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Norway 1992, how common can a Royal go before his house is itself common

Norway is a fairly new country that voted to create a new Royal line from heirs to the Danish Throne. That didn’t work so well for Greece but why not throw the dice. Royal duties  are so tiresome and doors open up for them into the jet set lifestyle. Soon how Royal are they really and how much are they costing the country. 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 nice thing about a late middle age Prince taking over for his elderly father was that continuity seems assured. On this stamp, you have to look several times to notice King Herald V is not a stamp from 20 years before featuring his father. The first Norwegian King Herald had been the Herald the Fairhair, well that was a long time ago. Looks can be deceiving, Herald had married a commoner and the generations would get ever more common. So I hope Norway is ready for jet set Royals.

Todays stamp is issue A349, a 3.5 Krona stamp issued by Norway in 1992. It was a 15 stamp issue in various denominations, the lower ones featuring now Queen Consort Sonja. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

King Herald was born shortly before the German invasion of 1940 so spend part of his youth in exile in the UK, the USA, and Canada. He avoided neutral Sweden which hosted other Norway Royals because there were politicians there that would have turned Harald over to the Quisling government where he could be declared a boy King.  He developed a love for sailing and represented Norway at the Olympics of 1964, 1968, and 1972. His team won no medals but the Prince carried the flag during opening ceremonies.

During the 1960s, Harald dated a commoner and dressmaker Sonja Heraldson. Herald’s father King Olav thought the potential marriage not suitable. At the time Herald’s sisters were not at all in the line of succession and so one of the sisters had been allowed to marry a divorced commoner. Harald announced that if he was not allowed to marry Sonja, he would not marry anyone else and that would be the end of the Royal line in Norway. After considering and rejecting the idea of declaring the Duke of Schleswig- Holstein as heir apparent he gave in on the marriage. Sonja was given a title and took others. She was named a Rear Admiral in the Norwegian Navy, though she never served. She claims she took a class. At Norway Rear Admiral School? Those concerned with the defense of Norway will be heartened to know Queen Consort Sonja has also been named a Brigadier General in the Army. Yes she took the class. The sailing the Royal family love so has been recast as a Royal Duty of visiting. Sonja has taken a part in charities especially those welcoming refugees. She has also opened the Royal stables to the public so they get to see the Royal Horses.

The job of a Royal first off is to provide heirs and here Herald came through, a girl and a boy. The daughter is now in the line of succession. No one is now marrying Royal. The current Crown Prince even managed to find a commoner that was a single mother. Well at least she was pretty and a close friend of Jeffrey Epstein, so there were all those invitations to sex slave island. Princess Martha who claims to have ESP, married an anarchist writer who went by the made up name of Ari Behn. His artistic friends were part of the “new wine” school. Yes he was a fan of the grape. Even Behn’s relatives called him Prince Fool von and zu Fake. In his last days before his suicide due to mental illness and alcoholism, he was being followed around for a reality tv show called “Ari and the Half Kingdom”

Norway is a very rich country, North Sea oil, so can weather lousy Royals if it choses to. Unless of course they are invaded and have to rely on their Brigadier Generals and Rear Admirals.

Well my drink is empty and so I will put away the bottle. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

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Serbia 1916, With Bosnia occupying Serbia in the service of Germans, it may be time to stamp the Black Hand

Starting in 1878, Bosnia was occupied by Serb rival Austria. Naturally that was annoying and made a larger pan Serbia over all Serbs less possible. Why not form a Black Hand within the Serb government to make sure those wimps don’t make some back room deal with the Austrians and all their offered economic subsidies. Maybe we can even exact a little revenge on the Austrians with a little Balkan style justice. What could go wrong? 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 asked above what could go wrong. Well check out this stamp. Austrian Hapsburg Emperor Franz Joseph presiding over the military occupation government of majority Muslim Bosnia. Now that government was occupying Serbia which is spelled the German way. The Hapsburg Monarchy imagined that with some degree of local autonomy, the people of various ethnicities would be happy to be their loyal subjects. It worked for the most part with Hungary and many a new Balkan nation recruited a German Royal house to rule them. It seems implausible that it could have worked, but this stamp got your letter mailed in Belgrade for two years.

Todays stamp is issue A24, a 60 Heller stamp issued by the Austrian occupation government of Serbia in 1916. The Serbian overstamp of the Austrian military occupation of Bosnia stamp existed in 21 denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 80 cents unused. It is worth more used, I can see why Austria obviously printed extras for the stamp trade, there is a lot going on with this stamp for the stamp collector to ferret out.

The occupation of Bosnia by the Austrians put more of them on more sides of Slavic Serbia. Serbia was a landlocked country and most of it’s imports and exports passed through Austria with Austrians taking a big cut. Serbian alarm at this can be seen in the coup of 1903 that brought to power the less pro Austrian of the two Serbian Royal houses, see https://the-philatelist.com/2018/06/21/serbia-unlike-so-many-places-had-its-own-royal-line-or-more-problimatically-two/  . The new regime then tried to get tough on the Austrians by increasing customs duties on goods from Austria. Austria then closed the borders to all trade for landlocked Serbia. They then sent out feelers to the Serb government offering trade concessions in return for better relations and acceptance of the status quo.

Many Serbs harbored the dream of Serbs controlling more of nearby lands with a relationship with big power Russia. A yugoSlavia if you will with Serbs dominating. Members of the government and Army were very worried Serb Prime Minister Nikola Pasic would wimp out and accept an Austrian deal. They formed a secret society called the Black Hand that would dispense rough justice to wimps and sell outs. Their leader was a Serbian Army Major code named Apis. Since their views coalesced, Black Hand was in alliance with Muslim Albanians who also resented Austria. Black Hand was very worried, with some justification that the upcoming visit of the Hapsburg heir to the area and so there was arraigned a successful assassination of him in Sarajevo that lead to the starting of World War I.

Code name Apis (on right) hatches another scheme with two fellow Black Hands. Or perhaps they are just considering the latest offer from The Hairclub for Men

In the early days of the war with Austria, Apis was promoted to Coronel, although allegedly not for his planning of the assassination. By 1916, however Serbia had been conquered with the remnants of the Army marching into Albania. The Serb government in exile reconvened on the Greek island of Corfu. With complete victory it seemed the way back was to purge themselves of the Black Hand in order that they might be allowed to return to Belgrade by the Austrians. Code Name Apis was tried for his part in the assassination and executed. The government was later allowed back to Belgrade and given power to rule a wider Yugoslavia not by Austria but rather by the victorious Allied side.

In 1953, Tito’s later version of Yugoslavia had their high court withdraw the conviction of Apis. They didn’t quite say that the assassination in Sarajevo was a good thing, but they said that there was inadequate evidence to convict. This was allowed to happen, Austria was now the land locked ethnic rumpstate and was no longer mounting much of a defense of the Hapsburgs.

Well my drink is empty and I will not again today reach for the bottle, I don’t want to be accused of having a black hand. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

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Sarawak, 1955, Picking favorites among the tribes

Sarawak is a region of north Borneo that was awarded to a British adventurer by the Sultan of Brunei. That lead to the region passing to the British government and then on to modern Malaysia. One can imagine the fun of people far from home interacting with the local tribes, picking favorites, and trying to avoid nightmares. When you imagine such a thing the modern people of Sarawak would like to remind you of the moral distinction between headhunters and cannibals. The maneaters in Sarawak are the alligators. 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.

For this near the end of colonial times stamp issue, the colony decided to feature the culture of two of the smaller tribes in the area. In this case we have the ceremonial carving of the smaller Kenyah tribe that exist both in Sarawak as well as over the border in Indonesia.  It is understandable why the colony featured the Kenyah tribe. They are a peaceful, untatooed people who were early converts to Protestant Christianity and active in agriculture. Modern Malaysia has not stopped featuring the Kenyah people. Miss World Malaysia 2020, Francisca James, is from the Kenyah tribe in Sarawak.

Miss World Malaysia 2020 Francisca James, from the Kenyah tribe of Sarawak

Todays stamp is issue A24, a 10 cent stamp issued by the Crown Colony of Sarawak in 1955. It was a 15 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

The area of Sarawak was awarded to British adventurer Sir James Brooke as a reward for assisting the then Sultan of Brunei. The rule of a different race was awkward but mostly peaceful and the economic future of the area was secured by the discovery of oil. The Brooke’s were dislodged by a Japanese occupation during World War II and the British government took over directly post war as better able to handle post war reconstruction.

The interaction of ruling or just resident whites made for some trouble in their depiction of some inland tribes as head hunters. It was true that some among the Iban tribe were headhunters. Naturally this is pretty exciting stuff back in the home country. In her last years back in Britain, Silvia, the last Brooke era Queen wrote a popular autobiography “Sylvia, Queen of the Headhunters”. Like most primitive tribes, practices like head hunting became less common over time.

You might have expected such controversies to pass into history as the area became under Malaysian rule. Instead it has intensified as there is a new popular video game called Borneo, Jungle Nightmare. In it your character can fight pirates and Brooke style white rajahs. You also face jungle attacks by iban tribe head hunters that can go beyond head hunting into the consumption of human flesh. The towns are displayed as more modern. The critics would have preferred the game to be less place and people specific. The makers of the game state that it is just a game and is made more intriguing by including real places and realistic characters. They also point to documented cases of cannibalism in the area during post colonial insurrections.

Multiplayer online game ” Borneo, Jungle Nightmare”

Well my drink is empty. It will be up to the many gamers of the modern Sarawak to decide if they want to start the game and live out a local nightmare. I expect they will line up to do so. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2021.

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Australia 1968, William Dampier, Bridging the Explorer as Pirate to Explorer as Naturalist, while purveying Tex Mex

With William Dampier we have the real life counterpart to  Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. He gets a stamp for charting the east coast of Australia when it was still New Holland. He should be remembered by children in the sense of what a wide word of possibilities are open to them in life. Instead his type are taught in the sense of bad people spreading evil wherever they go. An arguement for another day, anyway whats the deal with Tex Mex? Read on… 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 visually is let down a little by it’s nature of being a small stamp meant for bulk postage. We do get a portrait of him and his then ship HMS Roebuck. Dampier at his most boring. A serving Royal Navy Captain whose mission it was to draw maps. This man was a pirate. This man taught his fellow Britons how to make guacamole. Perhaps thus stamp is most let down by being Australian as Australia’s only brush with Dampier is what is shown on this stamp. Dampier calls out for a new set of big colourfull stamps from his native UK showing his many inspiring sides. And one of Dampier at his end, convicted and penniless, to teach the kiddies and kiddies at heart that crime doesn’t pay.

Todays stamp is issue A145, a 50 cent stamp issued by Australia starting in 1968. It was part of a 26 stamp issue released for bulk postage after the decimalization and Americanization of the Australian currency. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used. As a high denomination bulk stamp, if my copy were mint, the value would skyrocket to $15.

William Dampier was born in 1651 in England. Two merchant shipping expeditions one to Java and another to Newfoundland inspired him to join the Royal Navy. Soon however a sickness ended his service. He tried his hand at plantation management in Jamaica and logging on the mosquito coast but soon he was back to sea as a sometime pirate and sometime privateer. Unusually for a pirate, back in England after his adventures his good memory ample notes allowed him to write books about his exploits that contained both daring do and thorough academic level cataloging of what he had seen as the only man on earth to have circumnavigated the planet three times. Among what he brought back to England were guacamole, avocadoes, mango chutney and the cooking technique of barbeque.

A Dampier map of the then Mosquito Coast, now Central America, from one of his adventure books.

Dampier also brought back with him a slave boy from what is now the Philippines named Joly. Joly had become despondent over the death of his mother and Dampier was chronically broke so even though they had been close, Joly was auctioned off. He was acquired by an inn that put Joly on display as captured Prince Giola of Mindanao. Joly soon died of small pox.

An etching of slave boy Joly after he was repackaged as Prince Giolo of the savages of the east.

The Admiralty had seen Dampier’s books and commissioned him as a ship Captain of HMS Roebuck and told to sail to Australia, then still New Holland, and make charts of and an exploration of the east coast. This did not go well. Dampier discovered a species of giant clams near New Guinea and anchored the ship to do a thorough investigation of them and how best to eat them. At anchor in rough seas, HMS Roebuck’s condition deteriorated. Dampier decided to abandon the job at hand and try to make it back to England. He got as far as Accession Island but the the amount of water the ship was taking on  was too much and Dampier was shipwrecked there until him and the crew were able to catch a ride on a merchant ship in the India trade.

Back in England Dampier was arrested. Not for losing his ship, not for cruelty to indigenous people he had come across, not for all the stomach issues his new spicy foods had caused at home. He was convicted of cruelty. Early in the journey he had a conflict with a young but connected and of a higher class Lieutenant. He solved his problem by dropping him off in Brazil where the young officer was arrested. He still beat Dampier back to England and filed charges against Dampier.

Dampier was back to being a pirate when he attempted a fourth circumnavigation of the Earth. By this time he was old with failing health and the mission was abandoned. He died deeply in debt back in England.

Well my drink is empty. This stamp opened up a story more complex than I could have imagined. What a stamp is for! Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

 

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Lithuania 1934, Smetona gives back Memel to Germany but can’t bring himself to give the rest to Russia

A tiny country between 3 large ones will be in a constant struggle to just survive. Sometimes that means fighting to preserve basic language skills, sometimes it means running to Cleveland, Ohio to be sustained by a diaspora in the faint hope of return. 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 celebrates the 60th birthday of dictator Antanas Smetona. Earlier Baltic country stamps had an exuberance that seemed half way between Kaiser era Germany and early Soviet, an interesting combination. See, https://the-philatelist.com/2019/08/09/latvia-1919-ulmanis-slays-the-russian-dragon-to-take-kurland/  . Here we have an aging grey leader with no real answers on how Lithuania could survive. This is very reflective of the pessimism setting in. So you know, happy effing birthday.

Todays stamp is issue A43, a 30 Centai stamp issued by Lithuania in 1934. It was a three stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1.50 used.

Antanas Smetona was born to peasants on an estate belonging to the widely prominent Radziwill family. Lithuania was at the time under Czarist Russian rule. There was much promotion of the Russian language in Lithuania and local students were even forced to recite prayers in Russian. Poles and Germans in the same school were allowed to use their own language. Smetona protested and was expelled. He appealed to the Czar’s education minister and was allowed to return in exchange for the compromise of saying his prayers in Latin. He then abandoned studies toward a priesthood and began studying the history of the Lithuanian language. He helped write a more complete Lithuanian grammar book for students while working in a bank. Russia’s defeat by Germany saw the Baltic states get  recognized as independent after the war. The area of Memel was further taken from Germany. See https://the-philatelist.com/2019/06/21/memel-1920-the-french-worry-about-the-germans-and-forget-to-worry-about-the-lithuanians/  . There was much pressure from Soviet Russia, Poland, and Germany to receive the territory that Lithuania processed. There were also many ambitious Lithuanians wanting to serve the new government. Getting them to agree on much was next to impossible and there was much corruption involved in repatriating to Lithuanians assets that belonged to German, Russian, Jew, and Polish residents before independence.

In 1926 Smetona participated in a coup that made him President. Over the next few years he consolidated power until he was ruling by decree. He tried hard to limit foreign influence in Lithuania. He spent lavishly on the armed forces with the view that his greatest military threat was the Soviets. To that end he gave Memel back to Germany in order to turn them into an ally as they were in the First World War.

A year later Hitler and Stalin signed a non aggression pact that gave the Baltic states to the Soviets. Soon Smetona was packing his bags. He did not want to be the one to hand over the country  to the Soviets and he hoped that he could lead a government in exile. He was stopped at the German border by Lithuanian border guards. He tried and failed to convince the local regiment commander to offer at least token resistance to the Soviets. They then let him and his family slip over the border. Smetona found himself unwelcome in Berlin as Hitler and Stalin were then unlikely allies. He applied for a visa from not yet at war USA that was granted on the condition that he stayed out of politics. Before taking the USA up on the offer, Smetona went to Switzerland in hopes of setting up a government in exile. In Bern he found many of his old rivals in exile and none wanted to be involved with the former dictator. After a long journey that included Portugal and Brazil, he finally made it to the USA. Again he found his old rivals had no place for him, The Lithuanian Ambassador that he appointed was in cahoots with the old rivals in Bern.

Smetona’s son upon arriving in the USA had taken a factory job in Cleveland, a city that then had a large Lithuanian community. Unlike most deposed dictators then and now, Smetona did not leave Lithuania with a great sum of money. Finding no support among the diaspora in the USA, Smetona and his wife ended up moving in with his son. He died in his son’s home in 1944 due to a housefire. The government in exile was not able to do much when the Soviets retook Lithuania from the Germans. By then the Soviets were American allies and the government in exile had collaborated too much with Germany. The only achievement was maintaining recognition of Lithuanian independence as granted by the League of Nations in 1919.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Antanas Smetona. Sure he wasn’t able to keep Lithuania independent but he was able to shut up his ambitious rivals while the country faced such challenges and proved himself not a crook when he left with no stolen money. Well above par, if we understand that par is pretty low. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

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Nicaragua 1983, Nationalizing the gold mines, sure output will drop but if the money stays here?

One of the first actions of the new Sandinista regime in 1979 was nationalizing all the mines. Almost all mining in Nicaragua is gold. This stamp talks up this action as an achievement. 44 years later Nicaragua has the same regime it had in 1979. Perhaps now is a good time to judge how it went. 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 have a great love of stamp issues from a new communist regime. The countries always have big industrial plans that their now in power technocrats are eager to try out. They are best early on in the regime when there really is much optimism, Here in Nicaragua we get the optimism with better modern stamp printing of the 1980s, thus a unique stamp. Notice mining is shown as an advanced high tech enterprise. Not a man breaking his back in a dark, airless hole picking at a rock. No this is a stamp by and for technocrats. Compare this to this Japanese mining stamp I did a while back, https://the-philatelist.com/2019/08/02/japan-1948-getting-back-to-work-in-the-mine/   .

Todays stamp is issue A166 a 1 Cordoba stamp issued by Nicaragua on October 2nd, 1983. It was a two stamp issue, the higher value being airmail, celebrating the nationalization of the mining industry. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents cancelled to order.

There are mines in Nicaragua that mine silver, copper, lead, and zinc. All the way back to the Spanish, gold mining was front and center to the industry in Latin America. The usual method was that foreign companies would pay the government for the mining concession and handle the mine themselves. The political left is not wrong in it’s accusation that this prevents the wealth being created from reaching the people. All of the gold mined is exported.

Nicaragua had reason to celebrate the nationalization of the gold mines in 1983. At first the mines output went up as employment levels rose and investments were made. !983, four years after the nationalization proved to be a high water mark for gold mining in Nicaragua. New veins of gold must be constantly sought out as existing ones play out. Nicaragua without outside help had no ability to do that and by 1988 the gold output had fallen in half.

The industry did also have some new challenges relating to the rivalry between the USA and the Sandinistas. The area of the mines in northern Nicaragua saw much activity from the American backed Contra rebels. In 1984 the CIA went as far as mining Nicaraguan harbors. The mines were not deadly but when struck emitted a giant boom sound designed to terrify, and discourage exports. Nicaragua felt this was an act of war and took a case for compensation to the International Court of Justice. They won in Court but the USA refused to pay even after the UN General Assembly voted 93-3 on a non binding resolution to pay.

Gold mining output is now much higher than in 1983. The country gave up on nationalization and invited in a Canadian firm to run the mines. You won’t find this success on a newer Nicaraguan stamp. The wealth created is not getting through to the people.

Well my drink is empty and I find myself sympathetic to the 80s technocrats of Sandinista Nicaragua. In power for 40 years means corruption as long replaced innovation, but early on at least there was hope. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Portugal 1941, Recognizing the Common Person in a Regional Issue

One nice thing in common between the Socialist. I believe they now prefer Progressive, and National Socialist, I believe they now prefer Christion Nationalist, governments is they often portray the simple worker in a positive, even heroic light. Here we have a rancher from the then Province of Ribatego. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage after you are done riding fences on the lower 40 acres. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

When we romanticize hard work such as done by this Portuguese rancher, we airbrush out the toll that it takes on him physically. However what we should not do is forget what such productivity does for his soul. Perhaps hard work followed by a younger retirement age is the answer.

Todays stamp is issue A134, a 1.75 Escudo stamp issued by Portugal on April 4th, 1941, It was part of a 10 stamp issues featuring different regions and tradespeople. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $4.00 used. The value of this high denomination bulk postage issue rises to $40 unused, as bulk stamps were for actual mail.

The region presented was the then Province of Ribatego. Ribatego literally means up the Tagus River relative to Lisbon at the river’s mouth. The large area, with no border to the ocean or Spain is not densely populated region. The large river crossing it makes it uniquely suited to agriculture especially cattle ranching.

The old map showing Ribatejo Province.

I mentioned that this stamp came from a time of a national socialist government in Portugal. In the early seventies, there was a revolution that changed that. The new center left government meant change was coming to Ribatego Province. At the demand of the European Union regional lines were redrawn with most of Ribatego finding itself in the newly created Santarem. The Santarem region is named for the largest city in the area.

If one senses a shift in this from productive rural living to the cities, I believe that would be correct. Now Portugal has to spend two and a half percent of gross national product to import enough food.

A search today of ranching in Portugal gets two main results, one hopeful and one sad. The sad one was ranches being sold for high prices to be vacation homes and Air B+Bs for people from somewhere else.

The more hopeful one was from a regional state park offering jobs helping look after their herd for younger would be ranchers. This probably won’t last with the excuse of climate change offered, but I for one am excited at the idea of the young experiencing  ranching.

The modern cattle waiting for new ranchers with the Tagus River in the background

Well my drink is empty and there are many chores to get to. Come again soon for another story to be learned from stamp collecting.

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Turkey 1973, The Red Crescent Society stands ready to help

The Ottoman Empire had signed the treaty recognizing the Swiss style cross as a symbol of neutrality and charity in war time. When war came, all they saw was a Crusades style Christian cross. What an opportunity to display Christian charity by not then allowing the Ottomans to rot. 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 is from 95 years after the Russo-Turkish War that first saw the Red Cross operate under a Turkish Crescent. Given that, it is amazing how much the image chosen by Turkey still imparts Christian charity for Muslims.

Todays stamp is semi postal issue SP53 issued by Turkey in 1973. It was a three stamp issue recognizing  the 50th anniversary of the child protection program of the Red Crescent Society in Turkey. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 45cents.

Russia was in a pretty bad state after the Crimean War. The Black Sea was completely under Ottoman control and the territorial integrity of the Ottoman Empire was now guaranteed by Great Britain. However according to the then Russian Foreign  Minister Alexander Gorchakov, Russia was not sulking, she was composing herself. One benefit was that the Ottomans had agreed to treat non Muslims in their area more equally.

Alexander Gorchkov, the Russian Foreign Minister who did his best for his brothers and sisters while avoiding world war. Russia needs your type again today.

If only they had done so. However the repression of both Slavs in Bulgaria and Serbia and Armenians in Turkey itself and Lebanon took on a new severity with African recruited Bashibazouks empowered to plunder.

Period artwork depicting Bashibazouk pillage in Ottoman occupied Bulgaria

Russia, with it’s blood ties to both the Armenian and Slavic peoples felt that it was time to intervene and fighting occurred both in the Balkans and Armenian areas of eastern Turkey. Britain tried to hold Russia back but the result was that Bulgaria and Romania were freed of Turkey. There was much population shifting as Balkan Muslims and Jews ran to Turkey and Armenians ran to Russian controlled areas of the Caucus mountains.

Being the first war after the Red Cross was formed to give aid to war wounded who previously had no organized system of help. Perhaps surprisingly, given the importance of blood ties in this war, the Red Cross tried to help the wounded of Turkey. At first the much needed help was refused. The Swiss Cross did have Christian roots and the whole operation dripped of uniquely Christian charity. To show how deep the Christian charity went. the offer was made to operate under a stylized Turkish Muslim style crescent. It was more important to help the wounded than display who was offering the help.

In later years, the Red Cross agreed to operate under different symbols in Israel, Iran, and India. Over time this meant more globalist bureaucracy and less charity, but no good deed goes unpunished here in this world.

Well my drink is empty but I may have a few more while contemplating the idea of extending charity to those that hate you. Does that go too far into self abasement? Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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South West Africa 1981, Put down your Crowbar, and we will throw out the Cubans

Formerly German South West Africa was given to South Africa by a League of Nations Mandate. It was governed as a de facto extra province by Apartheid South Africa. The arrival of Cubans backing up African desires to rid the area of white colonialism complicated an ever more complicated situation. Gosh with a overstretched draftee army, this could turn into another Vietnam for South Africa. We better Vietnamize, err Namibianize, err localize, the fighting. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

As a de facto extra province, you might expect the area to use South African stamps. The earlier stamps very much resemble South African issues. By the eighties though the stamps were less political with more animals and plants with a smattering of remembrances of very old German achievements in the area. Very much the colony on the way to independence.

Todays stamp is issue A98, a 20 Cent stamp issued by the by then no longer UN recognized South African administration of South West Africa on August 14th, 1981. It was a four stamp issue in various denominations showing local variations of the aloe plant. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 45 cents whether used or unused. There was a functional postal service, which keeps this stamp from being fake. The UN withdrew recognition of the South African administration of now Namibia in 1966.

The Germans arrived in the area in the late 19th century with large numbers of colonists. The Germans discovered diamonds there in 1908. I did a German colonial stamp from that period here, https://the-philatelist.com/2018/10/05/german-sw-africa-the-hottentot-captain-can-disappear-into-the-grass-but-shoot-him-at-the-water-hole/   . During World War I, the South Africans marched in unopposed. Germans and Dutch heritage South African Boers were simpatico. The League of Nations mandated South Africa to rule in 1920. Africans were not involved in any of this and there numbers were greatly reduced after bloody insurrections against the Germans.

The 1950s and 1960s had seen African colonies gain independence and black rule. In 1960 the Belgians gave up in Congo and things went very poorly for Belgian settlers there. Many were killed and robbed based on their race in the first days after independence. Countries south of Congo often had many such white colonists and they resolved to hold onto power to avoid the same fate. Colonial powers like Britain and Portugal did not support this and the new black nations pressed the UN to recognize local black groups as the legitimate government. In 1966 the UN claimed the right to administer South West Africa with an eye toward turning it over to the black organization called Swapo that fielded would be politicians and a guerilla army attacking South African targets.

South Africa fielded a small draftee army inducted from the minority white population. A counter insurgency war in South West Africa was a great strain especially after Portuguese Angola fell to Cuban/Soviet backed communist blacks. The Cubans were mostly black and well armed and made things much more difficult for South Africa. Taking a page from the American book of failure in Vietnam, South Africa attempted to localize the fighting. All black areas were organized into tribal black homelands. They formed a local unit called the Crowbar with South African officers and black soldiers recruited from The African homeland state of Ovamboland. The force was heavily armed and fought in the counter insurgency style of Swapo. The leader was a Rhodesian who had experience in the bush war there. Both sides took to attempting to get the other sides fighters in their family homes off duty. This kept the fighting between blacks.

A Crowbar memorial at an Afrikaner heritage site in South Africa. It seems to still stand.

Cubans meant that South Africa still had to maintain forces there and there were clashes with Cubans in neighboring Angola. This gave the UN an opening to try to get it’s mandate regarding South West Africa recognized. A deal was offered that Cubans would be withdrawn from Angola in return for South Africa withdrawing its Army from South West Africa. This was agreed but then Swapo jumped the gun and sent their army marching into South West Africa. Them and the UN had forgotten about Crowbar. Crowbar pounced on an in the open Swapo and massacred their army. The UN was left begging both sides to put down their arms. Remember Swapo had agreed to come in unarmed but reneged. Being the UN there was no consequence for this and after this last mission Crowbar was disbanded. The first election Swapo won but without sufficient numbers to make a Congo like outcome. Nobody will be surprised that with South Africa and the UN gone now Namibia reverted to a one party state. Swapo’s leader Sam Nujoma, a former train cleaner, was President and received peace prizes in the name of ever peaceful Lenin and Ho Chi Minh. His son Zacky was implicated in corruption as part of the Panama Papers scandal. Of course there were no consequences. With South Africa’s change in government there were no longer any protectors for the black veterans of Crowbar. A truth and reconciliation commission there declared Crowbar to blame for all those hurt in the war in Namibia.

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

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Russia 1914, It is again time for young would be Ilyas to defeat the German Idolishche

Ilya of Murom was a legendary Bogatyr (knight) who rose from a sickly childhood to defeat invaders both real and mythological in the service of Vladimir the Great. His fighting over, he later became a monk and was later Beatified. Doesn’t that sound like exactly the type of person Czar Nicholas could use in his ill considered invasion of Germany? 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 visuals of this stamp are much different than most Czar era stamps. If one is going to war against a powerful rival, isn’t it better to imagine yourself a superhuman Bogatyr in the glorious service of a Royal who is Great. Well…. This stamp sold at twice the face value with the extra Kopeck helping war victims, so at least the stamp was honest about the price of war.

Todays stamp is issue SP5, a 1 Kopeck semi postal stamp issued by Russia in 1914. It was a four stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $2.00.

Ilya of Murom was a real person who lived about 1000 AD. His believed remains bear out some of the stories about him. After a childhood illness, Ilya was unable to walk until the age of 33 when he was prayed over by Christian Pilgrims on their way to a Holy place. They not only healed him but gave him super human strength. Ilya decided to use his blessing to rid nearby Kiev of the foreign pagans occupying it called Idolishche. Notice that raises the Orthadox Christian Church and cast the Russians as the saviors of Ukraine. Ilya was in the service of Vladimir the Great of the Rurik Dynasty. As a Bogatyr he is credited with single handedly chasing the Idolishche from the city of Chermigov.

Ilya’s battles were not over. In fact they were about to get downright mythological. In the forests near Bryansk, Ilya faced his biggest foe, Nightingale the Robber. Nightingale was half man and half bird. He lived in trees and had an alcohol problem. He had the ability to stun people with his whistle after which he would rob them of their booze. Sounds like a job for Ilya and one that must be dealt with immediately. Ilya braved the whistle and shot his arrow twice hitting Nightingale in the eye and temple. Wounded, Ilya then took him back to Vladimir’s Castle in Kiev. Prince Vladimir wanted to hear his whistle but Nightingale was unable until he had a few glasses of liquid courage. Then he came fourth with a whistle that leveled the castle. Ilya then took him out and finished him off. Idolische and half bird men who rob you and harsh your buzz. Hmm… Germans and gypsies anyone? After Czar Nicholas defeats the Germans, he will also be considered great like Vladimir right?

Ilya’s fight with Nightingale by 20th century Soviet artist Ivan Bilibin

It is believed that the prototype for Ilya of Murom was Ilya Perchersky, a monk who had previously been a great warrior. He had the nickname, Small Boot. He had been surprised by his enemies and fought them off by hitting them with his boot. He was Beatified in 1643.

Well my drink is empty. Perhaps if I whistle, my wife would bring me another. No Ilya would not approve. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.