Author: John C

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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.

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El Salvador 1906, Giving up on a Greater Republic of Central America

Several times in the 19th century, Central America attempted to unite politically. It in some ways made sense, it was how the area had been administered by the Spanish, and independence theoretically would give a greater voice to the indigenous peoples that were the majority in Central America. Unless of course tiny El Salvador can unite their 14 Spanish families. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist

This stamp shows President Pedro Jose Escalon. The transfer of power to him and then from him had been peaceful. That hadn’t happened in El Salvador in quite a while. If only he could have managed to not invade his recently united neighbors, he might deserve a stamp.

Todays stamp is issue A65, a 50 Centavo stamp issued by El Salvador in 1906. This was a 12 stamp issue in various denominations. There are imperforate versions of this issue, also overstamp versions to reflect currency devaluations. There are versions with President Escalon’s face blotted out after he left office. There is a later reprint in a different size. Anything they could think of to sell a few more copies on the world market. According to the Scott catalog, my original version is worth 35 cents unused.

The 19th century saw power consolidate in 14 large landowning families whose main export product was coffee. The many updates of the constitution insured that the large landowners had the majority of seats in the legislature set aside for them they were also well represented in the upper ranks of the Army. This took power away from the indigenous majority in the country. It also left El Salvador hopelessly poor. The other countries of Central America were in the same boat. Perhaps if the example of the former united administration could be emulated by new institutions uncorrupted by the powers that be, a larger, stronger entity could make things better.

In 1896, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua agreed to form the Greater Republic of Central America. The capital was Amapala in Honduras. Guatemala and Costa Rica were invited to join but hadn’t yet ratified the union. The United States recognized the new entity.

If you blink you miss it. Stamp with the Coat of Arms of the Greater Republic of Central America

The landowning families of El Salvador saw this as a threat to their power. In 1898 there was a military coup and General Tomas Regalado was put in charge and  quickly pulled El Salvador out of the Greater Republic of Central America. In an effort to put a better face on what they had done the powerful arranged an election and a peaceful transfer of power to President Escalon, a former General. By now the spirit of union in central America was gone and El Salvador invaded Guatemala. The war went poorly and General Regalado, who was still Minister of War, even managed to get killed.

You might think this silly war like behavior might end the power of the 14 families. Indeed the USA intervened and it was the beginning of the USA Marines being used to keep in line the banana republics. This however only helped the 14 families as Americans were soon investing heavily in the various agricultural operations that the 14 families controlled.

Well my drink is empty and I am left wondering if Central America could have done better united. Perhaps not, people probably get the leaders they deserve. Well there was always William Walker, see https://the-philatelist.com/2018/09/27/costa-rica-remembers-the-the-drummer-boy-that-saved-central-america-from-an-american-manifest-destiny/ . Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

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Spain 1984, It’s stamp day, why not remember our time in the Sahara

Spain usually does not remember fondly their time as a colonial power in North Africa. Indeed a late 1950s war there attempting to hold on to long established enclaves in the Sahara, Cape Juby, and Ifni is often called the forgotten war. Well this website likes to use postage stamps to remind of the nearly forgotten. For Stamp Day in 1984, Spain joined in that effort. 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 forgotten war was won militarily but only put off the inevitable of ceding the enclaves to independent Morocco and the Spaniards departing. This stamp remembers the better time when the daring horsemen on the noble Arab charger horses were in the service of Spain delivering the mail. Indeed the main Spanish town in the Cape Juby area Villa Bens, had an airfield that was a major transshipment point for airmail going between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. There was a big problem of Moors kidnapping the airmail pilots, but what is adventure without a little danger. Villa Bens is now the Moroccan town of Tarfaya, but of course the airmail like the Spanish is gone.

Todays stamp is issue A668, a 17 Peseta stamp issued by Spain on October 5th, 1984. It was a single stamp issue. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents.

Spanish fishermen operating off the southern coast of Morocco in the 18th century were often facing sneak attacks by Tekna tribesmen. Under economic and trade treaties signed by Spain with the Sultan of Morocco, this should not have been happening. Spain decided however to sign a further treaty and pay an additional tribute so that Sultan Slimane would cede the coastal strip of land near Cape Juby to Spain. In 1797 a British private company North West Africa Company set up a trading post named Port Victoria next to Cape Juby. Not going through Sultan Slimane saw it attacked relentlessly by the Moroccans until the British gave up, Spain lasted almost 200 years.

You might wonder what was the attraction of the very sparsely populated by nomads area adjoining a vast dessert. Well in fact there were dreams of doing something transformative. It was imagined that if a small, short canal was dug inland from the coast near Cape Juby that water from the Atlantic could flood in to the Sahara desert turning it into a vast sea. The water then could be used for agriculture turning the whole land area around the Sahara Sea green. The dreamers believed much of the Sahara consisted of Wadis that lied below sea level and indeed were inland seas in earlier times. Though there are a few spots in the Sahara below sea level, connecting them so they can fill with sea water would have required much more work than a short canal. The notion of a Sahara Sea has not completely gone away but has moved. There is a proposed project to flood the Qattara Depression in Egypt with Mediterranean water brought to it by newly built canals.

I mentioned that the forgotten war was won militarily by the greatly outnumbered Spanish Foreign Legion supported by Franco’s Air Force and Navy. Pressure on Spain then turned to the United Nations where it was always easy to gin up anti colonial sentiment. Cape Juby was ceded in 1958, Ifni in 1969, and the Spanish Sahara in 1975.

Spanish Heinkel He-111 bombers that dropped their last bombs in anger during the forgotten war. Ju-52 3Ms were also dropping supplies and paratroopers.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the dreamers who imagine flooding a desert. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

 

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Pakistan 1964, Egypt, Sudan and Pakistan, well actually UNESCO, save the Nubian Abu Simbel temples

These third world UN stamps are fun. Having the gal to ask outsiders to do for them something they know should be done, but are unwilling to do for themselves. The outsiders, in this case UNESCO then bend over backwards to treat welfare queens as partners because otherwise they will just destroy. 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 am a little surprised Pakistan was willing to serve as a vehicle for this UNESCO project in Egypt. There is some degree of nervousness of the value of pre Mohammed history in Muslim countries. Remember the shock outside the Muslim world when the Taliban purposely blew up ancient Buddhist statues in neighboring Afghanistan. In the period UNESCO campaigned for funding of the Nubian temples. They don’t publicize who gave and how much. It would be interesting to know Pakistan’s contribution.

Todays stamp is issue A59, a 50 Paisa stamp issued by Pakistan on March 30th, 1964. It was a two stamp issue showing ancient sites in Egypt that they hoped to move so they would not be flooded by Lake Nasser when the Aswan Dam was completed. This stamp shows the Abu Simbel temple to and by Ramses II. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1.20 unused.

The Abu Simbel temple is a cut from stone temple. It is believed built over a 20 year period from 1264BC to 1244BC after being ordered by Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses II. At the time it was the area of Nubia near the modern border between Egypt and the Sudan along the Nile River. The area was important to Egypt for it was the center of gold mining. The temples had fallen into disuse and indeed buried by desert sand by the time of Jesus Christ.

The temples high point was rediscovered by Swiss Orientalist Johann Ludwig Burckhardt in 1813. He convinced Italian explorer Giovanni Battista Belzoni to look further with a team and on his second try he dug an entry into the temple. The name Abu Simbel refers to the nearest Egyptian village.

The threat. The Aswan High Dam, as seen from space after completion.

In 1959, Egypt and Sudan petitioned the UN to do something about the Nubian historic sites that were to be flooded by the waters of Lake Nasser. Rather than directing the waters elsewhere, it was decided to cut most but not all the stone temples into moveable pieces of 20 tons each and reassemble them elsewhere. Some moved as much as 60 miles, but in the case of Abu Simbel it only moved 600 feet to a new location on a built up hill. The expensive undertaking  was managed by UNESCO and just this temple cost 40 million dollars in 1960s money to move a short distance. The was an alternate proposal from British Rank Organization filmmaker William McQuitty to build a glass dome over the temple and chambers for under water viewing. McQuitty is best known for his film “A Night to Remember” about the sinking of the Titanic. His proposal went as far as a serious engineering design study.

Reassembling the Ramses statue in it’s higher home in 1967. Hope they measured twice before they cut once

The UNESCO campaign to save the Nubian temples went on until 1980. Egypt was so happy about what was done that they again put forth their hand palm up and suggested that UNESCO fund a new Nubian History Museum in Cairo. It is possible for a tourist to visit the Abu Simbel. A guarded convoy of tourist buses leaves daily from Aswan. Interesting it requires guards, perhaps Nubia’s present isn’t so wonderful as the past. Well there is always hope for the future.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Burckhardt, Belzoni, and McQuitty for their Abu Simbel work. Gosh I should have an Egyptian in there somewhere. Of course, Ramses II! Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

 

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Belize 1979, Liberation theology suggests not replacing Britain with Guatemala

What to do when your independence leaders are pumped and ready to take control, the colonial power is ready to depart and then the larger neighboring, poor county announces, you really belong to us? Well your liberation theology suggests prayer, but also asking for help, from Britain, from the Commonwealth, from the nonaligned movement, and finally from the UN. Was the key helper Cuba? 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 looks forward to the Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, New York in 1980. There is a reworking of the issue issued after the games took place showing the gold medal winners of the events featured. Though then British Honduras formed a recognized Olympic Committee al the way back in 1967, 14 years before independence, and sent athletes to every Summer Olympics since 1968. Belize has never sent athletes to a winter games and to date none of their athletes have medaled.

Todays stamp is issue A66, a 50 cent stamp issued on October 10th, 1979 while Belize was still a self governing colony of Great Britain. It was an eight stamp issue in various denominations that also offered a souvenir sheet. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 60 cents. The souvenir sheet is worth $13.50. The post game version of this stamp with the medal winner is worth $1.10.

The British had outposts in what they at first called the Mosquito Coast. The area was very sparsely populated but Spain was also making territorial claims in the area. After Guatemala was independent from Spain the claims on now British Honduras continued but Guatemala was always poor and weak.

In the 1950s the British were ready to wrap up the colony in Latin America. Their favored independence leader was George Cadle Price, the product of a British father and a Central American mother. Cadle Price studied widely to be a Priest. This allowed him to become immersed in the Liberation Theology of the day and also avoid military service to Empire at a time of war. When the pressure for military service lessened, he returned to Belize City having not been ordained as a Priest. He took a job with a prominent businessman and formed a sanctioned pro independence PUP political party.

George Cadle Price, Belize’s political leader under various titles from 1961 -1993.

The party though was about to have a giant monkey wrench  thrown by neighboring Guatemala. They announced their intention to occupy and integrate Belize into Guatemala based on old Spanish claims. All of Latin America immediately backed Guatemala’s claim. The British tried to negotiate with Guatemala but the best offer from them was Belize becoming an affiliated state. This was not acceptable to now Premier of British Honduras Cadle Price. He petitioned Britain to send a small infantry force and a detachment of Harrier jump jets to Belize to deter from the army of Guatemala. Meanwhile Jones started lobbying Cuba to change sides to crack the previously solid Latin America block. When Cuba indeed came out in favor of Belize independence, Mexico also joined the cause. Now it was possible to get a UN vote in favor of Belize independence. This happened in 1981.

Guatemala finally renounced their territorial claims on Belize in 1992 and Britain was able to withdraw their military the next year. I can find no accounting of the cost of maintaining a presence in Belize for 30 plus extra years. Remember also the troops so far from home stationed on the surely aptly named mosquito coast.

Well my drink is empty and no matter how many stamps are presented here, there is never an excuse to toast Guatemala. Come again soon when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

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Philippines 1974, Remembering Gabriela Silang, the Ilocano people’s Joan of Arc

It is fun when a newer smaller country country introduces the stamp collector to one of it’s heroes from long before. In them you not only find bravery adventure and even deception. You can also spot the similarities of how different places dealt with similar issues. 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 most common image of Gabriela Silang is of an indigenous woman furiously riding a horse while swinging a bolo type machete. The image on the stamp shows her much more feminine in traditional garb and making more clear her mixed heritage. This may take her more relatable across the Philippines and a better picture of who she was.

Todays stamp is issue A250, a 15 Sentimos stamp issued by the Philippines in 1974. It was a 21 stamp issue that came out over five years that honored historical female figures of history. In the 1960s there was an earlier series of stamps in a very similar style showing the males. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

It is believed that Ilocano people migrated to Luzon from Borneo as part of a third wave of migration around 300BC. Gabriela Silang was born in 1731 to a family that was mostly Spanish on her father’s side and mostly Ilocano on her mothers’. Her father was a trader that sold his wares along the Abra River. She was abandoned by her family at an early age and was taken in and raised by the local Catholic Priest. The Priest arraigned for her marriage to a wealthy much older businessman. When her first husband died three years later Gabriela found herself a wealthy young widow.

For her second husband, Gabriela chose mailman Diego Silang. As part of his job, he made frequent trips between Ilocano and Manila and was distressed with how poorly the Spanish brought in from Spain were administering the area. He felt people born on the islands would do a better job.

Diego’s chance came during the Seven Years war, what Americans know as the French and Indian War. In 1762, Britain declared war on Spain and occupied Manila. Diego thought the time was right for Ilocano to rise up in rebellion against the Spanish. Diego offered to cooperate with the British and they in turn named him their governor of Ilocano. What happened next showed that perhaps Ilocano was not quite ready to manage itself. The Spanish colonial authority put a bounty on the head of Diego Silang and two of his coconspirators quickly assassinated him to collect. Traditionally Ilocano men wear their hair long and gather it under a turban called a potong. If the potong was red it meant the man had committed murder. If it was striped, multiple murders. You would think Diego would have been tipped off by this as to the danger he was in.

Gabriela escaped her husband’s killing and set up shop in the house of an uncle. From there she appointed new generals to continue the rebellion. She tried to put herself forward as a cult priestess that would lead her people to victory. In 1763, her rejuvenated rebel force tried to lay siege on the town of Vigan. Her force was defeated by the Spanish and when she tried to escape back to her uncle’s house, the Spanish were waiting for her and arrested her. Gabriela and other prisoners from her army were hung in the town square of Vigan. The British occupation of Manila lasted 20 months until it was returned under the terms of the Treaty of Paris. The news that Manila had fallen did not reach Spain till after it was all over.

Gabriela on her horse waving her machete. No doubt the Spanish Governor was tweeting law and order.

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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Algeria 1964, Ben Bella farms out looking out for Algerian kiddies to UNICEF, while looking over his shoulder

Here we have happy even fez wearing kids in newly independent Algeria. It had been a long struggle to rid Algeria of the French, and the pillaging of the Blackfoot’s assets hadn’t gone so well. It was thus up to UNICEF to see that the kids would be okay. Algeria sought to be a leader in the post colonial non aligned movement. It must have a tough pill to swallow to so openly admit being a welfare queen. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

I do really like the honesty of this stamp. No the children really weren’t so happy. The unemployment rate in Algeria was 70% after independence. It follows that the local kids were desperate for whatever crumbs UNICEF was handing out. The honesty is that the country was openly admitting that it was up to UNICEF to solve the problem.

Todays stamp is issue A76, a 15 Centimes stamp issued by Algeria on December 13th, 1964. It was a single stamp issue celebrating a UN sponsored children’s day. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used. Algeria was granted independence in 1962. Winning the pre independence vote, former Egypt exile and Nasser associate Ahmed Ben Bella was the new President. Algeria had been home to over a million colonists called Blackfoots because their feet were in Africa but their heart was in Europe. Some were French but there were also many Italians and Jews of Spanish heritage. Four days after independence, The European Quarters of Algerian cities were looted and the departing French Army did nothing to stop it. President Ben Bella declared European assets in Algeria abandoned and the property of the state. Soon there were almost no Europeans in Algeria and yet somehow it did not lead to instant prosperity. Perhaps this was due to Ben Bella’s  personal security.

Ahmed Ben Bella was born into a well off Algerian farming family. He was sent to France for University paid for of course by the French government. Ben Bella resented his teachers because he thought them racist against him. Perhaps his teachers wondered about having to teach someone on the dole who hated them while perspective French students were excluded. He further resented that the only career option without having to lower himself by going back to Algeria was enlisting in the French Army. Immediately after the war there were riots in Setif in Algeria that were put down by the French who were trying to reassert their authority. Ben Bella was incensed and made his way back to Algeria. Back home he was too good to work the family farm but also proved not very good when he was caught having robbed a bank in Oran. Escaping jail, he made his way to Egypt with a big pile. He there became a close associate of General Nasser. An on the lamb bank robber is perhaps not an obvious independence leader but Ben Bella created an elaborate back story of French persecution Among his tales while really living the good life in Cairo away from the actual struggle;

He claimed a package he didn’t recognize was delivered by taxi to his hotel and the taxi later exploded.

He claimed a shootout on the family farm that missed him.

He claimed that he was  shot and wounded in a Tripoli hotel while traveling under an assumed name and Pakistani diplomatic passport.

The passport didn’t work for him when he tried to return to Algeria with it and the French were waiting for his plane. So anxious to kill him they inexplicably released him to serve Nasser, I mean Algeria.

His Presidency did not go well as he attempted to follow the old African tradition of one man, one vote, once, followed by a by one party rule. The Defense Minister sensibly deposed Ben Bella in 1965 and put him in house arrest in a out of the way French villa. No doubt he resented the French for leaving behind a villa and not freeing him from it. When his house arrest was relaxed in 1980, Ben Bella moved to Switzerland to be close to his money. He was still using his Pakistani passport, to fool the French you understand.

President Ben Bella with Fidel Castro and Che Guevara in Havana. He is the one with his hand out. Ha Ha

Well my drink is empty and unless UNICEF wants to buy another round I will have to wait till when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.