Month: June 2019

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French Equitorial Africa 1936, getting Gabon interested in forestry

Trying to make a far off colony break even economically was always a challenge. Slash and burn pillaging winds down quickly and there is always more that needs doing for your new subjects. Luckily sustainable operations are sometimes put in place by Frenchmen with enough of an adventurous spirit to see the possibilities. 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 mentioned the challenge of making a colony work economically. This can be seen in the overprints on this stamp. France was again trying to combine Congo, Gabon, Chad, and the Central African Republics area into one colony out of Brazzaville to save money. It didn’t work and the areas were separated again pre independence. It is worth noting that there has not been a coming together afterwards either. Tribes do not always get along and it was not always the fault of the French.

Todays stamp is issue A16, a 1936 overprint for French Equatorial Africa on a Gabon 1 Centime issue from 1932. The stamp shows a raft hauling lumber to market on the Ogowe, now Ogboue, River. The overprint was a 10 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 40 cents unused.

The first forestry was set up by the French in 1892. Over 70% of Gabon’s land is covered with forests. Operations got a lot more serious in 1913 when the Gabon wood Okounne was introduced by the French on to the world market. Luckily for Gabon the operations were set up to be sustainable. Okounne is a soft wood that is much prone to decay but its weakness makes it suitable as a component of plywood, another innovation that made forestry more sustainable. These days it is often sprayed with plastic to hold off rotting.

Since independence Gabon has struck oil and that has been the main economic driver. That was not the end of forestry. Gabon has stayed uniquely close to France see https://the-philatelist.com/2019/04/11/gabon-1910-the-french-like-the-fang-but-wish-they-would-lay-off-the-psychedelic-bark/ . Over 50 firms, most foreign have been granted concessions to keep forestry going in Gabon. The wood provides over 300 million dollars a year in export revenue. I am not sure you would still see a lumber raft as on the stamp. The river flows parallel to a newer Trans-Gabon railway built post independence with oil and forestry! money.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the early foresters of French Equatorial Africa. It would have been so much easier to just denude Gabon of it’s forest. Instead the hard work of sustainability has kept the dividends coming for over a century. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Italy 1981, running(and throwing hammers) at the World Cup in Rome

International meets have to be hosted somewhere. Rome had an Olympic stadium, so was a good a place as any. The nice thing is that when a country plays host, they make a special effort to send a competitive team. 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.

Thou perhaps a little cartoonish, Italy did a good job with todays stamp. Showing 3 competitors in close competition was done well considering the close confines of a postage stamp. The clever thing is that the fellow on the stamp that looks most Italian is winning. Yet they did not go overboard with flags emblems to make it so obvious.

Todays stamp is issue A737, a 300 Lira stamp issued by Italy on September 4th, 1981. It was a single stamp issue celebrating the opening of the World Cup in Rome that day. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 35 cents used.

I mentioned that Italy made a special effort at the games and that yielded a sixth place fining in both the male and female portions of the games. The individual country that came in first for both males and males pretending they are females was East Germany. Just Kidding, but East Germany really won. More modern championships generally have the USA win the medal count with it’s majority African American team followed by several countries in Africa. The most recent I found had united Germany in ninth and Italy not on the list.

One interesting thing about the 1981 event in Rome was that teams from East, West and South showed. Remember the USA boycotted the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, the Soviet Union skipped the 1984 Olympics, and Africa was just at the start of sending competitive teams. See https://the-philatelist.com/2018/10/02/usa-olympic-stamp-1980-childhood-philatelist-dreams-of-getting-rich-from-the-boycot-dashed/. The East dominated in Rome.

One event the Italians medaled in was the hammer throw. The hammer is not a construction hammer but a 16 pound steel ball attached to a grip by a cable. The sport has recently opened to alleged women who throw a nine pound ball. Giampaulo Urlando won the Bronze for Italy. He later played/ was disqualified at the 1984 Olympics for being caught having injected testosterone. I would make a transsexual joke here but I have probably done enough of those in this article.

Well my drink is empty, just in time, and I have probably had enough. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Antigua 1968, now that the Queen’s head has turned away, perhaps we should find another beach

Antigua was slow stepping toward independence in 1968 which was achieved in 1981. With the colonial authorities gone the wildness of Carnival is more scary. 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.

Carnival as it appears on the stamp started back in 1957 and was restarted in the hopes of attracting tourist. The inspiration of the carnival was the way former slaves took to the streets after the British Empire banned the practice of slavery in 1839. The locals thought this type of celebration might attract tourists. It worked in New Orleans and we can pretend French creole roots while being able to speak English. Cue the calypso band.

Todays stamp is issue A42 a half penny stamp issued by Antigua on July 1st, 1968 while Antigua was an Associated State of the United Kingdom. Post war the UN got the hebe-jebes  when a place was still called a Crown Colony. This was a five stamp issue in various denominations promoting tourism. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether it is mint or used. Their currency was pegged to the US dollar so one half penny was really quite a low denomination. The USA base postage rate was 8 cents in 1968 but Antigua was a small island.

Antigua economy was once dominated by sugar cane plantations. The West African slaves brought in to work the plantations greatly outnumbered the British and native Indians were not a factor. The end of slavery was the beginning of the end of the sugar cane economy as most of the Africans were not interested in hard work in the fields for the meager wages on offer. The wildness of the end of slavery carnival was frightening to the British. They tried to channel that energy into an annual Christmas festival that featured Calypso music concerts, Scottish fling dancing, and being Christmas, more religion.

In 1957 the Christmas festival was replaced by the early August Carnival, though for a while some affectations of it remained. The Antiguans have been somewhat successful in attracting tourists, even though the island remains desperately poor and deeply resentful toward whites who as far as residents are long gone. Some safety is derived from all inclusive resorts guarded and directly on the beach. An airport had been built by Americans during World War II. This year there was an incident at one of the all inclusive resorts. An American family was staying and a hotel employee followed two young girls back to their room. He knocked on the door claiming to be there to fix the sink, which was not broken. When the employee found the girls father in the room he panicked and pulled a knife. The two men struggled and the father was cut and the employee was dead. What passes for authority on independent Antigua then gave in to the racist mob on the island and arrested the father for manslaughter. Luckily the ruling mob is corrupt as well as racist and the family was able to pay the shakedown bail and quickly fly out. The resort had moved  the rest of the family to another resort in case the mob came for them while the father was held. Antigua might have 365 beaches but there are also thousands elsewhere. Leave them to their abandoned plantations they are too lazy to farm.

Well my drink is empty and I may have another while I  look forward to my next vacation, no not Antigua, Australia. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Japan 1966, proving advancement by shooting gamma rays into the brain

Japan in the twentieth century got to work in advancing human knowledge. By 1966 they could display a machine that uses an isotope of cobalt to shoot gamma rays into the brain to destroy cancerous brain tumors. Better than Buck Rodgers, his ray guns were only for fun. 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 spotted this stamp in an old stock book of mine, I thought this stamp would tell a different story about Japan. I assumed it was industrial equipment and the story would be about Japan exporting it’s way to prosperity by low wages, dumping product, undervalued yen and taking advantage of cold war “allies”. The fact that this stamp is semi postal should have clued me in to a more interesting story. Of a nation making a national priority of fighting a disease that was killing many and not just Japanese. The surcharge was to allow the Japanese postal patron be a part of it.

Todays stamp is issue SP9, a 7 +3 Yen semi postal stamp issued by Japan on October 21st, 1966. It was a two stamp issue displaying Japanese developed treatments for cancer in honor of an international convention in Tokyo that year. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether mint or used. You would think Japanese collectors would have bid up the value of a stamp showing a gamma ray machine by the time it was 53 years old.

Japan first organized cancer medical research all the way back in 1908. They have never stopped the research  and there are over 15,000 people employed in the field. Advancements made are not kept just for Japan as there is collaboration on a large scale internationally including annual conventions in Hawaii to share information with American researchers.

The machine displayed on the stamp is called a gamma knife. The patient suffering from brain tumors puts on a helmet with many tiny holes that can shoot gamma rays as directly as possible at the tumors. The more precise the direction limits the damage done to nearby non cancerous cells. The gamma rays are derived from an isotope of cobalt 60, a naturally occurring metal. Very advanced for 1966. There is now a newer machine called a linear accelerator that can deliver larger doses of the cobalt isotope for use against bigger tumors.

The gamma knife machine showing the tiny holes in the helmet to direct the gamma rays

Unlike years ago, Japan has a lower rate of cancer than the USA. There used to be a very high incidence of stomach cancer in Japan that related to the Japanese diet, but after the connection the diet was changed relating to the shellfish behind it. One cancer that has gotten worse in Japan recently is breast cancer. It is thought that Japanese women waiting longer to have children is behind the rise. Japan is a nation with a long life expectancy, and since cancer usually hits later in life it would be expected to have higher numbers of victims. The fact that it does not and the mortality rate for cancer in Japan if relatively low shows the benefit of the research focus over the long term.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the gamma ray and the machines that fire them. Who knew it could be more than just for fun. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Fake North Yemen stamp remembers the barefoot bazooka guy/ freedom fighter

I was pretty sure this stamp was fake. It looked to modern and well done for the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of North Yemen which ended in 1962. But as with this Indonesian Republic stamp from when it was still Dutch, see https://the-philatelist.com/2017/11/24/well-we-think-we-are-independant-we-have-a-constitution-a-flag-and-austrian-stamps/    , sometimes outsourcing  can make for a high quality, interesting if fake stamp. 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 fake stamp was put together by the Royalist side of the North Yemen Civil War. The one from 1962-1970. Not the one from 2011-today. The 60s one saw Egypt sending thousands of troops, arms and aircraft to defend the Socialist Republic declared by the former head of the palace guard. The Royals escaped to the mountains were they received arms and money from Saudi Arabia and Jordan. The fact that the guy on the stamp is barefoot shows how backward this all was. Shame on the lot of them for handing out advanced weapons. It would probably be the 25th century before one of these tribesman could figure out how to build a bazooka. Let them settle their differences with spears.

This is not a real stamp as the Royalist forces did not control the capital or the postal system. The Yemen Arab Republic issues of the same period are considered real. The story of how the Royalist got stamps is interesting. An American stamp collecting boy named Bruce Conde wrote to King Ahmad asking for Yemeni stamps for his collection. He received a letter back from child Prince Badr. They became pen pals and eventually Conde was invited to Yemen. He converted to Islam and became a Yemeni citizen. He supervised the Royalist sides stamp issues and wrote articles for Linn’s stamp news. When the Royalists lost, Conde was left stateless in exile in Morocco. He had renounced the USA and Yemen had renounced him.

King Ahmad ruled North Yemen from 1948 through his death in 1962. He faced many coup attempts. Once in 1956 his palace was surrounded and he came charging out leading the palace guards while wearing a devils mask. He killed 2 rebels personally with his scimitar. He then went to the roof of the palace and shot rebels one by one till they surrendered. The rebel leader was beheaded. In 1961 he was severely injured in another coup attempt and his son Prince Badr took unofficial control. Soon after Ahmad’s death in 1962, the head of the palace guard with the support of Egypt shelled the palace and now King Badr fled. A socialist republic was declared and thousands of Egyptian soldiers deployed to Sana.

From 1962 through 1970 the Royalist forces held the mountainous north  and the socialist government held the capital. In 1967, Egypt was defeated by Israel in the Sinai desert and decided to pull their troops out of Yemen. The Royalist made one last attempt to take the capital but when they failed, Saudi Arabia cut off support to the Royalist side. Saudi Arabia began paying the socialist government for influence and King Badr was left out in the cold. He moved to London and most of his troops were given amnesty.

Well my drink is empty and I am not predisposed to label the barefoot bazooka guy on the stamp a freedom fighter as this fake stamp suggests. His grandson is probably fighting the current civil war where Iran is playing Egypt’s old part. The weapons have gotten more advanced than bazookas, but there is still debate whether shoes have been acquired. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

 

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Nicaragua 1976, Somoza will bleed the peasants dry and then automate their function

This series of stamps shows American progress over 200 years in celebration of the Bicentennial that year. In it though you can spot the hereditary Somoza regime’s plan to pacify the country. The plan was pretty fanciful, but lucky for the USA at the time Nicaragua was only exporting their rich people. The much more numerous poor would have to wait a few more generations. 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 multiple harvesters are not an accurate picture of agriculture in Nicaragua even over 40 years later. Then President Somoza’s son might argue it might had the Somozas not been forced to flee in 1979, who knows how much  extra progress might have occurred. The wealthy landowner class would surely have been interested in automating the peasant function.

Todays stamp is issue A308, a 3 Centavo stamp issued by Nicaragua on May 25, 1976. It was a 16 stamp issue in various denominations the showed before and after views of American progress after 200 years in various fields. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether it is mint or used.

Anastasio Somoza was the third member of his family to serve as President. It was a corrupt regime of the landowner class and as was common, a big percentage of the families lived overseas. Somoza’s mother was French and his wife Hope, though a cousin, was born and raised in the USA. Somoza took power in 1967 after his older brother had bowed out. Central America was starting to be the recipient of massive food aid from the USA that was reducing hunger and what soon followed was a great increase in population, mainly among the poor. These masses of peasants were not satisfied with the regime which seemed to be routing the American aid from them to the leaders pockets. Meantime Hope, now Madame Somoza, was appearing in worldwide best dressed lists.

Madame Hope Somoza with an American Cardinal. she was less popular with local priests and their annoying liberation theology

One moneymaking scheme of the Somoza’s was especially offensive to the poor. He set up a company Plasimaferesis. Every day thousands of peasants lined up for 35 Cordobas in exchange for their blood. This was immediately exported. When this practice continued after a large earthquake in 1972 it was very damaging to the regime. Again there was an outpouring of aid that seemingly wasn’t getting through to the peasants. When Carter became President of the USA in 1977, he cut off aid to people like Somoza due to their stench. !977 was a rough year for Somoza has he also had a heart attack which saw his son as caretaker while he sought treatment in the civilized world. With the only military aid coming in from Isreal it was time to strike and the local leftists took up the cause of the peasants. It was the Somoza’s time to leave. The USA would not take President Somoza and he ended up in Paraguay with his mistress. Hope separated from him and moved to London. In 1986, the leftists came for Somoza in Paraguay as they had for his father in 1956. Operation Reptile, lead by a Argentine leftist code named Ramon assassinated Somoza by blowing up his Mercedes outside his estate. It took two RPG shots, the car was well armored. Former? Madame Hope Samoza found a rich Salvadoran to marry the next year.

The leftists of course were not any better for the peasants as they were not going to attract American aid and the East was only generous with out of date arms. Now Central America has learned to send their peasants to the USA directly to claim their aid. These peasants are lined up also outside American blood plasma centers to sell their blood every morning. Ironic isn’t it.

Well my drink is empty and I think I may reread my old piece on William Walker. See https://the-philatelist.com/2018/09/27/costa-rica-remembers-the-the-drummer-boy-that-saved-central-america-from-an-american-manifest-destiny/   . Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Soviet Union 1962, The future is certainly bright with comrades from 83 countries and a big new bomb

It is nice when political promises get specific on a stamp, that way they can be measured by future stamp collectors. There is a joke about communism that the future is always certain, it is the past that is always changing. This stamp touts future steel production, I wonder how that turned out. 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 issue of stamps is titled “Great Decisions of the 22nd Communist Party Congress” held in 1961. I guess Soviet stamp collectors had to wait forever for the stamp issue on the more mediocre decisions. Anyway there is nothing wrong with a little hope and sunshine. I also love that they included measurable numbers to go with goals. It is more than we get from most politicians. It also must be said that the Soviets did a great job making steel production look majestic.

Todays stamp is issue A1362, a 4 Kopek stamp issued by the Soviet Union on December 28th, 1962. It was a 9 stamp issue all in the same denomination that set out goals in various industries. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents cancelled to order.

The stamp touts great decisions by the previous years party congress regarding economics. Appropriate to remind the people that the party was working for them. In reality the congress was more about politics. 83 communist parties from around the world sent delegates including the last time the red Chinese showed up. They didn’t like the disrespect toward Stalin including renamings and even moving his remains. Khrushchev was still trying to make the communist system work and proposed term limits on high officials to avoid stagnation. This was rejected. That does not mean the Soviets did not put on a show. There was a brand new hydroelectric station in not Stalingrad but now Volgograd. To demonstrate power there was also the explosion of the biggest nuclear bomb in the history of the world in the artic circle. The 50 megaton hydrogen bomb was called the Tsar Bomba by the west.

The stamp gives steel production in 1960 as 65 million metric tons  and says that number will hit 250 million metric tons by 1980. The actual 1980 number was 148 million metric tones. That still made the Soviet Union the largest world producer with over 20 percent of world production. Since 1980, most developed nation steel output as dropped as production moved to India, South Korea, and especially China. Russia in 2018 produced 71 million metric tons, 6th highest in the world. If you include former Soviet republics, that number goes to about 100. So down since 1980 but the same could be said for the USA, the EU, and even Japan, the former rising star of steel. China now makes over half the worlds steel, 928 million metric tons in 2018. This is up from 14 million metric tons or 3 percent of world production at the time of this stamp.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Nikita Khrushchev. No the steel goal wasn’t met but at least he was trying to do great things and get the system working. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting

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India 1967,”A new temple of a resurgent India” Nehru

The waters of monsoons can be used for agriculture instead of dangerous periodic flooding with dams. The dam then also provide cheap clean electricity. The British Raj spotted the need for the dam and then the design, but it was left to an independent India to provide the resources to get the job done. Prime Minister Nehru was justifiably proud that India got it done themselves after the British had not followed through. A while back we did a stamp about nearby Afghanistan who relied on USA aid to get theirs done see https://the-philatelist.com/2018/10/03/afghanistan-1963-as-a-start-to-development-lets-begin-to-feed-ourselves-if-only-someone-could-build-us-an-irrigation-system/  . India however was actually resurgent. 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 does not do  justice to India’s then new temple. The printing and the poor paper see to that. There was also a 2013 stamp for the dam’s 50th anniversary that was better printed but still failed to capture the full effect. Part of the problem may be showing it horizontally when the dramatic thing about it is the height, over 700 feet tall and one of the tallest dams in the world.

Todays stamp is issue A205, a 5 Rupee stamp issued by India in 1967. It was part of a 16 stamp issue over several years. I covered the Gnat airplane stamp from this issue here, https://the-philatelist.com/2018/07/20/a-gnat-sting-slays-a-sabre-over-bangladesh/    . According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1.60 used. Five Rupee was a large denomination then. Now 5 Rupee is less than a dime. At the time though it was 8 to the Dollar. Since a Dollar now is about 12 cents then the denomination is close to an American stamp today denominated at $5. Pretty high in a then poor country.

The Punjab area of northwest India is subject to monsoons that provide the bulk of the rainfall. Sir Louis Dane an early 20th century British administrator of Punjab, conceived a dam near the then village of Bhakra where the Sutrej River passes between two hills. The resulting reservoir would gather the storm water and then gradually release it for agricultural irrigation. Plans were drawn up but the project languished for lack of funds. In the last days of the Raj, a now Indian administrator Sir Ram Richpal took up the cause and got the necessary approvals and the interest of the soon to be Prime Minister Nehru. The project was completed in 1963 and paid for entirely by India. Quite a contrast from other projects like Afghanistan or the Aswan dam in Egypt that consisted of a threadbare local pointing to a place for a dam and then pathetically holding out their hand.

The reservoir put under water 371 villages and there are 10 electricity generating turbines, five on each side of the dam. In keeping with India’s non aligned status, the five on the right were acquired from Japan while the 5 on the left were acquired from the Soviet Union. The Soviets won that competition as their side produces more electricity.

Nehru got very poignant about how the sacrifice in dangerous toil of the workers that built the dam is worthy of our worship. Whether you call it a Temple, a Gurdwara, or a Mosque, it inspires our admiration and reverence. Well that of course is worthy of a toast and as my drink is empty…… Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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South Georgia, At least the Norwegians immigrants brought reindeer to this British Island

The Argentine claim on South Georgia was beaten back by force. The Norwegians came and were allowed as they were willing to naturalize. The British outlasted them having banned their way of life. Then it was the turn of the reindeer to be exterminated, for the ecology you understand. 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.

What struck  me about this stamp was how odd it is to show reindeer on a stamp that does not involve Christmas. Reindeer weren’t native to the cold South Atlantic islands but Norwegian examples were introduced by whalers from Norway and thrived.

Todays stamp is issue A1, a half penny stamp issued by South Georgia in 1963, at the time it was considered a Dependency of the nearby Crown Colony of the Falkland Islands. This first issue of South Georgia stamps consisted of 16 stamps of various denominations. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 55 cents.

The island of South Georgia had been spotted by several explorers, merchant sailors and pirates but Captain Cook was the first to land, survey and claim the uninhabited islands for Great Britain. In the 19th century there had been several attempts at seal harvesting but those operations were not conducted sustainably and were banned when the seal population was made tiny. In the early 20th century, there was an attempt at a whaling industry. New country Norway attempted to unsuccessfully to buy the islands from Great Britain. Britain allowed in their whaling camps and many naturalized as British citizens. At the height of it, the island was 90% Norwegian and only 5 percent British. The warm season saw 3000 residents dropping to about 300 in winter. In 1965, whaling was ended and the Norwegians departed.

Beginning in the 1920s and 30s, Argentina claimed the island. In 1982, a preexisting authorized Argentine camp began flying the Argentine flag and Argentine special forces landed. 27 Royal Marines fought them and killed several, shot down a helicopter and damaged an Argentine Navy Corvette by shooting it with a bazooka. The Argentines managed to take the island for a few weeks until the arrival of the British fleet. They still formally claim the island.There are still scientific stations and cruise ship visits as with Antarctica, see https://the-philatelist.com/2019/06/10/british-antarctic-territory-1963-with-no-more-shackleton-we-better-make-bases-permanent/   , but no permanent residents on South Georgia.

Reindeers, 3 males and 7 females were introduced by Norway as a source of meat for their whaler residents. By the early 21st century there were over 7000 reindeer in two herds on the island. There numbers had increased after the departure of the Norwegians as they were no longer hunted. Ecologists came to believe that the reindeer were a threat to the glacier on the island. After 20 were moved to the Falkland Islands to preserve the now unique South Georgia breed, 7000 reindeer were exterminated in 2011-14. There are no longer any reindeer on South Georgia, a final 8 that escaped were hunted down and killed in 2015. Reindeers appeared on South Georgia stamps most recently 2004, but no stamp to mark the extermination. The unique bird life of South Georgia is still shown on their stamps. Better hope none of them accidentally land on the precious glacier.

Well by drink is empty and I am left wondering about the so called ecologists who decided the reindeer must be exterminated. Off with Dasher, off with Dancer…. I mean geez. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Columbia 1951, remembering Guillermo Valencia, a poet who never had a chance to disappoint you as President

Gran Columbia became Columbia as region after region broke away. Not the kind of thing that happens to a place that is successful. There were two visions of how to right that ship, a conservative vision put forth by landowners and the Catholic Church, and a liberal one that embraced overturning the old order. 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.

A fairly dashing man personalizing his portrait with a signature. Pretty good for a twice failed Presidential candidate. His conservative party and the frequent military juntas were perhaps not at the time putting their best face forward. The conservative leader, President Gomez had been successfully vilified as a monster and waiting his turn as Foreign Minister with higher ambitions was Valencia’s son. A great time to remember a dashing father who had never had a chance to display his own incompetence as President.

Todays stamp is issue A251, a 25 Centavo stamp issued by the Republic of Columbia on October 20th, 1951. It was a single stamp honoring poet and politician Guillermo Valencia who had died 8 years previous. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

Guillermo Valencia was born to a wealthy family. He was a politician and diplomat rising as high as Governor of the Province of Cauca. Unusually for a conservative political figure, he was also a poet. Further unusually, his work was part of the modernist school of poetry that involved much fantasy and escapism. He put out a magazine in Columbia that provided an outlet to other poets and artists. As he got older and perhaps to burnish his political credentials among his fellow conservatives, he took on more work translating European masters into Spanish. He ran twice for President 1917 and 1930, but both times he was passed over for the more liberal candidate.

The conservatives were viewed differently in Columbia in Valencia’s time. Today the relative success of Columbia compared to the relative failure of former provinces with lefty governments like Venezuela and Ecuador burnish the reputation of Columbia’s modern conservative Presidents. In Valencia’s time it was different. The loss of territory was blamed on the conservatives as they were seen as a reemergence  of Colonial time with powerful landowners and Catholic clergy acting to keep up Spanish colonial style rule without their competence. Periods of conservative rule lead to violent opposition from the left. The then President Gomez, vilified has a monster, saw his personal home, a restaurant he had built, the Presidential Palace, and his political newspaper offices burned by opponents. At the end of his elected term, he was forced into exile in Spain. What a bunch of losers.

President Laureano Gomez, the Monster. Don’t sell him fire insurance.

Gomez from exile managed to work a deal with the liberal party that politicians from the two parties would take turns as President and the two parties merged into a National Front. This worked from 1956-1974 until the left began to form splinter parties and eventually armed struggle. In the early 1960s, Valencia’s similarly named son had a turn as President.

Well my drink is empty and I am left wondering what road would have more quickly turned things around. Definitely not one of the roads tried. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.