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Poland 1985, 40 years of GrossPolish Reich, can Weislaw get a seig heil, comrade

Here we have a map of Polish conquests in the war. It resembles greatly those maps of conquered territory put out by wartime Germany when it began referring to itself as Gross Reich. 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 fascinating stamp. The map shows land gained from Germany in the north and the west. What it does not show is land lost in the east. It describes what happened as the “return” of the western and northern  territories. The stamp issue also shows 12th century Polish Prince Boleslaw. who had ambitions in Pomerania. Boleslaw seems more famous for blinding his brother than actually conquering territory. This stamp shows the Prime Minister another shows the governor of Danzig, errr Gdansk. In 1946 there was a three times yes referendum on the new western, no vote on the eastern, border and the imposition of a communist system. The vote was faked as a 3 yes victory but the only vote actually won was the new border. Only by two thirds and not including all the Germans uprooted in defeat.

Todays stamp is issue A842, a 10 Zloty stamp issued by Poland on May 8th, 1985. It was a three stamp issue on VE day. There was another stamp the next day with Polish troops brought in behind the Red Army at Brandenburg Gate in 1945. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used or unused.

Several time Prime Minister Wladyslaw Gomulka had an interesting road. With little formal education, he apprenticed in metalworking and worked in a refinery  during the 1920s reconstituted Polish state. From this he became involved in the trade union movement and became readicalized. As such he was persecuted by the Polish government whom he viewed as fascist. Communists in Poland were divided between trade unionist and the internationalist intellectuals of mainly Jewish heritage. Though he was not himself of that heritage, Gomulka changed his first name in his writings to Weislaw to try to get ahead. He also self taught himself the Ukrainian language because Poland of the time was looking east to go gross.

Stalin in the late thirties purged many communist parties of the internationalists because he thought they were not loyal enough to him personally. That does not mean they did not head east when both the Soviets and the Germans invaded in 1939. Gomulka stayed in Warsaw and completely renounced the internationalists and let his first name revert. He was in place to be named prime minister during the Red Army occupation. However he did not last long as he was not adequately close to Stalin.

People remembered the new territories stuff. After worker uprisings in the new territories had to be suppressed. Stalin’s buddy himself was conveniently fatally ill and Gomulka was brought back from a persecuted retirement to again be Prime Minister. He managed to end the uprising and prevent the Soviets from invading. Gomulka was getting older however and when workers on the new territories got unruly again in 1970, he put them down brutally and then was forced to resign. Interesting how so many of the uprisings against the communist Polish government came from their “returned” teritories. Maybe they didn’t get rid of as many Germans as they thought?

A modern view of the Gdansk Shipyard in the “returned” northern territory. It was formerlly the Kaiserliche Werft Danzig. It is now part owned by Ukraine so Gomulka might advise modern Poles to look east again

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another while I consider the benefits of stable borders. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

 

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Sri Lanka 2000, Buddhist Monks try and fail to reclaim Sri Lanka’s education system

Sometimes it is enough to appreciate an effort. For thousands of years Buddhist Monks were in charge of education in the Kingdom of Kandy. When Kandy fell to the British, British Anglican based education followed. The Monk on todays stamp is considered “Most Venerable” because he started a Buddhist school that tried to keep monks involved in education. Nice idea, but long after the British, his school is falling down with fewer than 100 students. 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.

Sri Lanka education is really a success story. The country has 96% literacy. The reality however was that the educational system was put in place by the British, with most of the important schools founded, taught, and funded by the British. How annoying! So here we have a counterfactual stamp to make Sri Lankans feel better. A Buddhist Monk who long ago set up the first Buddhist school to rival British education. Wait I thought Buddhist Monks had been in charge of education on Kandy for thousands of years. Confusing, first Buddhist school?.

Todays stamp is issue A595, a 3.5 Rupee stamp issued by Sri Lanka on November 14th, 2000. It was a three stamp issue of famous people, here Baddegama Siri Piyaratana Nayake Thero who founded the Buddhist school in Dodanduaua. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 30 cents used.

The Kandy Empire fell to the British in 1819. The British replaced the Dutch there after the Napoleanic wars and took a more hands on role in governance. Remember during the time of the British East India Company, profit was the motive and so tea plantations were the order of the day. Profits of course were always illusive, see https://the-philatelist.com/2018/12/04/ceylon-1935-hinting-the-money-was-drying-up-for-great-britain/ . The British Governor had wrote back to Britain that there was no point building schools in Ceylon as the local children would not attend as they were too intwined with the Monks. Somehow the Anglican Church saw this as a challenge and soon they were many missionary schools, which found many willing students. As in Britain, the schools in Ceylon were brought under government control in the 1830s, see https://the-philatelist.com/2018/10/11/great-britain-1989-defining-educational-leadership-as-bringing-it-to-the-masses-earlier-than-most/ , and afterward there were Ceylon schools based on the various religions of the students and same sex. This system was expanded in the 20th century to cover ever more of the people.

So where does this leave the Monks. Well Dodanduaua had prospered under the British as they were able to trade the salted fish for which they are known. With the prosperity came a Buddhist religious revival. Monk Thero, he has a lot of names, not just the ones listed above, and Thero is the one I have some hope of spelling, saw the opportunity. He traveled to Burma to get a Upasenpada. a higher level or Ordination. He then returned and built his school on the site of a luxuriant Ginger plant in the shape of a parasol. This was viewed as a good omen. The school did not just teach religion but had a fully equipped science lab paid for by a British Coronel who was impressed with what he saw at the school. Monk Thero worked very hard building the school. He believed you could see God in the sweat generated.

The school still exists and is listed on Sri Lanka’s list of historic places. There are very few students now and the facilities are in sad shape. The School hopes that a dignitary from the National Education Ministry will visit and realize the historical significance and pony up some money. There is about as much chance of that as attracting a modern British Coronel. Maybe they should take inspiration from their founder and build some sweat equity.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Governor Brownrigg. Modern Sri Lanka really has it out for him. In the final battles with Kandy, Brownlee published a list of local “traitors” to his side in the of course English local newspaper. Sri Lanka took that list and redesignated them all national heroes. Yet Sri Lanka apparently wishes Britain had taken Brownlee’s advise on leaving education to the Monks. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Exiled Yugoslavia 1943, remembers a Croatian/Bosnian/German? Bishop

A fake stamp may still be interesting. They can get quite convoluted. 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.

So this stamp issue started out as a recognized issue, albeit just barely. The stamp was issued with the aim of raising revenue by the Yugoslav Royal government in exile in London. At the bottom of the stamp you can see it was printed in London. The international community, excluding of course the Axis troops then occupying Yugoslavia, still recognized the Royal government as the legitimate representative of the people. So far so good, but the stamp collecting community requires a stamp to also be useful for postage and this stamp was unavailable at Yugoslav post offices. The London Embassy developed a work around. This stamp would be valid for postage no matter how many were printed because it could be used on Yugoslav Navy ships at sea. One submarine and two torpedo boats had escaped to Egypt during the 1941 invasion and very occasionally operated with their old crews under British command. A thin string of legitimacy. That string soon broke. In 1944 the Allies began recognizing the partisans under Tito as the legitimate government. They took over the London Embassy and it’s large stock of unsold copies of this stamp issue. It was not their type of issue and the issue was cancelled. Not however thrown away. In 1950, a 1945 victory overstamp was added to remaining stocks and sold off not for postal use to stamp dealers. This stamp is one of those, so fake.

That does not mean it is not an interesting issue as it recognizes people who the Communists would have mostly found unworthy. I have already covered another stamp from this issue here, https://the-philatelist.com/2018/07/30/communist-yugoslavia-1950-sells-off-the-invalid-exile-stamps/ . On todays stamp, we have a Bosnian Croat Catholic Bishop who became a political figure promoting Croatian nationalism. He is thus an odd figure for a Yugoslav government to be honoring. Especially at a time when Croatia was given independence by the German invaders and one of the first stamp issues of Croatia literally blots out King Peter II’s face. See https://the-philatelist.com/2019/09/20/croatia-1941-crossing-out-peter-ii-is-something-we-all-can-agree-on/ .

Bishop Joseph Strossmayer was born into a German family in the Croat area of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He received Catholic clerical training in Belgrade, Budapest, and Vienna. He was ordained a priest in 1838. He was opposed to what he perceived as then Hungarian domination of Croats politically and served in the Croat Diet, a national assembly. Strossmayer was named Bishop of Diakovar in modern day Bosnia. He founded the wonderfully named Academy of South Slavs. Why don’t they still give out names like that?

As Bishop, Strossmayer ruffled a few feathers. At the Vatican Council he spoke out controversially in favor of Protestantism and reuniting the Catholic Church with the Eastern Orthadox Church. Even more controversially, perhaps even heretically, he spoke out against Papal infallibility and even Papal Primacy. He lost those fights at the Vatican Council and as Bishop was forced to yield “at least outwardly” as he put it, to the official position. He died in 1905.

Well my drink is empty and so I may pour another while I ponder why Bishop Strossmayer would be honored By Yugoslav Royalty. Were he alive, given his background, he would have probably gone along with a German influenced Croatia. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Japan 1987 remembering Goyo for using Japonism to revive Ukiyo-e

The world was becoming a smaller place in the 19th century. European impressionist painters like Van Gogh and Degas had been greatly influenced by Japanese Ukiyo-e style of woodblock print art that was fading fast in Japan. However when a new generation of Japanese artists like Goyo Hashiguci saw what the Europeans were up to, The Shin-hanga style rejuvenated the old style now with more emphasis on light, as with the impressionists. 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 Ukiyo-e style means pictures in a floating world. The revival to succeed had to be commercially viable. So the Shin-Hanga revival included a lot more geishas and even nudes. The Goyo print on this stamp is called “Woman Combing Hair”.The upside of the printing technique is that the numerous prints have more of the hand of the artisans involved. A reprint of this work done in the old way but printed from a modern woodblock is worth $500.

Todays stamp is issue A1300, a 60 yen stamp issued by Japan on April 14th 1987. This stamp and one other with a different Goyo work were issued as part of a philately week. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 30 cents used.

Ukiyo-e was most common in Japan in the 18th and 19th centuries. The most common subject was nature scenes. The style is very labor intensive, not just for the designing artist. The work then goes to a wood carvers who carves the woodblock that will transfer the image. The printer is then responsible for the coloring and the handmade paper on to which the image goes onto. Last but definitely not least is the job of the publisher, whose job it is to promote and distribute the work. Around 1870, Ukiyo-e prints became available in Paris. There they had much influence on the artists who were part of the impressionist movement. This influence is referred to as Japonism.

A Van Gogh portrait of a man selling Ukiyo-e prints in Paris from 1887.

Goyo initially tried his hand at the traditional style of Ukiyo-e at a Japanese art show in 1911. It was not a success. Goyo, not his real name, was then approached by a publisher to do a work more influenced by the use of light by western impressionist. This was the Shin-Hanga movement. It was also more influenced by demand in the world market. The subject was nude and the title was “Bathing”. This work was a big success and the publisher wanted to continue the collaboration. Instead Goyo supervised the artisans involved in later works personally.

Unfortunately Goyo was a sickly man suffering from beriberi and meningitis. When he died in 1921, he had only completed 14 designs. His brother and then nephew stepped in with 7 new designs allegedly taken from Goyo sketches. No doubt helping the value of the original prints, the original woodblocks for making the prints were lost in a Tokyo earthquake in 1923.

The Shin-Hanga movement faded after the war. Modern practitioners tend to do for themselves the woodblock carving and printing. When it is done all by one person, it is called Sosaku-hanga.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Goyo’s publisher of “Bathing”. a Mr. Watanabe. To bad for being shut out of the later success after suggesting the right track for “Goyo”. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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India 1931, The Royal Mail Ship Mooltan, brings the mail and a few passengers

We forget there was a time when bringing the mail was big business. The ship on the stamp was or course a cruise ship, but a big part of its service was bringing mail from Britain to Egypt through the Suez Canal then on to India, Sri lanka, Singapore and Australia. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Todays stamp showed off the British Royal Mail Sevice as practiced in British India. In this case we have a cruise ship, named after a city in the Punjab in the service of delivering the mail to far off colonies. It is interesting how many colonial issues have to do with reminding colonists that their home has not forgotten them. This issue really ran the gamut of how hard Britain worked to stay in touch. Giant ships, whose size was limited by the need to pass through the Suez Canal, planes, trucks, even to the man pushing the cart locally. What a massive operation.

The stamp today is issue A81, a 6 Anna stamp issued by British India in 1931. It was a 19 stamp issue in various denomiations showing the operations of the Royal Mail and King George VI. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 95 cents used.

A Royal Mail Steamer (RMS) is a designation that goes back to 1840. It indicates that the private ship is under contract to carry mail. In theory, if the ship is not carrying mail the name of the ship reverts to SS. The ship will fly the pennant of the Royal Mail and the Crown Emblem, The ship on todays stamp was built in Belfast Northern Ireland by the ship maker Harland and Wolff. Harland and Wolff also built the Titanic, 6 aircraft carriers, and the first supertanker built in the UK. The ship was built for the Peninsular and Oriental Shipping Line was founded originally to take mail to Spain by a Scottish sailor and a London based ship broker. The company later added mail contracts further East. The RMS Mooltan was built around 1920,  named after a city in modern day Pakistan, replacing a similar named ship that had been sunk while requisitioned to World War I troopship service. This RMS Mooltan was also requisitioned for war service in World War II but survived. There was post war less demand for worldwide ship mail service and the ship spent it’s last days taking British emigres to Australia and New Zealand. The ship was scrapped in Faslane in Scotland in 1954.

Already by the time of this stamp there was less profits in moving the mail. The Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, a competitor to P&O was the largest shipping company in the world in the 1920s.. It was operating at a loss but denied that and kept paying a dividend. A prospectus was sent out trying to attract additional investors. When the line asked for an extension on money owed the government, the government sent an auditor that found the disguised losses and the omissions from the previously publicized stock prospectus. The managing director, Owen Phillips, the First Baron Kyslant, was jailed and the company was reorganized with heavy government subsidies. The case lead to higher company auditing standards.

Lord Kyslant. jailed head or the Royal Mail Steam Packet Line

The infrastructure that built the machine of the Royal Mail is mostly gone now. Harland and Wolff’s last ship was built in 2003. They tried to make it on ship repairs and a desperate scheme to build off shore wind energy platforms. The company closed just this last August. The parent company of Peninsular and Oriental Lines was sold to Dubai Ports World in 2006. The associated cruise line had previously been sold to Carnival and the commercial shipping arm to Danish firm Maersk. One nod to the old days is that British Airways jets regularly carrying Royal Mail, have the old pennant painted on.

Well my drink is empty and when I look at old stamps like this of the infrastructure to move the mail, I come away amazed how cheap it was to send a letter. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Germany 2000, rubbing nose so successfully in defeat, that a later nation converts

There are not many stamps displaying erotic dancing girls. Throw in one where the local girl is dancing to service someone suddenly thrust into power by defeat and it becomes one in a million. 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 mentioned in the stamp yesterday that the situation self corrected when the Stasi came in the night and removing the statue of Stalin. The situation on this stamp ended abruptly as well when the Gestapo sent Weill packing.  As of yet the fond remembrance of Weimar degeneracy has gone unchallenged in Germany. We will see if that continues.

The stamp today is issue A1000, a 3 Mark stamp issued by Germany on February 17th, 2000. The stamp honored Kurt Weill, a composer of musical plays. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth $1.75 used. The value beats yesterday’s East German stamp 5 fold but the denomination on the stamp is 15 fold higher. Perhaps Germany’s reputation for tight control of inflation is slipping.

Kurt Weill was born in Saxony in 1900. After the war in 1918 the old order was discredited and the people that had been in opposition were now in power. Their opposition was not just to militarism  but the basic rules of Church and family. People like Weill gathered in Berlin and were free to produce for each other works that broke boundaries both sexually and politically. The post war deprivations meant that many Germans like the dancing girl on the stamp had to go along with it to get by. Imagine the sadness of fathers, brothers, and potential husbands at the tawdry display.

Kurt Weill’s most famous work was on the political “3 Penny Opera” a reworking of the old English “Beggers Opera”. The play contained Weill’s most famous song “Mac the Knife”. In 1933 Weill moved to the USA to avoid arrest. He continued work in America including working with Langston Hughes, the far left black activist and composer. Weill also collaborated professionally with his frequent wife Lotte Lenye. They married and divorced in Germany and the reunited and remarried in the USA. You may remember her from her portrayal of Rosa Kleb in “From Russia with Love”

In talking of those who collaborated with Weill I have so far left out Bertoit Brecht. Remember on yesterdays stamp, the noted architect Hermann Henselmann was convinced by Brecht to stay and work in the Eastern sector of postwar Germany. Brecht collaborated with Weill both in Weimar Germany and later in the USA. Weill did not however join Brecht when he returned to Berlin, despite himself being a Communist from the Eastern sector. Weill died in the USA in 1950 as a naturalized citizen.

Well my drink is empty and I may have a few more while pondering the snearing of the East while the earlier depravity of Weimar is now celebrated. People like boundary breakers, even if it leads to alone, depraved, and purposeless people. Hope you enjoyed the two parter, you can find the first part below this article if you scroll down. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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East Germany 1957, Stalin’s Alley rubs Germany nose in it, part one

A conquering power sometimes goes too far after victory. Stalin’s Alley was to be East Germany’s show place, site of May Day parades. So care was taken, and luckily for Berlin, by Germans not Russians. 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 first of a two parter.

The small size and simple printing of the stamp lets it down or in emblematic of the façade depending on your point a view. It still is all here though, a wide boulevards, elaborately decorated with ceramic tile wedding cake style buildings in the Stalinist style. Also with the statue of Stalin, in its last years after his death before the Stasi disappeared it.

Todays stamp is issue A43, a 20 Pfennig stamp issued by East Germany in 1957. This was an over twenty stamp issue in different denominations over a seven year period from 1953 to 1960. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 30 cents unused.

The street on the stamp was known as Great Frankfurter Strasse prior to 1949. At that time the area was under Soviet occupation and in need of urban renewal after the war. It was decided to make the street a showplace in the Eastern Sector of Berlin. This was before the wall was built. Naming a street after the person who just lead a large army into Germany showed the level of deference to the Soviets on the part of the East German leadership. Nevertheless the project was German. Noted architect Hermann Henselmann designed the street  that later became a favorite of post modernists. There were upscale apartments and shops and restaurant/bars that had themes based on Eastern European cities like Budapest and Bucharest. East Berlin after all was to look east. The Bucharest bar featured Romanian beer that was 18% alcohol was especially memorable. As seen on the stamp, there was a bronze statue of Stalin. It was a gift of the Soviet Communist Youth group Komsomol on the occasion of World Festival of Youth and Students held that year in the Soviet Sector of Berlin. No doubt parents were thrilled to send their children to listen how great Stalin was. I mean, who wouldn’t?

When things go too far they often self correct. In 1961, in the middle of the night, the Stasi secret Police came for the Stalin statue knocking it off it’s pedestal and trucking it away to be broken and recycled. East Germans woke the next day to find The street renamed Karl Marx Alley with all the street signs and subway stations changed. Karl Marx was still communist, but at least a German.

Fenced off hole where Stalin used to stand, as seen in more modern times.

Unlike much of the East German work after the wall fell, Karl Marx Alley was deemed worthy of preservation, even the name. Henselmann’s architecture has stood the test of time. In later years Henselmann became more of a modernist and many of his buildings still stand in Germany. He had made the conscious decision to stay in the East, taking the advise of Bertolt Brecht.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast architect  Hermann Henselmann, He operated under difficult conditions but was able to build things that survive. Come again tomorrow for part two of rubbing Germany’s nose in it from a different war that was dealt with less well, but is another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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New Zealand 1997, As we near the end, a “wacky” mailbox

I have been wanting to talk about Iceland’s decision to pull the plug on stamp issuance. When I spotted this New Zealand stamp, I had found the vehicle. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

It was the best of times it was the worst of times. The printing and use of color on this stamp is magnificent. In the sixties the mostly fake dune stamps from UAE and Finbar Kenny showed how far things could go, see https://the-philatelist.com/2019/04/10/sharjah-lets-you-enjoy-modern-art-thanks-to-finbar-kenny/  . Real country postal authorities took up the challenge and pushed even Mr. Kenny’s boundaries. Stamps that smell or change color, you name it. The dune stamps were aimed at child collectors and so it seems are real country stamps like this. Making this time the worst of times. Instead of presenting a countries situation, it’s past, it’s present, it’s hopes in a serious way and from their point of view so a collector can learn and perhaps think of things in a different way. Here we get wacky mailboxes. Makes you wonder if stamps deserve to die?

Todays stamp is issue A422, a 40 cent stamp issued by New Zealand on March 19th, 1997. It was a 10 stamp issue that came as either a booklet or a self adhesive sheet. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 55 cents whether used or unused. An unused booklet of 10 still together is worth $7 while the same 10 stamps as a sheet is $18.

A few weeks ago Iceland announced that they are discontinuing the issuance of new stamps and closing down their website aimed at the worldwide collector. 50 people are losing their jobs from the operation that has been in the red for a while. Post offices in Iceland believe they have adequate stocks of stamps till the last postcard is sent. To me that is the scariest statement of all.  I remember when Mozambique got independence in 1974, the new post office offered to sell collectors any stamp issued by Portugal for them in the previous 20 years with an independence overstamp. What if all post offices worldwide have such never ending stocks?

I am hoping that the end of new stamp issuance might finally change the supply/demand balance in favor of the supplier and result in higher stamp values. If collectors can begin to see their collection as an asset instead of just a cost it is easier to justify new acquisitions. Collector dollars also wouldn’t be syphoned off by country collectors that automatically buy all new offerings directly from the post office. We had already had several countries issues dry up or be declared fake as they no longer had a provable post system.

So how will it end? I suspect that the deciding factor of stamps will be the country that started it, Great Britain. If they are also in the hole and pull the plug, the rest of the Commonwealth will follow. Then USA and Germany, and an hour later, everyone else with perhaps total farm out issues trying to hold out a little longer.

I don’t think this is the end of the hobby. The era from 1840 to the mid 80s saw colonialization and then a plethora of new countries with different people expressing themselves with stamps. We saw ideologies rise and fall and monarchies fall or somehow stay around. All expressed as the countries themselves wanted it presented. On the stamps we also saw art, natural beauty, and technological achievement being presented. On tiny slips of gummed paper that seemingly has immense abilities to survive. I think the hobby can survive, and I intend to keep telling the stories that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Papua New Guinea 1973, Australia spends up to at least have something they can take a picture of

Australia did their best with PNG. After independence over half the national budget was provided by Australia. Yet the country failed to achieve. Most of the money was wasted or stolen. Hence the attraction of tangible projects that pictures can be taken of. Life expectancy was under 50, illiteracy was rampant, but check out our satellite dishes. Crazy. 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 was a big aid project, bringing modern telecommunications to PNG. It took over four years. So the stamps showing it off went all out. This stamp was one corner of a four stamp bloc. The stamps show satellite dishes, relay stations and helicopters slinging heavy loads up Mt. Tomavatur. If natives ever sent a letter, they must have thought the colonials nuts. They surely were allowed nowhere near it.

Todays stamp is issue A81, a seven cent stamp issued by Papua New Guinea on January 21st, 1973 ahen it was still a colony of Australia. It was  a six stamp issue, four in the block and two others. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used. Keeping the block of four stamps together would have increased the value 40% all the way up to $1.40.

Australia at it’s closest point is only 4km from the island of New Guinea. So during World War I, they cleared the area of the former German colony. In World War II, the Japanese landed and it was a much harder slog to clear the Japanese from the island. The campaign cost over 8000 Australian deaths. Natives were uninvolved in either war. Post war Australia rethought it’s defense strategy abandoning fortifications on islands like New Guinea and acquiring aircraft carriers and long range bombers for forward defense.

Still a grave mistake was made on New Guinea. Instead of leaving, Australia turned the place into a colony. Post war this was a new style colony that sought to bring the people up. The World Bank was brought in to design the program. It all this sounds expensive it was and unsuccessful. Hence the lure of silliness like satellite dishes that at least give you something to show for the money spent.

Papua New Guinea became independent in 1975, but Australian aid was still the bulk of the economy. They lucked out in acquiring the services of Prime Minister Sonome. He designed PNG’s development plan because after all driving a car gets you no where if you do not know the destination. Economic activity did not actually get going so in 2011 PNG developed a new growth roadmap. It quoted liberally the failed 1975 plan and still had Prime Minister Sonome to implement it. You can read it here, http://www.treasury.gov.pg/html/publications/files/pub_files/2011/2011.png.vision.2050.pdf   . PNG had acquired a leader for life, Africa Style. Australia has finally started scaling back the aid, now “only” 500 million a year. PNG noticed that Australian government spending on Australians have gone up recently and they are annoyed. They recently asked for 600 million in emergency aid from Australia, the new Prime Minister is apparently having trouble fulfilling his campaign promise of making PNG the richest black nation on Earth. When will leaders learn to under promise? He thinks the aid would work better if it was redirected straight to the government. Ha.

Telephones in PNG are not originally a Australian idea. The first phone lines were laid by the Germans in 1905. They connected the 18 phones in the colony. Mount Tornavatur is still home to the satellite dishes and now also hosts cell phone towers. Life expentancy now has made it to 57 and literacy to 70%.

Well my drink is empty and I may have a few more while I contemplate the Australian failure on PNG. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Sierra Leone 1972, Sierra Leone’s decent into darkness

As with The USA and Liberia, Great Britain tried to take extra care with the freed slave state of Sierra Leone. Sometimes, you can’t save people from themselves. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take tour first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Is it always a bad sign when a President shows up on a current stamp? It does seem to imply a ruler rather than elected representative. He looks to be a friendly enough sort on the stamp, but where was he when the lights went out.

Todays stamp is issue A55, a 15 cent stamp issued by independent Sierra Leone in 1972. It was a 14 stamp issue in various denominations showing then President Siaka Stevens. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents.

Sierra Leone got it’s independence in 1961. A deal had been struck with native but English trained doctor and head of government Milton Margai. Dr. Margai had gained some respect internationally by bringing modern health knowledge to African tribal midwives, which had a positive effect on infant mortality. The deal that was struck was that Sierra Leone would stay in the Commonwealth and the Army would retain a British commander. The British system of handing out spoils to the various tribes was continued. There was some argument about this, Future President Stevens believed elections had to be held before independence to be fair and that the defense forces should cut ties to Britain. He broke away from Dr. Margai’s party and started a new one with money from East Germany and China.

The Royal Sierra Leone Army had begun as the Sierra Leone Regiment of the Royal West Africa Frontier Force. The force had British Officers and local black soldiers. It fought in Burma in World War II. Around 1960, the force disbanded and the country based forces became the nucleus of the newly independent armies.

In 1964, Dr. Margai died and was replaced by his half brother Albert. The wheels started to come off. Albert began promoting only people of his Mende tribe. The army lost it’s British officers so Albert could give the posts as spoils. Albert’s attempt to make a one party state failed and Albert was not reelected in 1968 as former labor leader Siaka Stevens won.

Not so fast though. Minutes after taking the oath of office there was a coup that left Prime Minister Stevens under house arrest. The army, no longer Royal, now had many ambitious leaders and there were a total of three coups before Stevens was allowed to take office. Even after there were many further coup plots and many Generals were tried and hung for treason, including the General that handed power belatedly to Stevens. Prime Minister Stevens, surprising only those who didn’t expect him to be a hypocrite, then passed a new constitution making him President in a one party state. Remember this was what he was fighting before independence. He had since come to the feeling that a one political party state was traditionally African.

Stevens ruled ever more despotically for 17 years until 1985. Late in his term the public education system shut and Freetown suffered a months long electricity blackout because nobody had bothered to import any fuel oil. Somehow such incompetence did not stop President Stevens to be named the Chairman of the Organization of African Unity. In terms of African unity he did manage to form an economic union with Liberia, and later Guinea and the Ivory Coast. This was called the group of total losers, excuse me, the Manu River Union. In 2016 the group announced a multi nation parliament to coordinate law making. Watch out EU!

Well my drink is empty and I think I will have another to celebrate that I live nowhere near the Manu River. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting