Month: September 2022

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Czechoslovakia 1991, For by then 25 years, stamps bring the art collections to the people

An 1802 Japanese woodblock print of the Ukiyo-e style might seem a strange choice for a Czech stamp from 1991. Perhaps not if you think about it in terms of democratizing art from aristocratic collections and presenting them to a wider group of people. 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 did a double take in seeing the date on this stamp as 1991, As it looks like something from about 1970. Sure enough it was just the latest of a group of stamps in the style since 1966 showing off art in the collections of public galleries in Czechoslovakia. The later Czech Republic continued the set with a new group of issues in 1998.

Todays stamp is issue A565, a 7 Koruna stamp issued by Czechoslovakia on November 3rd, 1991. The set that year was five stamps of various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1.25 used.

The National Museum in Prague got it’s start in 1818 when Prague was still part of the Hapsburg Kingdom. A group of aristocrats started a Society of Patriotic Friends of the Arts. This was perhaps a stopgap as after the French Revolution it was thought that fine art was owned by the people rather than Royal or aristocratic collections. Thus the Society of Patriotic Friends opening displays in converted palaces was perhaps not ideal. Around 1890, the government got into it and built a much larger building to house and control the growing collection. Though this time was still under Hapsburg rule, the museum showed itself as a hotbed of anti Royal Czech nationalism by dropping German in favor of the Czech language.

The Czech National Museum as built in 1890
With the collection ever expanding, the National Museum took over this nearby building in a rather different style that dated from 1937 and once housed the stock market.

The woodblock print showed on the stamp dates from 1802 and is titled “Two Maidens” by then prominent Japanese artist Utamaro. He is most famous for prints of attractive Japanese women that he would display with long faces. He also illustrated Japanese books of insects and engaged in a style of erotica called shunga. Shunga literally means spring, but is a euphemism for sex.

Two years after this painting Utamaro got in trouble with the government of Japan. Not for the shunga stuff but rather a series of woodblock prints he did depicting 200 years before Japanese military leader Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Utamaro depicted him cavorting with prostitutes and even handholding with one of his Samurai in a homosexual manner.

Utamaro was only briefly sent to jail, but by 1806 he died. His widow then married one of the students in his art school and they began putting out lower quality woodprints under the name Utamaro II.

Utamaro self portrait

Well my drink is empty and I am left wondering who to toast. The art nationalizers seem like upstarts to me and this Utamaro fellow seems himself a guy trying to get fame and riches by turning an art form mass market with prints of sexy slurs aimed at fools. Feeling the thirst, I come back to the Patriotic Friends of the Arts with their art filled palaces. Come again soon for another story to be learned from stamp collecting.

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Memel 1920, the French worry about the Germans and forget to worry about the Lithuanians

To the victor go the spoils. Memel was Germany’s easternmost city and had a large Lithuanian minority. It’s position on the Baltic made it a revenue rich trading city that attracted the French. The Treaty of Versailles  gave far off Memel to them and it was valuable source of war reparations. This left out the view of the people, whose will then took a surprising turn. 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.

Who the heck are these French people and why are they here? How else to react to a standard French stamp issue just overprinted in German for use during the occupation. This might have told the Lithuanian minority something they needed to know. The French wouldn’t be there long, they would have made a definitive stamp issue. The German overprint further indicates that they are not thinking of the Lithuanians at all. Well as Gomer Pyle might say, “Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!”

Todays stamp is issue A18, an 80 Pfennig on 45 Centimes stamp issued by the French administration of Memel in 1920. It was a 43 stamp issue of overprints in various denominations on a French stamp issue that began in 1900 and lasted into the 1920s. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 30 cents unused. If this isn’t a big enough overprint for you there is also a version with an additional airmail overprint that ups the value to $13 used. Used Memel stamps tend to be more valuable. France was in Memel to raise revenue, so naturally their printing presses worked overtime.

Memel had been a part of Prussia for a long period and the old city fortified and converted to Lutheran. The Lithuanians in the area, about 40 percent of the population were mainly in the countryside. It was a port city and being a part of Prussia saw much development and industrialization. The Prussians also did much work foresting what was essentially a sand bar to make sure the Baltic Sea would not reclaim it.

After World War I the French arrived. It was thought that after war reparations were repaid the city would become a free state in the manner of Danzig. See https://the-philatelist.com/2018/09/19/danzig-1923-a-very-early-airmail-stamp-from-a-german-city-that-suddenly-found-itself-outside-germany/   . This was not what the new neighboring state of Lithuania wanted. Poland also wanted Memel given to Lithuania but then the whole of Lithuania given to Poland. Ambitious but not realistic. Lithuania decided to act quickly. Non uniformed troops marched in with three goals, the main German border crossing the port and the old city. They pretended to be trying to throw off the slavery of the Germans but the reality was that it was coordinated with Germany and the still German police force did not resist. The French in Memel old city refused to surrender and there were skirmishes with the Lithuanians until the French retired to barracks. A French ship arrived offshore with reinforcements but stayed offshore and instead it was decided to evacuate the French Army. French protests went out to Lithuania but taking of Memel was recognized internationally in 1924. The German residents stayed.

Having a relivily prosperous German city in Lithuania was quite a boom for the much poorer Lithuania. Memel’s 5 percent of Lithuania’s territory accounted for a third of it’s industry and 75 percent of it’s trade. The 1939 nonaggression treaty between Hitler and Stalin saw Memel returned to Germany. However toward the end the war the approach of the Red Army saw ethnic Germans flee west never to return. Memel became Klaipeda and declined economically, although the Soviets built a large shipyard there. Today Klaipeda is 87 percent Lithuanian, 6 percent Russian, with hardly any Germans. The population is in decline but the city hopes to come back based to cruise ship tourists visiting the old city.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Lithuania. For the boldness to take the city and the smarts to let the Germans be to lay their golden eggs. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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Australia 1970, Last call for seeing oil and gas exploration as economic development

One thing I like to point out when stamp collecting is when a new style of recognition in stamps emerges. As a traditionalist, sorry, I also like to point out when a style fades, perhaps a little wistfully. So with this in mind, we will tell the story of oil and gas exploration in Australia. 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.

1970 was late enough that the people putting together stamp issues were getting a little squeamish when told to cover the indeed growing energy industry. Here designer Brian Sadgrove puts a purple tint partially blocking the sun over the offshore oil rig and natural gas pipeline. No such tint shows up on more politically correct hydroelectric power or aluminum window frames that were other parts of this economic development issue. Lucky Mr. Sadgrove wasn’t asked to do a coal mine. I suspect the tint, or is it taint, would resemble the fires of hell.

Todays stamp is issue A194, a 10 cent stamp issued by Australia on August 31st, 1970. It was a four stamp issue in various denominations closely modeled on a new train line stamp done earlier in 1970 also by Brian Sadgrove. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 40 cents used.

Surveying for potential oil and gas reserves started early in the 20th century but got a lot more serious after World War II. The Australian Motorist Petrol Company, a chain of gas stations, set up an exploration operation in 1946, petitioning the government for surveying rights and subsidies to bring into production oil fields. To assist with this, a partnership was struck with Standard Oil of California. The first oil well started producing at Rough Range in 1953. More extensive oil reserves were found on then unoccupied Barrow Island the next year.

Old AMPOL, showcasing a truck donated by them to an Aboriginal artist and easy chair owner in front of one of their gas pumps

In 1966, the joint venture, now boringly acronymed WAPET found commercial quantities of liquidified natural gas at Dongara, and got a pipeline going to Perth for export by 1971.

Oil production peaked in 2000 and is not so important any more. Natural gas is much more promising with proven reserves stretching out 100 years. The fact that it was all for export has become problematic. It is thought that using dirty coal for electricity makes no sense with relatively clean burning natural gas being available locally. It was decided by the government that in future, natural gas developed must have at least 15 percent set aside for local use.

Being in on the ground flour of big subsidized economic development must have seen great wealth accrue to the Australian Motorist Petrol Company. Production now totals 16.7 billion dollars a year. However, as so often happens there have been a series of mergers that saw AMPOL being a minor subsidiary of American Texaco. Yes oil history nerds, the old Standard Oil of Texas, Rockefeller wherever you look, even down under. Texaco then in 2015 sold the subsidiary generously allowing them the use of their Caltex name. Five years later, Texaco wanted back into Australia, and as a first step took the Caltex name back. The old subsidiary, noticing they still owned the AMPOL name, is now rebranding again to the long ago name. While exhausting, imagine the efficiency wrought by all these machinations. No, I can’t either.

New Ampol. The architecture is comically hideous, but that little thing is a center of a large industry. Somewhere along the line, people got screwed.

Well my drink is empty and I am left wondering where all the wealth created by the economic development went. Yes, many people are employed, but where has the money gone. Even the Rockefellers don’t seem to have it. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

 

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North Borneo 1909, The Sultan of Sulu sold, so the Baron von Overbeck is the new Maharajah

The story of these wild multinational adventurers had such an outsized effect on the far east, they are worth remembering. Though now part of Malaysia, North Borneo was liberated or enslaved from the Sulu Empire. Or was it swindled by the Sulu Empire from Spain and the Philippines? Everyone has a contract and an opinion. 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 stamps of North Borneo came later than the money flashing of German/Austrian/American/Hong Kong Baron/ Maharajah Gustav Overbeck. The stamp still leans exotic and shows off the Malayan Tapir and is so old a stamp that then they were still then found in Borneo. No longer, Malayan Tapirs are now much fewer in number and just on the mainland of Malaysia and the island of Sumatra. The endangering happened despite not being hunted for food by the native Muslim Malayans as they believe that the tapir is closely related to the pig.

The tapir’s ever shrinking habitat

Todays stamp is issue A51,  a 1 cent stamp issued by the state of North Borneo in 1909. It was a 14 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 30 cents used.

Gustav Overbeck was born in Germany to a non noble family. As a young adult he emigrated to the United States ending up in a trading business in San Francisco. He began lucrative trading trips to Hawaii the South Seas and even the Bering strait. His dealings in Hong Kong lead to a job with Dent and Co, a British/Chinese Hong trading firm. Now based in Hong Kong, he took up with a Chinese woman who bore him 4 daughters. First Austria, then Prussia hired him to be their Council in the area. He resigned his Prussian position during their war with Austria. Austria responded by first making him an aristocrat attaching von to his name and then making von Overbeck a full Baron. He still also maintained ties to America, marrying an American socialite who liked his title and bore him several children but mostly lived a separate life in Washington DC.

The Baron became interested in the area of North Borneo with an idea toward timber plantations. The area was very sparsely populated but he planned importing Chinese laborers and and more senior Japanese traders. He first bought out the existing concession of an American timber operation and then greatly expanded it by buying territory from the Sultans of Brunei and Sulu. Buying land from them comes with the local title of Maharajah. Or did it? Spain claimed that much of Borneo was actually part of their colony of the Philippines. Spain brought the Sulu Empire under its control and claimed also the land  sold to Overbeck, claiming his contract was only a lease to rent the land.

The Baron’s concessions from the Sultans of Brunei(left) and Sulu(right).
Signed, Sealed, and Delivered!

Overbeck traveled then back to Europe to try to have his concession be made a protectorate. He could not interest Germany, Austria, nor Italy in North Borneo. Baron von Overbeck was then contacted by his old British partners in Hong Kong the Dent Brothers who indicated they would be willing to buy out Overbeck and then petition to Queen Victoria for North Borneo to become a British Protectorate. This happened and Spain quickly withdrew it’s claim to North Borneo. The Baron lived out his days in London attended neither by his adulterous American wife, nor his ersatz Chinese wife. Well at least he had all these titles from places he no longer went.

The timber business was never that great in North Borneo has they were chronically short of labor. The Dent Trading house failed when it’s London based Bank failed with no deposit insurance. One of Dent’s competitors with the same problem survived because they were first to read of the bank failure in the Calcutta Times and get their money out of the local branch before by half an hour the branch had been informed that they failed.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Baron and Maharaja Gustav von Overbeck. He got around and made an impression at a time when most didn’t. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

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Burundi 1969, Recognizing 5 years of the African Development Bank

Five years doesn’t seem much when the ADB has been going on for now 58 years. 1969 was still a different time when there was still hope that African lead pan African institutions would get beyond colonial shackles to a bright future. 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 new hope I mentioned above is all over this stamp issue from 1969. The stamp issue broke down the progress into four areas, industry, agriculture, education, and communications. I am featuring the communications stamp. Notice the radio announcer, at a station no doubt funded by the ADB, sits in a modern control booth and exabits the new pan African style pioneered by Ghanaian President Nkumo and later copied shamelessly by Barack Obama. What the African listener heard was going to be different than the BBC World Service. Progress. If you look at modern materials from the ADB, you see their high rise and claims what a safe, respected institution they are. Understandable, but less exciting and vaguely off track on a continent where there is still much to do.

The now again headquarters building of the African Development Bank in Abidjan, Ivory Coast

Todays stamp is issue A36, a 30 Franc stamp issued by Burundi on July 29th, 1969. It was a four stamp issue plus a souvenir sheet in different denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 40 cents cancelled to order.

The African Development Bank was formed at the suggestion of the Organization of African Unity. That was a group of newly independent African leaders and those still struggling for independence. The idea was that once Africa had expunged colonialism a pan African economic and political block would take it’s rightful place as an important world power. This goal was not to be as it was let down by African leaders who became dictators for life and broke down further into colonial language and European economic theory blocs. There was no need for a dictator debating society and the Organization of African Unity closed in 2002.

The African Development Bank goes on. It is hard to point to large projects that once done, transformed the continent. On the other hand, over the years literally thousands of projects have been funded, yet the bank is still solvent which implies the projects were successful and thus were able to pay back the money fronted. Here I want to point out that the single biggest source of capital is not charity from a donor country but capital invested by Nigeria, mainly during it’s oil rich salad days in the 1970s. It is still run by Former Nigerian Minister Akinwumi Adesina. There is still a little of the pan African flair. The headquarters of the Nigerian dominated bank is in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Notice the former colony of a different country, speaking a different language, pan African ideal in action.

Bank President Akinwumi Adesina. It’s nice that lapel pin factories remember Nigeria and then Dr. Adesina was able to find a matching bowtie.

The realities of Africa make progress slow. or even regression. We are talking about a real Burundi stamp from 1969, There last real issue was from 9 years ago as they no longer can prove a postal system. Indeed the African Development Bank had to abandon their headquarters building and set up temporary shop in Tunis between 2003 and 2017 due to civil war in the Ivory Coast. They are back in their old building which still stood. Take progress where you can and build on what you have.

Well my drink is empty. Usually I make fun, perhaps too much, of an “institution” like ADB. Here I am kind of impressed it is still around and trying to do what it was created for. Ah bartender, another please. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Great Britain 1977, A Silver Jubilee and a Phantom VI

Rerun in honor of the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

Twenty five years on the Throne is quite a milestone, one that many Monarchs don’t make. George V’s Silver Jubilee spawned a blizzard of interesting stamps. With no Empire, Queen Elizabeth II couldn’t match that. but that doesn’t mean  that the motoring industry couldn’t come up with a special gift to the Queen. One that breathed new life into a storied old model, the hand assembled Phantom VI, and allowed it to be continued to be made for another 14 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.

The 1977 stamp showed a timeless Queen in profile, similar to but not the same as the Manchin image so familiar in British stamps. For the Golden Jubilee in 2002 the stamp set showed Elizabeth’s full face at different stages of life. Royals should have some mystery, so I vote for the Silver Jubilee style. In case you are wondering, a 75 year Jubilee would be called platinum, even though that is usually 70 year anniversary. A cartoon king made it 75 years and they called it the Palladium Jubilee.

Todays stamp is issue A276, a 10p stamp issued by Great Britain on May 11th, 1977. It was a five stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether mint or used.

The Rolls Royce Phantom was a line of very large and heavy limousines that were made by hand at a separate facility under the companies Mulliner Park Ward division. Regular Rolls Royces of the day, the Silver Shadows, had their bodies built on an assembly line by British Leyland subsidiary Pressed Steel at a separate site, only shipping them to the Crewe factory for painting and fitting engines and interiors. This was less special and closely resembled how MGBs were built. The one issue was the limousines were based on much older separate frame models and so the cars were more 1950s cars than 1970s cars. The annual sales of Phantoms had fallen to only a few dozen a year and the price had to rise very fast to keep the operation profitable, but with the similarly made Corniche coupe production winding down, the model, and with it the whole idea of coach built cars did not have a bright future.

The British Motoring Industry decided to make a gift to the Queen a Phantom VI that would go far to bringing the Phantom up to date. The car would finally get the larger 6.75 liter V8 and the more modern model GM made THM400 automatic transmission. The brakes were finally given modern hydolic power assist, though they still drums on all four wheels. Inside the car now had two air conditioners for both front and rear compartments and there was central power locking.

The Queen got a few specials just for hers. The seats were done in cloth instead of the usual leather and the padding of the seats differed from side to side to reflect the different weights of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip. There was a dictation machine built into the rear center armrest. The car received a special two tone paint treatment in Black and Royal Red Claret. The roofline was higher using again the Canberra Roof with larger plexiglass windows for use in processions. The special roof was only ever used on three cars the first used on a Royal visit to Australia, hence the Canberra name. The Queen’s model weighed 6800 pounds.

The Roll Royce Phantom VI updated and given as a gift to Queen Elizabeth II on the occasion of her Silver Jubilee

The rampant strikes of the era meant the car was not actually delivered until 1978 and is still in use. The improvements in the Phantom VI allowed it to stay in production until 1992. The price in America was had gone from $17,600 in 1959 to $1,000,000 for the last one in 1992. The new 90s style Bentley coupes and convertibles had Pressed Steel bodies, so coach making by hand was no longer on the agenda. As the 1990s went along, what had been British Leyland was owned by Honda of Japan and they closed the Pressed Steel division. Rolls Royce had to suddenly spend heavily  on an assembly line to build their own car bodies. The expense contributed  to the 1998 sale of Bentley to Volkswagen and Rolls Royce to BMW. Now the cars are built off platforms of their parent company, The BMW 7 series for Rolls and the VW Phaeton for Bentley.

Well my drink is empty. Come again soon for another story to be learned from stamp collecting.

 

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Austria 1970, Remembering Leopold Figl’s maneuvers between left and right to find a middle road for Austria

People may forget that Austria had a hard right wing government in the early 1930s that took on constitutionally questionable authoritarian powers. How does a veteran of that go on to big political power after Nazi defeat and under Soviet occupation. Turns out that the German Nazis twice sending you to a concentration camp gives a lot of credibility. The still conservative outside Vienna Austrians needing a voice also helped. 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 interesting to me that Austria chose to put former Chancellor Leopold Figl on one of the two stamps honoring 25 years after the second republic. The other showed Belvedere Palace, the Chancellor’s official residence. The early post war years were not just difficult materially, but one of diplomatic maneuvering trying to end the multinational occupation. So perhaps the doer stamp images are reflective.

Todays stamp is issue A319, a two shilling stamp issued by Austria on April 27, 1970. It was a two stamp issue. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

During the interwar first republic, Austria’s many parties figured out how to share power. The biggest vote total party would chose the Chancellor and many deputies would be from other parties. Chancellor Engebert Dolfuss was far right wing and found a way to consolidate power. A close vote in parliament caused several of the deputies to resign so they could cast a vote. Three days after the vote they were informed by the state police that their resignations were permanent and the government had decided not to replace them. Dolfuss then set out rounding up communists and Austrian Nazis that favored union with Germany. During this period Figl was assisting and being mentored by Dolfuss. Rounding up Nazis proved problematic as their henchmen soon assassinated Dolfuss, despite him being quite right wing. Lesson learned by Figl, keep your opponents in the room.

Chancellor Dolfuss, He is carrying a big stick, but forgot to watch his back

After the union with Nazi Germany, Figl was twice sent to concentration camps. In early1945, he was sent to Vienna to face trial for treason. Before that could happen, the Soviets occupied Vienna and freed Figl. The local Soviet military commander then appointed Figl in charge of civilian food distribution, finding him easy to work with. In December 1945, there was an election, the first since 1930, and the more conservative party got the most votes. A majority in Parliment meant Figl could have formed a united government. Instead he chose to bring in the Socialists and even the Communists into the government. The Nazis themselves were of course banned. The united front was in a good position to work to end the military occupation though Stalin was slow walking it.

The military withdrawal  finally happened in 1955 and Parliament then declared  Austria neutral. Figl was now free to return to very right wing Lower Austria as governor. He died in 1965.

Well my drink is empty and I am tempted to toast Mr. Figl. I think I will pass on it, despite my thirst, because I wonder if he could have thought bigger and got the whole of old Austria Hungary united, neutral, unoccupied and prosperous 35 years earlier. That would have been worth a toast.  Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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United Nations 1969, Maybe if we stomped out unequal exchange, we could get past colonialism in Latin America

Here we have a large fancy modern building in far off Santiago, Chile. It was built to house an operation called the UN Economic Commission for Latin America that had been in operation for 21 years at the time of the stamp. It has now been in operation for over 70 years and has added the Caribbean to it’s area and ecology to it’s goals, still out of this building. So, beyond the nice building, what are the achievements of the organization? Good Question? 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 new offering from The Philatelist.

I must say I like the aesthetics of this stamp. This organization’s stated goal is to replace colonialism with a more equitable economic model. A big change. The building with it’s large size and ultra modern design goes a long way to project a positive future through the changes.

Todays stamp is issue A103, a 6 cent stamp issued by the United Nations out of it’s New York office on March 14th, 1969. It was a two stamp issue in different denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether mint or cancelled to order.

Well before the founding of the Latin American Economic Commission by the UN in 1947, the organization’s predecessor the League of Nations had grappled with what they felt were unfair trading between the “rich” north and “poor” south of the globe. The idea was proposed Russian born, German and American trained, American Marxist Economist Paul Baron that by northern hemisphere companies setting prices, they maximized their profits at the expense of the poorer areas low salaries and costs and thus acted to maintain the status quo and now allow the poor south’s resources propel development. His ideas were further developed into a dependency theory that the rich north was dependent of the propping up from the south so owed them a debt.

Marxist Economist Paul Baran

The result was that the work done by the Latin America Economic Commission was mainly aid to lower the price paid on imports from the rich north to Latin America. This is quite less revolutionary than the ideas of Mr. Baron, but it must be remembered that the Associate Members of the Commission, the rich north west and Japan, notably not the Marxist North East, were who was providing the aid. With the UN there was also much administration expense.

In addition to adding the Caribbean nations in 1984, the commission gradually took more of an interest in the ecology of sustainable development. Ecological economics are an offshoot of Marxist economics so the cross purposes implied are not so straight forward. The Secretary General seat of the now UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean has been vacant of 6 months. The last holder of the seat was Mexican born, Harvard trained Biologist and Public Administrator Alicia Barcena Ibarra. Before her work for the UN, she was the Under Secretary for the Environment in the Mexican Federal cabinet. Knowing what a heck of a job Mexico does on environment, the UN was no doubt lucky to attract her services and now all of Latin America and apparently the UN is dumfounded on who could possibly replace her.

Former General Secretary Alicia Barcena Ibarra in action, at a conference.

One achievement of the commission that is hard to argue with is the building itself in Santiago. It opened in 1966 and was the work of Chilean architect Emilio Duhart who had been influenced by the earlier work of the French Architect Le Corbusiar. I t is considered one of the best examples of Latin American modern architecture.

The building in more modern times looking a little weather beaten as older concrete structures often do.

Well my drink is empty. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.