Month: October 2020

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Algeria 1952, French Algeria remembers Cherchell when it was a Roman Mauretanian Empire under Juba II and Cleopatra

The period French would tell you they were dragged into the Magreb to be done with Barberry pirates. What they found and cataloged were remnants of previous civilizations dating to Pheonicians, Carthage, Berbers and especially Romans in Cherchell. 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 shows a statue of a bird resembling an eagle taking off with a male baby. The statue is from Roman times and is in the collection or the archeology museum in Cherchell. The best I can figure it relates to the ancient Hebrew Demoness Lilith, she has Greek, Roman, and Arabic equivalents. Lilith is thought to be the the first wife of Adam, who lost her first son. Her grief turns her into a flying demoness, who swoops in to steal male babies so she can suck their blood. In the Greek-Roman version Lamia, she can’t stop seeing her dead baby and Zues takes pity and gives her the ability to remove her eyes from their sockets.

A Babylon version of Lilith. Notice the eagle wings, claws, and feet

Todays stamp is issue A35, a 15 Franc stamp issued by the then French colony of Algeria in 1954. It was a 6 stamp issue in various denominations showing Roman era statues in Cherchell, the one time capital of the Roman Mauretania Empire. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

The Mauretania Empire was centered on Cherchell but extended west to the Atlantic ocean. It was occupied by Moors, Berbers, Jews, and Phonecians and was an important trading post in the western Mediterranian. Cherchell was well known for it’s high quality silver coins, but also exported grapes, fish, and furniture. It was also the sole source of a purple dye that was important to the adornments of Roman ceremonies. Mauritania had originally allied with Carthage but was soon annexed by Rome.

The man who became their great King Juba II was a Berber who travelled to Rome where he was educated and made a Roman citizen. Octavian crowned him King of Mauretania and he married Cleopatra Selene, the daughter of Cleopatra of Egypt and Marc Anthony. This was the golden era for Cherchell, then called Ceasaria. Trade grew, the arts and the study of history were renewed and the fortified city was reorganized into a Roman style grid plan. Juba II was a learned man who wrote books on history, geography, grammar. He also discovered through his doctor that the local succulent flower euphorbia was a powerful laxative.

Juba II and Cleopatra’s tomb in Algeria

Mauretania was eventually conquered by the Vandals and later the Visigoths. The areas importance greatly reduced. As Cherchell there was another boom as a completely French city with a large army presence. Over time Arabs entered seeking employment in the fields and the city but remained fiery but mostly peaceful during the 1950s Algerian war. The Europeans left in mass at the time of independence and again the city lost  importance. It still gets water from an expanded cistern system first put in by Juba II.

Well my drink is empty so I will have to wait till tomorrow when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting,

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Tanzania 1993-94, Checking out the rhinos at the original place to hear more cowbell

Ngorongoro Crater is a large grassy plateau in the crater of a long dormant volcano. This provided a food rich home for thousands of animals. As long ago as 1921, laws have been passed to protect the animals habitat, but getting the Maasai tribe to listen is ever the challenge. 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 the national parks of Tanzania. For Ngorongoro Crater, we get a fun view of a rhinoceros. The rhino has been particularly hard hit since Tanzanian independence with numbers down 95 percent to just a few dozen. The international community declared the area a world heritage site, but getting poor, desperate natives to value their heritage is not easy. Money is handed to the government for protection and none gets passed to the tribe who are the ones that actually have to leave the animals alone.

Todays stamp is issue A187, a twenty Shilling stamp issued allegedly by Tanzania on October 29th, 1993. The stamps of this issue were not actually available until late 1994. This was a seven stamp issue in various denominations that was also available as a souvenir sheet. According to the Scott catalog, the full set of the seven stamps is worth $4 whether unused or cancelled to order. No value is given for the stamps individually but simple division gets you 57 cents each. There is also no value specified for an actual postal cancelation. Do any exist?

The grassy plateau of the crater is thought to have formed about 2 million years ago over a pool of dried lava. The crater floor is two thousand feet deep and covers an area of 100 square miles. Still the crater floor is 6000 feet above sea level. The name Ngorongoro comes from the Maasai and describes what a cowbell sounds like in the crater with the echo.

Tanzania was first in the area of German East Africa. The first European to visit the crater was Austrian explorer and cartographer Oscar Baumann. Baumann had had a rough time in Tanzania where he was exploring his theory of the source of the Nile River. Baumann and his assistant were taken by Arab traders that were unhappy that the Sultan of Zanzibar had sold the area to Germany. They were beaten, robbed and even stripped and held till Austria Hungary paid a ransom. Despite the setback, Bauman continued to explore the area until Austria Hungary named him consul to Zanzibar. The Zanzibar of the day was quite an unhealthy place to live and Baumann died a few years later of a bacterial infection at only 35.

Oscar Baumann trying to fit in wearing a fez in Zanzibar

With the natives being nomadic, it was two German brothers, Adolf and Friedrich, that first set up a farm in the crater in 1898. They hosted hunting parties and tried unsuccessfully to drive the herd of wildebeests out of the crater. The wildebeest is the most common animal in the crater. In 1921 all hunting was banned in the crater except on the former German farm.

Wildebeests and zebras in a herd in the crater

The next challenge came in 1951 when the then British colonials set aside the Serengeti Wildlife Park. This meant moving the Maasai nomads out and them going in large numbers to the crater. In 1959 Britain tried to limit the damage being done to the crater  by also making  Ngorongoro crater a national park. Soon enough Tanganyika was independent and in 1979 it was the UN coming in to try to save a few of the animals by declaring it a world heritage site. The area is considered by them to be endangered by human intrusion.

Well my drink is empty and hears hoping the UN is successful in saving the wildlife of the Ngorongoro Crater. Come again tomorrow when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

 

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Israel 1954, Keeping the mail going through all the transitions

This stamp shows a modern postal truck and the General Post Office in Jerusalem. This stamp implies correctly that the then new state of Israel had a modern functioning postal service. It doesn’t show the effort involved in getting 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.

As is so often the case with an early post colonial/mandate state, an impressive piece of infrastructure was shown without the useful piece of information that it was a gift of the former mandate British government. This lack of thanks should be an important influence on the decision to build something for someone else instead of remembering your own people first.

Todays stamp is issue A40, a 2 pound stamp issued by Israel on October 14th, 1954. It was a two stamp issue, the other showing the old post office in Jerusalem and horse bound mail delivery. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used or unused.

Postal history goes far back in the territory occupied by Israel. During the Mamluk period that predated the Ottomans, there was a regular mail run between Cairo and Damascus that made several stops in what is now Israel. Already in 1901, a Jewish National Fund was established with the purpose of buying up land for the use of Jews moving to Ottoman era Palestine. Their largest project was the city of Tel Aviv and an important fund raising tool was the issuance of fake stamps.

Jewish National Fund land buying fund raising stamp from 1915

The post World War I mandate for Britain was to run Palestine and attempt to treat the various peoples there equally. In terms of the postal service, the effort included a large new general post office in Jerusalem. It was designed by British architect Austen Harrison to be both modern and fit in with the traditional architecture of the Middle East. Austen Harrison was a McGill University graduate and a descendant of authoress Jane Austen, for whom he is named. Harrison lived in Jerusalem for 15 years and had friends among all the religious and racial groups. He enjoyed hikes to Amman and Cairo, which then was possible. The new building was to house the post office, the telephone and telegraph service, and the then Palestine Post newspaper. Hand cut stone from the quarry Beit Safafa was chosen with a stripe of black basalt at street level to camouflage street grime. Inside the stamp buying room the counter facing the customers was cool durable marble, but facing the employees was warm polished oak. In the basement is a large secure vault for the stamps.

Austen Harrison after the move to Cyprus.

Half way through construction Austen Harrison abandoned the project and left Jerusalem for Cyprus. He felt the British mandate authority was overly favoring the recently arrived Jewish residents at the expense of the others. The building was finished by a replacement in 1938 and is still in use today.

The transition from mandate to an Israeli postal system was not smooth. In 1948 the British discontinued their postal service. The Israelis took over the infrastructure left behind and tried to get it back in operation. They first overstampted fake stamp issues of the Jewish National Fund to make them real stamps. That doesn’t happen often. The first newly printed stamps of Israel printed a few months later were labeled Hebrew Post, as the final name was not yet decided. Israeli Post soon bowed to the British Mandate tradition of being trilingual with Hebrew, Arabic, and English. Some of our Turkish friends are no doubt saying what about us? Don’t you remember the Ottoman Empire? There is only so much room on a stamp.

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

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Greece 1938. Maybe the ancient Minoans on Crete had it right. Why not display your skill and bravery by jumping over the bull instead of fighting him

The ancient people on the island of Crete were from the same strand of ancients as those in Greece. Thus it is understandable the Greeks in modern times look to the practices of Minoans as part of their own heritage. 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 image on this stamp is taken from an old fresco in a Minoan era palace on Crete. That combined with 1930s poor country printing makes it less than clear what is happening. An acrobat has grabbed an angry bull by the horns who then by reflex jerks his head up violently. Using that force as leverage, the acrobat summersaults over the bull. The bull is not hurt by this.

Todays stamp is issue A69, a five Lepta stamp issued by Greece on November 1st, 1937. It was a 13 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether mint or used.

We talk a lot here of trading posts with an international flavor to them. Using postage stamps as a jumping off point usually puts us in the colonial or post colonial era. Here we get to go back to the Minoan culture on Crete as it existed circa 2000 BC. The trading going on was with the different peoples throughout the eastern Mediterranean Sea including Egypt and the Levant. The trading and mixing influenced both sides and left the Minoans well off. Elaborate palaces have been uncovered by archeologists over the last 200 years.

The name Minoan comes from a mythic King Minos on Crete. He was a concoction of nineteenth century British archeologists. As presented by the archeologists, the Minoans raised vegetables and ate lots of seafood. This healthy diet resulted in much longer life spans and thus contributed to the elaborate bronze age art the island is known for.

Bronze bulls head Minoan rhyton found in Zakros. A rhyton is drank from.

It is believed that Minoan culture came to a sudden end after an eruption of the Thera volcano around 1450 BC. There were also a string of earthquakes. By the beginning of the iron age around 1200BC, there was nothing left of the old culture on Crete. The language of the Minoans has not yet been able to be translated, so we do not know what kind of government they had. The high number of stone palaces is thought to mean the society had a hierarchy.

The Minoans were believed the first to practice bull fighting. There’s of course was much less violent than the now more famous Spanish style. It was practiced on Crete by both males and females. There was a second way where the the performer dives over the horns and then bounces off the bulls back. It is thought that the sport wasn’t dangerous for bull or jumper but that probably depends how the jumper lands and how quickly the bull comes for him. In modern times, bull jumping is still sometimes performed in France except they now use cows.

An ivory bull leaper figure found in Knossos. The bull it is believed he was pinned to was never found.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the Minoan bull leaper. Showing strength, bravery, and graceful movement, it must have been a crowd pleaser. It also showed respect for the bull, who was often revered in ancient cultures for his raw power. Come again on Monday when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

 

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Ecuador 1930, Talking up ancient national cacao while fighting the witches’ broom and dreading the appearance of Frankenstien

Ecuador broke away from Gran Columbia 100 years before this stamp. They hadn’t exactly set the world on fire with their success. Nature had provided to Ecuador a unique “national” cacao that was best in the world and readily exported. Well having such a national treasure perhaps justifies a country, too bad they couldn’t protect it. 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 do like the old style formal martial style of the older Latin American stamp. When they add the portrait of somebody no one has heard of  and have him dressed up like Napoleon, it adds a fun comic appeal. When The Philatelist started, I thought these stamps would be a staple, as we could research the trials and tribulations of the fake Napoleons. It didn’t work out that way, there really isn’t much info about them beyond a portrait and dates. The countries were largely illiterate and remembering the people that kept them that way was not a priority. I have had better luck when the country featured a crop or industry, because people getting something done is more worth remembering.

Todays stamp is issue A115, a five centavo stamp issued by Ecuador on August 1st, 1930. It was a 13 stamp issue in various denominations on the occasion of the country’s centennial. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

Only 11 percent of the land area of Ecuador was arable. That perhaps was not considered adequately when deciding to break away from Gran Columbia, but circa 1830 the population was small and the indigenous didn’t truly count. The modern world works around issues like that by providing grains free or heavily subsidized. I wonder how often Ecuador says thank you to the USA or Japan for insuring such a program.

That does leave the arable land for export crops. The local variety of cacao pod produced the best in the world. It had a floweriness that was unmatched. The government named it ancient national and recognized it as a renewable and exportable national treasure. Unfortunately disaster struck. In 1916 the crop was hit with two crop diseases. They were called frozen pod and witches’ broom. Crop yields dropped to almost nothing. In desperation planters brought in outside varieties of cacao that seemed to have greater resistance to the diseases. The government tried to save the national variety by having it combined with the  newly added varieties to make a hybrid they named heirloom national cacao. The result was still high quality but now was instead fruity instead of flowery. Yields at least went back up.

This is where Frankenstein enters the story. A new hybrid was developed that was only one percent related to the ancient national cacao that was the national treasure. There was no longer any taste advantage or market price premium for this cacao from Ecuador. However Frankenstein upped crop yields eight fold. This has fueled a low quality export boom that mainly goes to the USA. In modern times, 70% of the land is given over to the Frankenstein hybrid and  a little less than 30 percent heirloom national. True Ancient National is less than 1 percent of todays crop. It still commands a market price eight times as much. So everybody gets cheap lousy cacao instead of just noticing that cacao from Ecuador is extra special.

Well my drink is empty. I wonder if is possible to get real ancient national sent to you? Fall is here and that means winter is coming. Come again tomorrow when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Trinidad and Tobago 1938, Cooking and eating the sacred hummingbird leads to the Coronation of the Asphalt King

Who could have imagined that a naturally  occurring tar pit could lead to robber baron trusts and government make work. Well perhaps if the warnings from the Indians had been heeded. 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 King George VI standard design has one of those marvelous little windows into the specific colony. Here we see the white man’s discovery of a lake of asphalt by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1595. Soon Raleigh was using it as calk on his ships and comparing and contrasting Trinidad’s lake to a tar pit he had previously seen in Norway. With the knowledge he added, we should remember to refer to him as Sir as the honour was much deserved.

Todays stamp is issue A13, a 6 Pence stamp issued by the British Crown Colony of Trinidad and Tobago in 1938. It was a 14 stamp issue in various denomination with different windows into the colony. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 85 cents with it’s nice G. P.  O. Port of Spain postage cancelation.

The asphalt lake had of course been discovered by Indians long before Sir Walter Raleigh. The legend they used to explain it was that long ago a tribe was celebrating a defeat in battle of a neighboring rival. In their exuberance the tribe got the munchies and cooked and ate a sacred hummingbird that they believed contained the eternal souls of their ancestors. Out of revenge, their winged god caused the earth to open up and swallow their village with the black hell lava. The lava/asphalt then stained the earth permanently as a warning to future munchy Indians. Scientists now boringly claim that the location is where two tectonic plates meet forcing to the surface a deep deposit of asphalt.

In Washington DC, a white Philosophy Professor at Howard University named Amzi Barber was branching out into upscale residential neighborhood development. He developed Ledroit Park adjacent to traditionally black Howard University as a gated, tree lined, all white community. In the course of his work, he came upon a government report recommending asphalt as the best material for paving roadways. Barber chartered a stock company in London that acquired the monopoly on mining asphalt at the lake in Trinidad. He made over 35 million in 1890s American dollars doing paving work in 70 American cities with asphalt from Trinidad. His company was later labeled an overcharging illegal trust and broken up. Howard University also rose up against Barber’s way of doing things and in 1888 students from Howard tore down the gates to the Ledroit neighborhood. After that the quite handsome neighborhood gradually became home for Washington DC’s black elite including Ralph Bunche, Duke Ellington, and Jesse Jackson.

Asphalt King, Professor and developer Amzi Barber.

In the early 1970s the asphalt from the mine was mainly going to the UK. However they decided to switch to coal tar for road paving. In 1978 the Trinidad & Tobago government took over the mine so it could continue despite loses. The area has grown in recent years as a tourist attraction.

A drone view of the Asphalt Lake showing the mining operation.

Well my drink is empty and today we are not supposed to celebrate mythical winged gods, colonial explorers, or redlining developers. I want to celebrate them all. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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China 1947, the KMT’s third and final mainland phase

Chiang Kai-shek had attempted to rule China as a one party state. After the Japanese withdrawal in defeat in 1945-6, it was time to reimagine what post war China would look like. A new constitution was written, that granted the Chinese people new rights and political freedom, but was only in effect for five months. Even afterward in Taiwan it was superseded by emergency provisions for over 40 years. 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.

Today shows the Constitution of 1946 during the brief time it was in effect along with the Great Hall in the then capital of Nanking. The Great Hall had been built in 1936 to house the National Assembly. Interestingly when built it was not expected that the National Assembly would be meeting very often so the building was also to be the host of plays put on by the National Institite of Drama. Nanking experienced some drama itself in late 1937 when Nanking fell to the Japanese. There is some hyperbole about how rough the Japanese occupation was, no there was not a contest between Japanese officers on who could kill a 100 Chinese by sword in the shortest time. It was a much rougher occupation though than say the American occupation of Tokyo. Imagine instead Tokyo being occupied in 1946 by Chinese, Mao or Chiang. Anyway the building still stood to host the National Assembly in 1946 and still stands today.

Todays stamp is issue A89, a $3000 Yuan stamp issued by the KMT government on mainland China on Christmas Day 1947. It was a three stamp issue in high inflation battered denomination. There was an earlier version of the stamp with the same image of the Nanking Great Hall but no constitution. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 50 cents unused.

The constitution granted a great deal of rights to the people of China. It was the KMT’s long promised third stage of Chinese development. There was to be no discrimination based on sex, religion, ethnicity or political party. If arrested, the accused had a right to see the charges against  him in writing and to have a trial within 24 hours of arrest. Julian Assange would appreciate that provision today. The National Assembly was to work a little differently, it elected the President to a six year term. It set out three principles for the people, nationalism, democracy, and livelihood.

Writing the Constitution was mainly the work of John Wu. He was a Chinese born Catholic that was educated at the University of Michigan Law School. For many years he kept up a friendly correspondence with then American Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Oliver Wendel Holmes. At first the Communists participated in the drafting, they proposed dividing the Assembly on a fixed ratio of 33% communist, 33% KMT, and 33% everyone else. When this was not done, they withdrew support and announced that the constitution would not be enforced in areas held by them. After the Revolution John Wu taught law at Setan Hall University in the USA and wrote novels. He eventually retired to Taiwan.

John Wu

5 months after the constitution theoretically went into effect in KMT held areas in China, it was superseded by the National Assembly. The country was in civil war and martial law and emergency powers were the order of the day. These emergency provisions traveled with the 1946 constitution to Taiwan. I guess if if you want to get the third stage of development right, it shouldn’t be rushed. The National Assembly, now in Taiwan in 1954 decided officials elected on the mainland under this constitution in 1947  would remain in office until there could be new elections on the mainland. Thus Taiwan put off those pesky elections until the 1990s.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast John Wu. It is amazing to think how much influence these Christian, American educated folks had in China. I wonder to what extent people worried about them being foreign agents. Come gain tomorrow when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Philippines 1958, Manuel Quezon directs lottery money to fight tuberculosis

Tuberculosis was and is a big problem in the Philippines. At first, a group of colonial wives raised money for a large sanitarium to fight the deadly disease. As the colonial period wound down, President Quezon saw that 25 percent of the then new sweepstakes proceeds were directed to the fight so the sanitorium could continue, of course now with Quezon’s name attached. Wait, who built it? 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 shows off the impressive façade of the Quezon Institute. The building was an early work in the art deco style of Philippine architect Juan Nakpil. Nakpil was trained at the University of Kansas and the Fontainebleau school in Paris. He had a prolific career in the Philippines and in 1973 was inducted into the order of the national artists. You might notice the denomination on the stamp includes a surcharge for the Quezon Institute. To make sure this generated maximum proceeds, this stamp was obligatory on all mail from August 19th – September 30th in 1958. I have never heard of any other country ever doing this.

Later work by the architect

Todays stamp is issue SP7, a 10 + 5 centavo semi postal stamp issued by the Philippines on August 19th, 1958. It was a two stamp issue with this the higher denomination. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 35 cents used.

In 1910 tuberculosis was estimated to be killing 40,000 people a year. That year a Philippine Islands Anti Tuberculosis Society was established. The Society’s first President was colonial wife Elanor Franklin Egan. The health facility seen on the stamp opened as the Santol Sanitarium in 1918.

In the 1930s it was realized that colonial wives could no longer be relied upon to keep institutions like the Santol Sanitarium operation with the country on it’s way to independence. President Quezon proposed and passed a national sweepstakes where 25 percent of the proceeds went to the anti tuberculosis society. The site was rededicated in 1938 as the Quezon Institute with President Quezon in attendance. During World War II the staff was reassigned to other hospitals and the site was looted. Post war the USA Army raised funds to get the hospital going again and the Philippine government agreed to an annual stipend of 800,000 Pesos again from proceeds of the lottery.

The fight against tuberculosis has not been very successful in the Philippines. Annual deaths are now down to 25,000 a year on of course a much higher population. This is still the third highest death rate in the world after South Africa and Lesotho. That would seem like the Quezon institute has much left to do. Instead there has been much dealing as to the facility on the stamp, which is now recognized as a national historic site. Part of the grounds were sold off in 2009 to build a Puregold branded supermarket. More recently the institute has been in negotiation with a development company named Ayala Land with an eye to converting the facility into a mixed use development. The institute would have to seek other facilities. Meanwhile the building has been a frequent backdrop for Philippine produced horror films. Wonder what that says about the level of care being offered there?

Well my drink is empty. Philippines seems to be now looking to the world heath organization to spearhead it’s fight against tuberculosis. Well I suppose you have to do something when you run out of colonial wives or Presidents that like to see their name on things. Come again tomorrow when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Netherlands 1965, 300 years of the Dutch Marine Corps going as far as the world extends

You don’t think of Holland as a great military power. Sea power much more so. Well a sea power  often finds the need to quickly go ashore and Holland was among the first to translate the idea of marines as shipboard soldiers to small units that could go ashore. Today that means the goal is going ashore anywhere in the world within 48 hours. 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 tries to show both changes and continuity by displaying a Dutch Marine as he looked in 1665 and then 1965. The 1960s style graphic detracts from what could have been a better stamp.

Todays stamp is issue A106, an 18 cent stamp issued by Holland on December 10th,1965. It was a single stamp issue. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is wort 25 cents whether used or unused.

The Dutch realized the need for amphibious Marines during the second Anglo-Dutch war in the 17th century. Their first operation was audacious. A group of Royal Navy ships were laid up at a boatyard in Chatham up the Medway River. The Dutch Marines captured a river mouth fort at Sheerness and sailed up the river and boarded and burned 13 Royal Navy ships before escaping with the then Royal Navy flagship HMS Royal Charles under tow. The Dutch thought the ship unsuited for service in their navy so instead docked it as a tourist attraction. The British were deeply embarrassed by the successful raid and quickly came to peace terms with the Dutch.

HMS Royal Charles transom emblem that still sits in a Dutch museum. They eventually scrapped the ship as a fig leaf to the UK.

The Dutch Marine Corps made up with the British Royal Marines and in 1704 participated in the joint operation that took Gibraltar. They also made themselves useful during the 1940 German invasion of Holland, but the result was not as successful as Chatham or Gibraltar. The German plan was for German paratroopers landed in central Rotterdam to link up with on the march regular German infantry. This plan was thwarted by the Dutch Marines making a successful defense of Maas river bridges. The Germans responded with a devastating aerial bombing of Rotterdam.

I mentioned that for the marines had for quite a while been closely aligned with the British Royal Marines. The British call them clogies for their perceived insistence on wearing the wood shoe. The integration had gone beyond just interoperability into combined logistics functions, During Euroland integration, this was pointed to as a model as to how European nation state armies could become more integrated,

This as gone so far that old rival Germany has subsumed their own marine corps into the Dutch Marine Corps. This makes a lot of sense in terms of German politics if you can assume the Germans and the Dutch will always be on the same side. Remember the modern marines are a worldwide quick reaction force. Anything beyond natural disaster relief would be very controversial in Germany, as maybe it should be. Perhaps less so if it is happening under a Dutch flag.

Currently the Dutch Marine Corp is 2000 strong. It has the use of the Landing Platform Dock amphibious warfare ship HNLMS Rotterdam.

The Rotterdam has accommodations for marines and their equipment, has a floodable dock in back to launch smaller landing craft and a flight deck over it for helicopters.

Well my drink is empty and what a great excuse to pour another to toast the now 355 years of service of the Dutch Marine Corps. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Libya 1979. 10 years into the People’s Jamahiriya, showing off the new hospitals

The Philatelist like to show the big future plans of socialist five year plan stamps. The date attached to the plan lets you check if they actually got done what they were planning. The oil rich socialist countries like 70s Libya had plenty of resources to get such things done as this stamp issue from 1979 shows. 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 at intermediate stage of a now much larger hospital complex in Benghazi. The large hospital in Tripoli was built and staffed by Italians in colonial times so doesn’t make the socialist’s point. This issue on the 10th anniversary of the green revolution that ended the Monarchy consisted of four blocks of four stamps each. This block covered health care, others education, agriculture, and the oil industry.

Todays stamp is issue A235, a 30 Dirhams stamp issued by the Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya on September 1st, 1979. Each block of four stamps was a different denomination. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 40 cents whether unused or canceled to order.

Libya was a large country with a small population. In colonial times, there were some hospitals built and the staff was largely Italian. Oil revenue in the 1960s and 1970s greatly increased public health spending and many Libyan students were sent abroad to study medicine so they could replace the foreign guest worker health staff. By the late days of the Jamahiriya, Libya had 96 hospitals and just over 10,000 medical doctors. 84 percent of the doctors were native.

The foreign health care workers became controversial in Libya in 1998. At the Benghazi children’s hospital, 500 babies came down with HIV/AIDS. It is now believed the outbreak was caused by poor sanitation in the handling of blood. Many of the babies died and  more were sent to Europe for better treatment. A Libyan magazine accused Bulgarian nurses working at the hospital of purposely injecting the babies with the disease. Violent protest outside the hospital lead to the arrest of 23 Bulgarian nurses. Under torture, 6 confessed to the crime and were sentenced to death. After 7 years in jail in Libya, Bulgaria was able to barter for their freedom with arms.

Bulgarian nurses during their show trial in Libya

You get a sense with these stamps how much money was being spent on Libyan wish lists. In 1979, American President Jimmy Carter’s brother Billy received at least $200,000 to lobby for additional Lockheed C130 transports made in Georgia for Libya. When caught, Billy Carter belatedly registered as an agent of Libya and the then President had to inform Congress that his relationship with his brother will be altered for as long as he was president and would have no influence on relations with Libya.

Another American operation was diverted by the free flowing money of the Jamahiriya. A retired CIA agent, Edwin Wilson was sent to Libya in 1979 with a few retired Green Berets to look out for and apprehend international terrorist Carlos the Jackal. Once there they instead set up a business training Libyan and Palestinian paramilitary forces including on the use of explosives. Wilson was caught when he tried to acquire for Libya a large stock of C4 explosives. At first Wilson avoided criminal charges by staying in exile in Libya but was worried for his safety there. He then flew to the Dominican Republic where he was extradited  back to the USA.

Edwin P. Wilson

The Benghazi hospital complex has not fared well during the last decade’s civil war in Libya. In 2015 the complex was heavily looted. In 2018 there was a controversy when pictures of the rotting corpses of babies in the hospital morgue got out. This time there were no Bulgarians to blame, but I imagine the Libyans do not spend much time looking in the mirror. It is a lot easier to hire someone to build you a building than to provide decent medical care inside.

Well my drink is empty. Come again tomorrow when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.