Weeks #2017.27 and 28 on SébPhilatélie

Saturday 8 July: Difficulties with fiscal stamps for Malians in Algeria.
On 21 April 2017 MaliActu.net news website published a plea from Malian citizens living and working in neighbouring Algeria.

A 500 CFA franc fiscal stamp of Mali (via MaliActu.net).

The Embassy in Algiers hadn't had stamps for months and its personnel refused to explain the causes, while Algiers and Bamako are weekly connected by flights.

Tuesday 11 July: A philatelic month.

With my recent dive in Tweeter to discover the social network tool, here are some news I gathered there.

In London:

At the general assembly on Thursday 22 June,  members of the Royal Philatelic Society London elected Belgian postal historian Patrick Maselis as its new President. ont élu le Belge Patrick Maselis président de l'association londonienne.

Already President of the Club of Monte Carlo which organised Monacophil and of the Royal Academy of Philately of Belgium, whose website proposed a complete biography.

Collectors of Belgian personalised stamps who are members of the RPSL will be thrilled :)

In Oaxaca, Mexico:
The MUFI (its Twitter account) celebrated its birthday at the same time as the philatelic exhibition on the seas and their fauna. Medias and institutions of Oaxaca broadcasted both events.

Saturday 1st July, Lisbeth Mejla of newspaper El Impartial reported her visit of the museum's library, rich with studies by Mexican philatelists and old editions of famous catalogues.

Presentation of the MUFI by Fundation Alfredo Harp Helú, posted Friday 7 July 2017 on youTube. 

And since Friday 7, Fundation Alfredo Harp Helú is proposing a video about the museum, its permanent collections, its activities for the children, its library.

In Algeria:
Thursday 6 July, in his weekly philatelic column in El Watan, Arslan Selmane wrote down his questions about the last commemorative minisheet by the Algerian Post. It is issued the same week end alongside its five separate stamps about Algerian battles against the French invasion, occupation and colonisation of the country from 1830 to 1962.

The questionable minisheet, issued Saturday 8 July 2017 (via the forum PhilatélieDz).

To summarize: apart from difficult-to-watch paintings on stamps, how will thematical philatelist exhibit the minisheet whereas there are events of two different periods, a variety of locations and war actors and strategies.

Selmane is continuing his enlighted criticism of Algeria's 2017 stamp program, in which minisheets are numerous.

French medias haven't seemed to notice the issue... Surely a good thing for public appeasement. Not for a serious look on French history, and for philately.

The final part of the article in French are proposition of magazines for the Summer, including for parents (and grand-parents) how to manage video games with their children.

Friday 14 July: a 12th Indonesia birthday for Postcrossing.
Bastille Day is Postcrossing Day too!

The 3 Indonesian stamps: travel through postcards with open computer windows to the world (1) of monuments (2) and cultures (3).

The written postcard exchange website is honored by the Indonesian post with a triptyc because a Postcrossing event will be organised during the international exhibition in Bandung (3-7 August).

Of course The Sebphilately Postcrossing catalogue was updated accordingly.

Saturday 15 July: a new stamp for Liverpool.
In his latest issue on contemporary architecture Royal Mail added one stamp about the city of Liverpool, one of the specialities of Séb.

The new façade of the Everyman Theater in Liverpool... If the picture went more to the left, another architecture marvel would appear, but it was already put on a stamp in 1969 (Royal Mail).

The Everyman Theater, opened 1964, was completely rebuilt between 2011 and 2014. Its new front presents pictures of Liverpuldians.

The theater is located on the northern part of Hope Street, a touristic promenade of Liverpool by itself. You will find the two cathedrals at both ends (the Anglican to the South, the Catholic next to the Everyman), sculptures and many important place of concerts and plays, including musical pubs.

Week #2007.26 on SébPhilatélie

Monday 26 June 2017: Jersey adds King George VI to the "Radiowave War" topic.
If you read French historians Alain Croix and Didier Guyvarc'h's research on stamps and the two world wars (here is a summary published on this blog), you know that some topics are philatelically more popular than others.

Concerning the role of media in these wars, they were surprised that the radio broadcasts were very rarely pictured, but for Charles de Gaulle and his Appeal of 18 June 1940.

The £2 minisheet that completes the 6 Jersey stamp series on King George VI, mostly an issue about the King of War.

That's why I consider noteworthy a recent issue of Jersey:  one stamp and the minisheet remind the role of radio broadcast during the reign of King George VI.

The movie The King's Speech popularised the story of the duke who became king against his will and speech handicap, but succeeded to dominate it. One proof was the speech the King gave on September 3rd when Britain entered in the war, whose official picture is reproduced on the minisheet.

La Guerre des ondes - the radiowave war - is the French expression for the propaganda conflict through the radio broadcast. Mainly the BBC-supported shows performed by many governments in exile facing the Nazi German allies' radio. For the French listeners it was between La France aux Français in London versus Radio Paris. A 2014 telefilm by Laurent Jaoui for France 3 told the violent words exchanged by Free French humorist Pierre Dac and Vichy Minister of Information Philippe Henriot.

Wednesday 28 June 2017: commercial designers Pieter Huveneers passed away at 92.
Born in the Netherlands in 1925, living in Australia since the sixties until he died 14 June 2017, Pieter Huveneers was important on postal matters, having worked for the British Post Office promotional campaigns in the fifties.

Internal campaign of 1952, encouraging British postmen to urgently deliver telegrams (British Postal Museum & Archive blog, archive POST 110/1611, IRP 056).

Although his posters are renowned, Huveneers thought campaigns as a whole process, encouraging the companies to send one of their employees at his studio, so that the spirit of the campaign be continued after the end of his task.

In Australia he designed the logotype of Australia Post in 1975, still in use today.

Saturday 1 July: Luxembourg forgot its identity between wish to please superpowers.
On Thurday 29 June German monthly Deutsche Briefmarken-Zeitung announced that Post Luxembourg was taking out of sale the Europa two stamps issued on 9 May.

The castle of Dommeldange, seat of the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Luxembourg (Post Luxembourg).

The cause: the name of the issuing country was forgotten between designer Ben Carter, an Englishman living in the Grand-Duchy, and the Belgian Post printing plant in Malines, without the Luxembourgian philatelic service noticing...

New stamp design in the age of low mail writing...

The castle of Beggen, seat of the Embassy of the Federation of Russia in Luxembourg, rented in 1956, bought in 1973 (Post Luxembourg).

In the article in French I made fun of the wish of the fiscal paradise made in the European Union to become a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China or a subject of the Federation of Russia.

It could make sense in the world policy context of our days and that the only signs of sovereignty on the stamps were the Chinese communist and the Russian flags.

Weeks #2017.25 on SébPhilatélie

What was on this blog in French late June?

Monday 19 June: Satirical responses to Donald Trump Presidency.
How to protest against Donald Trump (and the most conservative members of the Republican Party) and convince opponents to react and GOP supporters to think again?

The label shown as example by its creator (postalprotest.com).

Three solutions happened late June 2017: TV channel Comedy Central's satirical The Daily Show entertained New Yorkers with a temporary museum between Friday 16 to Sunday 18, just opposite the famous Trump Tower:

The Donald J. Trump

Presidential Twitter Library

that still can be visited on this 3D website.

Even  former President of Mexico, Vicente Fox, decided to go satirical and has been filming youTube videos to educate his presidential colleague beyond the wall how to behave as a chief of State: 24 May, 7 June and 28 June. Enjoy.

Finally a simple citizen created a website, postalprotest.com, to sell cinderella stamps with the likeness of Trump and classic U.S. stamp ornament, valued "0 cents" that English-speaking members of StampBoards forum read "no sense". The designer tells that his inspiration came from browsing his late father's collection.

Wednesday 21 June: New postage marks and service for periodics in France.
Not very popular among collectors, but still postal marks and services: the postage paid marks directly printed on envelopes or plastic bags wrapping printed newspapers, magazines and other periodicals sent to subscribers.

New (left) and former (right) marks for the press sent through the postal system (screen capture of La Poste's dedicated website).

With a video game bimonthly - and ironical - magazine issue of mid-June, I discover the new marks by the French post. The illustration above present more understantable service mark: P1 for the uurgent press of the day, and so on P2, P4 and P7 depending on the need for the publication to be delivered with haste and depending on the cost.

The four new logotype replaced the three colour former: red, black and green.

The "Publissimo" (Pmo) marks are updated to in the same way and are for periodical publications that are not members of the Press Commission that negociates with State the help of press diffusion.

Thursday 22 June: New definitive series in Ukraine.
Betweenn Saturday 10 and Tuesday 20 June Ukrposhta issued the first eight stamps of Ukraine's ninth definitive series: Arms of municipalities, towns and villages.

I thank the blog Мой почтовый мир / My postal world for his webmaster's work to publish the new issues of Ukraine (among others).

Ukrposhta published an envelope for the new series' first day of use with a map locating the cities/villages and their oblasts (via My postal world, 10 June 2017).

Designed by Natalia Andreichenko following the recommendations of Andrey Grechilo, President of the Ukrainian Heraldry Society, the 8 stamps illustrate the arms of Chop (Zakarpattya), Klesov (Rivne), Nizhyn (Chernigov), Shatsk (Volyn), and villages of Marinin (Rivne) et Parutino (Mykolaiv).

Six here because the last two are remarkable because of the relations between Ukraine and Russia. But first, here is a list of the letter codes for the postal rates:

From a mail by Ukrposhta (via StampBoards).

The two stamps are from territories currently disputed between Ukraine on one side, Russia or Russian-[choose your opinion]ed independentist groups on the other.

Yalta, first stamp issued in this series, "V" for the interior basic letter (via My postal world, 10 June 2017).

Since the events of early 2014 the "Euromaidan protest"-inspired governments of Ukraine are facing the de facto integration of Crimea and Sebastopol into the Federation of Russia. So the issue of the Yalta stamp... The stamp will appear on many envelopes inside the country, the message is clear: Crimea is Ukrainian.

A traditional role for a stamp: to reinforce sovereignty... as Russia has been doing with stamps about Crimean places since 2014.

Arms of Yenakiieve (via My postal world, 21 June 2017).

The other troublesome stamp was issued Tuesday 20 June bearing the arms of Yenakiieve, in the oblast of Donetsk and the industrial region of Donbass, où deux groupes pro-russes revendiquent l'indépendance et sont en guerre civile contre l'État ukrainien.

Since the first fights in April 2014 this city is under the control of the separatists of the People's Republic of Donetsk while part of its suburbs were retaken by the Ukrainian army.

One question: how is the postal system working in Donbass?

Saturday 24 June: Even video games heroes receive postcards.
Just Cause 3 isn't an intellectual reflective video games - sure those kinds of games exist: read Canard PC - but the Swedish studio Avalanche allows its hero the capacity to read.

Introductive video of the game - the only seconds without gun and cannon shots? - during which the hero reads again his cousin's postcard that decided him to go back to its archipelago country in the Mediterranean Sea (via Fl0GaminG video on youTube, 5 December 2015).

In the Just Cause series the player must violently disrupt a dictatorial régime by killing soldiers, destroying strategic and military assets. When enough "chaos points" have been earned, he/she can perform special missions to advance into the story and towards the dismissal of the leader.

The third episode is special because the Agency accepts to send the hero to his country of birth, a Mediterranean archipelago under a military ruler, inspired by interwar fascism and many regional (both European and Arabic) military dictators.

How did he know he should come back and fight?

His cousin sent him a postcard with the dictator as main illustration of both the card and the postage stamp.