Month: August 2018

Categories
Uncategorized

Recovering from the hyenas, Ethiopia 1998

Since Ethiopia mostly avoided colonization, it should be an example of how an African country can succeed on it’s own. Well they do try. 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.

Todays stamp is a later rendering of the international United Nations stamp. It functions as a somewhat less successful rival to British Commonwealth stamp issues. I don’t say less successful in terms of the messaging of the stamps. It is just that such issues do not have a similar following to collectors. Ethiopia however has been a big part of African and indeed wider third world maters. The African Union for example is based in Abbes Ababa. To see the country embrace at least the ideal of universal human rights is heartening. This is not the African tradition, and logically Ethiopia should be a bastion of African tradition.

Todays stamp is issue A322, a one Birr stamp issued by Ethiopia on December 23rd 1998. It honors the 50th anniversary of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. It was a a four stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 75 cents mint.

Between 1932 and 2012, Ethiopia only had 3 leaders. That is not to say there was stability. All faced the threat of coup and insurrection and despite their long rules, none left office of their own accord. Hailie Selassie styled himself as an Emperor, while the 1975-91 leader Mengistu and the 1991-2012 leader Meles styled themselves President.  The Emperor is best remembered and Mengistu the worst.

Mengistu took over from the Emperor in a coup and had him killed in his palace. He then gave a speech where he promised death to counterrevolutionaries. He then dramatized his point by smashing 3 bottles of blood on the ground. For the next several years child soldier age boys showed up dead in the gutter of Abbes Ababa, there bodies not even buried but gradually consumed by the wild hyenas that roamed the capital. There was also a war with Somalia and an independence movement in coastal Eritrea.

Naturally Mengistu’s economic policies of thievery with a Marxist tinge were unsuccessful. So when Soviet Bloc aid dried up, the many opposition forces closed in and Mengistu fled to friendlier areas in Zimbabwe, where he still lives. The next President Meles faced a big mess to clean up and against all odds made some progress at least economically. He was more modern though and as such put himself up regularly for elections. He always won them however dubious but it was always an excuse for foment and violence. The issue always seem to be that a small group benefit from any success and the masses don’t participate. The is true though each leaders aristocracy was different entirely from the previously privileged.

What Meles will never be forgiven for is losing Eritrea and returning Ethiopia to being landlocked. Eritrea was formally Italian and given to Ethiopia as  a reward after the British expelled the Italians from East Africa during World War II. Meles was of half Eritrean decent and this was thought to play a role. Meles died in office in 2012.

Ethiopia has never fully succeeded in being the African leader it should naturally be. It remains to be seen what a truly African leadership would look like. The fear of course is the natural state of things is a despotic strongman in power while hyenas roam the crumbling streets. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

Categories
Uncategorized

Romania 1872, when the politicians are self aggrandizing idiots the German Domnitor will dominate

When politics unite to form an abominable coalition, the Prince must act, even if he is wrong and foreign. 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.

One can see the similarity to a Napoleon III stamp from France I did recently. The early versions, which I believe mine is, were actually printed in Paris. A later version with less distinct printing and cheaper paper came from Bucharest. These medal like profiles of royalty originated on the first postage stamp the penny black from 1840 with Queen Victoria. By the 1870s it was a little overdone with small country people outside of the country will have difficulty identifying. Notice Britain did not have to put the countries name on the stamp. Queen Elizabeth II is the last monarch who does this. I wonder if it will end when her time has passed.

The stamp today is issue A11, a 10 Bani stamp issued by the Principality of Romania in 1872. It was part of a 7 stamp issue in various denominations showing new Domnitor(Prince) Carol I. He had recently arrived from Germany and had tactfully changed his name from Karl. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth $5. The mint versions of this issue are more valuable with the 30 Bani version of the later Bucharest printing up at $190.

Romania had come together after a merger of Moldavia and Wallachia under Domnitor (prince) Alexandru Ioan Cuza. He was quite liberal and actually from Romania. He was in favor of a land reform that would free the multitude of peasants  from their mainly ethnically German landowning class. Trying to thwart this was what Cuza referred to as an abominable coalition of liberal and conservative wealthy politically connected German front men. There was soon a coup and the local Cuza was out on his ear and liberal politicians were off to find a German to be there King. They found their man in a serving Prussian officer named Karl. He had enough distant family connections to Napoleon and spoke French if not Romanian. He was also Lutheran but agreed to raise his sons, which he never had, Orthodox.

Somehow this was allowed to happen and Karl, sorry Carol, proved his worth as a military leader against the Turks and has a power player in the dance a small country must do when dealing with France, Russia and Germany. The liberals that had gotten rid of Cuza were having second thoughts. Carol’s regality grated on them and they began thinking of a coup to become a republic that would more benefit the urban government workers and the Jewish who were so many of their supporters. They planned a two day coup that would happen the first night in Ploesti and the next night move to Bucharest. One of their leaders was Ion Bratianu who had earlier recruited Karl, sorry Carol. Late at night they arrested the police chief of Ploesti and took the city hall and the Telegraph Office. Unfortunately the guards they placed on the telegraph operator got drunk and forgot to police his transmissions. He asked the Bucharest station how the coup was going there and the Bucharest operator told him everything was quiet. He reported to Prince Carol and he showed his efficiency by having troops in Ploesti  by morning to arrest the conspirators. They then insisted it was not a coup but a party prank.

Carol showed his acumen by buying off the liberals by making an uninterrupted series of them Prime Minister, including Ion Bratianu. They did nothing for the peasants who were put down efficiently and bloodily by Carol who was soon upgraded from Prince to King. He ruled till 1914 when he abdicated after trying to side with Germany in World War I instead of respecting the people’s French loyalties.

Well my drink is empty and I better not have another or the people around me won’t stay silent about all my hair brained conspiracies. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

Categories
Uncategorized

Philippines 1964, remembering the brains of the 1898 revolution

Mabini checked all the boxes for a revolutionary leader. Up from poverty, educated locally, handicapped, so even more challenges to overcome and steadfast. The revolution in the Philippines was ultimately unsuccessful but is a vital backdrop to the independence that eventually came. 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 Philatelists.

The printing on the stamp is pretty good. Showing him sitting reminds those that remember him of his handicap without making fun of him for it. It is such an important part of the story. That someone could rise from poverty in a poor colony of a far off place and be educated solely in the Philippines and rise to Prime Minister is unusual. Then this courageous man has the fortitude to resign when he feels his new country disrespected. Definitely a majestic story worth remembering.

Todays stamp is issue A170, a 30 Sentiminoes stamp issued by the Republic of the Philippines on July 23rd, 1964. The stamp was part of a three stamp issue in various denominations celebrating the century of the birth of Apolinario Mabini, the independence leader and first Prime Minister. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

Apolinario Mabini was born in Tanauan in the then Spanish colony of The Philippines in 1864. His father was a peddler in the town market. Being very lucky and literate he received a scholarship to university where he  excelled in legal studies. He supported himself during his studies by teaching children. After graduation he did not practice law but instead began working on the legal ramifications of independence from Spain. He joined La Liga Filipina that was a moderate group that sought independence by peaceful means. The group gradually became more radical as members were arrested by Spanish authorities. Mabini at the time was being racked with polio to the extent that he lost the use of both his legs. He used his convalescence to write pamphlets that described a basis for in independent Philippines. The pamphlets  came to the positive attention of the Field Marshal of the independence movement Emilio Aguinaldo, later Philippines first dictator. He had Mabini brought to him which involved hundreds of men voluntarily taking turns carrying his hammock. Mabini was found impressive and later appointed Prime Minister when Aguinaldo declared himself dictator. Mabini was at one point arrested with fellow revolutionaries but was released instead of shot because of his condition. America would later not underestimate him this way.

Mabini’s job as Prime Minister was to negotiate with the Americans. America had played a big part in the end of Philippine’s Spanish colonial status and sought to then claim it as a colony for itself. Mabini tried to convince the Americans to leave or at least stop fighting Aguinaldo’s army. The Americans flatly refused this and required  Philippines to take a loyalty oath to America to end the fighting. Mabini refused and resigned his position to fight the Americans. The Americans then arrested him and sent him into exile in Guam. Aguinaldo was shortly after defeated, captured and then took the pledge to the USA. A few years later Mabini was allowed to return to the Philippines after also taking an oath but by then he was sick and was shortly to die of cholera at age 39 in 1905.

For a long period, Mabini’s reputation was besmirched in The Philippines by the rumor that his handicap was the result of syphilis. This was apparently started by rivals within the independence movement at the time of Mabini’s quick rise to power. 75 years after his death, Mabini’s remains were exhumed and it was determined that his handicap was the result of polio rather that syphilis. At the time there was a popular novel that had Mabini as a  character being sexually decadent. When the truth came out it was rewritten with Mabini being decadent and drunk with a liver ailment. Also untrue. Not one of the Philippines finer literary moments.

Well my drink is empty and so I will pour another to toast Mabini and all he achieved during his short challenging life. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

 

Categories
Uncategorized

A young Maharajah keeps it fuedal and Indore

The Holkar Royal line hold out through the British only to bolt when their people have a choice. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and accept a medal from the Maharajah. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

It seems strange to me to put someone so young on a stamp. In theory the feudal state had a regency to help out the 14 year old who was the dear ruler. Why not just show the British administrator. The English tactfully called him a resident. The Holkar’s apparently thought it was a good system. The previous Maharajah abdicated in favor of his son and this guy did the same when his son was 13.

The stamp today is issue A5, a half Anna stamp issued by the Indian Feudal State of Indore. It was part of a six stamp issue in various denominations. The stamp shows Maharajah Tukojirao Holkar III who had just ascended the throne. The over stamp Service means that the stamp was for the official use of the government. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth $1.10 mint, the over stamp adds 20 cents to the value of the stamp. There are versions of the stamp that have double or even inverted overprints. These mistakes don’t add as much to the value as you would think.

The Holkar Dynasty was granted rights to the central Indian city of Indore in the 18th century during the time of the Maratha Raj. The Holkars built the Rajwada Palace in the Maratha style that still stands today. In the early 19th century the Holkars were defeated by the British  in the Third Anglo-Maratha War. The British at that time would have been the British East India Company rather than the British themselves. It was decided to leave the Holkars in charge of Indore but to appoint a British resident to advise.

Rajwada Palace after reconstruction

The British had some favoritism toward Indore as they had fewer issues there than with some other cities in the area. The train came to town in 1875, there was electricity in 1910 and a fire brigade in 1912. The city even received an urban city plan done by noted Scottish sociologists and planner Patrick Geddes, who worked on 18 cities in India in addition to his work in Edenborough, Scotland and Tel Aviv, in then Palestine. The British were the force behind most of these improvements and to a great deal were the beneficiaries of it. It is hard however to contemplate how a city could even function without these improvements.

The Maharajah abdicated in 1926 in favor of his 13 year old son. He had wanted to take a third wife that was an American. She was willing and in fact did convert to Hinduism but the choice was very controversial locally. He became somewhat a jet setter and died in Paris in 1978. He founded several exclusive clubs in Indore and received many awards from the British and handed out many in the name of Indore.

Indore went willingly into India almost immediately after independence in 1947. For a while it was the capital of the Indian Province but that has since been moved to Bhopal. The Rajwada Palace burned in the riots of 1984 but has been rebuilt with the help of the descendants of the Holkar family. The city is a major industrial and outsourcing center with a population over 2 million, over 90 percent Hindu.

Well my drink is empty and so I will open the conversation in the below comment section. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

 

Categories
Uncategorized

Bosnia 1906, an enlightened stab at the Eastern question

With the Ottomans being the sick man of 19th century Europe, strategies were concocted to replace them. Sometimes even being enlightened is not enough to pull off the impossible. 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.

When I saw this stamp, I knew that Austria must have governed the Bosnia of the day. The style and the printing of the stamp tells you that.This was a fairly unique offering in that it offered views of Bosnia instead of just the Austro-Hungarian Emperor. Beni Kallay must have not been a stamp collector. The stamp offerings might have been an ideal way to show off local loyal nothings as if they were somethings. This as a condescending way to show that you as the big man are at one with the little people. I guess it was too early in the 20th century for that.

The stamp today is issue A4, a 10 Heller stamp issued by Bosnia Herzegovina in 1906. The stamp is part of a 16 stamp issue in various denominations. This stamp displays the Vrbas River Valley. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

By the second half of the 19th century, the Ottoman Empire was the sick man of Europe. After losing a war with Russia in 1878, the Great European powers met in Berlin to divide up the spoils. The resulting treaty in theory left Bosnia within the Ottoman Sanjak of Novi Pazar but gave Austro-Hungary the right to militarily occupy it. Austria invaded and although the local Ottoman garrison gave them a serious bloodying, Bosnia was conquered although theoretically still Ottoman. To me it was surprising that what followed was not an ethnic cleansing sending the Moslems back to Turkey. Times were changing though and there was a new class of enlightened with inclusion theories to try out.

The Hapsburg Empire appointed prominent Hungarian Beni Kallay the administrator of their new Condominium of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He was a writer, political thinker, and historian of the various peoples in the area. He started a program of encouraging Bosnian nationalism as separate from Turkey or Serbia. Writers and artists were subsidized to promote Bosnia as a new self governing nation that was tied to the Hapsburg Emperor  as a benefactor and protector. The Moslem faith was allowed to continue but the clergy were made employees of the state so to lessen the influence of the Caliph in Constantinople.

Beni Kallay

Kallay managed to keep Bosnia mostly peaceful for over 20 years. It is worth stressing what a feat this was in this part of the world at the time, or any time really. However after Kallay’s death in 1903 the policy was reassessed. Over time he was supposed to build a loyalty among the people toward the Hapsburg throne. This did not happen despite the cultural sensitivity and relative success economically. In fact the Muslims were actually still loyal to the Ottoman Pashas that were remember still present, if not actually doing anything. The Austrians formally annexed Bosnia in 1908 causing unrest and a political crises. The crisis was ended when Austria paid the Ottomans to accept Austrian sovereignty. With the sellout of the Bosnians by the Ottomans, the other powers quickly recognized Austrian sovereignty that lasted until the end of World War I in 1918.

Kallay reminds me of later liberal international do gooders like Bono or George Soros. In the end all the virtue signaling and wealth transfers can at best paper over the reality that local people want to represent themselves and don’t want to be spoken for. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

Categories
Uncategorized

Chile, with a Bonaparte on the Spanish Throne should we go with Ferdinand, Carlota or go it alone?

A far off colony needs to be always reminded that they are not alone. Otherwise they will believe that they have to rely on themselves. 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.

Todays stamp celebrates the 100th anniversary of Chile’s struggle of independence by showing a  battle scene of the decisive battle of the war. Looking back at the struggle as a military campaign makes for a heroic stamp issue, but does not go very far to tell the story of why it happened.

The stamp today is issue A17, a 5 Centavo stamp issued by Chile in 1910 on the 100th anniversary of the Chilean struggle for independence. The stamp features the Battle of Maipu in 1818. According to the Scott catalog the stamp is worth 25 cents used. I think this stamp is somewhat undervalued, as an attractive commemorative that is now over 100 years old. Remember though that stamps were issued at the time more to raise revenue from stamp collectors than be used in mail and clearly Chile has yet to develop enough local collectors  who would revel in exploring their countries history through  its stamp issues.

A confluence of events lead to Chile seeking independence from Spain. There was a great deal of loyalty personally to Spanish King Ferdinand. However he was forced out by Napoleon, who then put his brother on the Spanish Throne. Joseph Bonaparte commanded no loyalty in the colonies. The loyalty was divided though between Ferdinand and his sister Carlota who was married to the King of Portugal and had gone into exile in Brazil also fleeing Napoleon. By then she was estranged from  her husband and began offering herself up as the Queen of La Plata, the rightful ruler of South America. This divided Royalists and put ever more people toward thoughts of independence.

At this same time, the colonial government of Spain in Chile was discredited by the Scorpion scandal. The Scorpion was a British ship off the coast of Chile allegedly whaling but really attempting to smuggle English textiles into Chile. An American Doctor working in Chile agreed to buy the textiles but then decided on a double cross. He contacted the colonial Governor who agreed to provide undercover police for his plan in exchange for a personal share of the profits. The transaction happened but at a set time at an ashore party afterwards, the police assassinated the ships officers and the Scorpion was boarded retrieving the money. With the Governor getting his share no customs were required also defrauding the colony. When the scheme went public, the colonial authority was disgraced and the governor had go into exile in Peru.

After the Portuguese King returned to his throne in Portugal, the hated and separated Queen Carlota was confined to a castle where she conspired with one of her sons to remove her husband  as she had done earlier in Brazil. Her style of dress and mannerism became ever more bizarre and it was rumored that her castle was rife with sexual orgyies. She died alone in the castle at age 55 amid rumors of suicide. A long term conniver seems to attract a lot of rumours while confined to castle. Was she in the dungeon, was she in charge of the dungeon?

Queen Carlota during her years in Brazil

The Battle of Maipu on the stamp was the decisive battle of the War of Independence. A joint Argentine-Chilean force under Argentine leader San Martin defeated an equally sized force of Spanish troops south of Santiago. There were skirmishes with Spanish Royalists for 5 more years.

Well my drink is empty and so I will open the conversation in the below comment section. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.