Month: March 2020

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Malagasy 1964, Trying not to go it alone

So what do you do when you are just broke. Do you become independent and go it alone with the thinking that if we build our way out of this, it will be our achievement alone and we will have built our own prosperity. Or do you just try to put a local black face on what the French were doing, in order that over time the economic benefits (there must have been some right) will more accrue to the locals. When the GDP per capita is less than $100 a year at independence, independent Malagasy reached out to France, hoping for as much help as possible. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

This issue of stamps shows the new coats of arms of various cities around Madagascar, in this case Antsirabe. If you have ever wondered what the coat of arms should look like for a place that started as a leper colony, well now you know.

Todays stamp is issue A50, a 1.5 Franc stamp issued by Malagasy in 1964. It was a seven stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether it was mint or used.

The people of Madagascar are diverse. The coastal areas house a different people than those that reside in the central highlands. This was finessed prior to colonial status by having a Queen from the highlands marry a coastal chief who then acts as her Prime Minister. When the French came, the last Queen thought she was going to have to marry the French General who had conquered the place. Instead she left and moved to Paris, see https://the-philatelist.com/2018/02/27/madagascar-the-french-exile-the-last-queen-by-sedan-chair/ . After independence, it might have been expected to break down along tribal lines. Instead the divisions were based on the decision to stay close to France. Left leaners in the Capital and other big cities sought a firmer break with France and a more aggressive pursuit of socialism.

Highland President Philbert Tsiranana tried instead to get ever more aid from France. 5 years after independence, 75 % of the government budget was aid from France. During his 12 years as President, it amounted to 400 million dollars with another 150 million from the EEC. The aid was not well spent and the welfare of the people stayed low. They were not however starving as the country contained more cows than people. President Tsiranana began to spend ever more time in the south of France, unfortunately not an option open to the majority of the people. Has opposition grew, he had rebellious people banished to the island of Novo Lava. At the ten year point or independence a status report on how things were going was published. It criticized the government for mismanagement and it’s authors were then arrested. The French government lost faith in Tsiranana and thought he was becoming senile. When protest grew to being out of control, The French army refused to intervene and Tsirnana turned over power to the army. Now it was the leftist turn to mess things up.

Antsirabe is one of the cooler places in the highlands and has sources of fresh water and thermal springs. The town was founded in 1874 as a religious retreat by Norwegian Lutheran Missionaries. They then added a hospital to treat lepers and a leper colony quickly developed. The French administration and the Catholic Church discovered the cool weather and the area became an administrative center. The place is now more known for it’s intact colonial core and the pouse-pouse human pulled rickshaws used to get around than any remaining lepers.

Pouse-Pouse, the preferred method of travel in Antsirabe. Please make a U-turn at the leper colony

Well, my drink is empty and if I arrange a pouse-pouse to get me home, I may have another. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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India 1965, a growing India needs electricity, so how about nuclear power?

When India imagined independence from Great Britain, it hoped to include Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri lanka and Burma. A superpower, albeit requiring much development. The smaller India that emerged still had great ambitions and big rivals, so why not forsake some needed development to play big power games. Bizarrely, the West was ready to help. Well at least until Buddha smiled. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

This stamp shows the Atomic Research Center in the Trombay section of Bombay. It is from the same set of stamps as the Gnat airplane stamp I covered here, https://the-philatelist.com/2018/07/20/a-gnat-sting-slays-a-sabre-over-bangladesh/      . As with the Gnat, the stamp is long on the Indian achievement aspect, with no mention of the outside help that made it possible. Ah, superpower dreams….

Todays stamp is issue A205, a 10 Rupee stamp issued by India in 1965. It was an 18 stamp issue in various denominations. The 10 Rupee stamp, a high denomination then, was the highest indicating where India ranked the achievement of the nuclear center. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 50 cents used. Unmailed the stamps value goes up 30 times.

India’s work on nuclear energy began even before independence. The Tata organization, see also https://the-philatelist.com/2019/11/21/india-1958-independant-india-will-be-great-building-on-the-success-of-people-like-j-n-tata/    , was a big believer in Swadeshi, which is India doing for itself. In this case that means sending fellow Parsi Homi Bhabha to Cambridge to study and then fund his nuclear research center once back in India. The Parsi were Persians that British India took in as they were no longer welcome in Islamic Persia due to their Zoroastrian religious beliefs. Interesting that is was from these people the idea of Swadeshi got it’s backing.

Knowledge of how nuclear energy works is not enough, as to use it for peace or war, specialty manufacturing of intricate pieces is needed. The West and the East only developed this after slow expensive development. USA President Eisenhower then proposed the silly stunt of “atoms for Peace’. The American military industrial complex would be encouraged to build nuclear facilities in the third world in return for monitoring how they handle it and the countries’ word that the program would be peaceful. India, Pakistan, Israel, and Iran signed up and solemnly gave their word that the only intention was civilian atomic power. Canada got in on the graft from such a program by providing India another reactor. Over time, and it took a long time, India was able to reverse engineer the reactors they were given and add further reactors built locally. The process was slowed by the death of Homi Bhabha in a mysterious crash of an Air India 707 airplane in Switzerland. Conspiracy theorists blame the CIA, but planes do fly into mountains occasionally. 16 years before another Air India plane flew into the same mountain.

It will be no surprise that India lied about the peaceful intent of it’s nuclear power program. Plutonium derived from the spent nuclear fuel from the Canadian supplied reactor CIRUS at Trombay was used for India’s first nuclear bomb  tested in 1974. The secret program was called Buddha Smiles. The smiles did not extend to the western powers that had foolishly helped the program along. Pakistan sped up their bomb program that also had received help from atoms for peace, see https://the-philatelist.com/2019/05/16/pakistan-atoms-for-peace-poliferates-until-buddha-smiles/  .

Mr. Bhabha made optimistic projections of how much nuclear energy India could produce. A projection made by him in 1962 gave a number by 1980 that is a full five times what is actually produced in the India of 2020. Less than 3 percent of Indian electricity comes from nuclear power. It was of course, all about the bombs.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another in case the power goes out. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from  stamp collecting.

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France 1987, implying Marshal Leclerc liberated France with his American tanks and Sengalese Askari troops

In 1940, France was conquered by Germany in a few months despite having a larger Army and hosting a large British force. Quite embarrassing and partly a result of being only ready to return to World War I trenches not a battle of maneuver. France did have a tank general, recently promoted, with a fake name and too much money in his pocket. Why not talk up his tiny role in liberation. Is that better than just forgetting? 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.

American troops had done the bulk of the work liberating France. They tended to stop before major cities already abandoned by the Germans to allow the Free French forces march in first. This was also done out of nervousness as to reception. So this stamp shows the Liberation of Strasbourg in November 1944. Leclerc may not really have been really his name but he definitely looked the part of a Marshal of France. The tank on the stamp is an American Sherman, but you can’t expect the average stamp user to know tank models. Notice the troops commanded by Leclerc are not shown, if they were French???

Todays stamp is issue A1101, a 2.2 Franc stamp issued by France on November 28th, 1987. It was a single stamp honoring Marshal of France Leclerc on the 40th anniversary of his death in an American airplane gifted to France. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

Philippe de Hautclocque was a junior officer in the French Army during the fall of France. He was briefly taken prisoner as he tried to run away disguised as a civilian refugee. The Germans found his French Army pay stub in his pocket. Upon Armistice, French soldiers were allowed to return home to their families. His wife had gone to southern France where she had family. She had obtained an identity card under the alias Leclerc thinking that would make life easier for him. He decided to apply for a visa to Spain and leave his family behind and make his way to Free French Forces in Britain. He got his visa but took several tries to get over the border as he was carrying far too much cash. Once in Spain, he presented himself to the British Embassy and they arraigned his travel to Britain. He decided to continue to use the name Leclerc and General de Gaulle promoted him and assigned him to armor.

The Free French forces recruited Askari troops from their African colonies, mainly Senegal and outfitted them with equipment given by America. His tank force, which he called the Leclerc division, guarded the flank of British forces in North Africa and Italy. It deployed to France well after D Day in 1944. His force did win one fight with the Germans when his division came upon an understrength brigade of Panther tanks. He complained that the Panther tank that the Germans had built for themselves was better than the Sherman tanks that had been gifted France by the USA. America’s surprise that Leclerc had not been beaten by force one quarter Leclerc’s size was greater than their disdain for his insolence and American General Patton award the Silver Star medal to now General Leclerc. He marched into Strasbourg unopposed.

Strasbourg was held by Leclerc’s Senegalese troops and an American all black division. Strasbourg was important to Germany as many residents were of German heritage. A counterattack was launched from Colmar that was one of Germanys last. Eisenhower considered abandoning Strasbourg but realized it would be bad PR while the Battle of the Bulge was also raging further north. He instead moved in many more American soldiers but put them under French command to make it appear the French were holding their ground, see https://the-philatelist.com/2019/06/11/wurttemberg-1945-an-ex-vichy-general-goes-from-jail-to-commanding-americans-in-their-zone-of-germany/ . Strasbourg did not refall to the Germans but the battle went on into February 1945, long after most German troops were out of France.

After the European war ended, Leclerc, he had legally changed his name by now, lead a 25,000 troop expedition whose mission was to reclaim French Indochina from the Japanese, see https://the-philatelist.com/2018/01/09/vichy-fights-on-for-empire-in-indochina/  . Before his troops arrived off Vietnam, he struck a deal with Ho Chi Minh that Vietnam would be independant but a part of the French communitity and his troops would be welcome for five years to provide security. This meant his army would not have to fight but France would not be getting back Indo China. French were outraged, Leclerc was fired and the deal was not ratified. It should have been of course.

Leclerc was next assigned to Algeria where he died in the crash of an American B-25 bomber in French service. Posthumously Leclerc was made a Marshal of France. The current French tank, the Leclerc is named for him. The previous French tank, the AMX 30 was an updated copy of the German Panther tank that Leclerc had so many problems with.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Leclerc not so much for his war service but rather for what he nearly pulled off in Vietnam. Imagine all the misery avoided if he had been listened to. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

 

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Syria 1954, after 20 governments and four contitutions, seeking rebirth, Syria takes a Ba’ath

Syria had a hard time figuring who it was. After being dominated by the Ottomans and then the French, perhaps a new Syrian way forward can lead to a rebirth. Off to the Sorbonne we go. 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 Ba’athists had been heavily influenced by world socialism. That influence can be seen on this stamp. Here we have happy toilers in the field. They are not working to get ahead personally, nor to support a King, and not being exploited by capitalists or colonialists. Instead they are advancing Syrian society. Left unanswered by the stamp is the question of without any of those motivators, what is going to make them do the work. Toiling in the field is a hard life after all.

Todays stamp is issue A68, a 2 and a half Piaster stamp issued by independent Syria in 1954. It was a nine stamp issue in various denominations that hopefully showed off productivity in Syria. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether it is used or unused.

Syria got it’s independence from France in 1946. In the 8 years that followed Syria suffered an embarrassing defeat by Israel, uprisings from it’s Druze minority and 20 governments working under 4 different constitutions. Hashemite Kingdoms around them were scheming to bring Syria into their fold and the new government in Egypt was promoting their leadership for a united Arab super power. Wasn’t there anything natively Syrian that could turn things around.

Michel Aflaq was a Syrian thinker working on this. While studying at the Sorbonne in France he happened upon some fellow Syrian travelers who were immersing themselves in the work of French philosopher Henri Bergson and German philosopher Karl Marx. Aflaq was an Orthadox Christian Arab who tried to convert what he was learning into something useful for a non industrial and majority Islamic country. So in Aflaq’s telling Arabs are processed of a magic that will arise, as it did in the days of Mohammad, into a unity of purpose that will be a rebirth and then a renascence for the people. To achieve this a single political party can guide and be guided by the people, the Ba’athist Party. By subtly shifting the focus from Islam to being Arab, Aflaq has made a place for himself as a Christian, and a place for Bergson and Marx, who perhaps are not the type of thinkers an Islamist would normally seek out. In addition to Syria, Ba’athist political parties were formed in many Arab nations and had a long rule in Iraq.

Michel Aflaq in his French student days. Interesting how all those folks colonials sent to study came back leftists.

Aflaq wrote inspiringly about a Ba’athist future but was less good on how to manage a transition to the world he imagined. He was eventually pushed aside as an outsider in Syria and sent into exile. In Ba’athist Iraq, where he wasn’t personally vying for political position, he was welcomed as a great Arab scholar and philosopher. The last Iraqi Ba’athist leader, Saddam Hussein even claimed that Aflaq had a late in life conversion to Islam. Whether it is true or not, the importance placed on it shows how impossible the task of bringing Arabs together without a dictatorship.

Well my drink is empty and Syria still finds itself ruled by a Ba’athist who is pressured by all sides, yet survives. Still struggling to create that promised united Syrian rebirth, but all life is a struggle. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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New Zealand 1992, overly confident in an America’s Cup Challenge

New Zealand had a good run at the America’s Cup sailboat races. They won in 1995 and successfully defended the title in 2000. This stamp however is from 1992 when New Zealand’s boat was penalized for a  not allowed design and failed to make the finals. So that year it was still America’s Cup. 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.

It is not whether you win or lose, it is how you play the game. So why not put out a series of stamps to celebrate New Zealand sending a team to compete. Well how they played the game was to send a boat with design features that were not allowed. Once modified for rule compliance, the team was noncompetitive. Correction then, why not put out a series of stamps on floating rich man’s toys. Sure.

Todays stamp is issue A357, a $1 stamp issued by New Zealand on January 22nd 1992. It was a four stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1.25 whether it is used or unused.

The America’s Cup sailing race was first put on in 1851. Teams are put together by yacht clubs and often lead by very rich men as vanity projects. The involvement of such wealthy men means that the boats are spared no expense to gain any small advantage. The San Diego Yacht Club team in 1992 that won  was lead by Bill Koch the little brother of the famous Koch Brothers who sold his share of his father’s petrochemical company  for 400 million dollars to his politically active brothers. This gave him the time and money to play the playboy sailor man

Australia sent a team in the 1980s that became the first foreign team to win the Cup. Australia’s Cup? This attracted the attention of New Zealander Michael Fay, partner in the NZ investment bank Fay Richwhite. He put together a team of mainly Australian sailors under skipper Peter Blake and with a boat design originating in New Zealand.

The first boat was found in violation while in semifinals against an Italian team that went on to lose to the boat America3 under Bill Koch. Skipper Peter Blake was back at the next America’s Cup in 1995 and won with a new design boat. He returned again in 2000 and became the first foreign team to successfully defend a title. By then they were no longer getting support from Michael Fay, he had moved to Geneva to be closer to what he loved, his money.

Skipper Peter Blake had an interesting sailing career in addition to the America’s Cup. He became involved with the Cousteau Society from which he bought the Seamaster ship. He engaged in expeditions designed to monitor climate change under the auspices of the United Nations. In 2001 the Seamaster was boarded by pirates while on an expedition on the Amazon River. Blake was shot and killed and the rest of the crew had their wallets and watches stolen before the pirates left the ship.

Sir Peter Blake, New Zealand America’s Cup sailor

Well my drink is empty and since I can’t afford the yacht lifestyle, I might as well have another drink. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Hungarian “Soviet”Republic 1919, the proletariat is coming for you failed gentry, Gyorgy Dozsa style

Hungary was left an ethnic rumpstate after World War I, one that had lost 77% of it’s land. The ruling class had failed the people and deserved blame. So a new communist government was understandable, if only they could remember they work for Hungarians. A great time to invoke a previous rebellion lead by Gyorgy Dozsa against another discredited gentry. If Soviet Hungarian Republic President Sandor Garbai knew his history he would have worried. Hey wasn’t Dozsa fried and then eaten? So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult, lock your door if you are part of the landed gentry. and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist,

Hungary was only the second country to go Communist after Russia. It was a worldwide movement so they probably didn’t think too hard about the label Soviet. It wasn’t implying a Russian colony, except of course that was exactly what they were selling. The local Communists did think to appoint a gentile figurehead, President Garbai, to somewhat shield who they were. A later communist leader joked that Garbai was picked so that they would have someone to sign death warrants on the Sabbath.

Todays stamp is issue A18 a 75 Filler stamp issued by the Hungarian Soviet Republic on June 12th, 1919. It was the only issue of the Soviet Republic and consisted of five stamps in various denominations. My stamp has the later vertical watermark that did not make it into postal use before the short lived Soviet Republic ended. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $7.50 unused.

The Soviet Hungarian government came in peacefully but with a little trickery. The Hapsburg Regency ordered the center left social democrats to form a government not knowing they had merged with the still officially banned communists. The communists than ordered the Hapsburg regent and any social democrats in the government arrested. This was directly on orders from Soviet leader Lenin. The people who had such a time dealing with defeat were willing to give the communists a chance. They were desperate for anyone that could restore Hungary to its prewar status. The Reds had no trouble recruiting an army that duly marched into the old upper Hungary, then the Czech and Slovak Republic. The army made some progress but then declared a Slovak Soviet Republic in the conquered territory. This was about an ideology not restoring to Hungary it’s lost territory. The army and people rebelled and the Soviet republic fell. The Hapsburg Regency was restored and there was a “White Terror” against the Communists and the Jews who the government felt had betrayed the country. Many of the top Communists escaped the terror into exile including the top leadership and actor Bela Lugosi, who was head of the communist actors union. Lugosi went of course on to America to play a Hungarian Count from Transylvania not too unlike Gyorgy Dozsa. The rest of the leadership went on to the Soviet Union where many then fell victim to Stalin’s 1930s purges of those he suspected of being untrustworthy.

Hungarian Soviet propaganda 1919. To Arms! To Arms!

Gyorgi Dozsa was a Hungarian Count from Transylvania who lived around 1500 AD when Transylvania was part of a greater Hungary. After a meeting with the Pope the Hungarian Chancellor passed on his issuance of a Crusade against the Ottomans. Count Dozsa duly raised an army staffed by peasants to fight the Ottomans. The peasants felt the Army was not getting enough support from the Hungarian gentry that had initiated the war. The army turned against the Hungarian government while still under Count Dozsa and burned several hundred manor homes and castles and killing many of the gentry, often by Crucifixion. The King withdrew the crusade against the Ottomans and ordered the peasants back to the farms under “pain of death”. He also raised a new mercenary army to personally go after Count Dozsa. He was duly captured in battle in Tannesvar, in what is now Romania. After capture, he was mocked by being made to sit on an iron throne and wear an iron crown the had both been warmed in a fire until nearly molten. Still alive he was then cut with pliers also heated in the fire. Then fellow rebel prisoners were offered a way to avoid death by taking a bite of Count Dozsa’s flesh.

A woodcut depicting the death of the Count

The Communists of 1919 were just trying to weave a little history into their story of a glorious future. In retrospect the message is more clear, Don’t Screw with the Hungarian Gentry.

Well my drink is empty and faced with a choice of a controlled by outsider mob of peasants and a gentry that takes names and gets their revenge I will chose the gentry. At least they live better in the meantime, Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Romania 1928, celebrating the new province by crossing the Danube with the longest bridge in Europe

Romania kept getting bigger up through the first half of the 20th century. They scooped up new territory from the Ottomans, Bulgaria, and Hungary. As can be imagined, many had to move. Why not show however good stewardship by building the longest bridge in Europe. Nobody would expect to find that in Romania, and having it designed by a Romanian would show 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.

This stamp issue celebrated Romania obtaining the province of Dobruja from Bulgaria 50 years before. The stamps show the port of Constanta on the Black Sea that was so important to Romania, an ancient monument to show the history, King Carol I who obtained the area, and the then King Carol Bridge in Cernavoda that was Romania’s great achievement in the area. Stamps can help a country to put their best foot forward and this issue was definitely doing that.

Todays stamp is issue A80, a 10 Lei stamp issued by the Kingdom of Romania on October 25th, 1928. It was a seven stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $3.25 unused.

The region of Dobruja was awarded to Russia in the Treaty of San Stefano of 1878 from Bulgaria after Russia defeated the Ottomans. They then traded the area to Romania for land in present day Moldavia. The area was about half Romanian but also contained Bulgars, Turks, Russian Tartars, Gypsies, and Germans. The port of Constanta on the Black Sea was very important and would be more so if it could be connected more directly to Bucharest.

Anghel Saligny was born in 1854 the son of a French educator who operated a boys boarding school in Focsani. He was able to continue his engineering education in Germany and was later employed designing railways in Saxony. Soon he was back in Romania designing railways and working on the facilities of the port of Constanta. A bridge over the Danube at Cernavoda was quite daunting due to the needed length and the bridge was initially bid out. Instead Romania decided to trust Saligny with the 8600 foot bridge. The bridge was built in five years and named for then King Carol.

In World War I the bridge very nearly saw its end. Bulgarians with German support were advancing through Dobruja toward Bucharest. The government considered blowing the bridge to slow the advance. Instead a new General was appointed as commander of the Romanian Second Army. He suggested that the government blow up the previous commander instead of the bridge. The bridge was made temporarily impassable but the Romanian 2nd Army was able to hold the line along the wide Danube. After the fall of the Royal Government in 1948, the bridge was renamed after Anghel Saligny.

Bridge Designer Anghel Saligny

In the 1980s a new slightly longer bridge was built nearby the Anghel Saligny Bridge. It was also designed in Romania and handled rail and road. The older bridge has not been taken down due to it’s historic signifigence. The new one may be slightly bigger but is not so handsome. The new bridge got a stamp in 1989 but that stamp is only worth 25 cents.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Anghel Saligny. His work was considered on the same level as Gustave Eiffel, whose firm had also put in a bid on the project. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

 

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Oman”State”1969, the state of being a fake stamp

In 1969 Oman was known as the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman. That name was about to be shortened to Oman as the Sultinate was facing attacks from pan Arabist from South Yemen and wanted to present themselves as a united country. Nearest I can tell this stamp does not emanate from the rebelling area of Dhofar, just another one of those 60s fake stamp promoters. 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.

These small royalist enclaves were sure hotbeds of fake stamps. We have covered the stamps of the no longer in power Royal government of North Yemen here, https://the-philatelist.com/2018/01/29/zanzibar-when-the-arabs-needed-the-british/      . and Finbar Kenny’s “Dune” stamps here, https://the-philatelist.com/2019/04/10/sharjah-lets-you-enjoy-modern-art-thanks-to-finbar-kenny/ . Since this is not a real stamp there is no catalog value or official issue date.

The postal history of the area is interesting with the first post offices opened by the British East India company in Muscat. Muscat was a trading post city ruled by a Sultan while the interior area was known as Oman and had much autonomy to have a more traditional religious government under an Imam. The Sultans Royal House also controlled the Indian Ocean island of Zanzibar until it was conquered by Tanganyika in 1964, see https://the-philatelist.com/2018/01/29/zanzibar-when-the-arabs-needed-the-british/  . The discovery of oil in the interior led to a period of war as the Imam had to be displaced so that the oil revenue would go to the Sultan. This pitted the Sultan and his backers in Iran and Great Britain against the Iman and his backers in Saudi Arabia. The Muscat Sultan won that battle and the Iman went into exile. He tried and failed to get international recognition for his Imamate of Oman.

Having won that battle did not make everything rosy. In the 1960s, the traditional governments faced a growing threat from Marxist pan-Arabist that viewed the Sultans, Kings, and Emirs as illegitimate and tools of colonialists and economic exploiters. The pan-Arabist had come to power in neighboring South Yemen and there was an immediate pulling away of the trading post of Aden into a bigger all Arab but no longer trading city. South Yemen immediately started funding separatists in the neighboring region of Dhofar. Muscat had much more oil than Yemen and if you are not going to trade, the money must come from somewhere.

Muscat and Oman had to modernize to meet this new threat. Part of this was taking the name of Oman. The oil and loss of Zanzibar had shifted the country already from coastal trading to cashing the checks of interior oil wells and the deeply religious of the interior were natural rivals of the “infidel” pan-Arabists flooding in from Yemen. Part of the modernizing was Qaboos bin Said overthrowing his father. This was mostly bloodless except the old Sultan managed to shoot one of the coup plotters. Unfortunately for him while cocking his pistol he also shot himself in the foot. The old castle had of course lots of escape tunnels but when your coup plotter is your son he knows them all too and now with a hurt foot, you are not so fast moving. The old Sultan was captured and signed the abdication papers. Oil wealth then allowed him to live out his years at a suite in the Dorchester hotel in London.

Again with military help from Britain and Shah era Iran, Oman was able to defeat the Yemenis in Dhofar. The focus on the interior of Oman versus the trading of Muscat remained. Muscat is not a modern trading post in the manner of Dubai or Qatar. Qaboos bin Said remained Sultan till his death early this year. The oil will eventually run out. His legacy might be tarnished by not putting in place a system that can remain prosperous without the oil.

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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Dahomey 1963, enjoying the last French African Friendship Games as the French African community splinters

The French had governed their African spheres with large tribally diverse regions. Near the time of independence they were broken into much smaller entities. The hope was that the local politician could well represent his community and tribe while the broader area could still exist in a French community. It did not work out that way. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

This stamp shows boxers at the last French Friendship Games in Dakar in 1963. When given a fair election in the last days of colony most of the countries including Dahomey chose more autonomy but still close association with France. Instead full independence came and aspects of a common French African community could not be sustained.

Todays stamp is issue A21, a 50 Centimes stamp issued by independent Dahomey on April 11th 1963. It was a six stamp issue celebrating the French African Friendship Games held that year for the last time in Dakar, Senegal. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether used or unused.

While Dahomey was a small country it had three distinct regions with peoples of the old African Kingdoms of Dahomey, Peorto Novo, and Aboney. France picked a politician Hubert Maga from the North and the Dahomey Kingdom ethnicity but had converted to Christianity as practiced in the South. He was the best hope to unite the factions and France pressed him to share with other groups in the government patronage. By now however French President De Galle had tired of the work of nation building in Africa. In 1959 Dahomey and most of the other French African states got full independence. President Maga quickly tried to consolidate power and create a one party state. The French cut assistance and many of the French keeping the infrastructure intact departed.

The Dahomey Army them forced Maga to resign and tried to have the three areas be represented on a council that included Maga. He then plotted to have the Army chief of staff killed. He was placed under house arrest but his former foreign minister Chabi Mama broke him out. He went on to serve in various short term versions or the Army tribal council. In the 1970s Dahomey found a stronger dictator for life and changed the name of the country to Benin after the Atlantic Ocean Bay off the coast. This was a way to paper over differences of heritage.

Dahomey Foreign Minister Chabi Mama. When a Dictator is relying on him to come to the rescue, it is a great sign France has given up on the place.

 

The French founder of the modern Olympics, Pierre De Coubertin proposed  separate African games back in 1923, see https://the-philatelist.com/2019/02/07/1924-paris-olympics-the-last-of-the-modern-olympics-that-paid-homage-to-the-ancient-greeks/   . Olympics were thought of then as for the aristacracy so African colonials had no place. The French African colonies administration did not think the natives were capable and no games happened during colonial times. De Coubertan did convince De Galle however that African games were possible and France paid for the Friendship Games in the newly independant countries of French Africa. There were three games in Tarrative in 1960, in Abijan in 1961, and the Dakar games in 1963. 11 French African countries participated along with France. The new nations than asked that France invite English speaking African nations to future games. France withdrew support and there were no further Friendship Games. The name was late recycled for games held by the Eastern Bloc in 1984 that were boycoting the Los Angelas Olympics.

Well my drink is empty and the people of Dahomey/Benin must have felt they were taking as many blows as the boxers on the stamp. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

 

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Finland 1978, I don’t often get to write about sanitariums on stamps, but thanks to Alvar Aalto and the generous Finnish taxpayer

In 1929, the Finnish city of Paimio issued a requirement for a new tuberculosis sanitarium. There was no cure for tuberculosis, the best chance for the patient was to attempt to ride it out under a doctors care. Sounds like a miserable place with suffering and death all around. The building built to the requirement became much more than that. Finland was a new country and there was a new generation of architects ready to try out new ideas. One of those was architect Alvar Aalto. 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 early rational movement architecture was quite large and blocky, if not yet brutally so. The stamp designers use of bright colors do a good job of showing the building in it’s best light. There is just not room to show the special features inside to make this easier for patients and staff.

Todays stamp is issue A294, a 1 Markka stamp issued by Finland on May 2nd, 1978. It was a two stamp issue in different denominations featuring the work of Finnish architect Alvar Aalto two years after his death. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1.00 used.

Alvar Aalto was born in 1898 when Finland was still a Dutchy of Czarist Russia. He had a Finnish father and a Swedish mother. He studied in Helsinki and fought with the White Guards in the war of independence from Russia. His early work was mainly traditional styled houses but as he got more experience and traveled to Italy he became more interested in the new rational international style. I did a Spanish stamp with one of their architects on a similar journey here, https://the-philatelist.com/2020/03/02/spain-1976-we-can-now-again-cellebrate-the-rational-architect-who-irrationally-ran-off/    . Rationalist architecture was very much in evidence with the Paimio Sanitarium with it’s blocky shape, minimum decoration, and ribbon windows. There was however much done to make things more comfortable for the patients. The rooms had double occupancy but featured special no glare lighting and colors to help with sleeping. Each room had two wash basins of special design to be nearly silent. At the end of each floor there was a large balcony where even bedridden patients could be wheeled to see the sunshine. The staff that lived on site had walking trails through nearby forests. None of this may sound earth shattering to modern ears, but this was 1930. Image the horrors of the typical sanitarium then.

As Mr. Aalto aged he understood the limitations of having all new construction being undecorated blocks of concrete. His later work had more undulations in the designs and he worked on laminating wood so that it could better be used in situations with curves. That of course made the wood less natural and there is a forced quality to some of his later work that leave it less distinguished. In his early years he teamed with his fellow architect wife Aino but after she died in 1949, Alvar remarried a junior female architect with the firm named Elissa who was perhaps not able to support his work at the top level. It is of course normal for the creative to do their best work when they are young.

An auditorium Aalto did in 1966. The red bricks had been forced on him at a wavy dorm he did at MIT in the USA to better match the surroundings, but he used them a lot after.

The Paimo Sanitarium still exists but thankfully is no longer needed by tuberculosis patients. It was a general hospital starting in the early 1960s. Today it is a physical rehabilitation center for children.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Finland. Many new countries get bogged down in old rivalry and do not take the time to invest in creating a new distinct future, Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.