Month: December 2019

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Brazil 1956, JK promises 50 years of progress in 5, and kind of delivers

Brazil was run by a political and military elite from a few coastal cities. The political left saw the masses inland as a potential basis of support and a work around for those entrenched. In the 1950s a visionary leftist President Juscelino Kubitschek, JK, put into practice his gypsy heritage to design a new inland capital Brasilia. more in the image of the Brazil he imagined and where he could control who was there. 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 was a clever way to get yourself on a stamp. A stamp from your own country while in office makes you look like a dictator. Panama put out a series of stamps showing Western Hemisphere leaders at a Pan American conference in Panama City. Why not pretend the conference was more than a debating society and have Brazil honor the important meeting and it’s gracious Panamanian hosts and their brilliant stamp designers. That way JK gets a stamp during his term. If not for this stamp, JK would have to wait for the new lefty government in 1986 to get another stamp, 10 years after his death.

Todays stamp is issue A373, a 3.30 Cruzeiro stamp issued by Brazil on October 12th 1956. It was a single stamp issue showing a Panama airmail issue of July 18th. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 30 cents unused. The original Panama stamp is worth 45 cents.

Juscelino Kubitchek, known politically and here as JK), was born into a middle class family in an inland diamond mining town. He was of gypsy heritage and managed to get training as a doctor with several years of travel in Europe thrown in. He was employed as a doctor with the military police but quickly transitioned into left wing politics serving in the Chamber of Deputies, Mayor and as a Governor.

In 1955, JK ran for President under the slogan 50 years of progress in 5. This played well to sensibilities that Brazil was always on the cusp of taking off but never quite getting there. JK offered a program of massive public works combined with opening up to foreign ownership of industry. The centerpiece of the strategy was moving the capital to a newly built city in the inland. The new apartment blocks for the bureaucrats and politicos would be owned by the state and therefore the government could control who moved there and therefore who would man the Bureaucracy. Bet President Trump wishes he had thought of that, but if he can’t build a wall, he couldn’t manage a new city. In his new capital scheme, JK partnered with acclaimed local architect Oscar Niemeyer. The architect was of the shaped concrete brutalist school, but spiced it up with voluptuous shapes he said were inspired by the curves of Brazil’s women and the universe of Einstein. Not bad for a ever soon to be up and coming country.

Brutalist Government apartments going up in Brasilia in 1959
Brazil’s National Congress in Brasilia

The really amazing part is that the new capital was partially ready and the capital indeed moved during JK’s five year term. 50 years in 5 delivered. There were also many new roads and much new industry. Plans for liberal progress in healthcare an education were left undone. Naturally the national debt skyrocketed and by the end of JK’s term, 80% GNP growth was accompanied by a 43% inflation rate. One of the keys to JK’s success was avoiding the military coup by having sympathetic leftist officers in the military purge potential coup plotters before he even took office.

There have been controversies since JK left office on how he achieved so much. Time magazine once listed JK as the seventh richest man in the world and of course that lead political rivals to assume he skimmed off the big construction projects. They also point to his lavish life in self imposed exile. When JK died, only modest means were found. Similarly leftists thought that JK and another former lefty President had been assassinated by the then right wing government in 1976 in a scheme called Operation Condor. The recently departed lefty government studied the claim and determined that JK had died in a car wreck, as reported at the time.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour 2 more to toast JK and his partner in architecture Oscar Niemeyer. Oscar had also gone into self imposed exile but the later 80s leftist government funded him to return to Brasilia and design a monument to his late friend. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Belgian Congo 1923, Showing off a non existent “Ubangi Man”

I like when a colony displays through it’s stamps the local culture. Therefore I was excited to study up on the Ubangi tribe upon spotting this stamp. Except there is no Ubangi tribe. Well maybe the name changed. A little south a tribe has gone from being called hottentots to bushmen to sen. No, the tribe doesn’t exist and never has. 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.

Belgium probably knew what tribes it was dealing with in their Congo colony. A hint into how this stamp happened may be the engravers note at the bottom. The American Bank Note Company. A farm out stamp, from the place the Ubangi myth began.

Todays stamp is issue A33, a 20 Centimes stamp issued by the Belgian Congo Colony in 1923. It was part of a 26 stamp issue in various denominations displaying the local culture, economy, and animals of the Congo. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents unused.

There is a tradition among some African women to have their lower lip pierced so then it can be stretched and an ornamental disc put in. This mainly happened among the Mursi tribe of Ethiopia. The Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus imported a few of the women to the USA as part of their freak show of tall, short, and fat people. The circus wanted them to sound exotic. So after consulting an African map, they were named Ubangi. There is a river by that name.

Period Circus Poster
Modern Mursi woman with ornamental disc installed
Modern Mursi women showing the lower lip pierced and stretched but without disc installed. Notice also her earlobe

W. C. Fields later used the term in movies he wrote to refer to Africans. He liked to use terms unknown that sounded vaguely dirty to get around or at least lampoon the strict sexual censorship of the time. He also invented mother of pearl.

I mentioned that Ubangi really is a river. It also now refers to a group of languages mainly spoken in the Central African Republic. Yes here too, the name came from whites.

Well my drink is empty and so I will have to wait till tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

 

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Hungary 1972, remembering those lost in the war, at least some of them

The Hungarian Army lost many comrades during the war. However for the most part they were fighting as allies of Germany in order to reclaim the land lost at the end of World War I. Hungary fell to the Red Army and was not going to get back any lost land, so those lost in that struggle were going unremembered. That does not mean Hungarian Communists could not find a list of approved victims, and give them stamps. 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.

Poet Miklos Radnoti, not his real name, was one of the victims chosen to be part of this issue of stamps issued on the thirtieth anniversary of their war deaths. Seven leaders were chosen, none had served in combat units that had taken such a beating in Stalingrad and elsewhere. This fellow even had a pen name identifying him with a place in Bohemia where he had ancestors, instead of his own Budapest birthplace. Still enough of a Hungarian hero for government work.

Todays stamp is issue A494, a 1 Forint stamp issued by Hungary on November 11th, 1972. Mr. Radnoti received a single stamp. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether used or unused. There is an imperforate version of the stamp that ups the value to $3.00.

Miklos Radnoti, then Glatter, was born into a wealthy family of Jewish merchants. His twin brother was stillborn and his mother died in the aftermath of childbirth. He was raised with the family of a strict uncle. He received university training in business and married but was pining for a different life in the arts. Luckily  for Radnoti, that’s what money is for and he quit the family firm and studied philosophy and French  at the University of Szeged. He earned a PhD there. He then set out as a poet. He was helped in this by the fact that his father in law headed an important Hungarian publisher.

His work was mainly romantic  views of simple peasant life as he had viewed previously as a merchant. Today many of the chronicles we have of this long ago East European life comes from the class of mainly Jewish merchants that interacted with them. The peasants themselves did not return the love to the merchants, as they often felt taken advantage of.

In 1940, Radnoti was drafted into an army construction battalion set aside for Jews. The government did not trust the Jews to fight for them if armed. He ended up working at a copper mine in Bor, Serbia. This was a massive operation and Radnoti was promoted to Kapo, a supervisory position. At this point Radnoti and his wife professed a conversion  to Catholicism, probably to improve his lot. In October 1944, the unit gave up on the copper mine with the enemy approaching and began marching back toward Hungary. The government had gotten much more right wing that month and the Jews of the battalion did not see a future in Hungary. 20 of the 3600 marchers refused to go on and were shot near Abda, Hungary. Radnotti was 35.

Radnotti has several statues to him around Hungary and a large school named in his honor. Many of the Communist figures have been downgraded in esteem by the modern Hungary. So far Radnoti’s heritage has saved him that fate. His widow lived till 2014 so there was also still someone to make his case.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another for those that had to go to great lengths to survive a war they did not believe in. Not all made it through. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Japan 1991, Japan’s Heisei period brings in decline, the child’s ways and the herbavore man

When an economy changes, society follows. Japan was still an advanced rich country, but I bet they never thought a few economic reverses could have the men go from the hard working, hard drinking company man to the comic book and anime loving herbivore man in one generation. 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 stamp today was drawn by a child showing old style folk dancers. It was a four stamp issue displaying the chosen winners of an international design contest. In addition to the folk dancers, there were butterflies, flowers and a depiction of world peace. Not really my type of thing. The next issue from was Kabuki performers. This issue shows much better what possible from stamp designing professionals and the contrast shows why it might best be left to them.

Todays stamp is issue A1601, a 62 Yen stamp issued by Japan on May 31st, 1991. It was a four stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 30 cents used.

In 1989 Emperor Hirohito died and was replaced by his son Akihito as the 125th Japanese Emperor. His period is referred to as the Heisei era. The change coincided with some pretty radical changes in the economy. The economy had grown greatly on an export driven boom that sent Japanese manufactured goods aimed at the middle class around the world but especially to the USA. The resulting foreign exchange greatly boosted the value of the Japanese Yen and with that asset values of stocks and real estate. The hollowing out of the middle class in the USA and elsewhere and the emergence of lower cost South Korea following closely Japan’s playbook had a devastating effect. First the excesses in asset valuation disappeared over night. This reduction in wealth was felt immediately at the individual level. The hollowing out soon reached Japan’s manufacturers and  they were not able to sustain practices of lifetime employment that Japan perceived was so central to their superiority. Some may ponder the entitlement involved in just assuming that other places will forever pay for the privilege of Japanese goods in place of their own products. I wonder, as an American, how it was allowed to happen in the first place.

Younger Japanese men no longer had such promising careers to look forward to despite ever higher levels of educational achievement. They took to continuing youthful pursuits such as video games, anime, and comic books. Japan has remained a leader in those fields even as those giant Japanese conglomerates from another era struggle.

So we get to the herbivore man. They are insulted as grass eaters and sexless based on them not marrying or, I guess we have to list this separately now, fathering children. It is however a global truth that women will not marry men if they are not advanced economically by the union. So the marriage and child birth rate declined directly with the collapse in economic opportunity for men. In Japan as in most places, women are ever more in the workforce but there has not been a corresponding growth in out of wedlock births as elsewhere. This may be some evidence of the herbivore slight. Oriental Asian men do have on average lower levels of testosterone. The preponderance of an Asian style diet among American young men  facing similar economic challenges has resulted in the “soy boy” slight.

Well my drink is empty and I think my wife and I will have a cheeseburger for dinner. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Dubai 1971, coming from nowhere to be a TV powerhouse

As of the time of this stamp, Dubai did not yet have a TV station. It was coming though. 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.

Dubai’s last stamps were in 1972 as the United Arab Emirates took over a universal postage service. As such Dubai can be forgiven for jumping the gun to show off it’s upcoming TV station. The station would be a rival to Abu Dhabi’s TV station that opened in 1969. So a united UAE might not have been so excited by it. The stamp shows the Intelsat satellite, that first brought the world the Beatles singing “All you need is Love”. It also shows Sheik Rashid bin Said who was then transitioning from Dubai’s leader to the united UAE leader.

Todays stamp is issue A25, a 10 Riyal stamp issued by the Emirate of Dubai in 1971. It was part of a 10 stamp issue in various denominations showing new construction in Dubai. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 85 cents used.

Oil was discovered in 1966 and got into production in 1968. Before that Dubai got by as a British Protectorate/ trading post whose biggest industry was pearl diving. That industry had been greatly challenged by Japan’s innovations in offering cultured pearls. In 1967 Great Britain announced that they were scaling back their worldwide commitments and ending Protectorate status. At the same time India devalued the Rupee which was still the local currency. The oil discovery really couldn’t have come at a better time. Old rivalries with Abu Dhabi were put aside and the United Arab Emirates were formed.

One thing that had been learned from the British was the value of opening up to the people of the world, as was so beneficial to places like Hong Kong and Singapore. Dubai did this not just in terms of contract workers but took it to the next level in opening tax and tariff free zones to incubate new industries that could then offer much employment not tied to the finite resource of the oil. In terms of television broadcasting Dubai formed a Media Free Zone that enabled broadcasters from around the world to produce and distribute content. Dubai’s home grown television station was not left out. Soon it added a second channel offering programing  aimed at the expatriates offering western shows and offerings in Hindi. The area now produces programing including news, cultural shows, religious programing, as well as soap operas, dramas and even children’s cartoons.

It is hoped that the diversification of the economy will be a enough to keep the boom going after the oil runs out. As of now, the belief is that the oil will runout in 2029. The government believes by then it will be able to keep revenues at 90 % of the 2013 level. Over time it is hoped that there will be enough qualified locals to replace most contract workers and the country will still benefit from it’s unique and long standing trade relationship with Iran, that much of the world shuns.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Sheik Rashid bin Said, who ruled from 1959-1990. Faced with challenges, he sought out opportunity. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Great Britain? year, The Philatelist nominates this to be the final postage stamp

With Iceland announcing the end of their postage stamp issuance and with small country farm outs ever less connected with the country or origin, I have been wondering about what the end of postage stamp issuance would look like. Therefore a modest proposal. 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.

If this were the last stamp, think how much of the 180 years of the hobby of stamp collecting could be included. The British Penny Black was the first stamp and in itself a major reform of the postal system. Copied all over the world. William Wyon’s 1837 Victoria profile became so recognizable that it was used for her whole Reign without ever requiring even including the country name on the stamp. Arnold Machin’s profile of a timeless Queen Elizabeth II has now lasted even longer and the two basic images together work so well. Make this the last stamp.

The Penny Black was the first postage stamp. Previously to mail one had to go to the post office and pay the post master who would then initial the top corner of the envelope. It was realized that selling stamps in sheets would greatly ease commercial mailing by enabling pre payment. The increased mail volume would allow a drop in price for a standard domestic letter to one penny regardless of distance. This was a third of the previous rate which added heavily for distance. The stamp was elaborately engraved on high quality paper to avoid counterfeiting. Gum on the back and perforations would come later. The penny black was not completely successful in one regard. The red cancelation on the black stamp could be washed off by sly re-users. In 1842 the penny black was replaced by a penny red of the same design that used a permanent black cancelation.

In the early days of Elizabeth II’s Reign, a three quarter face portrait picture by Dorothy Wilding was used on the stamps. This was controversial among some stamp designers as it took up so much of the stamp. There was also a push to remove the Sovereign from the stamp and add UK to the stamps. This was promoted by left politician and then Postmaster General Tony Benn. By the mid 1960s even the Queen herself could see the issue of continued use of the dating Wilding portrait was not optimal. A new competition was held with the Queen to pick the winner.

The winner was Arnold Machin’s profile that was originally a bas-relief in clay done from pictures by Lord Snowden. He originally included the Queen holding a bouquet of flowers but decided on simplifying it before submission. Elizabeth is wearing the George IV State Diadem crown dating from 1820 and also worn by Victoria in the Wyon profile. The image was also used on coinage starting with decimalization in 1968 and earlier on Rhodesian coins. Elizabeth’s image was updated on the coins in the 1980s but she sensibly refused the suggestion to update the stamp image. Machin got his own stamp in 2007 and his work of art is the most commonly reproduced in the history of the world, 320 billion times to date.

A note about inflation. This stamp shows a value of 20 Pence, below the current rate of 70 Pence. If you adjust the 1840 1 Penny for inflation and decimalization, it works out to 35 Pence. For a final issue and everyone’s last letter mailed, why not go back to one penny for a day or even a week. Think of the final volume and remember you are still benefiting from decimalization! There are no longer 240 Pennies in a Pound.

Well my drink is empty and I can’t claim any influence on how things will end. This stamp wouldn’t be the worst. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting