UNOstamps comment - 31 December 2008 - And now the end
is near III
For the third time I can write a comment with this
title (see also 2006 and 2007). At this last day of the year I
can look back on what was a year that started very slow but disappeared quickly
after the summer. In my personal life it was very quiet. No enormous changes,
no new job, no new hobbies, no new love.
The UNOstamps website grew with 22 countries, 26
subjects, 10 persons, and a lot of new stamp images. Also added were philatelic
books and magazines and stamp catalogues. There were 11 newsletters and only 10
comments (including this one).
A number of special events happened in 2008. From
September our local
historical society celebrated its 35th anniversary. I had to make a special
jubilee exhibition that was visited by some 900 people and was officially
opened by the alderman for culture. In November we held a special historical
film show with more than 100 visitors watching documentaries on three of our
monuments and a film on our village during the Second World War. Next year I
hope to finish my new book with minutes of the town council 1953-1958.
In May we celebrated World Fair Trade Day in our local
Worldshop (Wereldwinkel).
There one of our volunteers was awarded a local decoration by the mayor for
many years of volunteer work.
The trip to Vienna was something so impressive that
I'll never forget it. Two ILGA conferences in a row with people from all over
the world. Personal stories about discrimination, persecution, police
harassment, but also stories of hope for a better future. And I got the chance
to visit the United Nations buildings and get a private guided tour. For this
occasion I wrote special Vienna Comments that
are still on the website.
What else happened? In January my favourite pub in
Amsterdam closed for renovation, it is due to reopen next April. I went to
stamp shows in Loosdrecht, 's-Hertogenbosch and Apeldoorn, where I spent far
too much money. I attended and chaired a large number of meetings during the
year, I visited Tilburg and Amsterdam and I even won one whole euro in the
lottery.
Later today, like the last two years, 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 - 10 December 2008 - Turtles and human rights
A strange combination, but I can explain it. Today is
the 60th birthday of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. One of the most
important documents in the world. Just stop a moment and think about those basic
rights for everyone: freedom, education, housing, health, and some happiness.
And turtles? Well, Tuesday I received the latest stamps from the Pitcairn
Islands. A beautiful souvenir
sheet with turtles from
I ordered the souvenir sheet on the day of issue. When
it arrived I saw that they sent it the same day. What a perfect service. I can
recommend everyone to order their Pitcairn stamps directly from the philatelic service.
The sheet is worth having in your collection, even if you don't collect UN
stamps or animals or Pitcairn Islands. They found a designer from France that
managed to draw turtles under water and on the beach. Also there are those cute
little ones making their way from the sand towards the open sea. Well done
Pitcairn!
UNOstamps
comments - 30 October - 11 November 2008 - The Vienna Comments
My comments from Vienna, that I wrote during the
ILGA-Europe and ILGA World conferences are on a special page:
UNOstamps
comment - 15 October 2008 - Blog Action Day: blogging against poverty
Today is Blog Action Day 2008. Like last year all
people who write some sort of web log are asked to focus the reader's attention
on a specific subject. For 2008 the subject is poverty.
UNOstamps deals with the work of the United Nations
and related organizations and the most important struggle against poverty
within the system is the Millennium Development Goals
(MDG). This historic promise made by 189 world leaders in 2000 contains eight
specific targets to end poverty worldwide. They include education, child
health, fighting AIDS and ending hunger.
This last target is not new. As far back as 1963 the
FAO organized a world wide Freedom from Hunger Campaign. In
many countries money was raised to help get food to deprived people. Here in
the
The latest instrument to end poverty is microcredit.
The leading figure here is Mohammed Yunus from Bangladesh who received the
Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. The UN declared 2005 as the International Year of
Microcredit. The year got a lot of attention in the Netherlands because of
the involvement of Princess Máxima who became a special advisor to the UN.
I have tried for the last fifteen years to contribute to
make life better for other people. Since 1993 I am a volunteer in our local
Worldshop (Wereldwinkel). Here we sell artifacts, goods and food from small
producers in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The producers get a fair price for
the products they make and with this money they can build schools, improve
production and get a better life for themselves and their families. Anyone can
help in a simple way: buy your presents, your coffee, or toys in your local
Worldshop. Every small contribution counts. Don't wait until tomorrow, start
today.
UNOstamps
comment - 18 September 2008 - Almost famous
Yesterday the latest issue of Grenzenloos arrived. As you might know it is the quarterly magazine
of "VN-VE Filatelie", the Dutch Philatelic Society for United Nations
and United Europe. Some weeks ago the chairman of the society phoned me and
asked if I would like to contribute in any way. I agreed to write a series of
articles on various stamps from my collection. In the new magazine you can read
part 1 on the PUC Pound and the USSR stamps for the UPU Administrative
Conference in The Hague in 1927. The article is in Dutch, but if you want to read
it you can download
it as a pdf-file (opens in a new window).
The jubilee exhibition of the local
historical society has opened on 5 September and in the first two weekends
already 800 people visited it. There are two more weekends to go, but we think
it is a big success. In October part of the exhibition will be shown at the
local library for National History Week (Week
van de Geschiedenis).
I bought some nice stamps last week on eBay and I'm
considering some other offers for some expensive series. In October there is
the Postex
2008 in
UNOstamps
comment - 20 July 2008 - Busy, busy, busy
Frequent visitors have noticed that the last few
months not a lot of new additions were made to the website. This is because I'm
trying to finish my latest book on local history and because in September our local
historical society celebrates its 35th anniversary with a lot of
activities. There is an exhibition, a film viewing, a small exhibition in the
local library, several attendances at manifestations and of course the new
book. As a board member I'm working hard to help organize all these things.
So these are busy times, but that doesn't mean that
nothing happens. I try to add something to the website every weekend and of
course the Newsletter will be published as usual. New on the website are the
stamps from Portuguese Timor, a
former overseas province that we now know as Timor-Leste or
Monday I'm taking a day off to go to the fair in
Tilburg. It is the largest in the Benelux with 246 different attractions,
making it 3,5 kilometres long. I hope to write something about it in the next
few days.
UNOstamps
comment - 30 April 2008 - Queen's Day
Today is Queen's Day in the Netherlands. It is the day
we celebrate the official birthday of the Queen. This day had been a national
holiday since 1948 (until then it was 31 August). This morning was the
traditional musical tribute in front of our town hall. The Queen and her family
visited the province of Friesland in the north of the country.
Especially for this day I have made an extra edition
of the UNOstamps Newsletter with a special and
difficult quiz. There are three prizes to be won but... send in your answer before
the deadline mentioned in the Newsletter.
And finally I have added country number 65 to the
website: Bangladesh. A large country with a lot of UN related stamps. Together
with British Antarctic Territory and Tibet I have added three countries in one
month. The website is almost two years old and it has come a long way with 65
countries, 223 subjects, 42 persons and lots of other items.
UNOstamps
comment - 13 April 2008 - Passion for stamps
This weekend saw the Stamp Passion 08 stamp fair in 's-Hertogenbosch.
I spent two days browsing through the two halls where the fair was held. The
Stamp Passion celebrated the 80th anniversary of NVPH, the Netherlands
Association of Stamp Dealers. There were a lot of dealers but unfortunately
(for me) most of them sold only Netherlands and the colonies. There were a few
foreign postal administrations: Belgium and the Scandinavian countries. Also
the United Nations were represented but it was not an official presence, so
there was no special cancellation and no blue card (photo: the UN stand).
I did buy some nice stamps from Niger, Thailand, Turks
and Caicos Islands, Grenada, Belgium, Indonesia, Guinea-Bissau and other
countries. Finally on Sunday I found some time to add a new country to the
website. In light of the protests surrounding the Olympic flame I chose Tibet.
There is one series issued by or on behalf of the government in exile for the
UPU centenary in 1974. As I wrote in one of my previous Newsletters I take no
political stand point on the status of a country. In this case the stamps
(whether or not official) have a UN theme so they are in my collection.
UNOstamps
comment - 7 February 2008 - New and improved!
This comment sounds more like a television commercial
for washing powder but it is serious. When I started this website in July 2006
it was primarily to organize my own collection and to let other interested
collectors see what I have acquired over the years. In more than one and a half
year I have my own domain name, a newsletter and a website with almost 350
different pages, lots of information and thousands of images. So it was time
for some restyling.
Fortunately I have a colleague at the office who is
very skilled in graphic design. Today Dick designed a new logo for me. To me it
has a feeling of style and movement. Plus it has a bluish UN colour and a
distinct stamp edge. What more could I wish for? Well, maybe your opinion. Send
it to me on info@unostamps.nl.
During all this I am taking some time to check all
pages on dead links and links that do not open in a new frame. And there is a
new country: Suriname. This is the name of the former Dutch territory since independence
in 1975. Before that it was called Surinam. They added an e at the end when the
young republic became a member of the United Nations. Country number 60.
Another milestone. On to the next one.
UNOstamps
comment - 27 January 2008 - Busy weekend
I'm writing this just after midnight so it is Sunday
now. The last two days have been very busy. On Friday I visited the annual Filateliebeurs in Nieuw-Loosdrecht. There I bought a lot of stamps,
some of which are added to the site. New stamp images from Solomon Islands,
Germany, Austria, Aitutaki and German Democratic Republic are now available.
Apart from these stamps I bought a lot of issues from Pakistan, Singapore,
Qatar and Sri Lanka.
There are not only stamp dealers at the
Filateliebeurs, but also a lot of stamp clubs present themselves there. One of
the clubs I joined some years ago was there as well: VN-VE Filatelie (sorry, no
website yet). It was founded in 1960 for those who collect United Nations (VN)
or United Europe (VE) stamps.
Saturday was a special day because Sophie in 't Veld,
Member of the European Parliament for D66, paid a visit to COC The Hague
Region. There she spoke about protecting LGBT rights across Europe and about
the way our personal data is being collected and stored at the moment. She told
us that if we send post to the United States the names of the sender and
recipient and the contents are registered somewhere. After all the heavy things,
she formally opened the website for The Hague Pink City 2009 (www.rozestaddenhaag.nl)
by writing the first entry in the guestbook. In a few days the site will be
available for everyone to see.
On Sunday afternoon I have this year's final New
Year's reception in Amsterdam. It is probably going to get a little late, so I
took the precaution of taking Monday off.
UNOstamps Comments 2006 (21 November - 31
December)
UNOstamps Comments 2007 (12 january - 30 December)
last revised: 1 August 2010