postage stamp wouldn’t do.

Well my drink is empty. It is said the Rabbi lived to be over 100 years old. Hope he didn’t linger too long outside the baths in his later years. Come again soon when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2021.

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Manama 1968, Finbar Kenny discovers another country with an assist from the Emir of Ajman

This one is a little confusing. Manama is the name of a fairly large city in Bahrain. This is not that place. This is the tiny agricultural village that pledges to the United Arab Emirates by way of the Emir of Ajman. Current population is five thousand. 1900 population 50. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

These so called dune stamps are considered fake as they were printed by an outsider by a place that really are not countries, just sand dunes. The fact was though the leader or the area did sign the deal and open post offices. When the United Arab Emirates took over the postal system, the stamps of the dune places were valid for postage for another six months. All sounds pretty real to me. Plus doesn’t this stamp capture the excitement buzzing in Manama during the leadup to the 1968 summer Olympics in Mexico City. The biggest occupation in period Manama was bee keeping, so hopefully they weren’t too distracted.

The not mythical Manama Post Office. Once bringing forward unique stamp issues, it still serves postal patrons in the UAE

Finbar Kenny had been the head of the stamp department of the American Macys chain of department stores. Department stores had previously seen the wisdom of allowing a card table near the elevator where a person would try to interest children in stamp collecting. Mothers could leave their children and shop in peace. The idea for this was originated by the old Minkus stamp album publisher. Finbar Kenny was interested in becoming an important stamp dealer. When Great Britain ended their postal service for the Trucial States in 1963, Kenny was ready. He approached the Emirs of Um al Quain, Fugeria and Ajman  with the idea of independent post offices with the stamp revenue divided 50/50 with the Emirs.

The Emir of Ajman, a poorer area, had the idea to increase his revenue further. He would open an additional post office in Manama that would offer separate stamp issues. The Trucial states in earlier times had relied economically on pearl diving, but that industry moved to Japan. The Emir of Ajman started promoting Manama as the potential bread basket of Ajman. Papaya and a few lemon trees were planted on the sand dune by the local Sharqiyin tribe.

Discovering so many new countries did not go too well for Finbar Kenny personally. The Dune stamps ended with the forming of the UAE in 1972. Interestingly one of the first things the UAE had to do was bring into line the rebellious Sharqiyin tribe. Kenny still had the contract to produce stamps for the Cook Islands. The Prime Minister of Cook then approached Kenny and asked for a loan secured by future stamp revenue to fund his reelection campaign. Kenny made the loan thinking he did not have a choice. The Supreme Court of Cook then decided that the loan was a bribe and an attempt to throw an election. So Kenny got the honor of paying Cook a fine of $60,000.

Finbar Kenny in 1965

Authorities were not done with Finbar Kenny. The USA had just passed the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act that made it illegal in the USA for Americans to offer bribes overseas and charged Kenny over the Cook Island situation. Kenny was the first to plead guilty under the act. At least he didn’t go to jail.

Well my drink is empty. I wonder if a postal patron at the post office in Manama today can still buy any of the old issues. It was a long time ago but the same building. Come again soon when there will be a new story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2021.

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Peru 1936. Mail with no stamps, or even writing, but sometimes knots

The Inca empire covered over 2000 miles and is estimated to have contained 10 million people. Sounds like a management headache, especially with no computers or even a written language. Well some times an ancient people will come up with a work around, or in this case a run around. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Waterlow and Sons had some fun with the design of this exotic stamp from far off Peru. The presentation of the ancient Inca courier is straight forward and at first glance appropriately regal. Notice however how playfully they presented the surrounding designs. Specifically the figurehead at the top center. He made me laugh.

Todays stamp is issue A143, a 10 Centavo stamp issued by Peru in 1936. It was an 18 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 30 cents used.

With such a spread out Inca empire. there was a need to have a system of communications. They developed a profession of road running mailmen who worked along regular chain routes throughout the empire. In addition to the skill of fast road running, the mailmen also had to be adept at quick memorization as remember the empire had no written language.

Inca road running postman crosses a rope bridge to deliver his message

There was a sort of exception to the all verbal communication for the road runners were sometimes tasked with carrying Quipu. The Quipu was a series of strings and knots. The shape, shape, and distance apart of the knots conveyed the meaning. You of course  had to understand the code and be able to make the knots. This was a skill passed from father to son using much repetition. The knots were supposedly also able to keep a record of numbers.

Quipu strings and knots

In the way of the modern historian, there is a a way of making romantic this backward work around as an equivalent of the modern binary code of computer languages. It seems to me to be an awfully labor intensive substitute for the talking drum method of long distance communications used in old days west Africa, see https://the-philatelist.com/2020/06/16/the-gold-coast-1954-listening-out-for-the-talking-drum/   . The Africans also had the problem of no written language to work around.

Sometimes even today simple people condemn as evil old systems they do not take the time to understand. After the Spanish Empire’s conquest of Latin America, the Catholic Church declared quipu knots the work of Satan and that they should be destroyed on sight. This might not have been just ignorance. The few in number conqueror will not want the masses to have a form of communication that they don’t understand. A little like Josef Stalin banning the Esperanto language during his 1930s purges. In any case it was the end of the use of Quipu knots and today we have only uncovered a few examples of the old system.

Well my drink is empty. Come again soon when there will be another story to be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2021.

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Jamaica 1967, 100 years of the Jamaica Constabulary

Jamaica is a poor high crime area. This was true in colonial as well as modern times. In the old days disorder was cracked down on harshly  by the British Army. After the Morant Bay rebellion a Constabulary of locals was established in the hope of a middle ground. Yet still Britain interferes. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

The uniforms shown on this stamp will be recognizable to any British Commonwealth stamp collector. It does though also show the one huge change that came with independence, there were no longer any white faces in charge. Whether that is refreshing or terrifying depends on your point of view.

Todays stamp is issue A82, a one Shilling stamp issued by independent Jamaica on November 28th, 1967. It was a three stamp issue in different denominations celebrating the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Constabulary as it was then thought. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 40 cents unused. Curiosity had me check if there would be a 300th aniversary issue in 2016 based on the date the force uses now or a 150th in 2017 based on this stamps dates. There was neither but Jamaica does not bother with many stamp issues any more.

The Constabulary now considers their founding date 1716 when freemen were first hired to serve as night watchmen at the port of Kingston. In 1865 things were pretty desperate for the freed slaves of Jamaica. They were no longer working the fields and that year there was horrible flooding to go with no income. Paul Bogle was an untrained but literate Deacon of a black Baptist church in Morant Bay. Bogle maintained correspondence with literary and religious figures of the British political left from which he raised funds. He had also tried to sollicit a handout from Queen Victoria but she instead wrote back suggesting that her Jamaican subjects work harder. When two freeman blacks were convicted of squatting on an abandoned plantation trouble broke out. Deacon Bogle had a few people in the courtroom and many more armed outside. When the first disrupter was arrested by a baliff, the crowd outside went wild burning the courthouse and nearby buildings and killing 27.

Deacon Paul Bogle. Too bad he didn’t sit for a portrait with his thugs behind him

With no national police force, British Governor John Eyre declared marshal law and the British Army marched on Morant Bay. Insert here many stories of random inocent blacks getting executed and or whipped that don’t include any evidence. Bogle himself was arrested, tried in court and executed for his part in troubles.

The British left at home made a big stink over what happened. Governor Eyre was summoned home and faced charges. Back in Jamaica a local constabulary was established, British run, but mainly staffed by local blacks. Governor Eyre was found innocent and the court decided that the charges were filed in error so Eyre was entitled to have his legal expenses covered. Deacon Bogle has of course been rehabilitated by modern Jamaica which is probably why the Constabulary reexamined their founding date to lessen the association with the uprising they were on the wrong side of.

Governor Eyre

The Constabulary is still involved with the British political left. In 2003, a crime management unit of the Constabulary was accused of extra judicial killings during a brutal gang war with the “Stone Crushers” gang. The head of the unit, black police Captain  Reneto Adams was decried in Britain as Jamaica’s version of Dirty Harry. A veteran white Scotland Yard detective was airlifted in to show the Constabulary a better way. Is anybody surprised that the detective turned out a grifter who used the assignment to set up his own security consultancy. I bet the many crime victims of Jamaica  would prefer to consult Reneto Adams.

Well my drink is empty and I may pour two more to toast Governor Eyre and Reneto Adams for being there to make the tough decision when trouble came. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2021.

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Soviet Union 1966, When showing off a minority People’s Poet goes wrong

The Soviet Union had within it many middle eastern types as a leftover from Czar time conquests, When life hands you lemons make lemonaide. So dutifully  the Soviets are talking up the literary geniuses from the hinterland. Here we get to meet Akop Akopian, a maybe Armenian poet. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Several of the literary figures on this Soviet stamp issue have later stamp issues after their region became independant. That helps confirm that the people thought the man worth remembering. That is not the case with Akop here, though Armenia has had nearly 30 years to get to this official Soviet “People’s Poet”.

Todays stamp is issue A1518, a 4 Kopek stamp issued by the Soviet Union in 1966. It was an eight stamp issue all in the same denomination. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 30 cents used.

There seems to be many name variations attached to this man. For the purposes of this offering I will use his Soviet name Akop Akopian, this has the advantage of being spellable and demonstrates the fungibility of tribe in Soviet times. Akop was born in Elisabethpol, Russia in 1867. The area had been conquered from the Persians 40 years before. The city is now called Ganja and is the second largest city in independent Azerbaijan and no longer contains the volatile soup of Armenians, Russians, or Jews. The Azeris have it to themselves now after a pogrom in the last days of the Soviet Union.

Akop published his first book of poetry in 1899 five years  before he switched to the Communist Party. He mainly worked out of Tiblisi in modern day Georgia. Into the area, Akop concentrating on bringing the Socialist Realism literary method as put forth by the Soviet Maksim Gorky. The Soviets themselves seem to be a little confused about who this guy was as at different times they bestowed the title People’s Poet of Armenia SSR, People’s Poet of Georgia SSR, and People’s Poet of the Transcaucasian Federation, SSR. Notice nothing from where he was really from.

Akop’s titles include Revolution, Red Waves, Died but didn’t Disappear, and One More Cut. That last one about blood sucking, probably really got to the heart of the matter.

Even in the Soviet Union, where the arts were so lavishly supported, Akop was forced to have a day job. He was the Chief Commissar of the Soviet Georgia State Bank. Wonder if he ever won the People’s Banker title?

Well my drink is empty. Come again soon when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2021.

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Egypt 1939, King Farouk wants you to think of him when you marvel at the Aswan Dam

The Nile River regularly floods it’s banks with fresh water. If this could be caught and retained, it would greatly enhance irrigation possibilities and by extension food production. Sounds like a project for a far sighted King, or at least a short sighted King looking for something to talk about. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Here’s an early stamp that really calls out for more color. A desert is being turned green with beautiful blue water. Also the stock portrait of Farouk could instead have him holding blueprints to better imply he was the guiding force. The stamps of period Egypte were trying hard to show the King freeing the people of colonialism. Better designs might have been more convincing.

Todays stamp is issue A73, a 100 Millimenes stamp issued by the Kingdom of Egypt in 1939. It was an eight stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1.40 unused.

The below story refers to the still existing Aswan Low Dam, the Aswan High Dam was built later.

In the 10th century AD, Egypt was ruled by the Fatimid Caliphate. The Fatimids are believed descended from Fatima, the daughter of Mohammed. The Caliph had the idea for a dam on the Nile that could retain floodwater and thus expand agriculture. The great Arab mathematician, engineer, and physicist Alhazen was summoned from Basra in Iraq to work on the project. After checking out the obvious site near Aswan were the Nile was shallow, Alhazen thought the project impossible. What scared him though was disappointing the Caliph back in Cairo when he told that it wasn’t going to happen. Instead Alhazen pretended to have a mental breakdown and confined himself to house arrest until the death of the Caliph. The time at home was not wasted. His masterpiece work, the Book of Optics was completed in this time.

Alhazen

In 1882, Egypt was occupied by the British Army and commercial interests were free to pursue economic projects beyond the Suez Canal. A dam at Aswan was now thought more feasible and the Dam was designed by famed British Empire civil engineer Sir William Wilcocks and constructed from 1898-1902 by the London based firm of John Aird. The dam was the largest ever constructed of bricks but was smaller than desired to protect nearby historic sites. See https://the-philatelist.com/2020/09/25/pakistan-1964-egypt-sudan-and-pakistan-well-actually-unesco-save-the-nubian-abu-simbel-temples/   .

It must have been damaging to Egyptian pride to have such a worthwhile project accomplished by interlopers. It was even worse than that. Such a massive, private project requires creative financing. The financier making the project possible was German Jew Ernst Cassel. Cassel had stints in Paris and London financing heavy industry around the world. He managed his empire from a Swiss mountain castle named Riederfurka that was only accesable by mule. When the nearby village offered to improve the path to the castle, Cassel told them he would move away if they did. It will be a long wait before Egypt does a stamp honoring Cassel’s role in the project.

Sir Ernst err Ernest Cassel
Cassel’s Swiss castle, Riederalp

In the first years of the dam, there was no provision for electricity generation, though this was added later. There were also two additions making the dam taller. These later jobs had to be done without the firm of John Aird. It had been closed in 1911 after mucking up an extension of Singapore’s port facilities.

Well my drink is empty and there are so many people here worthy of a toast, all the way back to Alhazen, I worry of a hangover. To bad the group doesn’t include King Farouk. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2021.

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Kenya 1971, Should I stay or should I go?

When a country becomes independent, it becomes natural for the colonials to fade. In Kenya, British settlers were bought out of their property by Britain and the vast bulk took the offer. This was a generous gift to the new government. What of though the several hundred thousand Indians, who also came in colonial times and were the bulk of the merchant and professional classes. They faced a question. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your fist sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

At the time of this stamp issue Kenya was still involved in a postal union with Uganda and Tanzania as they had been in colonial times. They still occasionally came out with a single country issue and this one showed off sea shells. This abalone shell is common from East African beaches through Sri Lanka and Australia even to Tonga.

Todays stamp is issue A4, a 30 cent stamp issued by Kenya on December 13th, 1971. It was a 15 stamp issue in various sizes and denominations. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used. In todays exchange rates, 30 Kenyan cents is worth about one fourth of an American penny.

Kenya was granted independence in 1963 and became a de facto one party state under President Kenyatta, though his African tribe was only a third of Kenyan blacks. Prospects were somewhat better than in other countries. There had been an effort to train black Kenyans by providing them free educations in America. This was called the Kennedy Airlift and had been opposed by Britain as those given the opportunity were not those Britain would have chosen. Among those taking advantage were Nobel Peace Prize winner and environmentalist Wangari Mathai and former American President Barack Obama’s father.

Britain had chosen Kenyatta who unlike Uganda, invited Indians to stay. He also had doubts about the loyalty of the Kennedy Airlift people and understood the economy would be better with their expertise. Kenyatta was perhaps not ready when most of the local Indians turned down Kenyan passports and formed a political group to protect their interests.

The leader of that group was Pio Gama Pinto, whose family was from Goa in Portuguese India. He had been educated in India and even served in it’s Air Force but became involved in agitation against Portuguese rule in Goa. He feared arrest in independent India and returned to Kenya to start a newspaper that agitated for independence. After being involved in the Kenya Emergency uprising in the 1950s, he was jailed for four years. Though he was made an official of Kenyatta’s government he continued his agitation. He then found that agitation was more harshly dealt with by Kenya than India, Portugal, or Britain. He was assassinated by gunmen while waiting for his gait to rise in his driveway sitting in his car with his family.

Pinto close to Kenyatta, but perhaps not close enough

This was taken as another sign that Indians did not have much of a future in Kenya. Each year in this period 10 percent of Indians moved away. Interestingly most chose to move to Britain instead of independent India. Indeed Pinto, who had been so involved in the agitation against the Portuguese in Goa, made no effort to move back after Goa was taken by force into India in 1961. Interestingly Pinto’s widow and children moved to Canada after his death, After the Kenyatta Political Party was finally replaced in 2002, power shifted to the now old Kennedy Airlift People. Part of this was the rehabilitation of no longer a threat Pio Gama Pinto. In 2008, his memory was honored with a postage stamp that labeled him a hero of Kenya. In 2017, Indians were recognized as the 44th official tribe of Kenya. Most still maintain their foreign passports.

Well my drink is empty. Come again soon when there will be another story to be learned from stamp collecting and have a happy 2024. First published in 2021.

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Netherlands 2006, The problem of extracting Dutch art from the modern

113 years separates the USA stamp I did recently, see https://the-philatelist.com/2020/12/18/usa-1893-a-columbian-exposition-brings-the-worlds-eyes-on-chicago/ , to this one today. They both were trying to do the same thing. Show the past in a patriotic way that gives hope and confidence for the future. On that stamp we sneer at the ideal “white city” even though they clearly meant less pollution not race. Here the Dutch postal service asked modern artists for pleasant renderings of Holland and that request was too much for this artist to bare. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

On one hand, there is some room to be impressed with the printing of this stamp. Getting full size works of art on stamps as small as this one must have taken some doing by the lithographer. Obviously the tiny bulk postage stamp is not an ideal venue to view art. I wonder if the decision makers were unimpressed  by the quality of the art submissions and tried to lessen the embarrassment by minimizing the stamp size.

Todays stamp is issue A480, a 39 Euro Cents stamp issued by the Netherlands on January 2nd, 2006. This issue came as booklet panes of 10 self adhesive stamps. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

This stamp displays A day in Holland/Holland in a day by artist Barbara Visser. Babs was born in 1966 in Harlem(the Dutch one) and had an extensive education that spanned several countries and stretched into her thirties. Her government grants and prizes included the 30,000 Euro Charlotte Kohler Prize handed out by the Prince Bernhard Culture Fund.

When the call went out from the postal authority for modern works on Dutch subjects, Babs had the idea to pull a little trick on them. The title of the work  gives off a tourism vibe and causes you to not question the presence of the Japanese couple admiring the old windmill. The painting though is not what it seems or what was requested. The windmill on the stamp is an old Dutch windmill that had been disassembled, shipped to Japan and reconstructed. It is the artist who is the tourist and not in the Netherlands.

Artist Barbara Visser

While the stamp from 17 years ago appears to be the height of Babs art career she has other achievements. In 1995 she had a four episode arch on the Lithuanian soap opera Gimines playing herself but married to a Lithuanian/American surgeon named Steve.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another in commiseration with the postal authority having been shat upon for the crime of trying to display todays well subsidized art to a broad audience. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

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State of Mahra 1968, The Sultan is gone, the communists are here, want to buy a fake stamp for the Winter Olympics

The Mahra Sultinnate occupied the eastern portion of South Yemen and Socotra Island for 700 years prior to falling in 1967. Where does that leave this stamp from 1968? In the state of being fake, though tolerated by the new South Yemen government. Don’t try to mail them. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

The Philatelist obviously has no problem with stamps that celebrate the Olympics. This one is just silly and a missed opportunity. The new government was allowing the old Sultanates to continue fake stamp issues. Obviously they were doing this for the money by why not use the stamp issues to show what was going on in Mahra? Some things were changing, some things they hoped to change, and others were staying the same. A license to chronical that with fake but illuminating stamps would attract this collector. Instead we have a fallen Sultanate famous for it’s camels showing you a generic luge team.

Todays stamp was not for postage so has no catalog value. I checked on eBay and they had a 10 stamp issue from this period and were asking $50. Steep.

The Mahra Sultanate had  been ruled by the Banu Afrar dynasty since the 1400s. They also controlled the island of Socotra that attracted more than their share of Europeans. The Portuguese were the first to conquer it as a replenishment stop for it’s ships on the India trade. Once there, they found it less useful than hoped and abandoned it. Prior to getting the nearby colony of Aden up and operating, the British East India company leased a coaling station on Socotra but found the Sultan untrustworthy so again the area was lightly used.

Map of area in period

On the mainland, the region became most famous for mehri camels, who are fast, agile, and tough. Mahri tribesmen on their famous camels played a big part in the capture if the Middle East and North Africa in the name of Islam. Later in a somewhat different cause the French Army prized the mehri camels for their Sahara adventures. This history was remembered by Citroen in 1968 when their jeep version of the 2CV was named Mehari. It lasted 20 years in production and yes many were bought by the French Army.

Citroen Mehari Jeep

When Aden was abandoned by the British in 1967 that was the end of the Federation of South Arabia that included Mahra and all the area Sultans. Initially they did not resist the occupation by pan Arabist from Aden. The Sultans scattered to Saudi Arabia, London, and Switzerland. Those pan Arabist who were hoping for an end to European intrusion were to be disappointed. Starting in 1971, Socotra was open as a replenishment stop not for the Portuguese or the British, but the Soviet Navy. As happened in previous times the Soviets found the island surplus of requirements and abandoned it in 1985.

The island of Socotra is again appearing useful in the civil war in modern Yemen. The United Arab Emirates landed at the airport allegedly to help train the Yemeni army unit on the island. Instead the unit announced to UAE’s approval that they support a separation from Yemen. The current pretender to the Banu Afrar Dynasty has now also arrived on Socotra, he says at the invitation of local tribal chiefs. I humbly suggest that he just rents his old palace instead of buying it. He did bring with him a big supply of the old style flags. Can more fake stamps be far behind?

Current Mahra Sultan pretender Abdulla al Afra greets his subjects? after arriving in Socotra

Well my drink is empty. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

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Portugal 1945, Marshal Carmona wonders if the homeland is sick as it tries it’s best men

Portugal’s first republic was not working with economic strife and anarchy in politics and in the streets. How do you solve it? A military coup perhaps? Won’t the people then be ill served as Generals turn themselves into pagan Caesars in the fascist mode. General/ Marshal/President Carmona tried to find a middle way. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

It is interesting that this late in his career pictures Oscar Carmona in a dress military uniform, even though he had served as President for nearly twenty years. The uniform perhaps both recognizes him as a figure head while also acknowledging his right under the Nuevo State to fire the government, an important check the kept Salazar from becoming one of Europe’s pagan Caesars as he himself described the fascist leaders of other European countries.

Todays stamp is issue A149, a 1.75 Escudo stamp issued by Portugal on November 12th, 1945. It was an 8 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $7.50 unused.

Oscar was born the son of a Portuguese Naval Captain who was serving as naval attaché to Brazil in 1869. Despite this he joined the army and married the daughter of a General. In marrying her, he legitimized their three kids. He rose through the ranks and was charged by the republican government with leading a military tribunal that was tasked with prosecuting officers who had conspired in a series of failed coups against the unpopular and unstable, but elected government.

He was perhaps not the best choice as the Prosecutor then dramatically asked in open court if the homeland was sick as it was persecuting it’s best men. One of the few times a prosecutor wins an acquittal of the officers. Soon Carmona is leading 15,000 troops marching into Lisbon demanding and recieving the resignation of the Republican government.

Initially the plan was to install a rival politician in power under the same constitution. Carmona quickly realized the weakness of that and instead crafted a Nuevo State that gave him personally dictator like powers.

The early years of the dictatorship saw a good amount of economic progress as a new Finance Minister Antonio Salazar got the countries very iffy finances in order. This is where Carmona differed from so many military dictators. Seeing the success, he promoted Salazar to Prime Minister as he himself stepped back in a more figurehead role. As a non military leader, Salazar was able to gradually reduce the importance of the military in politics with the acquiesce of Carmona. This reduced role was central to the very delicate task Portugal pulled off by staying out of both the Spanish Civil War and World War II.

There was of course opposition to the absolute power of the Nuevo State. This included both far left and more mainstream elements. A nod to how well the system worked was that both aged Marshal Carmona and his also aged military replacement as President  were repeatedly offered the role of figurehead to proposed opposition governments.

Respect for Carmona extended 20 years after his death and all the way to Angola
The respect didn’t last as Angolan Escudos became Kwanzas, devalued and now offered two unnamed heroes

Well my drink is empty. Come back soon when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.