Author: John C

Categories
Uncategorized

Jamaica 1970, Jamaica remembers rebel leader Gordon while Australia remembers Governor Eyre

Some times people see things differently. Even if there is a certain similarity. 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.

Among my favorite Jamaican stamp issues is the national heroes issue of 1970, We have already covered one here. https://the-philatelist.com/2018/08/09/jamaica-1970-mixed-race-leaders-try-to-graft-socialism-onto-black-jamaica/This stamp features a rebel leader who was convicted of treason in 1865 and hung. It seems natural that Jamaica, newly independent, would look back into the colonial history and highlight people that were key in the long struggle. However in Australia, The British governor of Jamaica who repressed the rebellion was also honored with a stamp, not for what happened in Jamaica but his earlier accomplishments in Australia. Both stamps taken together show how similar the men were, although I am sure neither would admit it.

Todays stamp is issue A89, a one cent stamp issued by independent Jamaica on March 11th, 1970. It was part of a 5 stamp issue in various denominations that honoured the newly declared national heroes of Jamaica. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether it is mint or used.

George William Gordon was born to a Scottish planter and slave mother. At age 10 he was sent to live with his godfather who was active in business and brought Gordon in. Soon in his own right, Gordon was a wealthy businessman, landowner, assemblyman, and church Deacon at the African Baptist church. He was active in opposing British rule and even tried to acquire a former Confederate schooner to ferry arms to the he felt oppressed majority in Jamaica of former slaves.

Edward John Eyre was born in England. He set out for Australia at age 16. Through hard work, he acquired a flock of 400 lambs and raising them in New South Wales. At age 22 he drove his flock of now over 1000 lamb and 600 cattle to Adelaide where they were sold for a large profit. The profits were then used to fund three expeditions that explored the Australian interior. This brought him some fame and he was then charged as a colonial administrator in first New Zealand and later as the British appointed Governor of Jamaica.

Governor Eyre

After slavery ended in Jamaica the plantation system broke down with former slaves were attempting subsistence farming on small farms with poor results. In 1865 in Morant Bay, a black man was convicted of trespassing and stealing from a long abandoned plantation and given a long prison sentence. This did not sit well with the locals who took over the town center, burned the courthouse, and killed in the street the local officials. The African Baptist church than lead a march toward Kingston to present their demands to Governor Eyre. Instead of meeting with them, he sent troops that killed 400, flogged 1000 more and burned many homes. The leader of the church and co conspirator Gordon were tried for treason and hung. The rebellion failed and Britain withdrew some of the self government previously granted at Governor Eyre’s suggestion.

Gordon’s case became somewhat a cause celeb among the British left afterward. Gordon had been in contact previously with members of the English religious left as part of his role as deacon in Jamaica. Notables including John Stuart Mill tried to have charges brought against now recalled Governor Eyre. On Eyre side were more right wing notables including Charles Dickens who respected Eyre and thought he had taken the necessary tough decisions. The case went Eyre’s way and he lived quietly for the rest of his life in England.

Today in Australia many geographic points in Australia have Eyre’s name while in Jamaica, you will find much named after Gordon. He is even on the $10 coin. So now like then you can pick your place and choose whom you admire. I find myself most drawn by their similarities.

Well my drink is empty. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

Categories
Uncategorized

Croatia 1941, Croatia achieves independence by aligning with bad people and then pays a huge price

It is challenging to write about the stamps of the Balkan World War II states. On one hand, peoples got their own countries, often for the first time in centuries, On the other hand the leaders were fascists, and therefore the end of the war saw many paying the ultimate price for the association. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

This issue of stamps of the then new independent state of Croatia show views of the new country. This itineration of Croatia was twice the size of the modern state. The view of the small city of Dubrovnik still lies within Croatia. In 1991-92 after a new independence, the city was subject to a siege from Montenegrins and Serbs who claimed the city. The lines between nationalities is blured, and therefore often deadly purges follow changes in political status.

Todays stamp is issue A1, a 6 Kuna stamp that was the first issue of the independent state of Croatia in 1941. It was part of a 19 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether mint or used. There are imperforate versions of the stamps that were presented to the countries leaders in special albums by the printer and also a special version for a Philatelic Exposition in Banjaluka in 1942. These are slightly more valueable but there is an understandable queasiness in the hobby of the fascist issues.

Croatia was granted independence in 1941 after the German invasion. The hope was that by giving minorities a measure of freedom they would not have to be occupied. It was the first time Croatia had achieved independence since 1100 AD. As the new leader, Ante Pavelic was chosen. He had been in Italy after being sentenced to death in absentia in Yugoslavia and France for his alleged part in the assassination of Yugoslav King Alexander  I, see https://the-philatelist.com/2018/02/08/it-is-dangerous-to-rule-the-kingdom-of-serbs-croats-and-slovenes/. His rule was more closely aligned with the Italians than the Germans and tried to reduce the role of Serbians in the new country. The goal of his plans were to kill 1/3rd of the Serbs, deport 1/3, and the last third be assimilated. As such, most of the fascist cruelty was aimed at the Serbs, although the few Jews and Gypsies were also persecuted.

Ante Pavolic in office

As the tide of the war turned many Croats felt they would not have a future in a post war Yugoslavia. Dubrovnik had fallen to the Yugoslav partisans in October 1944 and what fallowed were a few show trials and many massacres. Croatia was still in German hands as the war ended and what fallowed was a major refugee movement toward Austria in hopes of surrendering to the British army there, thus avoiding their fate with the Yugoslav partisans. Pavelic and several hundred thousand of his followers made it to Bleiberg, Austria in the days after the war.  To their surprise, many were the forced marched back to Yugoslavia and over 100,000 were massacred. When the British saw what was happening, they eventually stopped the forced repatriations and many Croatians were resettled in Peron’s Argentina.

Pavelic himself post war was the quintessential fascist running man after the war. He was not immediately arrested in Austria and acquired a string of false identities as a Hungarian or Peruvian priest. He hid out with Catholic monasteries and even at the Papal summer residence in Italy. The Church knew who he was and eventually helped him and his family travel to Argentina. He lived there officially under one of his aliases and worked as a bricklayer. Over time he became friendly with Evita Peron and worked with other Croatian exiles to form a government in exile. In 1957 he was shot while getting off a city bus by a Serb Royalist. In hospital his identity was confirmed and the post Peron government began moves to deport him to Yugoslavia. He ran to Chile and then to Spain but never fully recovered from the wounds and died at age 70 in 1959.

Pavelic’s picture from his fake passport when on the run

Modern Croatia initially honored the memory of the Bleiberg repatriations/massacres. Over time, the association and symbols of Pavelic’s movement have caused some queasiness. In 2012, the modern Croatian government pulled funding for the annual Bleiberg commemoration as it was deemed too partisan.

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

Categories
Uncategorized

Iceland 1972, Ending the Soviet Chess domination, if Bobby will show up

The Soviet Union was the center of world chess. As a young chess master, American Bobby Fischer went on a TV game show to win money for airfare to Moscow. Fifteen years later, he had to be coaxed to show up in Reykjavik for the Chess Olympiad to take on world champion Boris Spassky. 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 world map mounted on a chessboard and a rook chess piece to remind that the world checkers tournament was somewhere else. Serviceable design, but not a great one.

Todays stamp is issue A117, a 15 Krona stamp issued by Iceland on July 2nd, 1972. It was a single stamp issue. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 45 cents used or in this case unused.

Bobby Fischer was not a typical chess master. For 24 years up to 1972, the Soviet Chess club supplied the world chess champion. Bobby Fischer is a Jewish American being raised by a single mother. His father was not the man his mother had been married to but a prominent Hungarian phycisist and mathimatician. As a latch key kid, his mother bought him a chess set to play with his sister while alone. As she soon lost interest, he played mostly against himself. At a used book shop on vacation, Bobby found a book of chess strategys that he devoured. After the family moved to New York, Bobby was able to make a big impression on the local chess scene, becoming junior champion. He had his mother write to Soviet President Kruschev for permission to come to Moscow to play the young Soviet players. Permission was granted but he then had to go on a tv game show to have the show pay for airfare. It did not go well in Moscow. 15 year old Fischer was rude and quickly beat young players. Then senior player Tigern Petrosian was summoned to the club to play Bobby and beat him. Fischer was outraged that the matches were informal and the Soviets were outraged at his rudeness.

Bobbu Fischer

Boris Spassky was also not a typical Soviet champian. He was from Leningrad and an Orthadox Christian with open far right monarchist political views. He learned to play at age five when he met a chess master on a train while being evacuated during the German siege of Leningrad in 1942.

Boris Spassky

When the tournament opened in Reykjavik, it did so without Bobby. The prize money was to be $125,000,($857,000 in 2022) going 5/8 to the winner and 3/8 to the loser of the multimatch tournament. Fischer also wanted 30% of the world television rights, all for the winner. American Jewish National Security Advisor Henry Kissenger pleaded with him to go to the tournament that had been delayed for two days. He did go when a British Jewish Banker agreed to double the prize money, still 5/8ths and 3 /8ths. The Soviets thought this drama was all a cheat  to psyche out Boris Spassky. Bobby Fischer insinuated  his own cheating theory that Soviet chess masters purposly play each other to draws to enhance their rankings.

The place in Iceland where the 1972 matches were played. Here it hosts basketball.

Bobby eventually beat Boris 12.5 games to 8.5. Inspite their differing backgrounds, the two became friends. Twenty years after the tournament, Boris, who had in 1976 defected to Paris, decided to do a wierd “revenge” match. To do it in dramatic style, it was conducted in Belgrade Yugoslavia during the time of their civil war when the Serbian side was under UN Sanction. Bobby won again but felt himself cut off from America and defected to Budapest where his father was from. From Budapest he went on to Iceland where he was granted citizenship as a humanitarian gesture. He died in 2008 of kidney failure after refusing surgery to clear a urinary blockage. He believed massage was a better treatment.

Boris is still alive and happily back in Putin’s Russia. He is the oldest living former chess champion and has the distiction of winning chess matches against 6 other world champions including Bobby Fischer.

Well my drink is empty. Come again soon for more stories that can be learned from stamp collecting.

Categories
Uncategorized

Singapore 1969, Recognizing South Indians in Singapore via the Mridangam drum

Multi racial city states have a wealth of choices of cultural influences to explore. Here you get to explore it in regards to traditional music instruments, 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 consisted of two Indian instuements, two Chinese, and one Malayan. You have to cut it off somewhere I suppose, but a certain colonial power might feel left out.

Todays stamp is issue A22, a 1 cent stamp issued by independant Singapore on November 10th, 1969. It was a five stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth $1.25 used.

The origin of the Mridangam drum in ancient south India. The name comes from an amalgamation of the Sanscrit wods for clay and limb. The early drums had bodies made of clay. On modern versions this material has been replaced by wood from the jackfruit tree. Before use, a creamy gum is applied to the leather to enhance the bass sound of the drum.

A relief from an Indian Temple showing how the drum was played. Modern doctors sugest instead mounting the instuement on a stand because this way can cause a serious form of scoliosis.

The instument is most often played in the performance of Carnatic music. A small band of a singer, a violin, a mridangam drum, and a guitar like instument called a tampura. The melodies performed are called ragas, The have both composed and improvisation sections. Listen here. https://youtu.be/S_frNc_CHho.

The world center of this type of music is Madras in India which hosts annual weeks long festivals of Carnatic music. I can find no evidence of such festivels in Singapore, though it is taught in local music schools, but there is a farely large one in Cleveland, Ohio.

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

Categories
Uncategorized

Denmark 1970, Denmark remembers Viking shipbuilding near it’s end

The Vikings traveled far and wide both for war and for trade. To do this they invented new techniques in shipbuilding that managed light weight and ocean seaworthyness, often goals in conflict. In this stamp issue, Denmark went beyond the long ago by including a modern tanker to imply the tradition continues. That was so in 1970. 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 light colors, perhaps faded over the last 52 years, do not make the modern supertanker image jump out. The image does make the ship seem quite large. Sort of strange as traditional Viking shipbuilding emphasized compact size and low weight/water displacement. Perhaps to imply that shipbuilding is bigger and better than ever. You can’t fault the Danes for optimism.

Todays stamp is issue A134, a 90 Ore stamp issued by Denmark on September 24th, 1970. It was a four stamp issue on Viking shipbuilding with this new ship getting the highest denomination. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth $1.25 mint or used.

Scadinavian shipbuilding began all the way back in the Bronze Age, as also shown as part of this stamp issue. It is thought that the geography of Scandiavia with long coastlines with many natural ports compared to interiors of high mountains, was condusive more to sea travel than by land.

The Vikings designed ships with wood that overlapped the adjoining piece of wood that allowed a higher bow. The  wood peices were riveted together by wrought iron that added much stiffness. The resulting ships proved capable of crossing the north Atlantic ocean while other Bronze Age shipbuilders we building for the peaceful Mediterranian Sea.

A modern Viking ship replica

Scaninavia eventually broke up into modern nation states. So where did that leave the shipbuilding industry. At the time of this stamp in 1970 not bad. Ships, now almost all comercial, were being made for the worldwide market. Japan and South Korea were also coming on strong. However knowing Danish workers earned higher salaries than Asian competitors, the Danish government subsidized the shipbuilders so the product could still compete.

In 1996, the government subsities to Danish shipbuilders came to an end. Within four years the three largest shipbuilders in Denmark had closed at the loss of over 10,000 direct jobs.

There was an old Viking tradition that upon the death of an important person. a votive offering to the Gods would be made were the dead person would be sent to sea alone on a ship except with household goods and perhaps his also sacrficed dogs, horses, and maybe even a serf. A supertanker like on the stamp to some is an image of ecological sin. Thus that the shipyard that built it has been sacraficed and repurposed as a windfarm for clean energy is perhaps pleasing to the Gods in keeping with Viking tradition. It is just too bad the old workers had to play the part in the passion play of the old dogs, horses, and serfs.

Wind Energy has gone beyond the old shipyards. Here are offshore wind farms that have been Christened the Thor project

Well my drink is empty. Come again next Monday for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. Also have a Happy Easter!

Categories
Uncategorized

France 1982, 100 years since Robert Koch discovered Tuberculosis was a Bacteria

In modern times TB kills a million and a half people a year. That is 15 percent of the people that catch the active form of it. So progress in fighting it deserves to be honored, even a 100 years later in the form of German physician Robert Koch. 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.

There is a lot going on on this stamp with a portrait of Dr. Koch, lab equipment. and even a rendering of the TB bacteria growing on a lad culture. Not sure the rendering in black and white was the best choice. It resembles a pre painting artist sketch rather than a finished work.

Todays stamp is issue A948, 2.60 Franc stamp issued by France on November 13, 1982, the 100th anniversary of Dr. Koch isolating the bacteria that causes tuberculosis. It was a single stamp issue. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 40 cents used.

Tuberculosis seems to have originated near the Horn of Africa around the time the first man also originated in Africa. Africa is still the most likely place to find an outbreak. Luckily 90 % of the people that catch it get the latent variety that can’t be passed and has no symptoms. The bacteria attacks the lungs and causes shortness of breath, bloody flem, night sweats, and weight loss. The weight loss is why the disease was traditionally called consumption.

Building on the earlier work of Bengamin Marten who postulated that consumption was caused by a micro organism that is itself alive in consumption sufferers, German Robert Koch tried to isolate the tiny organism. The goal was then to grow the bacteria in a lab from which a vaccination could be developed. Working with Koch was Mr. Petrie of Petrie dish fame, so one can see how new this stuff all was. Koch announced that he had succeeded in 1882 and soon he won a Nobel Prize for his work.

A drawing by Robert Koch, or the TB bacteria

It was not without controversy. French rival Louis Pasteur claimed that the fact that the bacteria was present did not prove causation. The rivalry got quite nasty. The real beef was that the two men had rival TB treatments in testing and the one that was accepted would get rich. Unfortunately neither solution worked as hoped.

In this corner, Robert Koch
in this corner, Louis Pasteur

In fact, Koch’s Tubercullan treatment actually made the disease worse. You are after all injecting someone with more of the bacteria from which he was already sick. Koch tried to keep secret the negative results and when he was found out, he was fired from his German government supported lab in Berlin.

There is now a vaccination for TB, but it is considered too dangerous to give unless one is already exposed to an outbreak. The treatment today is to administer antibiotics. As with many other bacteria  caused diseases, over time the bacteria becomes itself more resistant to antibiotics that don’t change over time.

Well my drink is empty. I wonder if I have been a little hard on Robert Koch. His discovery was important and being human, can he really be blamed for trying to cash in on the discovery? Come again next Monday for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

 

Categories
Uncategorized

Spain 1984, The Nanny State wants workers to be careful around electricity

Here is a fun style of modern stamp. The watch out for the Boogeyman stamp, where a country uses the post to warn it’s citizens of a danger. In this case it is the danger of an industrial worker getting electrocuted when mishandling electric wires. So you know, watch out! Also slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, trying not to set your self on fire, take your first sip of your adult beverage, but only the first sip because accidents happen to the tipsy, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

This stamp was part of a three stamp safety series. So what hazards did Spain choose to warn. The funniest one is the one where a cartoon style construction worker is falling from great height. Luckily he seems to be falling into a net but what makes it especially funny is his hard hat falling off. We must mandate  chinstraps. The other hazard is fire.

Todays stamp is issue A647, a 16 Peseta stamp issued by Spain on January 25th 1984. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether mint or used or which denomination in the issue, The low value shows there are not enough topical collectors of nanny state issues.

Deaths from man made electricity first happened in 1879. Arc lighting had an early application in the lighting of a theatrical stage and the first death happened when a stage carpenter touched a 250 volt wire. Soon the high voltage arc lighting was becoming common for night lighting of streets and deaths from touching the wires mounted. Interestingly it was noted that the deaths were near instant and left no marks on the body.

A more modern xenon arc light. Tread lightly.

This quickly lead to the idea of an electric chair as a humane form of execution for criminals. The first use of the electric chair was in the 1890s in New York. The first use was kind of a fiasco. William Kemmler had been sentenced to death for killing his common law wife Tillie with a hatchet. He was shocked with 1000 volts for 17 seconds and declared dead by a doctor. Then witnesses noticed that he was still breathing and the prison warden had the chair restarted at 2000 volts and Kemmler’s body caught fire and the room was permeated with the smell of burning flesh.

Man in electric chair awaiting execution. Nice he wore his Sunday best.

In regard to how common accidental electrocution is in the workplace, the answer is not very. There was a study of five years of electrocution deaths in the Egyptian Journal of Forensic Sciences. Who could have imagined there was such a thing? The methodology was the autopsies on 4000 unnatural deaths. 15 percent of the deaths were by burning and 15 percent of those were caused by electrocution. Every case was accidental. They found about half of the deaths were at home and only 22 percent in the workplace. Doing the math we get that about .5 of one percent of the unnatural deaths in Egypt are caused by accidental workplace execution. Usually the culprit in the death was handling small appliances. Maybe it is time for Egypt to do a stamp on this.

One interesting detail coming from the Egyptian study was that almost 90% percent of the electrocution deaths were of males, most commonly between 18 and 40 years of age. For once it wasn’t women and minorities hardest hit. You can read the study here, https://ejfs.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s41935-018-0103-5

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

Categories
Uncategorized

Romania 1970, The Problem of Statues

Here we have a statue honoring Romanians and Soviets that fought against fascist forces in World War II Romania twenty five years later. In 1990, it was repurposed to honor World War I fallen. So going from some of sacrificed in the second war to all those sacrificed in the first war. Confusing isn’t it, but creating statues is dangerous stuff in the modern. 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 artist Aida Costantinescu had a challenge. The monument honored communist partisans of two countries, Romania and the Soviet Union. However the stamp might mean more to people if it was more inclusive to include all the fallen. Perhaps that is why the Romanian flag is obvious, but the Russian flag is faded and seems just like a red background. Perhaps if similar care had been taken, the monument might not have been disturbed upon the next revolution.

Todays stamp is issue A658, a 55 Bani stamp issued by Romania on the 25th anniversary of VE Day. It was a single stamp issue. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents cancelled to order.

Statuary is a temporary thing. As the Red Army approached in 1944, the Romanian King Michael had Prime Minister Antonescu arrested and appointed a new communist Prime Minister. Antonescu was killed by firing squad after a show trial. The bending with the wind did not save King Michael he was forced to abdicate when the Prime Minister pulled a gun on him. Rough place, but the regime like that is going to be very particular about who it wanted honored.

In the 1990s after the 1989 Revolution, the statue was repurposed but allowed to stand in honor now of less contreversial fallen of World War I. The nearby masuleam that was part of the complex had the remains of the fallen communists replaced by WW 1 remains taken from the main monument of that war.

During the same period after 1989, at least a half dozen statues of firing squad victim Ion Antonescu went up. This time he was revered not just by right wingers but communists who felt left out of the post war government. Apparently he was now a strong leader.

The overkill firing squad for former Prime Minister Antonescu. With that much living in their brain, was post execution rehabilitation inevitable?

This also didn’t last, and like 1945 by decree. Romania wanted to join the European Union. Like the communists of 1945, they had definite ideas on who an EU country could honor, and that did not include Antonescu. The Romanian government was forced to hire a committee led by Ellie Wiesell to put together a case that Antonescu was anti Semetic and responsible for Jewish deaths. Upon receipt of the report, Romania enacted a law against new statues of Antonescu and requiring old ones removed. Of the six statues, one was removed and another was encased in a metal box. With the other statues, private property was claimed.

Other statues went up after the 1989 revolution. Unfortunately, the modern are better at taking down statues instead of creating new ones. A statue meant to illustrate the Romulus and Remis story of the she wolf nursing the Roman leader instead just resembles a naked guy being chased by a stray dog, a common occurrence in Bucharest, but hardly worth a statue. It was later taken down.

Naked man and stray dog statue

Another was the statue commemorating the 1989 revolution. It is meant to convey an idea crystalizing simultaneously among a large crowd. What was built however resembles an obelisk impaling a potato.

Impaled potato statue

Similarly the base of a former statue of Lenin has gone through 17 itinerations since Lenin was removed. Perhaps the eighteenth should just put Lenin back in his place, understanding it was one period in a long history.

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

Categories
Uncategorized

North Korea 1978, Before Sanctions, we could admit to, and even Celebrate our Ships

North Korea has always had the ambition to be an exporting nation. To help bring that about, a fleet of maritime cargo vessels was acquired, often from abroad. Now with sanctions on North Korea, as a result of the country’s nuclear program, there can no long be stamps showing off assets, lest they be seized. 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.

North Korea did later have a new stamp issue of Korean ships in 2013. The lead stamp was a ship that did dinner cruises.

Todays stamp is issue A952, a 5 Chon stamp issued by North Korea on May 5th, 1978. It was a five stamp issue showing various cargo ships, freighters, and tankers belonging to North Korea. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents.

The ship on this stamp is the Hyok Sin. It was built in Japan at Mukaishima Shipyard in 1971. The name is a Korean male name but the only prominent Korean with that name I could find was a soccer star born 21 years after the ship was built. The ship served  for 33 years before it was broken up in China in 2004. The Hyok Sin 2 still exists but is not of the same design.

An earlier time when the Hyok Sin was free to roam. It is here seen in Rotterdam in 1980.

The North Korean merchant fleet is managed by a government owned company called Ocean Maritime Management. In 2001 North Korea was named part of the axis of evil by the United States. By 2013 sanctions became universal and United Nations enforced. The sanctions apply directly to Ocean Maritime Management and even the administrators of the company are subject to having their bank accounts seized.

To try to get around the sanctions, North Korean ships now have often changing names. Also shell companies based out of Hong Kong are given theoretical title to the ships. The North Koreans have a sense of humor about it. Among the names chosen for the shell companies are “Trendy Sunshine Limited” and “Advance Superstar”.

It now being almost impossible to acquire new ships from the outside and the fleet aging and indeed shrinking due to ships being seized, North Korea has begun to try to build their own ships. The former ship repair facility at Ryoungnam is now a full shipyard although the output is quite small. The third vessel, the Jang Su San was launched late last year. It was not registered with the International Maritime Organization.

The new to the water Jang Su Sin.

Well my drink is empty. I wonder if Russia is about to receive the same treatment as North Korea. By the time the cancelers are done, perhaps every nation will have been given the same treatment. Come again next Monday for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

Categories
Uncategorized

Laos 1993, Remembering the origins of the New York City Subway

Laos did something interesting. They gave you a window into the origins of the subway system  of several important world cities. This allows you to contrast the different timeframes, ideas for technology, and methods of management. 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 is a farm out issue from a country that has no subways in country. Thus perhaps such an issue better belongs with the United Nations Post Office.

Todays stamp is issue A262, a 15 Kip stamp issued by Laos on January 9th, 1993, the 130th anniversary of the worlds first subway. The issue contained five stamps plus a souvenir sheet that contained a sixth, otherwise unissued stamp. The metros of  New York City, Berlin, Paris, London, and Moscow were featured. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether mint or used.

This stamp shows off New York’s system, so that is what we will cover. The subway got previewed in two ways. In 1869,  Alfred Ely Beach invested $350,000 dollars to construct a 300 foot long, one station pneumatic subway as a demonstration of what could be done. 400,000 people paid to ride it. It took four years to gain approvals from the city to expand it. However in 1873, there was a stock market crash, and Beach was unable to raise the capital needed and he closed the demonstration.

The Beach Pneumatic transit demonstrator. He did manage to build it in 58 days. try that now.

Around the same time the terminus in Queens at the site of the ferry to Manhattan of the Long Island railroad went underground after it was required to not locate the steam train at street level. At first it was just a cut but was later roofed over. Walt Whitman waxed poetic about how going underground gave a wonderful feeling of entering a big city. The use of this tunnel ended when the borough put a large tax on locomotives and the tunnel was sealed up. Later the knowledge of the tunnel underneath became fascinating to the police. During World War I, they dug into it expecting to find a bomb making operation by German spies. In the 1920s, it was again dug into and searched hoping to find a large scale distillery during alcohol prohibition. Nothing was found either time, That was for the best, imagine how bad that water to make the whiskey would have been.

By the 1890s it was realized that it would have to be the government to build a large subway system serving all the boroughs. It was going to be an electric railroad and the timing meant there was an interesting technology choice. At the time there was a current war between the companies of Thomas Edison and of George Westinghouse over how electric current should be delivered. Edison promoted a direct current DC. Westinghouse’s alternating current AC eventually won out but to this day the New York City subway still uses Edison’s DC direct current.

The subway  built out rapidly and peaked out in 1946 at over 2 million annual riders. There was a lot of inflation  in the post war period and reorganizations to cut cost did not succeed. The 5 cent fare went to 15 cents in a six year period and ridership dropped a third. This put on unending hold  on any expansion plans. The citizens could see the system deteriorating and twice passed bond initiatives to modernize and expand the system, however the money raised was syphoned off for other projects.

Starting in 1954, there was a new New York city planner named Robert Moses. He emphasized parks and highways for suburb commuters to easily get into the city by car. Since poor people  of the period did not have cars and were also housed in more large subsidized housing projects that were assessable by the subway but had little car parking, this was hoped to keep crime only in certain neighborhoods. This strategy was later vilified by liberals as racist and when Moses was opposed to a plan to redirect bridge tolls into the city to fund subway shortfalls, he was fired by liberal Republican mayor John Lindsey. The vilification of Moses went so far that a liberal biographer claimed that Moses had tricked his mother into excluding his brother from her estate. It turned out that Moses’s brother was a drug addled bum and his mother had made the decision herself. After Moses budgets then went up but so did crime and ridership continued to drop.

Robert Moses with a model of a commuter bridge that never got built.

Well my drink is empty. With modern standards and small construction crews, it gets ever more difficult to build a new subway. Elon Musk through his operation, “The boring company” is trying to invent new technology for underground emission free travel. Obviously boring has a double meaning to Musk, but I don’t think it’s boring and I hope he is able to pull it off. Come again next Monday for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.