Month: August 2019

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Zaire 1979, After giving up on African Authenticity, Mobutu retraced HM Stanley

Sometimes you wonder if this stuff is all a joke. A dictator forces names changed and people not to wear western suits, he nationalizes industry, and builds great gaudy palaces. Then the money runs out and the west is invited back in to recreate H. M. Stanley. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your fist sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Todays stamp is from the time when the wheels were starting to come off President Maputu’s party train. You still see him trying, with his leopard skin toque and his abacost. Indeed he was still chartering the Concorde to fly from the international airport he had built in his hometown in the jungle. Now to do it he was inviting in westerners and Chinese to get industry working and even retrace the journey into darkest Africa 100 years before by Stanley. The same man who 8 years before renamed Stanleyville Kisangani. The cheap paper of the stamp shows how threadbare it was all getting.

Todays stamp is issue A166 a 25 la Kuta stamp issued by Zaire in February 1979. It was part of an eight stamp issue in various denominations recognizing the joint British and Zairean Congo River Expedition recreating Stanley’s original 100 years before. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 40 cents. There is a version of this issue printed on gold foil that is worth $50.

Congo when Belgian had a very lucrative copper operation. So independence was difficult has there was much money floating around trying to keep  the operation going. See https://the-philatelist.com/2018/03/07/a-failed-plan-de-redressement-brings-a-revolt-of-simbas-in-the-congo/, and this https://the-philatelist.com/2018/07/13/katanga-1961-mining-out-the-chaos/   . By the 1970s the operation was nationalized and there was one party rule under former Army officer and Belgian gendarme corporal Mobutu. Mobutu started a program to make Congo more authentically African. He had a new suit designed called abacost, which meant down with suits. He changed all the place names and made it a crime to baptize a baby with a western name. Speaking of names, he changed his name to include the phrase, “the all powerful warrior, who because of his endurance and inflexible will, goes from conquest to conquest, leaving fire in his wake. This was shortened to Sese Seko. He was born with only Mobutu for a name.

One conquest Mobutu couldn’t manage was against the laws of economics. By the late 70s the west and China were invited back in to try to get things working again. That would not prove possible and the lure of getting those copper mines working again  is enough to fund rebel groups from the outside. In 1997, Mabutu was forced into exile. His tacky grandeur in now in ruins, the billions allegedly hidden away were never found and the new guys are just the old guy minus the style. The Scott catalog doesn’t recognize the modern stamps as there is no longer a provable postal service. To bad a new Belgian King Leopold can’t fund a new H. M. Stanley to start over.

A woman in the ruins of the Bamboo Palace, one of the extravagant residences built by Mobutu Sese Seko in his native village in Equateur Province.

H. M. Stanley was a British explorer in the personal patronage of King Leopold of Belgium. He wanted to find the sources of the Congo and Nile River and how they relate to Lake Victoria. His expedition down the length of the Congo River started with 228 people including 4 Europeans. By the time he reached the Atlantic 999 days later he was down to 114 and he was the only European. There are waterfalls and rapids along the route that made it difficult. As Stanley travelled he was claiming the territory for Belgian King Leopold. There however was later a falling out because Stanley’s treaties with African tribes only amounted to renting places for trading posts instead of creating a massive personal colony. The King perhaps should have listened to Stanley.

Well my drink is empty and I am afraid I wouldn’t look good in a leopard skin toque or an abacost. So I will just stick to the smoking jacket and remind you to come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Jordan 1963, Recognizing the Red Crescent Society for bringing Swiss humanitarian ideals beyond Christiandom

The Red Cross emblem is the Swiss Flag with the colors reversed. Therefore it communicates neutrality rather than a Christian Cross. However in some places it was necessary to change it in order to kowtow to the local beliefs. Going the extra mile to do good. 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 meant to honor the Jordanian Red Crescent Society. To my thinking, it does not do a very good job. The presence of King Hussein on the stamp, he wasn’t on all Jordanian stamps, seems to be him taking credit for the work done by the Society. Also notice that this is not a semi postal issue with a contribution  to the Society. In this third world context, another example of come do for us what we are too lazy to do ourselves.

Todays stamp is issue A42, a 2 Fils stamp issued by the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan on December 24th, 1963. It was a six stamp issue in various denominations honoring 100 years since the Red Cross founding. Adding to my cynical view of the stamp, there is a version meant for the international collector fixing the problems I describe above with the Red Cross substituted for the Red Crescent and the King’s portrait removed. Still no surcharge to contribute though. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 30 cents unused.

Henry Dunant was a Swiss businessman who operated a trading house with operations in Switzerland and Algeria. He was Protestant Christian who was part of the Reveil Swiss reawakening going on then. Troubles with the colonial authorities in Algeria saw Durant travel to Italy to seek an audience with Napoleon III. He found Napoleon III during the aftermath of the Battle of Soiferino were France and Sardinia had fought Austria. 40,000 men on both sides lay dead or wounded on the field in the aftermath of the battle and the sight of the carnage deeply moved Dunant.  He thought if there was a neutral army of nurses and doctors to come in and move freely among the wounded, many lives could be saved and much suffering alleviated.  He believed that once a soldier was wounded, his part of the fighting was over and he should be treated by all with Christian dignity and compassion. Dunant wrote a book describing what he saw at the battle and how he proposed to fix it. He published the book at his own expense and sent copies to leaders around Europe. The Society was founded in 1863, but Dunant was shortly pushed out by the organization when his trading house went bankrupt. Discredited, he lived in obscurity and poverty in Paris until stories were later written that remembered his contribution. His reputation was fully restored when he shared the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901.

Henry Dunant

In 1876, Red Cross volunteers were trying to help casualties on all sides of fighting between Russians and the Ottoman Empire. In order for the Ottomans to accept the help, the volunteers came up with a new emblem, the Red Crescent , which was a color reversal of the Ottoman instead of the Swiss Flag. Long after there are no more Ottomans, the Red Cross has operated in Muslim countries under the Red Crescent. Interestingly, when they first helped after an earthquake in Japan, a non Christian country, no offence was taken in regard to the emblem. They were just glad for the help.

Two other nations  required a separate emblem  for the local Red Cross Society. In Shah era Iran, a color reversal of the Iranian Red Lion and Sun Emblem was recognized by the Swiss agency for activities in Iran. In 1980, Iran reverted to the Red Crescent. In Israel, the Magen David Adom  Society operated with a red Star of David emblem in a manner similar to the Red Cross but with more Israeli government involvement. They were denied membership until 2006 in the Red Cross when they agreed to a separate  but not Star of David emblem. This organization was started much later.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Henry Dunant. His bankruptcy haunted him the rest of his life but at least in his last years he got some recognition for all he accomplished. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Yugoslavia 1967, Easing out the Serb, even if he is the real Yugoslav

Yugoslavia despite going it alone on the world stage, was getting ahead pretty fast in the 50s and 60s. There was a very unusual stable peace. As always though, there were those who want stick to their own. 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 UN organized International Children’s Week by displaying a child’s drawing of winter. The stamp is from the period of the economy taking off and the issue definitely has the look of a western stamp issue. With the success, an aging President for life Tito began decentralizing power to the ethno-states that made up the Yugoslav federation and in doing so set in motion the process of the eventual breakup.

Todays stamp is issue A217, a 30 Paras stamp issued by Yugoslavia on October 2nd, 1967. It was a single stamp issue. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents.

Marshal Tito had lead the resistance to the Germans and was in position to take over at the end of the war. He had made contacts with the west during the war and they had changed their affiliation to him from the former Yugoslav royalist regime with their drunken child King, see https://the-philatelist.com/2018/07/30/communist-yugoslavia-1950-sells-off-the-invalid-exile-stamps/ . This put Tito, a Croat, in position to break with Stalin and charter his own course for Yugoslavia. He had with him a cadre of economists from Croatia that suggested a form of Socialism where the means of production were owned by the in place worker cooperative instead of the state directly if distantly.The access to markets on both sides of the iron curtain, the flexibility of the worker coops and the low conversion value of Yugoslavia’s currency allowed for high rates of economic growth.

It should be noted the disparities. The economic powerhouse was mainly in the north of the country in Croatia and Slovenia. The center of the country, as in older days contained the security apparatus of the country and was mainly Serb. Serbian Aleksandar Rankovic was a Communist who had fought in the resistance with Tito. As head of the security section of the Yugoslav League of Communist parties, it was his job to keep a lid on nationalist sentiment of the various peoples of Yugoslavia. This made him revered by Serbs and resented by the rest. In 1966, Tito purged Rankovic and threw him out of the party. This was seen as telling the security agencies to lighten up. Tito had an excuse, there was an accusation that Rankovic had bugged Tito’s private quarters.

Lighten up they did. By the early 1970s, there was a Croatian spring where Croatians began protesting that more power should be with them and less in Serb Belgrade. Also in Bosnia, Muslims were protesting talking up a Greater Albania. Instead of a crackdown, Tito, now well into his 80s, responded with a new constitution that devolved much power to the ethnostates that comprised federal Yugoslavia. This was much in line with the demands of the Croatian Spring.

Serbia saw all this differently than the rest of the country. Despite living in obscurity for the last 17 years of his life and there being no official public announcement of his death in 1983, approximately 100,000 Serbs turned up for Aleksandar Rankovic’s funeral. Pretty unusual for the purged head of the secret police of an authoritarian country. An early sign though of how serious the Serbs were about keeping Yugoslavia together.

Well my drink is empty and the Balkans are too lively a place to toast anybody and risk the following fight. So instead I will wait patiently till tomorrow when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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500th article at The-Philatelist.com

John C Publisher

Later today the 500th article on this website will publish. I have been doing this for two years. It was and is the plan for the website to write about 1000 articles in mostly common individual stamps from my personal collection. This would happen over about 4 years in order to build a website that promotes stamp collecting by telling the hopefully interesting stories that are learned from the hobby of stamp collecting. So far the readership is not as high as I would hope it to be but is rising. The library of articles is building and most days back articles are the bulk of the views. I don’t think people search online for someone who gasbags about postage stamps so SEO tools aren’t much good for what I do. So If I could make a request of my readers, if you like what I do, tell a friend. Also remember to notice and perhaps click on the Google ads that they have selected for you. I have kept the ads to a minimum and do not make you keep clicking to “read on” to enhance the readability of the site. My style is text heavy and picture light, you can see photography is not a talent of ours, my wife does the pictures, and if you think hers are bad you should see my attempts. Anyway hope you enjoy the stories still to come.

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Australia 1990, not remembering correctly the ANZAC spirit

This stamp seems badly put together. It combines women filling in for men in a factory while showing British made Spitfire fighters in British RAF markings. No wonder the Queen looks so confused in the corner. 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.

Australia along with New Zealand again sent out a large contingent of forces in World War II. This spirit and service is worth remembering and I strongly recommend viewing the ANZAC memorial in Sydney that remembers Australia’s overseas deployments from World War I till the present day. There are often veterans on hand that add much color and poignance to what you are viewing.

Todays stamp is issue A417 a 41 cent stamp issued by Australia on April 12th, 1990. It was a five stamp issue that tries to show how the ANZAC spirit carried on into World War II. One of the stamps does even worse that this one by showing a not time appropriate helicopter. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 35 cents used.

World War II started in Europe two years before Japan’s aggressive moves in the Pacific Islands. As such many Australians volunteered for service in Europe. Among them were air force personnel that manned three squadrons of Spitfire fighter planes in Britain starting in mid 1941, after the Battle of Britain. When The Japanese began their attacks, Australia was almost completely devoid of fighter planes and pilots. By January 1942, Japanese bombers began bombing the northern Australian city of Darwin. Australia made an urgent demand that their pilots be returned to Australia. After some equivocation, Churchill agreed and also sent Spitfire fighters  with them to join the fight and show Britain was with them.

The Spitfire was slow to arrive in Australia. It had to be shipped by sea in an unassembled state and then repainted to local appropriate camouflage. The pilots returning had remember been late for the Battle of Britain and did not have much experience in combat. They did get to Darwin in early 1943 and did their best. America had responded much more quickly and the vast bulk of the Royal Australian Air Force RAAF fighter force were American made P40s.

RAAF Spitfire with sharksteeth decoration, personnel and Boomer the dog. Hope Boomer got a ride

The Spitfire did not prove as useful in the Pacific War as it had over Europe. The plane had a short range which was a big hamper in the island hopping campaigns. The supercharged Merlin engines seemed to have a lot more trouble related to the hot moist climate. It took a long time to get enough airplanes to form a proper Spitfire training unit. The plane was also ill adept at dropping bombs which became ever more important as the war went along with fewer Japanese in the air to fight. The Australian armed forces were also not being assigned to many of the later retakings of islands such as the invasion of The Philippines in 1944.

In all Britain shipped 258 British made Spitfires to Australia. In October 1945, one month after the end of the war, all RAAF Spitfire flight operations ended. The plane must have made some impression in Australia. In the 2000s, an Australian kit plane maker fashioning itself as Supermarine, the company that designed the real Spitfire, built 100 flying kits the resembled Spitfires on a 75% scale.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour perhaps several more to toast the ANZAC spirit. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Malaya 1960, Sultan Ismail of Johore forgets about the rice farmer

The British left the Sultans in place to ease relations with locals as they put together one of there most successful multi racial colonies. This would have worked well if the Sultans remembered the interest of their subjects. Johore was not so lucky when it came to that. 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 definitely modeled on British Empire stamp issues with Sultan Ismail looking on where Queen Elizabeth would be. The difference is most British believe Queen Elizabeth was working for them. Is this Chinese rice farmer expected to believe that Sultan Ismail is looking out for him. You really can’t expect him to be that stupid. The picture is even just repurposed from a Kedah issue from 1957 with Sultans changed out.

Todays stamp is issue A8, a four cent issue from the Sultanate of Johore in 1960 while the area was subordinate to the British colony of the Federated Malayan states. It was part of an eleven stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether used or unused.

1960 was an exciting time in Johore with a new Sultan Ismail. Except that he was really nothing new. Ismail’s father Ibrahim had been Sultan since 1895 but lived as a European playboy. Starting in the late 1930s, Ismail had acted as Regent on his father’s behalf in Johore while Ibrahim married a string of European women, got caught cheating when he painted one of his thoroughbred horses to get better gambling odds, spend too much time in the red light districts of Vienna and chasing cabaret dancers. He did return once to Johore just in time to collaborate with the Japanese occupation. Seems the British couldn’t rely on him any more than the Malayans. Surely after his fathers death, Ismail could be his own man and an improvement?

1960 was a complicated time in Malaya. Independence was coming despite the Sultan of Johore writing an op-ed hoping for Strait Settlements forever. The independence groups were divided. Some wanted union with Indonesia and some were more militant Muslims who desired closer connections with the Middle East. Meanwhile thanks to the British, there were large numbers of Indians and especially Chinese. Just after the war, the British forced the Sultans to accept a new constitution that gave the Chinese and Indians citizenship. With the divisions among Malayans, they proved able to buy off the Sultans the way the British had. The Sultans thus still represent their areas and cost a lot, but are really at the fringe of political power.

Ismail proved to be ineffectual as his power decreased with independence. That in itself was an improvement. He was immediately faced with trouble from his first born son Iskandar. Ismail removed him as heir after having two policemen chained up in dog kennels for days after annoying him. Even after being removed there were several road rage incidents involving assaults by Iskandar. He then shot and killed a man for standing too close to his helicopter. Ismail was around to hush things up and issue pardons.

By 1981 Sultan Ismail was elderly and fell into a coma before death. When he went into a coma is up for debate as suddenly Iskandar appeared with documents restoring him as heir presumptive. Ismail never came out of the fatal coma to validate Iskandar’s documents but he still became Sultan. In 1987, a caddy laughed when Sultan Iskandar missed a putt. The Sultan then beat him to death right there on the golf course. As Sultan, he had immunity from criminal prosecution. The Malaysian government used the incident and others  to strip the Sultans of their criminal immunity.

Rice production it will surprise nobody was not one of Malaya nor Malaysia’s strengths. It is the third largest crop but is not run efficiently with up to date techniques. This might have been guessed from the stamp. Malaya had to import about one third of it’s rice consumption, That was true in 1960 and still true today.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the simple rice farmer. To the extent that Malaysia has gotten ahead it is built upon the labor of people like him. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Albania 1953, Albania goes for self sufficiency in economy and culture

You don’t think of Communist, suddenly Atheist, Albanians building a Greek style temple to culture. That is what they did though and it shows how serious they were about going it alone under Enver Hoxha. 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 keep coming back to this stamp issue from 1953. I have covered other ones here https://the-philatelist.com/2017/11/09/communism-provides-smokes-for-atheists-and-then-a-refugee-camp-for-muslims/   , and here https://the-philatelist.com/2018/08/24/albania-1953-it-was-correct-to-chose-the-forces-of-hoxha-over-fake-royal-zog/ . The communist government was new and facing many challenges. It also had an ideal of where it wanted to go. To get there, the country had to have a unique advanced culture. In 1953, the country opened its first film studio, in order to tell the countries’ story at home and abroad. The Greek temple like structure shows how important it was to Albania, and how much resources were allocated. This had never happened before and to date has not happened since.

Todays stamp is issue A94 a 5 Lek stamp issued by Albania on August 1st, 1953. It was an 8 stamp issue in various denominations. The stamp displays the new that year Kino movie studio. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $2.10 unused.

Germans and Italians abandoned their occupation of Albania in late 1944. The former royal, King Zog was quickly deposed and sent abroad. The most effective resistance to the Axis was Communists. Communism is an international movement that was to be locally organized. Marshal Tito in neighboring Yugoslavia thought that he did the hard work of kicking out the Axis while local Communist leader Enver Hoxha was just a subordinate.. At first there were attempts at cooperation. A joint 5 year plan had the Albanian Lek currency devalued and all raw inputs from Albania exported to Yugoslavia to be processed and then reimported at high prices. Hoxha saw this as exploitive and broke ties. There was a scism among Communists in the 1950s between Stalinists and those who wanted a reformed Communism. Albania stayed Stalinist, isolating itself. After Mao died in China, Albania also broke ties with it. Some international communist organizations began referring to themselves as Hoxhaist.

The Albanians made some progress going it alone. Literacy went from 5 percent to 98 percent. Starting lower and ending far higher than what India achieved in the same period. See https://the-philatelist.com/2019/07/17/india-1958-is-this-girl-really-reading/ . The country was electrified. A free national health service expanded to even the smallest villages.  The country had no foreign debt and a small trade surplus. Albania was still the poorest country in Europe and always has been as would be expected of a Muslim country, and Hoxha was trying his best to spread scientific Atheism. Hoxha also built modern cultural institutions such as the Kino studio in Tirana.

The Kino studio opened in 1953. The first film produced was called “Scanderbeg” about a 14th century Albanian that rose up against the Ottomans. The Albanians are portrayed as noble and the Ottomans are portrayed as unEuropean pedophile brutes. A perhaps stereotypical Balkan portrayal of Ottomans see https://the-philatelist.com/2018/10/16/ottoman-empire-1873-what-to-modernize-what-to-protect-what-bills-to-pay-and-what-to-do-with-all-these-people/   , but a professional movie with a classic orchestral score and a large cast. You can watch it here https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=film+scanderbeg&view=detail&mid=3E543D940FC0815BE1C33E543D940FC0815BE1C3&FORM=VIRE  . Pretty good for a small, poor, mostly illiterate, Muslim country. The studio went on to make over 200 films. Hoxha was against bringing in foreign culture to Albania. He found the modern culture with it’s long hair and rebellion  to be degenerated and designed with a glossy veneer to convert the masses from strivers into passive consumers. He spotted all this before the smart phone when it all became more obvious.

Hoxha died in 1985 and the regime was not the same without him. It was overthrown in 1991 and Hoxha’s statue was pulled down in Scanderbeg Square. Ironic no? Kino studio would not be needed by a modern Albania and closed in 1996. The building on the stamp still stands but now is a derelict. Albania now is famous for exporting it’s people and it’s mob crime. The trade balance has gone negative and they have acquired much foreign debt. Not it worry, there is attempt to join the EU and the EU gives over a billion Euros a year in pre-entry aid. Money well spent?

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Hoxha. It is not popular to toast people like him but I don’t think there has been anyone better for Albania before or since. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Bolivia 1943 Remembering General and President Jose Ballivian

Bolivia can be a rough place, but it is a place, and not just a province of Peru. That was due to General Ballivian, who was able to combine Bolivia’s three governments and armies into one and defeat Peru. 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 General Ballivian and what proports to be transportation in his time 100 years before and in 1943. I suspect transportation in Bolivia still was more represented by the vintage view than the American C45 airplane.

Todays stamp is issue A114, a 10 Centavo airmail stamp issued by Bolivia on November 18th, 1943. It was part of a 5 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 30 cents unused.

In the 1840s Bolivia was in a chaotic time. In fact there were three different groups claiming to be the legitimate government of Bolivia. Meanwhile next door, Peru had ambitions of regaining control of Bolivia as during the period of the Spanish Empire.  In a very unusual move, General Ballivian was able to convince the other two governments of the threat and the sides joined up to face Peru. The Peruvians, lead by their President Agustin Gamarra did not expect to face such organized resistance. At the Battle of Ingavi, the Peruvians were defeated and President Gamarra was captured and executed by Bolivia. The remnants of the Peruvian army fled back to Peru and were not pursued. The shocked and delighted ruling class of Bolivia quickly named General Ballivian President. There was perhaps here a missed opportunity in not taking the Peruvian (now Chilean) port of Arica, giving Bolivia it’s long desired outlet to the sea.

There were several opportunities the now President Ballivian took advantage of.. He appointed his friends to high positions. Among the was now Army Commander Manuel Belzu. As a Captain Belzu had married a 15 year old Argentine exile named Juana Manuela Gorriti. She bore him three daughters but the marriage was not a happy one. Separated, Betzu had a child with another women out of wedlock. However in 1845 he came home to find his wife en flagrante with President Ballivian. He drew his pistol and took a shot at the President, missing. General Belzu fled to the countryside with troops loyal to him but arrest warrants for him in the capital. Now Bolivia was getting back to normal.

General Belzu was more of a populist figure and was able to attract around him a large following in the countryside. When his forces later marched on the capital, President Ballivian decided to go into exile in Rio. Belzu became President and managed to hold on for seven years before passing the job to his son in law and become an ambassador at large in Europe. When son in law was couped out of office and later assassinated. Belzu was outraged and attempted a return to Bolivia to retake the Presidency. He was invited to the Presidential Palace and assassinated himself. Should have gone to Rio.

Belzu’s wife Juana(they never divorced), herself moved to Lima and set her self up nicely with a school and a political salon. She began writing melodramatic novels including one about a young man who cannot afford to marry his true love until he finds out he is the beneficiary of an insurance policy. The book was sponsored by an insurance company. Through the political salon she mentored many young Peruvian female writers.

Seductress, estranged Bolivian First Lady, authoress and insurance shill Juana Manuela Gorriti

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Juana Manuela Gorriti. If there are any insurance bigshots out there, I would be happy to write up a stamp that plays up the benefits of being fully insured. For a small fee, or better yet, a large fee. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting

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Egypt 1933, Imperial Airways delivers the mail to the far flung Empire

I have done several stamps where I have pondered if the colonial felt abandoned by their home country in some far off outpost. If so, how they must have welcomed to new regular air service in the 1930s offered by Imperial Airways. In addition to home country busy bodies to tell you how to do things better, the planes also carried great quantities of mail. 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.

Egypt in the 1930s was not actually a British colony but a protectorate. They had their own King that was from the same line left over from the Ottomans. A view of the plane flying over the temples in Giza tells the real story though of who was in charge. The plane comings and goings didn’t involve Egyptians.

Todays stamp is issue AP2, a 1 Millieme airmail stamp issued by Egypt in 1933. It was a 21 stamp issue in various denominations featuring a Handley Page HP42 aircraft in the service of Imperial Airways flying over the pyramids at Giza. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 30 cents.

Imperial Airways was set up in 1923 by the merging of four small private airlines at the suggestion of the British Air Ministry. There was a concern that private airlines could not compete with the new subsidized airlines in France and Germany. The airline was to take up overseas routes to Africa, the Middle East, India, and Australia. The aircraft would mainly carry mail  but also there would be room for about 10-20 passengers. The flight segments were broken up into segments of three to four hundred miles which was still a fairly long distance as the planes only cruised at about 100 miles an hour. The planes acquired for the service were a mixture of flying boats and land planes made by Short Brothers of Northern Ireland and Handley Page of England. The flight crews were all male but the frequent stops allowed passengers the opportunity to sight see. The Africa route involved 10 days of flying with 9 overnight stops.

Imperial Airways had the idea  to expand their revenue by increasing the amount of mail flown to include all first class letters. There was a corrupt scheme worked out with the British government where the subsidies required for the service were to be paid not by Britain but by the colonies and dominions being served. Imperial hoped that the subsidies would prevent local air services in the colonies from opening international routes. The scheme was somewhat of a bust as mail traffic was very seasonal and the airline had no spare planes to take care of the extra volume at Christmas time. In conjunction with Pan Am and United Airlines in the USA there was a publicity stunt where the first airmail letter would go around the world starting across the Atlantic ocean with Pan Am, turning over to Imperial through Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia with United Airlines picking it up in San Francisco and getting it back to New York City.

1939, first around the world airmail letter

Imperial Airways  was merged with British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) in 1939 which was then itself merged into British Airways in 1974. Handley Page Aircraft went bankrupt in 1970. The HP42 aircraft on the stamp were requisitioned by the Royal Air Force at the start of World War II but none survived past 1940. In 2018, there was an air rally with 15 vintage aircraft that followed to old Imperial Airways route from Crete through Egypt south all the way to Cape Town, South Africa. It was a shame there was no HP42 to again fly over Giza to recreate the stamp.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the Imperial Airways flight crews that brought air travel to some pretty desolate places. The Handley Page aircraft proved reliable if slow, it was said they had a built in headwind, the Short Brothers flying boats less so. It should be not discounted however the dangers faced as a matter of course. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

 

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Guyana 1969, after the political rift along racial lines, a country seeks a new start with a Hindu Phagwah celebration of spring

Another story of an ex British colony being left with demographics  that make it hard to form a cohesive country. Well perhaps the nation can learn from the East Indian still then majority how to make a new start in spring. 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.

Guyana is derived from the old Portuguese word for black people. With the decline of colonialism, there have been as many as 6 nations basing their name on it. Neighboring Dutch Guyana now goes by Suriname. This is why South America in mentioned on the stamp, it does narrow 6 to three. After the end of slavery blacks were no longer interested in plantation work. Indian, called east Indians to differentiate from natives, were brought in to replace them and by independence were a slight majority of the population. This stamp shows the 1969 Phagwah Festival as something for the east Indians as you might expect. Today Guyana has repurposed the Hindu festival as multi racial celebration of getting along. Papering over troubles you may say, but would it be better to admit hatred? Here is a link to a government video of the 2019 festival, that doesn’t resemble the stamp much.. https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=phagwah+in+guyana&qpvt=phagwah+in+guyana&FORM=VDRE

Todays stamp is issue A13, a 6 cent stamp issued by Guyana on February 26th, 1969. It was a four stamp issue in various denominations celebrating that years Phagwah festival. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether used or unused or which denomination.

As Britain started to wind down their colony in Guyana, a left wing party formed under east Indian Cheddi Jagan and a marketed as right wing party under black Forbes Burnham. Britain very much favored Burnham as they found it embarrassing when  a colony went communist immediately after independence. Taking sides was futile, as both parties were communist the difference was really racial. In the late 50s, Britain was trying to put together a federation of their old African majority Caribbean islands. It was hoped they would be stronger together and Canada could replace Britain as their protector. People of African heritage in Guyana were in favor of such an arrangement.  Cheddi Jagan was not, east Indians were a slim majority in Guyana and would be a small minority in such a federation. He vetoed Guyana’s involvement. From then on political parties were strictly on racial lines. Through gerrymandering Britain was able to turn Guyana over to Burnham as head of the black political party. After independence he declared himself also a communist and African style president for life. Guyana is quite poor and loses about one percent of it’s population a year to migration out. These are mostly East Indians, which are now a minority of the country. See https://the-philatelist.com/2018/02/12/british-guiana-going-independant-means-choosing-between-the-indians-and-the-africans/  .

Cheddi Jagan, the east Indian communist

 

The Hindu Phagwah Festival is an annual event to celebrate spring. The Festival begins with a nighttime circle around a bonfire where prayers are offered that one’s evil spirits will be burned by the fire. The next day is one where caste, age, and class are put aside for frivolity and the friendly spraying of colored water on friend, foe, and stranger alike. You are also to partake of food and a drink called bhang that contains cannabis. The next day is more sober and involves visiting in ones best clothes to cement new friendships.

Well my drink is empty and I am more used to whiskey in my glass than cannabis, so perhaps I should stick to what I know. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting