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Chad 1962, Africanizing with Sara Chaditude

French Equatorial Africa had some borders that made more sense to the French then the native tribes. Even when it broke down into smaller states such as Chad, there was not readily the makings of a cohesive 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.

An African topical stamp. Well at least there really are antelopes in Chad. This also presents itself as a postage due issue. I have a difficult time imagining a mail sender dropping off his mail with no money, receiving this stamp to stick to the envelope. The letter than gets mailed and the receiver pays his postman 2 Francs that then gets back to the post office, all in chaotic post independence Chad. Call me cynical. As early as the 1970s, there were at least 3 government agents, including President Tombalbaye personally giving contracts to produce postage stamps for Chad, so sorting real issues is a challenge.

The stamp today is issue D5, a 2 African Franc stamp issued by the independent republic of Chad. It was part of a 12 stamp issue in various denominations that displayed African wildlife and tribal warriors. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents.

Chad was the first colony returned to the Free French after the fall of France. This was due to the efforts of Frances first black colonial governor and Sara tribesman. In revenge, in 1942 the capital Fort Lamy was bombed by the Germans. After this the French understandably favored the Sara tribe over the Arab tribesman of northern Chad. Thus it was a Sara tribesman, Francois Tombalbaye that was groomed to rule after the French left and became the last colonial governor in 1959 and the first President in 1960. Post independence he set upon a process of Africanization he called Chaditute that saw his fellow tribesman favored for government service. This cost money and new taxes were collected in what Tombalbaye called national loan. It amounted to Sara tribesman shaking down Arab tribesman and offering much less in return than the old French administration. Trombalbaye required all government employees to go through initiation in the Sara tribe. Doing so was heresy to Christians and Muslims alike. He also changed names of the capital from Fort Lamy to N’Djamena and his own first name from Francois  to Ngarta.

The Arab north was soon rebelling with help of northern  neighbor Libya. The Chad army proved incapable and President Tombalbaye had to request French help to put it down. With French soldiers came administrators to try to put the government back together and have more Muslim representation. This angered even Tombalbaye’s allies who hated the French.

As soon as French soldiers left in 1971, Tombalbaye tried to solidify his position, he purged his army in the so called black sheep affair. He arrested several officers on the crime of sorcery, for sacrificing black sheep in a ceremony designed to curse President Tombalbaye. He then got back to marginalizing the French by reaching out to Libyan strongman Qaddafi. He in turn cut off aid to the Arab rebels to the north and replaced cut off French aid. Tombalbaye was obviously trying to cover his bases but perhaps his military purge did not go deep enough. In 1975, the Army attacked the Presidential Palace and killed him without a trial. Chad’s situation did not really improve till many years later when oil was discovered. The country is now dominated by the northern Arabs.

Well my drink is empty so I will open the conversation in the below comment section. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting

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Belgium 1955, remembering the night an opera lead to revolution 125 years before

The USA had a tea party and Belgium has a night at the opera. Sometimes something stirs and the people realize it is time to separate. 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 image on the stamp is taken from a well known painting by Charles Soubre. The painting depicts revolutionary leader Charles Rogier leading 300 volunteers from the city of Liege to fight in the uprising against the Dutch in Brussels in 1830. So many years later, it seems surprising to use such an image. It makes the undertaking appear heroic. The history of the Belgian government is that it is not afraid to get tough with for example labor agitators who disturb the peace. Perhaps there is a conflict there. Belgium took a different tact on the 150th anniversary in 1980, with stamps showing the Opera house and the then new King of Belgium.

The stamp today is issue A119, a 20 Centimes stamp issued by Belgium on September 10th, 1955. This was a two stamp issue the celebrated an exhibition in Liege on the romantic movement of the volunteers to Brussels 125 years before during the uprising against Dutch rule. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents.

Until the late 18th century, much of modern day Belgium was a part of the Catholic Hapsburg Holy Roman Empire. The revolutions spreading from France and Napoleon’s army put an end to that. The majority of the people in the area were French speaking so this made some sense. After Napoleon’s final defeat, the peace conference awarded the area to the Netherlands. This was at the suggestion of Britain who wanted a large strong Netherlands as a counterweight to France and to repay Netherlands for colonies in Asia taken from the Netherlands during Napoleon’s occupation that were not getting returned. Forget Ceylon, how about Belgium? Strange but true. Netherlands, now United Netherlands was Protestant and spoke Dutch, a Germanic language. Thus there was tension and the Belgian people, especially the French speakers did not feel represented by the new situation.

In 1830, there was an opera put on in Brussels that depicted romantically Neapolitans rising up against the Spanish masters. The audience was moved and filed out of the theatre joining riots against Dutch rule. At the same time Frenchman Charles Rogier was leading his volunteers from Liege to join the uprising. Not realizing that if he has lost the opera fans it is over, the King of the Netherlands sent two of his sons to Brussels to deal with it. The first son offered negotiations but the best deal to be had  was not something his father would agree to. The next Prince lead the army in to reestablish control over Brussels. His army’s ranks had been greatly thinned by desertions of ethnic Belgians and was not strong enough to end the uprising.

Holland than turned to Great Britain to try to settle the issue. Disappointing the Netherlands, the British proposed a separate Belgium kingdom ruled by a King who was closely related to the British royal family but also acceptable to France. The revolutionary leader, and now former Frenchman Charles Rogier severed several terms as Prime Minister. Since 1830, Dutch speakers in Belgium are the ones who feel less than fully represented by the government.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast French tenor Adolphe Nourrit, whose romantic, patriotic singing so stirred the Brussels’ crowd. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Germany 2007, Germany again displays the Brandenburg Gate in honor of it’s master builder

When a national symbol is shown over and over again on stamps, the challenge becomes how not to be repetitive. So this one is about it’s builder Carl Langhans. 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 Brandenburg Gate was constructed as a symbol of peace. As with the Arc de Triumph in Paris, previous centuries had a different idea of peace. Don’t think peaceniks, but rather the celebration the successful completion of a war. Thus when there is an unsuccessful war outcome it becomes a symbol of taunting. Napoleon marched under the Brandenburg Gate when he conquered Prussia. He even removed the Quadriga statue relocating it to Paris. Prussia later occupied Paris and took it back. The Soviet Union flew it’s flag from the gate for 12 years after the war until finally yielding to the East German flag. When American President Kennedy taunted the Soviets for walling off Berlin and closing the gate, he was greeted by a giant Red Banner covering it. The opening of the wall in 1989 was centered at opening the Brandenburg Gate with lots of flag waving.

Todays stamp is issue A1259, a 55 Euro cent stamp issued by Germany on December 27th, 2007. It was a single stamp issue. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 80 cents used. Being so modern there is also a self adhesive version, that inexplicably does not effect the value.

The site of the Brandenburg gate was already a gate as part of an earlier customs wall. Prussian King Frederick William II commissioned the Gate in the late 1770s. Carl Gotthard Langhans the Royal Court superintendent of buildings, was in charge. He had started his career in Silesia. Langhans was ethnically German but most of his life and buildings are today found in Poland, a reflection that war isn’t always victorious and reflective of the German peoples shift westward. Like the English architect Inigo Jones, the subject of the first stamp we covered at The Philatelist, seehttps://the-philatelist.com/2017/10/02/remembering-inigo-jones/ Langhans was the recipient of much Royal largesse that allowed him to study the architecture of ancient Greece and Rome. This inspiration allowed him to construct buildings in the neoclassic style. This was much desired by the Royals of the day. The Peace Gate, as it was then called was in the style of the Propylaea, the ancient gateway to the Acropolis in Athens. The Quadriga statue on the German gate was Victoria, the Roman God of Victory on her 4 horse chariot. At first, only Royals were allowed to pass through the center columns but this was a special honor granted the family of Ernst von Pfuel, who had seen to the Quadriga statue’s return from Paris.

Despite the devastation of the bombing and the Battle of Berlin in 1945, the Brandenburg Gate survived mostly intact. The devastation around it and the division of Berlin limited the amount of Allied victory parades around it then. The Gate was closed in 1962 upon the construction of the Berlin wall and lay in East Berlin. The East German government saw to it’s refurbishment, perhaps surprisingly still in the Imperial style. It was a fixture on many East German stamps. The opening of the gate was symbolic in 1989 when the West and East German Chancellors were the first to cross and shake hands. Today you will see much new construction around it as it is a favored view of important embassies relocated to Berlin. Unfortunately the new construction is somewhat less than neoclassic architecture. At least the area is now a pedestrian street.

Well my drink is empty and so I will pour another to toast Carl Langhans. If  peace had been as long lived as was then hoped, the Royal Building superintendent would have seen the buildings around his gate were still neo classical and perhaps even Prussia and Silesia not now be Poland. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Mauritius 1969, transitioning from creoles and coolies to coolitude

These isolated colonies and their sugar cane plantations. Will we ever fully come to grips with what was done. 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 is not the Mauritius issue everyone lusts for. They got their first stamp early in 1847 with a pretty standard portrait of Queen Victoria printed locally. The printer however could not remember what he was supposed to say on one side and just wrote post office. These were very popular with 19th century stamp collectors and very valuable today. This stamp shows the typical transition to independence. This is a standard Commonwealth issue with Queen Elizabeth and the local sea life. Also available at the post office of the day were stamps with Lenin and Gandhi on them. So pick your politics with your stamp. Suspect the locals would have stuck with Gandhi. Perhaps not the creoles if today’s Ghana news about taking down his statue is an indication.

Todays stamp is issue A57, a 40 Cent stamp issued by newly independent Mauritius in 1969. It was an 18 stamp issue in various denominations showing the local sea life, in this case a sea slug. According to the Scott catalog, According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 40 cents mint. The Gandhi and Lenin stamp are worth even less, being for local use. They are interesting as both men are pictured as not easily recognized young students, Gandhi dressed as a young English swell in London.

Mauritius passed to Britain in the Napoleonic Wars. There was already a system of French planters of sugar cane using African slave labor. This system remained in place and the islands continued to mainly operate in French. When the British banned slavery, the freed Africans no longer desired to work the plantations. To keep them going, large numbers of contract Indians were brought in. These workers were known derogatorily as coolies by the left over French, Africans, and increasingly Creole as the groups intermixed. There really were not many British and there was little loyalty to them. A French speaking, British organized, Mauritius Regiment was sent to occupy but not fight in Madagascar during World War II and promptly mutinied. Over time more and more Indians came in until they were the majority. After the war, the British set up the process of independence as quickly as possible.

Even under British Rule, the French were favored in politics. Then toward independence a new left wing Indian party started to win elections and there has been much agitation since. Both parties are left wing, but they divide on racial lines.

The task of building a coherent country out of different peoples who don’t get along has proved difficult. Recently a Mauritian poet and essayist of mixed Creole and Hindu background named Khal Torabully has been promoting something called coolitude. He is trying to change the word coolie into something positive. He harkens back to the scary sea journeys taken by the Indian, European, and African ancestors as something that unites Mauritius. This fear of crossing the seas is common to African tradition as well as the Hindu taboo of kala pani, a fear of dark seas.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Mauritian poet Torabully. If he can get people to move past their racial and tribal identity he will have accomplished a great thing. With more and more of mixed identity, the need to move past will only grow. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

 

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Belgium 1902, a royal, catholic, conservative government is still able to paper over how industrial and socialist the country is becoming

Sometimes the capitalist aspect of conservatives can lead them to empowering their socialist rivals. A new class of industrial workers is fertile ground for socialists. 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.

If you knew nothing of Belgium but a little about stamps you could make some good guesses by examining todays stamp. A royal, conservative country is implied by the formality of todays stamp. The use of emblems is a sure sign of a new country trying to stake out a separate identity. What the stamp doesn’t show is how quickly the country was changing from how it still presented itself. The cities were growing and the new class of industrial worker would not have seen Belgium the same way.

Todays stamp is issue PP3, a 1 Franc parcel post stamp issued by the Kingdom of Belgium in 1902. It was a 20 stamp issue in various denominations over a 10 year period. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether it is mint or used. Given the high denomination, I am surprised at the stamps low value. A similar parcel post issue from 7 years before is today worth $175 in the 1 Franc denomination. Later than this issue share the low value so I must conclude that sending parcels through the mail got much more common at the time.

After a series of long wars, Belgium achieved independence from the Netherlands in 1830. The majority of the people were Walloon who are Catholic and speak a dialect of French. At the time the area was mostly rural and agricultural. The government was democratic but conservative and heavily influenced by the Catholic Church. The task at hand though was to build a separate country and so a big priority was building infrastructure such as railroads that connected the country including the small outlet to the North Sea at Antwerp. This new infrastructure and advances in agriculture that freed up workers and the Catholic tendency at the time for large families allowed for rapid industrialization in the growing cities. Coal mines, iron works, and textile factories quickly grew up and added a great deal of wealth to the new country.

Such a change brought huge and perhaps unintended effects. New factories tend to start out with low wages. The workers came to the city for a better life and the low wages became a source of dissatisfaction. Cities always being a hotbed of liberal thoughts, it is no surprise that a socialist trade union movement got going. The electoral system favored property owners so the socialist were not able to get in to the government. Even the Catholic based school system that served the elites far better than the working class was protected by the government.

The socialist showed themselves most in the cities. With King and government building in the neoclassic style, socialist architects such as the influential Victor Horta offered a very different art nouveau style. His house of the people was built directly for the socialist party. It was torn down in the 1960s to make way for a characterless high rise. By then both political sides had given up their style and so the least common denominator prevailed. This architectural trend was actually called Brusselsization.

House of the People by Victor Horta

Strikes quickly became the preferred method to enact liberal change. Strikes were called not only over wages but to demand specific reforms from the government. The industrial output of the time was less about consumer goods so there was no blowback from the labor strife on the countries reputation as with, for example, 1970s Great Britain. If World War had not come in 1914, Belgium might have been the site of a communist revolution before to long. Oddly enough the German occupation might have saved the conservative government.

Well my drink is empty and so I will open the discussion in the below comment section. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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USA 1943, Korea is listed as a country to be liberated

The USA issued a series of stamps that listed 13 countries overrun by the Axis during World War II. This implicitly promised USA help in the liberation. Quite a task. It is perhaps a surprise that Korea was included on the list. 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.

Initially neutral, the USA was brought in to World War II by the Pearl Harbor attack and the subsequent German war declaration. A few years of tough fighting later, this stamp issue sets out the liberation of 13 countries as a requirement for peace. A direct manifestation of the principle of unconditional surrender the Allies agreed to. In a democracy, it is quite surprising that such a government decree received no push back. It shows what a different time it was and the kind of sacrifices countries were demanding of their people.

Todays stamp is issue A368, a five cent stamp of the USA issued in 1943-44. The thirteen stamps of the issue each had a separate country flag and all were 5 cent. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents whether it is mint or used.

Korea had been annexed by Japan in 1910. This was the last step of a process over the previous 60 years that had weaned the Korean Empire from being in the Chinese sphere to the sphere of Japan. At first the Korean monarchy agreed to the forced upon them Japanese concessions but over time Japan wanted more direct control and less say by China. The final annexation was agreed by the Korean Prime Minister but not the last Korean Emperor, who refused to sign and was banished.

In general terms, the Japanese treated Koreans better than they treated occupied Chinese but it was not a friendly situation. There was no draft of Koreans to serve in the Japanese forces till near the end of the war but many volunteered. The was also much movement throughout the empire of laborers, some conscripted. There was no fighting in the area during the war, and as stated above, only volunteers fought for Japan.

As such, it is surprising that Korea was listed as a place to be liberated by the USA. Japan was to be punished. This was to prove very costly for the USA. The Soviets shared a border with Korea and although they had not fought Japan till the month before, they were available to take the surrender of Japanese forces in northern Korea. Rushing to be a part of the “liberation”, the Americans rushed forces in southern Korea in late 1945. A division of Korea was agreed at the 38th parallel between the Soviets and Americans.

The Soviet puppets in North Korea sought to unite Korea by invasion in 1950. Another war and 58,000 Americans died over the next three years to prevent a united Soviet puppet Korea. We see today what a horror show North Korea turned out to be, but I wonder if the USA realized the sacrifice necessary. I wonder how much thought was given to including Korea on the list to be liberated. Perhaps not enough?

Well my drink is empty and I may poor a few more to toast the sacrifice of the USA in regards to Korea. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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El Savador 1940, Celebrating the Pan American Union, a League of Nations that actually worked

With migrant caravans heading north from Central America, it is hard to argue that tiny nations such as El Salvador are anything but sad failures. That does not mean there was not a style, even a grandiosity. When that was lavished on an organization that actually worked, what a great stamp. 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.

In 1940, El Salvador celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Pan American Union. An angel smiles down on the Western Hemisphere’s half of the globe while a big modern airliner speeds our mail from place to place. The angel holds a fig leave conferring peace on the blessed below. The stamp was printed by the American Bank Note Company in America. I wonder if their designers did a double take when they heard what the Salvadorans wanted.

Todays stamp is issue C71, a 30 Centavo airmail stamp issued by El Salvador on May 22nd, 1940. It was a two stamp issue. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used. If a stamp this dramatic is still only worth the nominal value for any stamp at nearly 80 years old, I suggest the Salvadorans leave their stamp collections behind when they pack up to head north.

The Pan American Union was first suggested by Latin American independence hero Simon Bolivar at a conference in Panama City, Gran Columbia in 1826. He imagined a Western Hemisphere with a united foreign policy and military and a legislature drawn from all the member states. USA readers will understand how such a thing would favor small states over big ones like the Electoral College and the Senate. This is by design because how else to get small states to join just to be dominated by larger neighbors. The idea went nowhere as soon Latin America was breaking apart with civil wars and instability.

In 1890 a new conference was organized in Washington with more modest goals of international cooperation and conflict arbitration. Thus the Pan American Union was founded and a headquarters building was built in Washington out of the generosity of Andrew Carnegie. The true genius of the organization  came in when it was agreed that a conflict between two members would see the neutrality of the rest. Thus avoiding the real prospect of  alliance continental wars that the League of Nations was not able to prevent in Europe.

Post World War II, the Pan American Union was refashioned as the Organization of American States and took on an added goal of fighting communism. This was at the instruction of the USA, and probably had some people in the smaller states pining for Simon Bolivar’s electoral college. At age 80, the OAS continues, still in Carnegie’s Pan American Union Building. The current leader is Luis Almagro, a Uruguayan diplomat who is active in promoting migration and by extension economic equalization. This potential conflict with USA President Trump might prove an interesting test as to whether big states or small states currently  hold sway at the OAS. That presumes of course that the OAS even has a seat at the table.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the grandiosity of 1940s El Salvador. Sometime even if the reality is something less, it is worthwhile to dream big. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting

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Soviet Union 1983, a superpower builds big

Depending on how you count it, the Izmailovo Hotel complex was the biggest hotel in the world when it opened in 1979. It opened in time for the 1980 Olympics, a fact that many cities who host the games will be impressed by. 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 scale of late Soviet architecture really was quite impressive. The style of architecture is sometimes called brutalist. It is easy to see why with the simple, unadorned, but massive structures. That does not mean they are not impressive. The list of countries that could complete such a project without outside help being so much shorter the list of countries that could not. I once stayed at the Great Wall Sheraton in Beijing from the same era, and it was constructed and even managed by people brought in from outside. This hotel even had air conditioning. air filtration and computerized control systems all done by Soviets. Quite an achievement. In the 1990s and 2000s there was a rush to tear down some of the most famous brutalist structures. I am glad the Izmailovo Hotel avoided that fate. It was an important period when the Soviets were a superpower. There need to be a few reminders architecturally of the period even if the politics have changed. Berlin is quick to be rid of Third Reich and DDR buildings. I think that is short sighted historically.

Todays stamp is issue A2493, a 20 Kopeck stamp issued by the Soviet Union on December 15th, 1983. It was part of a 5 stamp issue in various denominations, that showed off new buildings of Moscow. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 35 cents used.

With the upcoming Olympics due in Moscow, it was decided that there must be new hotels constructed. This happens in most cities after they are awarded the right to host a future Olympics. What I have often wondered about is what the cities plan for the new hotels after the Olympics are over. To be fair, Moscow was the capital city of a superpower with representatives of client states and representatives of far off areas of the Soviet Union visiting for instruction or conferences. Most of these guests are probably not paying though, whatever that maters to a state run organization. It is natural for a citizen to want to visit their countries capital to experience the high culture and drink in the history. The histories of the hotel I have read  make no mention of who stayed 1980-1991, but I hope it was possible for an average Soviet citizen to stay there.

The Izmailovo Hotel opened in 1979 and was the biggest hotel in the world if you count by the number of guests that could be accommodated. It surpassed another Moscow hotel the Rossiya Hotel built in 1967. The Rossiya was torn down in 2006 in the hope that the prime location could have something more in keeping with the surrounding older architecture. Instead a clownish Disneyish pastiche of Moscow’s past was built, taking 11 years to construct. Welcome to the modern world. The Izmailovo was itself surpassed by the MGM Grand Hotel in Los Vegas in 1993. The First World Hotel in Malaysia is the current largest. The Izmailovo is still open and currently number 6 in the world but still biggest in Europe.

Well my drink is empty and you can guess where I will be staying if I am ever lucky enough to visit Moscow. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Iraq 1959, Pan Arabist Socialists get rid of the King to make way for the Ba’athist

In the 50s, every Arab seemed to be a pan-Arabist. The Hashemites offered a traditional Kingdom structure. Nasser showed how to tell off the west and live to tell about it. In Iraq and Syria, a pan-Arabist, socialist and secular Ba’ath movement offered an alternative. Pan of course means come together though and how does that happen when everyone keeps getting assassinated. 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 the new emblem of the new Republic of Iraq. It is trying to be hopeful and is somewhat in the United Nations style. Prime Minister Qasim came into office promising Pan Arabism, oil nationalization, and socialist reforms. This stamp tries to build that spirit. The King and his ministers were dead and many were happy about it. However some more ministers would soon also be dead and the same people will be happy about that as well.

Todays stamp is issue A58, a 1 Fils stamp issued by the Republic of Iraq in 1959. It was part of a 16 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used. The official overprint adds nothing to the value.

In 1958, the young King Faisal II achieved a measure of pan Arabism by entering a federation with Jordan. They were also putting pressure on Kuwait to join. Arab youth had been given hope by the collapse of colonialism and the Hashemites were just not what they had in mind. A troop movement was cover for an unopposed military coup that saw the Royal Family assassinated in the palace’s courtyard. The unloved Prime Minister tried to escape dressed as a women but with men’s shoes. He was discovered, and killed and buried. Then he was dug up, burned, hung, and then run over by a Baghdad city bus until there was nothing left. Not taking a hint, a former Coronel name Qasim declared himself Prime Minister.

Qasim’s agenda in power turned out to be more socialist the pan-Arabist. The federation with Jordan was over, oil was nationalized, women were given rights, and polygamy and early marriage was banned. Land reform was started and much low income housing was built in the cities. He was not willing to turn over sovereignty to Nasser’s Egypt and join a United Arab Republic. It is after all difficult to join an oil rich country with a poor one. It is just a formula for rich to poor wealth transfer that you can’t expect the rich one to look forward to.

Citing lack of progress in pan Arabist goals, there was another coup in 1963. This one was fought tooth and nail until Qasim offered to give in in exchange for safe passage out of the country. This was reneged upon and there was a televised show trial culminating in Qasim’s being shot. The next guy also reneged on his previous pan-Arabist goals and just to spice things up, his plane was tampered with and he died in a plane crash. He had managed to take away the new rights of women. After all this the Ba’ath party movement took power that it would hold till 2003. that does not mean the intrique ended but from now on it was within the party. Pan-Arabist ambitions would now be persused by force of arms.

Qasim is slightly better remembered in Iraq than some of the other pan-Arabist heroes. There is a new statue to him as of 2007 and when his remains were discovered in 2006 they were not desecrated.

Qasim’s statue in modern Iraq

Well my drink is empty and Iraq is just to rough a place to toast anyone. Maybe losers get the leaders they deserve. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

 

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Italy 1921, 600 years after Dante, Italy celebrates the rise of poetry in Italian

Italy had long struggled between two masters a Pope to guide spiritual matters and the politics around a King uniting Italy. An Italian King was now in power finding a way to live beside a Pope in the Vatican. Something that had not happened since ancient Rome. It was a great time to rediscover the middle ages poet Dante, both Catholic and Italian, who wrote  of love, political passions, chivalry and spirituality in a way all Italians could understand. 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.

Dante was a classically liberal figure. He wrote, uniquely for his time in the language of Florence, his home town. He described the language as Italian and that was a break from Latin, the language of the Church and the scholars. Yet here we have him 600 years later remember fondly by a right of center Italy and even a Pope named Benedict. This is possible for three reasons. Dante had touched a common thread in the Italian soul. He had also put forward the idea of a good universal King to insure peace on Earth. This fit into the self imagined image of a colonial era Italian King. He also included much spirituality, Catholic spirituality, so over time the Church had to embrace him. This goes some way to the reverence shown Dante at the time, and the frequency he appears on Italian stamps. The 700th anniversary of Dante’s death is coming up in 2021, it will be interesting to see if he will be remembered or will his image be succumbed to the post modern deconstruction.

Todays stamp is issue A63, a 40 Centesimi stamp issued by the Kingdom of Italy on September 28th, 1921. It was part of a 3 stamp issue in various denominations remembering the 600th anniversary of the death of the Italian poet Dante Alighieri. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $32 used. There was a  grey version of the 15 cent stamp that was not formally issued but proofs got out in tiny numbers. An imperforate, used version of it is worth $6100.

Dante was born around 1265 in Florence, then a city state with a republican government. Dante received an excellent education for the day that included much knowledge of ancient Rome. The times saw him contracted into marriage to a girl at age 12. He had already become smitten with another girl and his unrequited love for her provided much impetus for his romantic poems. His wife played no part in these. His Italian poetry was lyrical and in a ryming 3 line style that was much copied later.

He was also a politician and part of the ruling class of Florence that were then known as Guelphs. As happened in much of Italy over the next centuries. The Guelphs became devided over loyalty to the Pope or to the Holy Roman Emperor. The Black Guelphs supported the Pope and gained control of Florence. Dante was a White Guelph and spent the rest of his life in exile in various other city states. This helped his writing by giving him a wider knowledge of what unites Italy and pushed along his thinking about the separate nature of a worldly King who could moderate disagreements between his different peoples and a Pope who could guide the individual in his spiritual journey toward everlasting life.

Dante’s master work written in exile was The Comedy, renamed Devine Comedy only after his death. As per usual with Dante, it came in three parts. A journey guided by the Roman Poet Virgil and his early in life unrequited love through hell, purgatory and heaven. Hell, (inferno) is the best remembered now but purgatory the most romantic and heaven the most spiritual. It must be remembered what a revelation Dante’s style of writing was in the middle ages. it was a pointing forward toward the Renaissance with a return to knowledge and culture. Ironically, Dante somewhat fell from favor during the High Renaissance when his style was considered simplistic. Similarly today Dante is less remembered as his romance and chivalry seem dated and his politics and religion not inclusive. There are also claims today that his work was derivative of earlier Persian works. I obviously don’t agree but that the stamp wouldn’t be done the same way today only makes it more interesting as it gives insights as to thinking from the stamps time and place. Why I collect.

Well my drink is empty and with the stamp being worth $32 I can afford another round to celebrate Dante. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting