UNOstamps comment - 30 December 2007 - And now the end
is near II
Last year I wrote a comment with this title. Now the end of 2007 is
almost there. Looking back the past year had been very eventful. I found a new
job, I went to
Other special events were the exhibition on the
history of our local windmills. There I could present the deputy mayor with a
birthday present. The exhibition was a great success with a few hundred
visitors and a lot of press coverage.
In May I got the mayor to come to our local Worldshop
(Wereldwinkel)
to present the prizes in the regional photo competition for children. His
speech was broadcast live on the regional radio (WOS).
The number of visitors to UNOstamps has risen to
almost 2300 from 86 countries. I received dozens of awards from all over the
world and I would like to thank all visitors and award givers for their
interest in my website, in the important work of the United Nations and all
specialized organizations and in the great hobby of philately.
I am honoured that fellow collectors have written
positive comments on their own websites, like Eric from
2008 will be another important UN year. Our crown
prince has opened the International Year of Sanitation (IYS) last November
(see Newsletter 5)
and I hope that a lot of countries will give attention to the very important
subject of clean water for everyone.
But that is not the only international year that we
celebrate in 2008. It is also International Year of Planet Earth (IYPE)
and International Year of the Potato (IYP). How to get all those important subjects in one
year no one knows. It is a lucky thing that we have one day extra next year.
On Monday, like last year, I will visit a friend in
Tilburg and we will again start the new year in the south of the country in one
of the local pubs.
I wish all visitors of this website all the best for
the coming year.
UNOstamps comment -
14 November 2007 - From France to
Life is taking its 'normal' course. At work it is quite
busy and at home the activities for the historical society, the Oxfam shop and
others are very time consuming. But that doesn't mean that nothing nice
happens. Today I visited the website of the Nevada
Stamp Study Society. Two months ago the editor of their newsletter (Post
Boy), Howard Grenzebach, contacted me because he wanted to write an article
about UNOstamps.
This week the new edition of Post Boy was issued. And
there is a beautiful article on page 4. Read it by downloading this issue here. Older issues can be
found on their website. Every issue has a lot of information. Also the society
organizes a lot of events and takes part in stamp shows all over Nevada. It is
very good to see that a stamp club of only 60 members is this active.
A second publication I would like to bring to the
attention of my visitors is the blog of Eric Contesse from Lyon, France. He was
the winner of last month's quiz and on 8 November he wrote an article on Space for Humanity which make a nice commercial
for my website. Every day he adds another page to his blog. Take a look and see
what a variety of covers he receives from all over the world.
In the mean time I am trying to organize some of the
stamps I bought in Paris. The first ones from Tunisia and Ascension Island are
already on the website. More to follow.
UNOstamps comment -
10 November 2007 - Paris in the autumn
At the moment I am in Paris for the 61st Salon
Philatélique d'Automne. The last two days I have spent many hours looking
through stacks of envelopes and buying an enormous amount of stamps from all
over the world. As usual the Haworth family from Clitheroe, Lancashire, were
there. This time I bought a lot of stamps from Malaysia, Burma, India,
Bangladesh, Hong Kong, and some of the Pacific states. Of course the United
Nations Postal Administration was there as well. There I bought two large
exhibition sheets that are not included in my subscription. They are too large
to put them in any of my albums.
From the other postal administrations that were
present there I bought some recent stamps. San Marino has issued a nice series
for Gina Lollobrigida, a famous actress but also an ambassador for the FAO.
Spain and Luxembourg honoured there peace keeping missions with special stamps
and a lot of countries commemorated the International Polar Year. Switzerland
put their most famous tennis player Roger Federer on a special stamp.
The central theme was Greenland. In the hall were
enormous blocks of ice from Greenland glaciers that were gradually melting
away. After two days it was time to see some more of Paris, so today we walked
through the city looking at the usual monuments, but also some UN related
buildings: the UNESCO headquarters (closed on Saturdays) and the Palais the
Chaillot where in 1947 the General Assembly was held.
Tomorrow I will return to the Netherlands. I will need
the next few months to catalogue all new additions to my collection.
UNOstamps comment -
23 October 2007 - Vilnius here I come!
I have packed my suitcase and I am ready to leave for
Lithuania. Tomorrow morning I will fly to Prague and then to Vilnius for almost
five days of meetings, workshops and of course seeing old friends again. I have
never visited Vilnius so I am very excited of what I am going to find there.
Tomas from Lithuanica
on stamps was so kind as to send me the address of a stamp shop in downtown
Also Tomas found one of the missing
I love to stay and write some more, but I have heard
it is very very cold in Vilnius these days (at least here in the Netherlands it
is a comfortable nine degrees) so I have to pack some extra warm clothes.
Please visit this site again next week to see what I have found in Vilnius. And
there is still time to send in your answer to the question in this month's quiz
in the UNOstamps Newsletter. Answers can be send
in until Sunday. Good luck!
UNOstamps comment - 15 October 2007 - Blogging for the
environment
I have never considered this to be a blog like all
those millions of blogs all around the world. But when a UN agency calls upon
every blogger in the world to make a contribution, of course UNOstamps can't
ignore that. The UN Environment Programme has asked every blogger to talk about the
environment, for instance related to the subject of the website. As
UNOstamps is all about collecting stamps with a UN theme, my choice is easy.
Within the UN theme there are a lot of different
stamps and other items that tell you about the need to save our environment. Of
course there are the yearly Endangered Species stamps from the three UNPA offices.
Over the years this has grown into a beautiful collection of animals and plants
that is almost worth to hang on the wall of your room. And this is only the
start. There are stamps on subjects as World Environment Day, International Year of the Ocean,
International
Day for Biological Diversity and UNEP
itself. The possibilities are endless.
But there is more to life than collecting postage
stamps. Everyone is responsible for his own contribution to saving our world.
Personally I try to save electricity by using compact fluorescent lamps, only
using the washing machine when it is full, switching off my computer and
television when I am not using them and not leaving lights on in the house.
Also I don't have a car and use public transport.
Sometimes there is no real choice. For instance next
week I am going to Vilnius for an international conference. The only way to get
there quick is by plane. That is a very environment unfriendly way to travel,
but I have compensated it by making my seat a green seat. The trip from Amsterdam to Vilnius via Prague
results in 3.218 km and 1.2 tons of CO2. This can be compensated for only 15
euro. So the next time you take a plane do something about it! And if possible
take the train, as I will do next month when I go to Paris.
We all have a shared responsibility not only for the
world of today, but also for the world of tomorrow.
UNOstamps comment - 22 August 2007 - Windmills on my
mind
I must say that starting a Newsletter was kind of an
exciting adventure. How many people would react to the news? How many people
would subscribe? I sent e-mails to various stamp groups on the internet and
until today 36 people have subscribed from countries all over the world. And eight
of them have sent in an answer to the quiz in the Newsletter. There is still
time to send in the answer (until 27 August). The first issue can be found on
the Newsletter page.
The summer holiday season is coming to an end. At the
moment I am busy with the preparations for a local art and history exhibition
on the theme "Year of the Windmills 2007". This is a national event
to stress the importance of the windmill for Dutch history and cultural
heritage. In my village there is a large windmill called "Windlust",
built in 1869 (see the photo I took last year). The local historical society
will give an overview of the history of this monument and of all the different
mills that existed in our village over the last few centuries. Local amateur
artists will show paintings, watercolours and drawings inspired on Windlust.
The exhibition will be opened on 1 September by the deputy mayor.
I haven't had a summer holiday yet. Most people leave
the country for two or three weeks, but I stayed here. Since I started my new
job in May I don't have that many holidays. In October I will visit Vilnius and
in November I will spend a few days in Paris, and of course there I will visit
the Salon Philatélique d'Automne. The last time I was there was in 2004.
The website is still growing. A new country, new
persons and even new awards. Enough to see and enough to come back for.
UNOstamps comment - 28 July 2007 - Newsletter
The UNOstamps website is now one year old. The number
of pages has grown and so has the number of visitors. During this year I
received a lot of positive comments and useful suggestions to improve the
website. One of these suggestions, from Canada, was to issue a newsletter from time
to time to let interested people know what new pages are added. After long
deliberations I have decided to follow the Canadian suggestion and issue a
monthly newsletter. It will be sent out every first weekend of the month (the
first on 4/5 August) as a pdf-file.
In the newsletter I will give an overview of the
newest additions to the website. I will try to include some new additions to my
collection that are not yet on the website, important UN and philatelic events
and a quiz. Every month you will be asked to identify a stamp that can be found
on UNOstamps. The lucky winner will receive some mint UN related stamps. In the
newsletter there will be room for visitors' comments.
To subscribe to the newsletter just send an e-mail
with the subject 'newsletter' to info@unostamps.nl.
UNOstamps comment - 2 June 2007 - World news
This week I was at home being ill. According to the
doctor I contracted some sort of bacteria that caused 'rumblings in the
interior'. I know that sounds more like a revolution somewhere in Africa, but
that was what it felt like. I was put on antibiotics and Now I'm well enough to
leave the house. I'll be glad when I can get back to work on Monday.
This week our country became headline news when one of
the public broadcasters, BNN, announced that they would that they would
organize The Big Donor Show. A terminally sick woman would give away one of her
kidneys to someone needing a transplant. The public were allowed to send SMS
messages to advise her.
This caused a great upheaval throughout the country
and even all over Europe. The Christian-democrats questioned the minister for
Education and Culture (responsible for the media) about this. Although he
thought it was 'distasteful' he could not prevent the broadcast because the
Dutch Constitution protects freedom of the press. At the end of the show it all
turned out to be a hoax. There was never any intention to give away a free
kidney, the sick woman was an actress. But the three 'contestants' were real
patients in need of a new kidney. BNN made the program to convince people that
there was a real need for donor organs and to urge Parliament to change the
donor system. In Belgium and Spain there are two to three times more donor
organs per one million people than in the Netherlands.
They managed to get the whole country to think about
being a donor and they even managed to put the item on the agenda of the
European Commission and a lot of foreign governments. It took one 'fantastic
stunt' (said the minister for Culture after the broadcast) and a lot of
courage. More information on: http://www.bnn.nl/page/donorshow (in Dutch, but with
links to international media and to the original broadcast).
Sitting at home I had some time to add two more
countries (Falkland Islands and Kelantan). Also I spent some time on auction
sites on the internet to search for new additions to my collection. Finally I found
the Anti-Malaria series from Herm Island. This is not an easy one to find. They
also issued a series for the World Refugee Year in 1960, but that one is very
rare. Other finds include stamps from Ireland, Thailand, Grenada and Tanzania.
UNOstamps comment - 25 May 2007 - Civil servant
Since 14 May I have a permanent contract with my new
employer. Well, at least for the next year. This means that for the first time
in my life I am officially a civil servant. My grandfather was a civil servant
too for forty years until his death in 1982. He worked for the home office in
The Hague. Strange how these things can go.
All this work and my voluntary work almost leaves me
hardly any time to spend on this website. Fortunately since my last comment I
managed to add three new countries: Aitutaki, Johore and Selangor.
Of course the Malayan states are not the most
difficult stamp issuing countries to study. The only UN related stamps are
those for the 75th anniversary of the UPU in 1949. And because of this they are
as important to me as any other country, colony, island or organization in the
world.
In a few weeks UNOstamps is one year old. By then I
hope to have reached country number fifty. Actually that is not too difficult
as there are still six Malayan states to add. And there is the former colony of
Sarawak, that entered the Federation of Malaya in 1963.
Maybe it is time for another European country because
since Jersey in March I have not added a country 'close to home'. So many
European countries have issued beautiful stamps for my collection, like
Iceland, Czech Republic, Austria and even Aland. Well, we'll see. In the
meantime I invite you to visit the blog of my friend Björn, who is at this
moment visiting Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. His adventures can be found on www.bjurren.blogspot.com.
UNOstamps comment - 30 April 2007 - Midlife crisis?
Last week the problem of the midlife crisis featured prominently
in the national news. Our crown prince turned forty and that is a 'natural'
point to ask questions on your future or even to buy a Harley-Davidson. Now in
some days from now I will reach the same age as the prince (but that is where
all comparison ends) and I already started spending money. I bought a new
television. It's big, black and flat. Finally I could install the digital tv
decoder and now I can watch 59 different channels: Belgium, Germany, Italy,
Spain, Morocco, Poland, Britain, France, Turkey and a variety of news, music
and commercial channels.
Today is Queen's Day, our national holiday to
celebrate the official birthday of the 
Queen. In almost every town or village in the country
the day starts with a musical salute at town hall. The national anthem, a
speech from the (deputy) mayor and lots of activities for children. Queen's Day
is the only day in the year when people are allowed to sell things in the
streets without a permit. Especially in the largest cities this 'free market' attracts
visitors from all over the country.
A new job costs a lot of time. This is why I haven't
done a lot of work on the website. I'm now getting 
used to working again after spending more than a year
looking for a job. The last few days I've added two persons and three countries
and there is still more to come. Also I have received some new awards for my
website. Thanks to all the people who took the time to visit and judge
UNOstamps.
And for those of you residing in or visiting the
Netherlands, next Saturday 5 May (Liberation Day) I will visit Amsterdam for
some liberation and maybe birthday celebrations. I can be found in café April
or at the festival next to the Wester Church.
UNOstamps comment - 27 March 2007 - Good news and bad
news
Finally it has happened. After one year of looking for
a new job I finally found one! Well, a temporary job to start with, but if they
like my work there is a chance for a more lengthy contract. For the moment I
can work 32 hours a week with NWO (www.nwo.nl)
as an administrative aid. The office building is located on the other side of
The Hague next to the Department of Social Affairs.
Of course there is no good news without bad news.
Today I received an e-mail telling me that one of my high school teachers,
Lenny Philipoom, has died on Saturday. On the photo you can see her on the
right during our school sailing trip in September 1983 on the IJsselmeer. Only
five years ago she retired from teaching and on that occasion some former
students (including myself) from the Thomas More College in The Hague gave a
surprise performance. We performed part of a play from February 1983. We will
miss her.
Recently I bought a number of series from British
colonies for the 75th anniversary of the UPU in 1949: Sarawak, Singapore, Saint
Lucia, Montserrat, Turks and Caicos Islands, New Hebrides and many more. I
should look into it, but I think I have almost the complete omnibus.
UNOstamps comment - 9 March 2007 - Ten countries in
twenty days
It is almost twenty days ago that I wrote my last
comment. And a lot has happened since then. Ten new countries were added (looks
like an expansion of the European Union) and a lot of other pages have been
updated. Don't forget: if you are looking for a specific subject, you can find
all the stamps on that subject at the bottom of the subject's page. For
instance the UPU 75th anniversary page
lists 21 different series of stamps, from
Over the next weeks a lot of Pacific Commonwealth
countries will be added to the catalogue. I have scanned all the Pacific stamps
in my collection and I'm working my way from island to island. Please take the
time to read the historical data on the different country pages, you'll be
amazed how rich the history of this region is. Also I invite you to look at the
Awards page and see how other people judged the
contents and appearance of this website. Next to every award there is a link to
the award giver's site. Take a look at some of them, you won't be disappointed.
The Netherlands in the mean time is getting back to
normal. After the national elections a new government was formed and this week
we went to the polls again for the regional elections. Now finally all
politicians can go back to work. Current national debates concern members of
parliament and the cabinet with two nationalities, gay marriages and Christian
civil servants, and how to pay for the pensions in the future. As I said, back
to normal.
UNOstamps comment - 18 February 2007 - Back in
business
The pigeon has landed. Last time I wrote about moving
my website to a new domain. And what I expected came true: UNOstamps has been
off the air for more than three weeks. And with that the e-mail. All e-mails
that were sent to info@unostamps.nl are
now lost forever in cyberspace. No website in the air didn't prevent me from
working on it to improve a lot of things for the future visitors.
I have added a lot of stamp images from Benin, Niger,
Papua New Guinea, the USSR and some other countries. These are the 
stamps I bought in Nieuw-Loosdrecht. Also two new
persons have been added: Mother Teresa, who received the FAO Ceres Medal in
1975, and Jozef Baláž, the Slovak artist that gave his name to a special UNESCO
workshop for young designers from developing countries.
Also I have changed almost all external links. They
now open in new windows and no longer within the frame. It was not easy to find
this option because this website is not made with your usual html-editor. I
have added ALT-tags on the images and labelled this site with ICRA. This shows
that it is safe for all ages to view. Now all this is done, it is time to add
new pages. In the near future pages on pope John Paul II and Amnesty
International will appear, as well as new countries. And I recently bought a
number of Disney stamps with UN themes. They will appear on the site in due
course.
Enough to come back for. Please do.
UNOstamps comment - 1 February 2007 - Anybody there?
I
write this comment, knowing that no one will read it for some time. Since the web
space my provider has allocated is almost full, I have applied for more space.
To do this, the provider has to take down my site. Then they fill out a form
which is sent by carrier pigeon to the north of the country where it will end
up on a pile. And then we wait.
Last weekend was the annual Filateliebeurs in Nieuw-Loosdrecht. This first large gathering of
stamp dealers and topical stamp clubs of the year is always a busy place to be.
And as always I overdid it on the buying. This time I was lucky to find some
dealers with stamps from Benin, Niger, USSR and a few other countries that are
already on the site. As the country catalogue only contains the images of the
stamps that are actually in my collection, there is now more to see for the
visitors. Benin is hard to find here, so I was rather lucky.
Also I bought some issues from Commonwealth Pacific
countries and territories. They will appear on the site in due course. If it
ever ends up on the web again......
A nice find on one of the auction sites in the
Netherlands were two local stamps from Dordrecht issued on 21 November 1985.
They were used by the local city post service. I saw them years ago but didn't
buy them then. I'm not sure where to list them, maybe under Netherlands. We'll
see.
UNOstamps comment - 12 January 2007 - Troubled times
These are troubled times. The new year has already
made an impact. Since the first day I have been to receptions, meetings,
exhibitions, a job interview (I turned down the job), the library, hospital,
the local pub, local radio and this Saturday I have this year's first funeral.
And on top of that it has been storming and raining all day. It is now the
middle of the night and I am still at the computer.
Finally I have finished all the subject pages that
were a result of adding Tunisia to the website. And now I have added three more
countries (one to follow tomorrow): Bahawalpur, Liechtenstein and Slovakia.
This means that the next few weeks I will be busy updating a lot of subject
pages and writing new ones. The only problem is that the web space I got from
my provider is filled up. This means I have requested more space (for a higher
fee, of course). It is such a strange idea that now almost 50 MB of information
can be seen all over the world. And looking at the web statistics, visitors
come from all over the world.
Now 24 countries are available on the website. The
list has more than 220 countries, so I'm still at the beginning of this
operation. Well, I just keep on going and maybe when I retire.......
In two weeks the first stamp fair of 2007 will be held
at Loosdrecht, in the centre of the country. A lot of dealers will be there,
including the Haworth brothers from England. I hope to buy from them the
missing Ascension Island stamp booklets and some other stamps I have missed.
Well, enough for today. It is time to get some sleep.
UNOstamps Comments 2006 (21 November - 31
December)
last
revised: