Month: September 2023

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Saudi Arabia 1960, Turning the gardens green again with sewage

The Saudi capital of Riyadh translates into the gardens. The town, it is believed grew up around an oasis and indeed there is a large wadi to the west of the town. A wadi is a mostly dry lake bed so indeed implies there was once water. Civil engineering has now allowed the area to turn green again thanks to that wonderous resource of modernity that we never run short of; sewage runoff. 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 comes from an earlier period in the development of Wadi Hanifa. It shows dam work designed to control flooding and catch the water from it. It is a good thing to show on a bulk postage stamp. I also like that the King is not there personally taking credit for the expensive development. That would have made it more political in a time of resentment when pan Arabists harbored much resentment against the traditional Monarchies. The stamp just leaves the subtle non political message that things are progressing.

Todays stamp is issue A23, a 50 Piaster, (new currency that year), stamp issued by Saudi Arabia in 1960. It was a 16 stamp bulk postage issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $2.50 used.

Riyadh is first mentioned by Arab chroniclers around 1590 and first became the Saudi capital in 1825. Local folklore has the history going back much further. In the time before Mohammed, the area was fertile with lakes and much rainfall. The area was part of the Al-Yamama Empire. God/Allah became displeased with the rulers of the area and delivered to them the scourges of drought and locusts that forever changed the area.

Well almost. In modern times Riyadh has become a more populous and important city with much revenue to fund development. Riyadh water supply is desalinated water piped in from the Persian Gulf, a distance of almost 300 miles. In 1982, the city built it’s first sewage treatment plant. The runoff from the plant post treatment is directed into the Wadi Hanifa. This turned the area green with several lakes available for recreation. Migratory birds have also shown up. The sewage runoff is enough, 23 million cubic feet a day to allow for the cultivation of date palms and power the largest oil refinery in Saudi Arabia. Under brush has been planted under the treated sewage flows to further clean them naturally.

Wadi Hanifa post sewage

Turning Riyadh back into a garden has been complicated by the rapid population growth that the city is experiencing. At the time of this stamp in 1960, the population  was 150,000. It is now over 5 million.

Well my drink is empty. With the conflict between the withering of climate change and the greening possible from projects like this, it will be interesting to see which side wins out. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

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USA 1959, George Meany and the AFL-CIO show a large organization can advocate for workers in a capitalist system

All too often the needs of workers to improve their lot is subsumed by others seeking a wider system change. Perhaps even more often the individual worker feels himself powerless to advocate with employers to improve his own lot. In the 1950s, most of the unions in the USA united under one man, George Meany, who showed what could be achieved for the worker if what they want is remembered. 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 stamp printing was sub par in the 1950s in terms of multi color availability and paper quality. Thus this stamp does not to justice to the Lumen Martin mural created for the new AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington DC. The mural is really a mosaic consisting of over 300,000 pieces that shows a journey through the history of labor with emphasis on the majesty of the labor itself. This allowed the work to rise above the political toward universal truths.

Todays stamp is issue A529, a 3 cent stamp issued by the United States on September 3rd, 1959. The single stamp issue was issued to celebrate labor day that year and the coming together of the vast majority of the labor movement into the newly formed AFL-CIO. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether it is mint or used. This is a little surprising as it was a stamp designed for postal use rather than collectors. It was common for collectors to keep for themselves a plate or zip block of four out of a bigger sheet of stamps. In more recent years it was common for stamp dealers to use great numbers of mint 50s-70s stamps in modern postage. This created exciting looking stamp parcels but greatly reduced stocks of the mint versions of these stamps. If the hobby survives, mint versions of 50s-70s American mint stamps may have some upside in valueation.

The AFL-CIO was formed in 1955 under George Meany, an Irishman from Harlem who had rose up from a plumbers union. There were several cross currents in addition to company managements affecting labor at the time. There was the effort of the international socialists to subsume labor into their coalition for  class struggle. There was the draw of organized crime into labor due to the propensity for places where graft and racketeering were possible. In addition there was a desire of the black civil rights movement that unions specifically advance the interests of blacks, even where that conflicts with existing union membership. Keeping competition down was also the reason immigration into the USA was then opposed by labor. Meany believed that the union was better served specifically using it’s power to advocate for individual workers receiving more work, higher wages, and better conditions. To do this he expelled the longshoreman union for mob conections, he fired a textile union head foe stealing dues, and he allowed membership of unions that excluded by their own choice black applicants. Meany supported the Vietnam War because the war contracts provided extra work for union members. Some of these positions would anger those on the left, but the result was the pinnacle of American union power and the achievement of the highest wages for labor in the history of the world to date.

George Meany smoking his trademark cigar late in his career

After George Meany retired in 1979, the labor movement declined and an ever increasing percentage of union members were government workers. Since they can’t strike, the dues manly act as a tax due on government workers to support the Democratic Party. Thus since 1980, the value of unskilled or semi skilled labor in the USA has not kept up with the rest the economy and with that trend the growth of populist politics on the right and left. Lane Kirkland, Meany’s successor most famous quote was “If hard work was such a wonderful thing, surely the rich would have kept it all to themselves.” A big change from Meany,

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast George Meany. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

Update. The headquarters building that houses the mural in the lobby was attacked and a fire set in the lobby during the protests following the death of George Floyd. The building survived and the front was boarded up and mercy was asked by knuckling under and placing a BLM banner. The social justice warriors of today don’t seem to understand the importance of the labor movement to the political left. First published in 2020.

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Portugal 1928, Remembering the Battle of Atoleiros and Portugal avoiding a Castilian fate

Portugal got it’s independence from the then Spanish empire of Castile in the 1300s. The Portuguese 24 year old general, Nuno Alvares Pereira put a new King on the Portuguese Throne, chased off the Spanish, and then as a widower, retired to a Carmelite Convent and the religious life of a Friar. He is now recognized as a Saint. 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 battle scene on this stamp shows Nuno the young General leading his small force against the Castilians. There were only about 6000 participants in the battle that helped decide Portugal’s future, and about 75% of them were Castilian. Is it any wonder he became a deeply religious man? The rival of Portugal, King John I of Castile later died falling off his horse during a fantasia.

Todays stamp is issue A96, a 5 Centavo stamp issued by Portugal on November 28th, 1928. This was a 52 stamp issue put out in three series over three years remembering independence from Castile. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether used or unused.

Nuno Alvares Pereira was born in 1360 the illegitimate son of a Portuguese knight. At one year of age, he was legitimized by Royal Decree and that allowed him to receive a knight’s education. This was no doubt one of King Fernando’s better decrees. He joined the Army at age 13 and at age 16 married a wealthy widow.

King Fernando had arraigned the marriage of his daughter Beatrice to be the second wife of King John I of Castile. This was supposed to seal the peace between Portugal and Castile. Unfortunately as King Fernando aged his two sons died leaving Beatrice an obvious heir to the Portuguese Throne. Fernando’s death saw his widow becoming regent and supporting her daughter. Also supporting Beatrice’s claim to the Throne was Castile’s army. Portugal’s nobility divided with many including Nuno supporting Fernando’s brother John’s claim to the Throne. Nuno lead a force of about 1200 to fight the Castilians.

Nuno’s force was far outnumbered but were regular infantry while Castile’s force was mainly lighter, faster cavalry. Nuno devised a strategy of defense against cavalry that was much copied as recently as colonial African bush wars. The infantry would form a series of boxes that could defend itself from any direction. An army’s facing cavalry fear is being surrounded but now that fear could be brought to the cavalry itself. Castile withdrew from the battle after heavy loses and Fernando’s brother John was recognized King of Portugal. Nuno was named the Major Majordomo of the realm. Princess Beatrice, she would say Queen would outlive John of Castile and for the rest of her life schemed for a Portuguese return.

After the death of his beloved wife, Nuno became a Friar at the Carmelite Convent in Lisbon where he had been a patron. He gave up his by now many Earthly titles to be simply Friar Nuno of Saint Mary. Pope Benedict XV Beatified Nuno in 1918. Has formal Canonization happened in 2008 under Benedict XVI. His Saints Day in November 6th for which there is also a feast in his honor by Portuguese Carmelites. He has been on several more Portuguese stamps since this one. Most recently in 2009 celebrating his Canonization.

Well my drink is empty and I will try to remember to hold a feast on November 6th and toast Saint/Friar/General/knight Nuno. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

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Uganda 1969, Me Tarzan, U ganda

Uganda gained independence in 1962 with a constitutional Monarchy and an elected Prime Minister. It ended with Idi Amin, a former General known for cannibalism, most particularly of his late wives. That is quite the cascade downward, and most of the blame should lay with his benefactor, 1960s Prime Minister Apollo Milton Obote. 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.

Considering the craziness of independent Uganda the stamp issues sure present another picture. For the most part the stamps of this era were joint issues of the postal union of Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. The countries had a few one nation issues like this flower issue. They were bland to the point of boredom.

Todays stamp is issue A15, a 10 cent stamp issued by Uganda on October 9th, 1969. It was a 15 stamp in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used. Note that my copy as what appears to be a legitimate postal cancelation.

Apollo Milton Obote received a little schooling in colonial Uganda starting at age 15. He was denied a free place in an English law school as he desired by the colonial authorities. He ended up a construction worker first in Buganda and later in Kenya. He was however a powerful orator and founded a political party that represented the Protestants of northern Uganda. There were rivals to a party that represented southern Catholics and a third party of monarchists loyal to the ceremonial tribal King of Buganda Mutessa II. Obote made an alliance with the monarchists to lock the Catholics out of power.

Prime Minister Apollo Milton Obote

In 1964 there were mutinies in the militaries of the 3 east African states. They jointly called for  British Army help to put down the mutinies. In the meantime Obote began negotiating with Army officer Idi Amin. Obote agreed to promotion of Amin and his allies and a big increase in Army pay. He got something in return however. The Ugandan army began aiding rebel groups in the Congo in return for gold and ivory that could be converted to cash and deposited personally by General Amin at the Ottoman Bank in Istanbul. When King Mutessa discovered the corruption, he demanded in Parliament for an investigation. Here was the excuse Obote needed to purge the government of the monarchists. Mutessa II palace was attacked by the Ugandan army. Palace Guards held out long enough for the King to climb over the back wall of his palace and hail a taxi away. The taxi took him to a church where he was able to flee to Burundi in clerical attire.

With the King out of the way it was time to purge one by one groups that were not the “common man” as Obote put it. First it was the Kenyans, then it was anyone that also held a British passport. He referred to this as a “move to the left” and lead to the big looting that was removing forcibly the large Indian minority left from colonial days. The person Obote forgot to remove was corrupt General Amin. Amin repaid the loyalty to leading a coup against Obote in 1971 while Abote was abroad.

Amin’s eight year rule was even more brutal than Abote. He was especially brutal toward his wives. In 1974 he was married to three wives, Malyamu, Nora and Kay. Kay was beheaded and the contents of her skull eaten. Nora and Malyamu fled for their lives. Malyamu was arrested at the Kenyan border. Nora managed to make it into Zaire and completely disappear. Amin had met a 19 year old singer and go go dancer with the group “Revolutionary Suicide Mechanized Regiment Band”. She was known as Suicide Sarah. There was an elaborate wedding at an Organization of African Unity Conference with Yasser Arafat acting as Amin’s best man. Suicide Sarah’s previous boyfriend Jesse was also beheaded and eaten.  The happy couple had four children and enjoyed rally road racing around East Africa with Amin driving a Citroen Maserati and suicide Sarah navigating. Suicide Sarah eventually left Amin, with her head still attached. She died in London in 2015 where she was employed as a hairdresser.

Suicide Sarah

Amin was generally treated as a comical figure in the west. He played on this by giving himself strange British style titles like CBE that he said stood for conqueror of the British Empire in Africa generally and and Uganda in particular. He also declared himself the last King  of Scotland. The title of this article comes from a Benny Hill skit from 1976 where a mock Amin is being interviewed with a placard behind him reading “Me Tarzan U ganda”. It should be remembered though that millions were exiled and at least 100,000 were killed by Amin. All thanks to Apollo Milton Obote promoting him.

Well my drink is empty. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

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Great Britain 1985, Remembering racing to Edinburgh on the Flying Scotsman

In the 19th century, there were a lot or railroads built by small railroad companies. The result was the ability to offer an express service from London to Edinburgh. Different companies raced on different routes to get the best time. What better way to ensure a quick trip than booking passage on The Flying Scotsman. 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.

Here we have a Flying Scotsman  with a furious head of steam making for Edinburgh. The locomotive dates the image to the 1920s. This was after the period of the great races and the competing lines had agreed on a easily doable time of 8 hours and 15 minutes London to Edinburgh or the reverse, It was the time when the image of the Flying Scotsman offering fast and luxurous travel was at it’s height.

Todays stamp is issue A335, a 17 p stamp issued by Great Britain on January 22nd, 1985. It was a four stamp issue in various denominations celebrating the Great Western Railway Sesquicentennial. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 35 cents whether used or unused. The Stanley Gibbons Collect British Stamps agrees on 35p for this used copy but in their view the unused rises to 70p. Arbitrage opportunity?

The direct express line from Kings Cross station in London to Edinburgh Waverly debuted in 1862 under the brand Special Scotch Express. The time was 10.5 hours with a half hour stop in York for lunch. By the 1870s the route was known unofficially as the Flying Scotsman. The service was offered daily leaving both places at 8:00 AM. The long distance required extra coal to be caried and a duplicate crew to switch out at the half way point with the train remaining in motion. Tech improvements saw the travel time drop down to 8.5 hours by the 1880s. The line was operated privately by a consortium of different companies using common railway stock. A competing Consortium left from London’s Pancreas station along the west coast, a route 6 miles longer.

In the period from 1889 through 1896 there were unofficial races to the North trying to get bragging rights on the quickest time to Edinburgh. The train companies denied this was happening, these remember were passenger trains and safety came first. In 1896 a train on the west coast line derailed trying to take a curve at excessive speed. An inquiry found the train had double jumbo locomotives and an inexperienced crew. An agreement was then reached between the competing firms to agree to an 8.5 hour journey time. This lasted into the 1930s.

That the journey was no longer getting faster was not important. In the 1920s the East coast line formally embraced the Flying Scotsman name that was already well known. Heating was added to the train cars and dining cars were added to shorten the lunch stop in York, It was now even possible to get a haircut on board. Meanwhile with less need for speed the load of coal could be reduced and the number of companies involved consolidated.

The Service was nationalized and denationalized and then renationalized on political whim. The train was converted to diesel power in 1962 and stopped  being express. The express service was relaunched in 2011 now in only one direction but with a travel time down to four and one half hours. The service now operates Japanese trains designed by Hitachi.

In March 2020, the service was rebranded the Flying Scotswomen and now sported an all female crew. I am not kidding…

The all female crew of the new Flying Scotswoman. Kill me now!

Well my drink is empty and I am going to need a few more after that twist at the end. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

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Poland 1946, Holy Cross Church survives pickpockets and Goliaths

Here we have an issue of the dramatic damage that faced Poland at the end of the war. In issuing the stamp, the new government was agreeing to put it back together. That must have been reassuring and perhaps a little surprising. The building was the historic Holy Cross Church, and the new government was Poland’s first atheist, communist one. 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 really is a well designed stamp issue. The cheap paper, simple shading and rare for the  time imperforate issue only magnify the destruction shown in the before and after shots. The hope comes in that by showing the damage in contrast to the before shot, you are telling people that the land won’t just be cleared. It is true though that the Church lost it’s gardens to make way for a new Finance Ministry.

Todays stamp is issue A119, a 10 Zloty stamp issued by Poland in 1946. This was a 6 stamp issue in various denominations showing before and after war shots of important Polish landmarks. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used. Too low a value, this stamp is interesting and the highest denomination of the set.

As early as the 1400s this site in southern Warsaw was the home of a Christian church. The building was built in the 1680s by Polish King John III Sobieski. The design was gilded ever more over time with the round turrets and statuary added later. The heart of the late composer Chopin was added to a pillar of the Church as a patriotic gesture for Poles during the Russian occupation of Warsaw.

The area around the church included the University of Warsaw and an upscale Jewish neighborhood. During a crowded Christmas Day Mass in 1881, a false warning of fire was shouted and in the stampede that followed resulted in the deaths of 29 church goers. The scheme was by two young pickpockets who intended to ply their trade during the mayhem they incited. The grieving crowd outside the church then took notice of the race of the pickpockets and decided to make the neighborhood pay for what had been done to them. Two days of riots targeting Jews resulted in two more deaths before the then Russian authorities were able to put down the riots. The riots are now known as the Warsaw pogrom of 1881.

In 1944, the Jewish neighborhood again played havoc on the Church. During the Warsaw uprising, Jewish freedom fighters took over the Church. The Nazi occupation decided against leveling the Church and instead sent in two Goliath tracked mines inside to clear it. The Goliath was a five foot long radio controlled rolling mine that could explode once inside. Naturally there would be easier ways to blow up the Church than this pretty far out contraption but the explosion was sized to kill those inside without permanently damaging the stone structure of the Church. Interesting the Goliath in retrospect was not considered an effective weapon. Though it resembled a miniature tank, it was vulnerable to small arms fire  on it’s journey to it’s target and the wire behind it controlling it could just be cut.

Sdkfz302 remote controlled, electric tracked mine. It was five feet long and weighed 800 pounds. The Germans called them Goliath and the Allies called them beetle tanks

In January 1945, the Church received more damage as Warsaw fell to the Soviet Army during their Vistula-Oder Offensive.  Between 1945 and 1953 the exterior of the Church was rebuilt to a simplified style under the direction  of architect B. Ziborowski. The even more heavily damaged interior took longer. The Main Alter reconstruction went on till 1972.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the post war Communist regime for putting the Church back together. It would have been much easier  to clear the rubble and blame the Nazis. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

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South Africa 1962, Remembering the 1820 English Settlers arriving on the Chapman

Grahamstown is a town of about 70,000 in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The stamp honours the laying of a monument to the 1820 British settlers that came to Grahamstown replenishing it after 300 British defenders held out against 10,000 Xhosa warriors under Makhanda. Interesting but perhaps a little dated. Makhanda perhaps only lost the first phase of the battle. The town after all is now named for him and the monument is looking for a new name before it again gets burned. 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.

Imagine having just won a battle where you were out numbered 33 to one. You have to be wondering when the Xhosa warriors will return and how many more times God will be with you. Then a ship arrives from the home country, the Chapman, bringing 271 new colonists ready to make a go of it in Grahamstown. It must have seemed like a message from God. The town got busy building roads and infrastructure. In 1846, there was a funny exchange between the Royal Engineers and headquarters in Cape Town, The Engineers requested a vice be sent. Headquarters laughingly replied that they should acquire vice locally. The engineers replied that there was no vice in Grahamstown. Understandable why South Africa thought the memory deserved a monument.

Todays stamp is issue A117, a 2 and a half cent stamp issued by South Africa on August 20th, 1962. It was a two stamp issue in different denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

Scotsman and British Army Major John Graham was tasked with clearing the area between the Bushmen and Fish River of approximately 20,000 Xhosa tribespeople that had recently began squatting on old Boer farmland. Modern history paints this  as some sort of genocide and cite a quote from Graham about relying on a little terror to get the squatters to move on. They forget that the British Army’s use of the Bright Red outfits and marching in with military band playing is what was meant by terrifying.  In 1812, he declared Grahamstown as headquarters on an abandoned Boer farm for a string of forts on the Fish River. In 1819 Xhosa Chief Gwala sent his son Makhanda with 10,000 warriors to take and loot Grahamstown. Though Makhanda had converted at one point to Christianity, the British marching in convinced him that this was a battle between Thixo, God of the whites, and Mdalidiphu, Creator of the Deep and the blacks. He was convinced if he attacked Grahamstown, the British bullets would turn to water. Perhaps Makhanda’s Boer Missionaries should have spent a little more time with him explaining how the world really worked. After the defeat, Makhanda was detained on Robben Island, where he drowned trying to escape.

Chief Makhana

You might wonder what happened to the 1820 Settlers Monument after the change in government. In 1994 it was burned. The complex had held the best set of event venues in town though and so was rebuilt with Nelson Mandela rededicating it in 1996. After that the history being taught there shifted to show how the British arrival was bad for the Xhosa, perhaps a fair point. Things got more pressing in 2019 when Grahamstown  was renamed Makhanda as part of reparations for past injustices. The event venue now is in the process of coming up with a new name for the memorial. The Philatelist suggesting honouring the god Thixo.

1820 Settlers Monument. Still standing but needing a new name and fast.

Two white women perhaps best represent the changing times in Grahamstown. In 1819, Elizabeth Salt snuck into the Fort bringing much needed ammunition that she had slung around her as a baby. Today Cecile Van Scalkwik is a lawyer who fights the city’s black government to allow black squatters to stay on land. She complains that the town has not built any new public housing. The sewers won’t take it because the haven’t ben maintained since apartheid. Here is her fund raising video, https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=grahamstown+south+africa&docid=608037321911044055&mid=11FF756CE9728D14108511FF756CE9728D141085&view=detail&FORM=VIRE  . Makhanda is sure lucky to have her on their side. Perhaps though instead of seeking donations, she should pray to Mdalipiphu for Deep sewers.

Well my drink is empty and I am left wondering when Makhana will get his wish and the last of the British there will turn to water and run away. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.