Month: March 2019

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Italy 1941, Hitler interviews Mussolini about his future role as a colonial governor

Even for Italian fascists, this stamp does not age well. At first Italy was an important ally of Germany and Mussolini’s rise to power was an inspiration to Hitler. Italians fortunes in the war went very badly and the King removed Mussolini and had him arrested. Only to have him “saved” by the Germans and named a figurehead of their occupied Italy. 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 displays Hitler and Mussolini as equals. They were not even in early victorious days. Though he fashioned himself as the leader, il Duce, Mussolini was just a Prime Minister that the King could and did have him removed when things turned bad. There was a coup attempt against Hitler in 1944 as things went bad, but it failed because Hitler retained all his power. One wonders to what extent even Hitler realized the difference.

Todays stamp is issue A235, a 25 Centessimi stamp issued by the Kingdom of Italy in 1941. It was part of a five stamp issue in various denominations. There were additional denominations prepared but not actually issued. The post war Italian government auctioned them off to stamp dealers with the proceeds going to charity. According to the Scott catalog, this stamp is worth $2.25 used. The post war charity issue are worth $35 and of course are all mint.

Benito Mussolini was born the son of an active socialist. The name Benito was after a left wing Mexican President. As a young man, he himself was active in socialist politics especially when he emigrated to Switzerland to avoid Italian military service. He returned to Italy when there was an amnesty for draft dodgers but soon was working in the then Italian areas of Austria Hungary. Over time he became well read and multilingual and his politics became more right wing as a result of World War I. Like Peron in Argentina, his rise to power attempted to draw support from both the left and the right. As with Peron, in power he was a figure of the right. With him has Prime Minister, he signed alliances with Nazi Germany and  Japan.

The Italian army proved to be a big liability once the war started. Their equipment was not up to date and Italian industry had no ability to correct that. Italy’s attempts to invade Greece from Albania  and Egypt from Libya were failures. An even bigger mistake was sending over 200,000 troops to fight alongside the Germans in Russia. The force had little military capability and really fought alongside Romanian and Hungarian in what the Germans hoped would be quiet flanks near Stalingrad. They weren’t as this was where the Soviets counterattacked. The German client state troops folded like a cheap suit and the German position at Stalingrad was surrounded and the defeat was the turning point of the war. Barely half of the Italian troops made it back to Italy in early 1943. By then the Italian presence in Africa was at an end and the allies invaded Sicily.

Italian King Victor Emmanuel II removed Mussolini as Prime Minister and had him confined in a mountaintop hotel. In a daring raid, Germany landed commandos from gliders on the mountaintop recovering Mussolini and flying him off the mountain in a small Storch airplane. A haggard Mussolini was flown to Hitler and his new role as a colonial governor was explained to him. Germany had occupied the Italian boot and would contest the Allies in Italy for the rest of the war.

In April 1945 Mussolini attempted to again head for Switzerland where he hoped to fly to sanctuary in Franco’s Spain. He left his wife and children behind, perhaps as a continued presence in post war Italy. He was instead found by communist partisans, shot, hanged and his body desecrated publicly. His remains were later dug up by his supporters and Italy had a crazy corpse hunt on his hands. When the government finally found his remains they were at a loss as to what to do with them. Eventually in 1957, a right of center Italian government contacted Mussolini’s widow Rachele and turned over his remains for a Catholic burial in his hometown. By then, she was running a restaurant in her hometown. She was eventually granted a pension but for years was denied on the excuse that Mussolini had not taken a salary as Prime Minister. She died in 1979. This stamp equates Hitler with Mussolini, but the extent that he was part of the system allowed his family some normalcy eventually. Hitler had no descendants, but his henchman had no future in postwar Germany.

Rachele Mussolini

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.

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Norway 2011, 150 years of the sports confederation

Often countries, especially smaller ones, look to sports as a place to excel. In Norway’s case, it is more than being the fan of a few great athletes. There is instead very broad participation, and it is thought that the sports are a great contributor to the athletes physical and even spiritual health. 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 kind of a mess and displays the kind of faults that are so often present on modern stamp offerings. Modern printing techniques allow for elaborate printing on a small scale. For those of us who remember studying tiny variations on some 19th century stamp that should be exciting. Instead a lot is going on with this stamp and you have to be a stamp collector to take the time to take in all that is going on. Another problem is that is a modern self adhesive stamp. As such, the condition used after getting it off the envelope is suspect.

Todays stamp is issue A618, a 14 Krone stamp issued by the Kingdom of Norway on January 3rd, 2011. It was a single stamp issue that celebrated the 150th anniversary of the Norwegian Sports Confederation. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $3.00 used.

The Sports Confederation got it’s start in 1861. That means it predates an independent Norway. At the time there was a political union with Sweden. Norway had previously been a subject of Denmark and when independence from Sweden was achieved in 1906, a Danish Prince was recruited and elected as the first King or Norway.

During World War II Norway was occupied by Germany but the sports confederation went on. The Germans hired Charles Hoff to lead the confederation. Hoff was an Olympian at the 1924 Paris Olympics and set several world records in the pole vault. As some of you may remember from reading this article https://the-philatelist.com/2019/02/07/1924-paris-olympics-the-last-of-the-modern-olympics-that-paid-homage-to-the-ancient-greeks/ , on the 1924 games it was a time when athletes were troubled by amateur status. Hoff was banned from further amateur competitions in 1926 after being paid for a series of exhibitions and performances in the USA. A 1931 pole vault world record was not recognized because of Hoff’s professional status. Hoff began to develop ideas on how  to improve amateur athletics in Norway and the change in government was the opportunity he was waiting for.

Hoff proposed that instead of a few stars there should be opportunities instead for large teams of Norwegians. He proposed a national sports university  and much increased funding that could be raised by a national lottery. He thought wider participation would increase the countries health and spiritual growth. Initially the German occupation was enthusiastic about Hoff’s ideas but as their fortunes in the war dimmed, they reneged on the promised funding. Hoff resigned in disgust in 1944.

Post war, Hoff’s ideas were quickly implemented. The lottery came in 1948 and the national sports university was founded in 1968. The Sports Confederation has currently over 2 million participants with 12,000 sports clubs spread out in 54 regions. The progress happened without Mr. Hoff. Post war he was sentenced to 9 years of hard labor for the crime of collaborating with the Nazis. Recently the sports confederation started having to share the lottery funding 50/50 with cultural investments.

Well my drink is empty and given the sedentary nature of stamp collecting it may be wrong to pour another to toast sports participation. Well maybe we should anyway as long as after a good sporting workout, everyone comes back tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Lebanon 1961, My army fights for me, not thee, but will protect us from the eagles of the whirlwind

What to do when a country is majority Christian but desired by pan Arabist? Don’t ask Lebanon because standing together against outsider threats is not possible. 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 as the look of a French Mandate over an Arab country. Yet the country was independent and Christian. Welcome to the fertile crescent. Where if one side is up, the other side is down. The French had sensibly ran for the door after the war and their lackeys try to fill their shoes. This stamp is surprisingly honest about the situation.

Todays stamp is issue C296, a 5 Piaster airmail stamp issued by the Republic of Lebanon in February 1961. It was a three stamp issue in various denominations that displayed an Arabic map of Lebanon and Christian President Fuad Chehab. According to the Scott catalog the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

During World War II, the French Mandate in Lebanon and Syria initially sided with the Axis aligned Vichy French. This was an embarrassing situation as France  was originally an Allied power. The French colonial troops with Lebanese volunteers standing beside them fought the mainly Australian Allied force sent to liberate them. The Australian forces prevailed and promptly turned over the area to Free French forces. France came to understand that their situation in the area was untenable and Syria was turned over to Arabs to declare independence and Lebanon separated out and turned over to Christian rulers who also declared independence from France. The leaders picked were Maronite Christians whose sect originated in Antioch and was a rival of the Eastern Orthodox Christian church and closely identified with the old Phoenician culture. This group was about 22 percent of Lebanon.

Fuad Chehab got his start in putting together military units of Lebanese that were willing to fight with the Free French Forces. When Lebanon declared independence the units under Chehab’s command became the new army of Lebanon. An imperfect power sharing system was in place that guaranteed Maronite Christian domination but granted some representation to the Arabs. Among the Arabs of Lebanon, there were many followers of the pan-Arabist Syrian Social Nationalist and their armed wing, the Eagles of the Whirlwind. They imagined a greater Syria that included Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, and even Cyprus and Cilicia in Turkey.

The first two Maronite Presidents faced much armed opposition. Despite being Maronite himself, Chehab’s army would not be under civilian control and did not lift a finger to support the elected President when trouble came. With no help from his own army, President Chamoun asked for and received American armed intervention to put down the Arab uprising of 1958. Then the Americans did what Chehab had really wanted and gave him the Presidency as a formerly neutral consensus candidate.

No one will be surprised that once Chehab was President, things changed in one respect. When the Eagles of the Whirlwind rebelled against him. the Lebanese army was finally on guard to keep Chehab in power. The army was not much help in the later civil wars or against the armed incursions of Palestinians that so destroyed Lebanon later. That is what happens when it is turned from a national stabilizing force to the lever of power of one man. Lebanon goes on ever trying to perfect a power sharing arrangement between Christians and Muslims and to stay independent from Syria. The Eagles of the Whirlwind are still around themselves and fight alongside President Assad’s army in the long running Syrian civil war.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the French for leaving after the war. Imagine the hopeless effort required to stay. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Switzerland 1989, celebrating 50 years of Reka making vacations possible for all Swiss

Switzerland for quite a while as been one of the worlds rich countries. Part of doing better is the ability to travel for leisure. Switzerland found a unique way of keeping more travel local and opening up the experience to a wider group of potential travelers. 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 is one of the many Swiss issues that show off some aspect of the society that makes life easier for some of it’s citizens. Now that we are all global citizens such issues date a bit. As period pieces, these stamp shows how hard the government was working to show they are being good stewards of Switzerland’s economic success. I wish todays governments thought as hard about how things look. To outsiders though, they can come across as bragging.

Todays stamp is issue A384, a 50 Rappan stamp issued by Switzerland on August 25th 1989. It was part of a 5 stamp issue in various denominations that celebrated the 50th anniversary of the reka travel organization. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

As Switzerland got wealthier there was more world travel both for it’s citizens and tourist visiting. Switzerland had the idea of a new system that encouraged getaways to stay in Switzerland. 1939 was an advantageous time to start such a plan with war breaking out all around peaceful Switzerland. The increased local travel protected hospitality jobs and increased infrastructure for tourists.

The reka organization set up a point system where you buy points that can be then used on travel. Paying for travel with reka points results in a 17 percent discount over paying cash. There is the ability to save reka points in anticipation of travel that is not taxed. When points are redeemed, the hotel for example pays a three percent commission to the organization. The organization is not for profit and instead uses the revenue to subsidize travel for single parents and those with a low income.

The subsidy for the poorer is not complete. Their website is currently offering a weeks vacation for a mother and child for 200 Swiss Francs. This equalization of outcomes must be difficult to pull off successfully. You have to avoid filling hotels with ungrateful lower classes that ruin the experience for paying customers while still providing a social good that justifies the not for profit status of the organization. As Switzerland becomes more diverse and takes in ever more refugees that share little with the Swiss citizens supporting them, it will be interesting if subsidies like reka survive. So far so good, the stamp celebrated 50 years and in 2019 reka still operates after 80 years.

Well my drink is empty and I am left wondering what the dynamic is at Swiss hotels. Are reka people welcomed as a step up from say American tourists or are they thought of as economy travelers that only are taken when the hotel is not full? Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Great Britain 1987, remembering the Victorian era, 150 years later

Throughout the world, not just in Britain or the Empire, the second half of the 19th century is thought of as the Victorian Era. For some it is the height of culture and progress, for others it is a time of racial and sexual repression. As the country that experienced her reign first hand, Britain under an 80s Conservative government will share the first view. This stamp issue tries to show a lot of the progress of the time. 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.

With such a long reign, there is of course a lot to talk about and each of the four stamps of the issue take on three things to represent the period. In this stamps case, it is the art, the technology progress, and the virtue of the British people. A lot to show on a small gumed piece of paper that also manages to show a portrait of Queen Victoria and the always present profile of Queen Elizabeth. A lot going on that a postal user will likely miss but much for a philatelist to peruse.

Todays stamp is issue A359, an 18p stamp issued by Great Britain on September 8th, 1987. It was a four stamp issue remembering the 150th anniversary of the ascension to the Throne of then 18 year old Queen Victoria. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents.

Queen Victoria became Queen at age 18 years and one month upon the death of her uncle Willian IV. Being barely 18 she avoided a Regency planned for her by her mother and because of German royalty Salic laws against Royal women, the British monarch was no longer the monarch of Hannover in Germany. For the best given the events of the 20th century. Her mother lost much influence on Victoria but she accepted much advice from the then Whig Prime Minister. As a young single lady, even the Queen was required to live with her mother, but with large Buckingham Palace she was able to consign her mother to an out of the way bedroom and control when she sees her. She married Prince Albert in 1840.

Prince Albert was a force behind the Chrystal Palace in the center of the stamp. France had several previous exhibitions of French achievements but Britain through Albert had bigger ideas. The first of many International Expos happened in London in 1851. The Chrystal Palace, of steel and a then new type of strong sheet glass was constructed in Hyde Park for the purpose. The exhibition was worldwide but the technological and artistic sophistication of Britain was displayed for all to see. To cope with the large crowds the worlds first pay toilets were installed. It cost one penny to use the facility and over 800,000 did. It was such a sensation that spending a penny became slang for going to the bathroom.

The right hand portrait on the stamp is a portrait of Grace Darling, an exemplar of the virtue of the British people. Grace Darling grew up poor in a family that lived in and operated a lighthouse. In 1838, she spotted a ship foundering on nearby rocks. She got her father and they rowed a canoe out in the rough waters and were able to save five survivors. Her father and saved men than went back and saved additional ship passengers. Grace’s role in the heroism became well known and she became a national hero.  A trust fund was set up for her and Queen Victoria personally contributed. Unfortunately Grace died of tuberculosis a few years later at age 26.

Grace Darling

The left hand portrait is the famous portrait of a red stag deer known as the “Monarch of the Glen” by Sir Edwin Landseer. It captures the beauty of the animal and a sense of the rural terrain of Scotland. It was commissioned by Queen Victoria who was a big fan of this style of art. The portrait became somewhat of a cliché later as it was used in much advertising later including a soap company and more famously Dewars Scotch Whiskey. Through Dewars the painting came into the hands of the multinational liquor conglomerate Diagio who sold it discounted to The Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh in 2016. I drink Glen Moray rather than Dewars when I drink Scotch so I knew nothing of the commercialization of the image when I saw the painting during a visit to Scotland in 2017. I was so moved by Landseer’s painting that I bought a bronze depiction of the deer in the gift shop. It is nice to know that I have similar taste in art as Queen Victoria.

Well my drink is empty and I will poor another to toast Queen Victoria. Not many get to dominate a century the way she did and in a good way. A second toast, perhaps I should take it slow, is deserved by the stamp designers who managed to show so much on the stamp. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Grenada 1966, the Queen views her colony idyllically

What a great view of a colony. A friendly industrious native woman, an idyllic landscape, and even a Mini automobile happening by. Another great day in the empire that never sets. Set it did though and craziness followed. 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.

Stamp makers of the time did not like the portrait of Queen Elizabeth as used on the stamps and soon replaced it with a profile that doesn’t age and fits more easily in the corner of the stamp. I like the full face picture as it seems the subject of the stamp is being presented as a report to her. One wonders if the reports she did receive were as idealized as this stamp.

Todays stamp is issue A37, a 5 British West Indies Cent stamp issued by the Crown Colony of Grenada in 1966. It was part of a 15 stamp issue in various denominations. There were many overprints of this issue celebrating the 1967 change in status to an independent state freely affiliating with Great Britain and also with surcharges for the World Cup, the World Health Organization, And the EXPO 67 in Montreal, Canada. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 90 cents used.

The first inhabitants of the island were Caribe Indians. They wiped out the first British settlement in the 17th century. Later the French established themselves, bringing in large number of African slaves to work nutmeg plantations. The islands passed to the British but the island soon rebelled with a goal of creating a new Haiti. Gosh, when have anyone looked to Haiti for inspiration? The revolt was put down and there was slow development with the capital given electricity and an airport built. By the 1950s, Britain was looking for the door and a few locals were given free English educations. For some reason in colonial stories from this period the education seems to take the form of left wing, anti colonial dogma rather than administration. Britain hoped to turn over Grenada and other nearby islands to a West Indies Federation where Canada would take charge of colonial duties. No one was really opposed to the Federation but local politicians were unwilling to cede power and Canada unwilling to step up.

After the failure of the Federation, Britain ceded colonial administration to two locals who had formed rival left wing parties. From 1967, the colony became an independent state that freely affiliated with Great Britain and then full independence in 1974, still within the Commonwealth. One slight that Britain inflicted on Grenada was that they reserved the airport to British flagged airlines, none of whom were willing to offer daily service and keeping out Pan Am and potential American tourism.

Two leaders with two parties excluded other freely British trained would be leaders. Maurice Bishop formed the New Jewel political movement. The New Jewel was not just Mr. Bishop but also stood for joint effort for work education and liberation. Despite being a British trained barrister, he took on Che style pseudo military apparel. He lead a coup in 1978 and suspended the constitution. He believed Communism itself had to wait on the creation of a Proletariat but he was a willing dictator in the mean time. He started an army and with Cuban military help a new airport. Bishop said the new airport would promote tourism but the USA believed that it would also be used to support Cuban troops serving in Russia’s African colonies. Excuse me, Socialist fellow travelers.

President Bishop on his 1982 East German tour. He is the one with the beard.

In 1983 all hell broke loose. Bishop’s vice president lead a coup and had Bishop arrested. There were then large demonstrations that freed Bishop. Bishop then travelled to a military base to regain control but there was fighting between rival units. Bishop and four members of his Cabinet were lined up against the wall and shot. Bishop’s wife and legitimate children had emigrated to Canada a few years before. Bishop however also had a relationship with his Education minister who had bore him a child with the traditional Grenadian name of Vladimir Lenin. She was shot next to Bishop while allegedly pregnant. The bodies were burned but a finger of Bishop survived as it was cut off by one of the firing squad to steal his ring. An Army General then lead another coup and instituted marshal law with immediate execution for violators. The British Governor General, a local man, asked the USA and neighboring nations to intervene to end the chaos. He did this from house arrest but failed to first ask permission of the British government. The Americans quickly invaded and there was only a day or two of fighting at the airports and the Governor General’s House. The lack of input from Britain created a rift between Thatcher and Reagan. Vladimir Lenin joined his half siblings in Canada but was shot and killed at a Toronto nightclub at age 16.

The new airport opened without further Cuban help. Later it was renamed for Maurice Bishop who is well remembered. The old British airport is now a dirtbike track but still has a few derelect Soviet Cuban planes on it from Bishop’s period. Grenada is still in the Commonewealth and the invasion lead to increased aid to waste from the USA.

Well my drink is empty. I wonder if that old Mini is still puttering around Grenada? Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Poland 1976, would it be too brutal to try this again

So many young people want to move to the cities. That is where the jobs, nightlife, and other young people are. Developers only want to build posh buildings that only the old and established can afford. Once the communists showed a different 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.

Brutalist architecture is quite imposing in size and detail. They are thought of as angry looking. This was intensified when done on this stamp as a row. To see them go up must have been a sight compared to modern construction. They went up fast as the were constructed often of pre fab sections. Yet this Polish stamp takes all this to an even bigger level. Seeing a large prefab section being lifted not by a construction crane but by a Soviet Mi-6 helicopter. It was then the biggest in the world. Incredible, if it happened and not just a projection from a fanciful 5 year plan.

Todays stamp is issue C54, a 10 Zloty airmail stamp issued by the Peoples Republic of Poland in 1976. It was part of a four stamp issue in various denominations displaying then contemporary aviation in Poland. To date, it is Poland’s last air mail issue. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 50 cents used.

Brutalist architecture is most famous from then communist countries but the architectural style was also used on some mainly government buildings in the west. After Stalin’s death in the 50s there was more freedom granted to communist architects to allow more modern styles. There also had been some progress in the communist world and city planners had to house many families of workers. Instead of suburbs that required commuting by car, large swaths of land near city centers were set aside and public transportation was in place. The developments were somewhat self contained with schools, shopping, and parks contained on the grounds. They were by no means fancy, and the apartments were small but such buildings went up fast throughout the big communist cities. I believe the buildings on this stamp is the Smolna development in Warsaw that still exists. An updated 350 square foot one bedroom apartment rents for US$ 1020 a month.

These style of buildings quickly fell on hard times after 1990. Many were not well constructed and many former residents moved to the suburbs to have a house and car as soon as possible economically. For those buildings that survive, many are now experiencing a Renascence. They are so well located to the city center and the small units often have reasonable rents. I doubt  a major undertaking like these will ever happen again under any stripe of government.

The Mil Mi-6 helicopter was the largest helicopter in the world when it first flew in 1959. It had a payload of 26,000 pounds or 90 passengers and had both civilian and military purposes. It is a good deal larger than the American Chinook helicopter. The Mi-6 went out of production in 1980 when it was replaced by the even larger Mi-26, which is still in production. The Russian aviation authorities withdrew the certificate of airworthiness in 2002 for the Mi 6, though a few are thought to be in military service in the third world.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the brutalist city planners of the 1960s and 1970s. In retrospect, there was a certain style and there was never doubt about dreaming big. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Netherlands 1984, we are doing pretty well so how about kicking in a little for the kids

This stamp is an appeal for charity. So one might expect a dramatic depiction of need. The Netherlands was pretty rich by 1984. So instead we see the appeal clothed in humor and the addition of luxury to the less privileged child’s life. Says something I think of the privilege of being Dutch. 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.

I am not fond of the aesthetics of this stamp. There is too much going on and it is simply not serious in the appeal. It is worth remarking that the stamp looks many years ahead of its time. It is 35 years old but could easily be an issue of today. To me that is not a compliment but to some it might be. Economic security brings more leisure and time for humor and even frivolity. With issues like this, we may be going beyond the basics of human dignity.

Todays stamp is issue SP238, a fifty plus twenty five cent semi postal issue from the Netherlands that was issued on November 14th, 1984. The four stamps of various denominations feature comic strips featuring earlier period children receiving music lessons on this and on others for example going to the dentist. The extra 25 cent charge was programed to support child welfare. This was a common beneficiary of Dutch semi postal issues. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 80 cents used.

Think about what this stamp implies is being provided to Dutch children in less then fortunate circumstances. One might think of a home, basic clothing, proper nutrition, access to healthcare and a free public education. These stamps promise way more than that showing private music lessons and aesthetic dentistry such as teeth braces. Exactly the type of thing that comes automatically to the rich but for the middle class something that only exceptional parents provide by sacrifice. Yet here we have a joking charity plea that implies such things will be given to the less fortunate. The people behind the stamp issue must think that there are a lot more rich who think of such things are automatic than middle class that struggle to provide such things to their children. Probably says most about the class that decides the stamp issue.

So where does Netherlands stand economically. Not bad at all. In terms of per capita GDP, the Netherlands is about 10 percent ahead of Germany and Belgium and 20 percent ahead of France and the UK. They are slightly below Scandinavia and the USA. One can see a stamp like this put out by the USA during a liberal administration that won’t have considered how annoying it is to those in the middle who did not vote for them. This theory does not seem to play out for the Netherlands of the time as it was then governed by a center right coalition supporting Ruud Lubbers, who presented himself as a conservative reformer. Lubbers after office took positions at the UN that would more appeal to liberals, so that may be indicative that politics in the Netherlands are more left than the USA. Lubbers was later forced to resign from the UN after metoo style allegations were found unsubstantiated but still leaked. Some things are the same all over. Lubbers, still married for 56 years and the father of three, died in 2018 at age 78.

Well my drink is empty and I am afraid I won’t be donating to music lessons for the Dutch less fortunate. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

PS. Happy birthday to my daughter Betsy, also a stamp collector, if she happens to be reading today.

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India 1984, Rakesh Sharma becomes a Cosmonaut and goes to space

Even before independence, in Bombay the foundations of a space and nuclear program were being established indigenously. By 1984, India was invited to send a test pilot to the Soviet Salyut 7 space station and becoming a hero of the Soviet Union and India. 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 shows the Salyut 7 space station in Earth orbit. From the number of worldwide stamp issues it was easy to see how much excitement was generated worldwide by the American and Soviet space program. This was a step beyond that as an Indian was a full participant in the dangerous mission, and this was a marker of how far India had come in this technological frontier.

Todays stamp is issue, A662, a 3 Rupee stamp issued by India on April 3rd 1984. It was a single stamp issue marking the Soyuz T-11 mission to the Salyut 7 space station. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 85 cents used.

The foundations of a Indian space program were being set even before independence. Cambridge trained physicist Homi Bhadha obtained private funding from industrialist J.R.D. Tata to form a research institute in Bombay in 1945. In the early 1960s the government got into the act by transforming the efforts into the Indian Space and Research Agency. Progress was swift. In 1974, the first Indian made satellite was in orbit and by 1980 India was able to start using their own design of launch rocket. This technology placed India in a small club of nations. Today the space program continues with moon and now even Mars orbiters conducting scientific research.

Seeing this progress and wanting close relations with the leader of the non-aligned movement, the Soviet Union invited India to participate in a mission to the space station. Indian Air Force Squadron leader Rekesh Sharma won the unique assignment. He had been a pilot of Indian examples of the Soviet Mig 21, that has been a staple of the Indian Air Force since the early 1960s when it was chosen over more expensive British Lightning fighter. Sharma trained for space and learned to speak Russian. He would be a science officer on the space station. One of his experiments was to see if yoga would lessen the detrimental effects of extended time in space. Sharma spent 7 days in space. The danger faced is pointed out by the next Soyuz mission to the space station. The station had degraded since the previous mission and that crew had to perform a very dangerous manual docking. Sharma was named a Hero of the Soviet Union and the Indian Ashok Chakra medal. He retired from the air force as a wing commander and is still alive.

Cosmonaut Rakesh Sharma

America sent two Indian American women to space as astronauts as part of the space shuttle program. One of them, India born Kalpana Chawla lost her life in 2003 when the space shuttle Columbia burned up on reentry from space.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another for all those who dangerously voyage to space to further mankind’s knowledge. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Philippines 1965, Evangalina Macapagal showing local style to the visiting Dutch Princess

A new country has to establish itself with it’s own national identity. Style is a big part of that, both for outsiders to recognize as Filipino, and natives to be reminded of home and hearth. In the early 1960s, a Philippines First Lady Evangalina Macapagal tried to be an exemplar of that style. 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.

Philippines sure likes to show its elected leaders on it’s stamps. I think it comes out of the Spanish post Colonial claudillo(strongman) tradition. Wealth and power are in the hands of a few, of more pure Spanish stock. The mass of people are however more poor and indigenous. A smart leader then casts himself, whatever his background, as a fighter for the common man.  Nothing wrong with hope.

Todays stamp is issue A178, a 2 Sentimos stamp issued by the Philippines on July 4th, 1965. It was a four stamp issue honoring the visit of Dutch Princess Beatrix. First Lady Evanangalina Macapagal is wearing a traditional Maria Clara gown for the formal occasion. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents.

Eva’s husband Diosdado Macapagal served one undistinguished term as President from 1961-1965 representing the left of center party. He devalued the currency to increase exports and lower imports and made half hearted stabs at land reform and the corruption of large businesses called Stonehills, after a particularly flagrant American owned concern. He was sensibly blocked from sending the Army to Vietnam and gave up Philippine claims to part of Borneo that passed from Britain to Malaysia at the time. A deputy, Ferdinand Marcos, switched political parties and defeated Macapagal in his attempt at reelection.

The style of Eva Macapagal is what I want to spend some time on. She tried to inspire the women of the country to dress in a uniquely Philippine style. For formal occasions she wore the Maria Clara gown, named after the female protagonist in the national epic “Noli me Tangere”. The dress contains silk as well as pineapple fibers. For everyday, Eva wore patadyong  kimonas. Her clothes were done for her by local designer Pitoy Moreno. Being from the left, she also proposed a pag-asa cloth dress for the masses, locally made and affordable. Eva, a medical doctor in her own right, died in 1998.

Eva was not entirely successful in creating and preserving a Filipinne style. However the country  has only a few political families and her daughter Gloria Orroyo had her own undistinguished term as President from 2002-2009. Despite how she dressed as first daughter, she was most often seen in office wearing western attire. For her final 2009 State of the country annual address, Orroyo wore a Maria Clara gown, specialy made for the occasion and in honor of her late mother.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Eva. The politicians around you were perhaps not the best, but there is something to be said for having style. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.