UNOstamps Newsletter

nr. 10 - May 2008

issued by UNOstamps - Netherlands edited by Maxim van Ooijen Introduction
This is the tenth issue of the UNOstamps Newsletter. It contains the newest additions to the UNOstamps website, news from the UN and the monthly quiz. There is also room for your comments. Don't hesitate to give me your opinion on the Newsletter. Please send in comments, suggestions or even compliments. Remember you don't have to wait for the next issue to visit UNOstamps at [Link]. As you may have read last month, there was the Stamp Passion '08. 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). Although April was a busy month, I added a lot of new pages and images to the website. There should be something of interest for everyone. There are more countries and subjects on the way, but first this the new Newsletter. Because it is issued somewhat later than normal, I have included all new items to the website up to 6 May. Have fun reading it and don't forget to answer this month's quiz. The question is rather easy and the prize is quite nice.

New additions to UNOstamps in April-May 2008

I have added four countries (bringing the total to 66), six new subjects, stamp images from Surinam, Benin and Solomon Islands, the first stamp issued in 2008, four old and two new blue cards, five magazines, three books and two comments to the UNOstamps website.

British Antarctic Territory

Although Antarctica belongs to no country there are some countries with a territorial claim and even special stamps. British Antarctic Territory (the Peninsula, the South Orkney and South Sandwich Islands) has issued stamps since 1963, but the first UN related stamp was issued last year for International Polar Year.

Bangladesh
The republic of Bangladesh was first part of British India and after independence known as East Pakistan. After a civil war in 1971 Bangladesh was formed. The website shows a lot of UN related stamps and there is a special page with provisional overprints on Pakistani stamps from the war. These are not easy to find and I am glad that I have some in my collection. More are welcome!
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Tibet
Since ancient times Tibet was an important country in Central Asia. During the 20th Century the balance of power shifted between the Tibetans, the British and the Chinese. In 1950 the country was incorporated into the People's Republic of China. The Dalai Lama leads a government in exile from Dharmsala, India. One UN related series of stamps, for the UPU Centenary in 1974, was issued by or on behalf of this government. Real stamps or not, the UN theme makes them part of the UNOstamps collection.

Zil Elwagne Sesel / Zil Elwannyen Sesel

The Outer Islands of the Seychelles had their own stamps from 1980 to 1992. The stamps were sold from the m.v. Cinque Juin which operated as a travelling post office; Four series of stamps can be seen on the website, three of which are for the World Heritage site of Aldabra Atoll.

International Polar Year

The International Polar Year (IPY) is a large scientific programme focused on the Arctic and the Antarctic. In order to have full and equal coverage of both the Arctic and the Antarctic, IPY 2007-2008 covers two full annual cycles from March 2007 to March 2009 and will involve over 200 projects, with thousands of scientists from over 60 nations examining a wide range of physical, biological and social research topics.

World Habitat Day

The United Nations has designated the first Monday in October every year as World Habitat Day to reflect on the state of human settlements and the basic right to adequate shelter for all. It is also intended to remind the world of its collective responsibility for the future of the human habitat. The first United Nations World Habitat Day Celebration was held 1986 in Nairobi.

United Nations Peacekeeping

United Nations peacekeeping is a unique and dynamic instrument developed by the Organization as a way to help countries torn by conflict create the conditions for lasting peace. The first UN peacekeeping mission was established in 1948, when the Security Council authorized the deployment of UN military observers to the Middle East to monitor the Armistice Agreement between Israel and its Arab neighbours. Since then, there have been a total of 63 UN peacekeeping operations around the world.

International Mother Language Day

Linguistic and cultural diversity represent universal values that strengthen the unity and cohesion of societies. The recognition of the importance of this diversity led to UNESCOs decision to celebrate International Mother Language Day. The General Conference of UNESCO, at its 30th session, in 1999, decided to proclaim and to observe an International Mother Language Day. This Day is celebrated on 21 February every year throughout the world.

World Heritage - Seychelles

Every country that has World Heritage sites within its borders gets its own page on UNOstamps. It lists those sites that have been put on stamps. Seychelles is the eighth country on the website, after Netherlands, Solomon Islands, United Kingdom, Slovakia, Austria, Suriname and Portugal. The site presented here from Seychelles is Aldabra Atoll.

World Tourism Day

World Tourism Day is commemorated on 27 September each year and coincides with the anniversary of the adoption of the UNWTO Statutes on 27 September 1970 and was designated as World Tourism Day by the UNWTO General Assembly.

Other items - Philatelic books / Philatelic magazines / Stamp catalogues

The three books I added are two Dutch handbooks on general and thematic philately and the 'Passion for stamps' book that was given to all visitors of Stamp Passion '08. The five copies of 'Grenzenloos' I added complete the collection of Dutch UN philately magazines I have at hand at the moment. I am searching for other issues to complete my collection. Last week I bought the new Michel catalogue for Japan, Korea and Mongolia. It is part 2 of the East Asia catalogue, the first part containing China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao.

New Blue card images

I have added the Blue cards that were issued in November 2007 in Paris and in March 2008 in Milan. Older card images are those from Monthey (1980), London (1982), Stockholm (1992) and Brussels (2006).

New stamp images

At Stamp Passion '08 I finally found some missing stamps from Benin (Philexafrique 2) and Solomon Islands (Transport and Communications Decade for Asia and the Pacific and World Stamp Expo 89). On the internet I found the small sheets for the Dag Hammarskjld issue from Surinam in 1962 (image here very reduced).

From the Philatelic Service in Austria I bought my fist stamp of 2008 (not issued by the UN itself that is). On 9 April Austria issued another stamp in its World Heritage series, this time a view of Wachau Cultural Landscape. Again It is an example of a beautiful designed and engraved stamp that Austria is famous for. Quick links to all new additions can be found on the page 'New on this website'.

Recent finds
Recently I found some stamps issued by local British posts. One of them is shown here. It is from Davaar Island, an island on the west coast of Scotland. Apparently it is uninhabited apart from two caretakers. This souvenir sheet commemorates Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. I can't find any details on this sheet. I searched all corners of the internet but there is no information on the year of issue, designer or printer. If any of the readers know anything on this issue, please tell me. Also there are other Davaar stamps I still search for my collection. They are issued during the British Postal Strike in 1971 and show the UN Headquarters in New York.

United Nations News

UN Secretary-General pays tribute to economic value of postal services
UPU celebrates 60 years as part of United Nations family; adds UN olive branches to its logo 28 April 2008 - United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today stressed the importance of postal services in the worlds development efforts as he marked the Universal Postal Unions 60th anniversary as a specialized agency of the United Nations. The Secretary-General is at UPU headquarters to chair the biannual Chief Executives Board of the United Nations System, which coordinates a range of issues facing the world and United Nations organizations. Issues to be discussed include the United Nations response to climate change and the world food crisis. This is an exciting time for the United Nations, but it is also a time when we are challenged to exert our best efforts to rise to the expectations that the world is placing on us, said the Secretary-General. You [the UPU] are a big part of this. Postal services are particularly important at a time when hundreds of millions of people have relocated from their country of origin and are anxious to share news and resources 4
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with their relatives. He added: You may be one of the smallest specialized agencies, but the work you are doing is key to the broader mission of our Organization. The Secretary-General said the postal sector makes a well-known contribution to development, and pointed out the UPUs efforts to assist its member countries, in particular developing and least developed countries, in the field of technical cooperation and development. He also noted the organizations efforts to help the global community achieve the Millennium Development Goals. With more than 660.000 postal outlets combining the physical, electronic and financial dimensions of a worldwide communication network, postal services provide a natural gateway to the information society. The UPU also participates in the Aid for Trade initiative to help enabling developing countries build traderelated infrastructure and supply capacity, and is focusing efforts on development work in Africa. Africa was the first region for which the UPU developed a regional development plan in 2005 to bring major improvements to the quality of postal services in the area. The plan, focused on integration and a regional approach, groups the development activities undertaken for the benefit of the countries of a particular region by the various players, both within the UPU International Bureau and at the regional level. The capacity of postal services to provide information, goods and fund transfers can lend valuable support to the growth of small businesses in developing countries and help them to access markets in industrialized States, said the Secretary-General. (source: Universal Postal Union Press Release, photo: UPU)

Quiz
The ninth quiz was again very easy. Twelve people from ten different countries sent in the right answer. The question was: who is this world famous artist? The right answer is Pablo Picasso. The reason stamps for the birth centenary of Picasso in 1981 are included in the UNOstamps collection is the UNESCO celebrated this event and issued a special medal that is still awarded to individuals and groups in recognition of an outstanding contribution to the arts or culture. And the winner is: Cor Vandermeulen from Belgium. The mint stamps are already in the mail. And there are three more winners to be announced. The extra Queen's Day edition with the special quiz resulted in fourteen answers (thirteen correct) from twelve countries. The correct answers are: Pope John Paul II - Vatican City Franklin Delano Roosevelt - United States of America Lopold Sedar Senghor - Senegal And the winners are: Albert Pelsser from Canada (United Nations stamps) Peter van de Laar from Netherlands (IYC stamps) Davor Franjkovic from Croatia (UPU stamps) Your stamps will be in the mail very soon. 5
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The quiz for May focuses on the 25th anniversary of the World Communications Year. Back in 1983 many activities were organized and stamps were issued to stress the importance of communication, especially for developing countries. This stamp from one of the 66 countries on the website was issued for World Communications Year. I have erased the name of the issuing country, so the very easy question is:

Where is this stamp from?

E-mail your answer to info@[Link] before 27 May 2008. All correct answers will be entered in the draw. The lucky winner will receive a special philatelic prize. The prize consists of mint stamps from Cyprus (Human Rights), Ghana (Freedom from Hunger), Sao Tome and Principe (18th UPU Congress) and Vatican City (Pope's Visit to the UN). These beautiful stamps can be yours! Good luck! You can see the complete prize on the website.

United Nations Agenda May 2008

3 3 8-9 15 17 21 22 25-31 29 31 Sun Day World Press Freedom Day Time of Remembrance and Reconciliation for Those Who Lost their Lives during the Second World War International Day of Families World Telecommunication and Information Society Day World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development International Day for Biological Diversity Week of Solidarity with the Peoples of Non-Self-Governing Territories International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers World No-Tobacco Day

Visitors count
Up to 30 April 2008 UNOstamps has been seen by 886 visitors other than myself. 7 of these visitors came from an unknown country. For the first time there was a visitor from Ireland. This brings the total at 93 countries. In 2008 people from 69 countries have already passed by the website. The top ten countries are (between brackets the results of 31 March 2008): 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. (1) (2) (4) (4) (7) United States Netherlands France Canada India 151 129 61 48 46 (3) 7. (6) 8. (8) 9. (9) 10. (9) United Kingdom Germany Lithuania Italy Belgium 46 42 31 27 26

Next issue
Newsletter nr. 11 will be issued on 2 June 2008. If you have a comment that you would like to share with the other readers, please send it before 27 May 2008. To unsubscribe from the Newsletter, just send an email to info@[Link] with the subject 'unsubscribe'. 6
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