2430. Commonwealth Stamps Review Of 2023.

 

🇮🇪 5 January - Fiftieth anniversary of the admission of the Republic of Ireland to what was then the European Economic Community.

🇱🇸 31 January - The postal service of Lesotho issued its first stamps since 2016 with the release of 2 sets - one on the subject of Tourism and the other depicting Insects. Some might consider it a little bizarre to issue a set of stamps encouraging tourism and on the very same date, issue a set of stamps which includes a black widow spider (obviously not an insect) in its depictions - a beast rather unlikely to prove attractive to prospective visitors 

🇸🇭🇬🇧🇫🇰🇸🇭🇬🇸🇸🇭 15 February - Five British south Atlantic and Antarctic territories (Ascension Island, British Antarctic Territory, Falkland Islands, South Georgia And The South Sandwich Islands and Tristan Da Cunha) participate in a mini-omnibus issue to commemorate the late Queen Elizabeth II.

🇺🇦🇯🇪 24 February - First anniversary of the Russian invasion of its neighbour Ukraine. During the course of the previous twelve months, the postal administrations of several Commonwealth countries and territories had issued stamps to demonstrate their support for Ukraine.

🇬🇧 23 March  - Royal Mail issued its first commemorative stamps which included a cameo of King Charles III in their design.

🇬🇧 4 April  - Royal Mail issued its first definitive stamps depicting a portrait of King Charles III.

🇬🇬 4 April - Guernsey Post issued a set of 6 stamps and 1 miniature sheet to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Kennel Club.

🇫🇰🇸🇭🇬🇧 🇨🇦 6 May - Coronation of King Charles III.

🇨🇦 23 May - Canada Post issued a single stamp to commemorate the 150th of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

🇬🇬 24 May - Guernsey Post issued a set of 7 stamps and 1 miniature sheet to commemorate Guernsey’s hosting of the 19th International Island Games from 8 to 14 July 2023.

🇲🇹 29 May-3 June - Malta hosted the Games of the Small States of Europe and issued a miniature sheet to commemorate the event.

🇬🇧 23 June - Royal Mail issued stamps to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the Windrush, a ship carrying Caribbean immigrants to the United Kingdom. This iconic event marked the beginning of decades of mass immigration to Britain from around The Commonwealth and the rest of the world which was to change the nature and character of post-imperial Great Britain for ever.

 🇷🇺 27-28 June - The 2nd Russia-Africa Summit was held in St Petersburg and commemorated by a single postage stamp released by the postal service of Russia. It was poorly attended by African leaders with only twelve out of 54 attending in person but among those paying court to the Russian leader Putin were Commonwealth Presidents Filipe Nyusi of Mozambique, Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda plus lesser politicians from Nigeria, Tanzania, Zambia, Seychelles, The Gambia and Ghana. Also there was President Emerson Mnangagwa of Zimbabwe which has applied for readmission to The Commonwealth but is increasingly unlikely to be allowed to do so as Mnangagwa’s regime appears even worse than that of the tyrant Mugabe which it replaced.

🇿🇼 14 August - Zim Post, the postal service of Zimbabwe, issued a set of 4 stamps to commemorate the life of the deposed former dictator, Comrade Robert Mugabe.

🇬🇦 30 August 2023 - A military coup in Gabon overthrew President Ali Bongo Andimba whose family had ruled the country for 53 years. Any effects this might have had on the country’s postage stamps are yet to be seen.

🇹🇿 2 September - The postal service of Tanzania released an issue to commemorate the inauguration of the PAPU Tower in Arusha. Several other postal administrations (including Nigeria and Zimbabwe)also paricipated in a Pan African Postal Union omnibus issue which turned out to be something of a damp squib.

🇮🇪 7 September - An Post, the postal service of the Republic of Ireland issued a single stamp to commemorate the centenary of the admission of the Irish Free State to the Laegue of Nations.

🇭🇰 9 September - Hong Kong Post issued a miniature sheet to commemorate the People’s Republic of China’s Belt and Road initiative aimed at extending Chinese power internationally.

11 September - Pakistan Post issued 1 stamp and 1 miniature sheet to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the death of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Pakistan’s founding father.

🇦🇮🇦🇬🇩🇲🇬🇩🇲🇸🇰🇳🇱🇨🇻🇨 September - A mini-omnibus issue was expected to be released by countries served by the Eastern Caribbean Bank to commemorate the Bank’s 40th anniversary. Winning entries in a local competition were to be used as the basis for designs of the stamps but to date no issues from any of the 8 expected participants are known to have appeared. Stamp issues were expected from some or all of Anguilla, Saint Lucia, Antigua And Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St Kitts And Nevis and St Vincent And The Grenadines. It is notable that the last six in the list are usually clients of Intergovernmental Philatelic Corporation and allow that organisation to design, produce and market philatelic products with their countries’ names printed on them but in the second half of 2023 there appeared to be a great reduction in production and sales of the number of new issues by IGPC and it may be that the non-appearance to date of this omnibus is associated with factors at IGPC.

🇮🇱🇲🇾🇮🇶🇯🇴 7 October - Terrorists belonging to Hamas, a group which was in control of the territory of Gaza, attacked its neighbour Israel and murdered more than 1100 people in a single day as well as carrying out other atrocities and kidnapping large numbers of people. In response, the Israeli government launched an operation aimed at destroying Hamas and launched missile attacks on, and invaded, Gaza. Several Muslim countries, including Malaysia, Iraq and Jordan, showed their support for Hamas by issuing stamps on the subject.

🇦🇺 10 October - Australia Post issued 2 stamps and 1 miniature sheet to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Sydney Opera House. A Post also issued a single stamp on 19 October to commemorate the anniversary and to honour the Irish structural engineer, Peter Rice, who played a vital role in the Opera House’s construction.

🇸🇭🇧🇸🇬🇧🇻🇬🇫🇰🇬🇸🇸🇭 21 October - Pobjoy Mint and Pobjoy Stamps, marketer and distributor of the postage stamps of seven Commonwealth postal administrations announced that it was to close by the end of 2023 on the retirement of its managing director, Taya Pobjoy. In the future, the various postal administrations were to handle their own distribution.

🇦🇺 14 November - 75th birthday of King Charles III. Australia Post issued a pair of stamps and 1 miniature sheet containing them both on 1 November to commemorate the King’s Birthday. A single stamp was also issued on the same date to commemorate the coronation of Charles III.

🇸🇭 11 December - The postal service of Tristan Da Cunha issued a set of 4 stamps to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the resettlement of the islanders on Tristan following their return after the volcanic explosion there.

🇰🇼 16 December - Death of the Emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah at the age of 86 and the succession of the new Emir, Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber.

🇲🇿🇪🇷 🇹🇱17 December and 27 December and 4 June -  My three favourite stamp discoveries of 2023, the first two reported on Stampboards - a stamp issued by Correios de Moçambique in 2019 to commemorate the Visit of Pope Francis to Mozambique and a previously issued Revenue stamp of the postal service of Eritrea overprinted by hand stamp to make it postally valid - and the third first reported on the Joint Stamp issues internet site being the long suspected but never previously seen Timor Leste stamp commemorating Lubrapex 2012 and depicting the martyred national poet and hero Francisco Borja Da Costa.

🇬🇾 24 December - The British government announced that it was sending HMS Trent to Guyana in a show of political and military support for the Commonwealth’s only South American country which was under threat of invasion by its neighbour, Venezuela, which had held a referendum on 3 December in which 96.37% of voters had agreed that Venezuala  should create a new state of Guayana Essequiba and that that territory should be incorporated on “the map of Venezuelan territory”. At a meeting in St Vincent And The Grenadines on 15 December, the Presidents of Guyana and Venezuela, Irfaan Ali and Nicolás Maduro, had agreed not to use force to resolve the issue but on 28 December the Venezuelan government announced that it was going to hold “defensive” military exercises on its eastern Caribbean and Atlantic coasts involving 5600 soldiers.

🇬🇧 30 December - Dame Shirley Bassey, a veteran British singer, was made a Companion of Honour in the New Year Honours List. Earlier in the year, on 21 October, Royal Mail had issued a large number of philatelic items to commemorate the singer’s career in entertainment.

🇬🇧 31 December - Last day of issue of Royal Mail Post & Go stamps from all museum and tourist shop IAR kiosks.

31 December - New Year’s Eve, and 30.7% of Commonwealth philatelic entities are still not known to have issued, or had issued on their behalf, any legitimate postage stamps during 2023.

Happy New Year!

2261. 🇬🇦 Military Coup In Gabon.

 🇬🇦 Military officers in Gabon appear to have taken power after announcing the cancellation of election results which had confirmed that the country’s President, Ali Bongo, had won a third term of office with 64.27% of the vote.  Bongo has been President since October 2009 when he succeeded his father, Omar Bongo, who died in office.

  The Bongo family had held the Presidency since 1967 when Omar Bongo had come to power with the death in office of the country’s first president, Léon M’ba. In all, the Bongo family had held the Presidency for 53 years.

  Gabon was admitted to membership of The Commonwealth on 25 June 2022 at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Kigali in Rwanda. It is a Francophone country and, unlike most Commonwealth territories, had had no links with Britain prior to its admission to the organisation. Gabon becomes another West/Central African Francophone country to have experienced a military coup recently - Niger was the location of a coup in July 2023 and others took place in Burkina Faso (January 2022), Mali (August 2020), Chad (April 2021), and Guinea (September 2021). News of Ali Bongo’s fate is awaited.

Announcement of the coup

  The usual response of The Commonwealth is to suspend the membership of countries which have experienced military coups until democracy is restored. 

  The Gabon postal service is not known to have issued any new stamps since the country joined The Commonwealth. Whether or not this coup will have any effects on future Gabon stamp issues remains to be seen.

2267. Commonwealth Day 2023

 

Commonwealth Day 13 March 2023.

  For the past few years this Blog has published an edition to commemorate the annual Commonwealth Day celebration usually held on the second Monday of March. Since last year The Commonwealth has increased in size with the accession to it of the Francophone African republics of Gabon and Togo. Both countries had no previous constitutional links with Britain or any other Commonwealth countries but their admission to the organisation does mean that The Commonwealth now has 56 members, more than ever before.

  In September 2022, it saw the death of the former Head of The Commonwealth, the late HM Queen Elizabeth II who was much loved and admired throughout both the countries of The Commonwealth and the entire world. She was succeeded as monarch of her realms by her eldest son, King Charles III, who had previously been approved as her successor as Head of The Commonwealth at a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, and his coronation on 6 May 2023 will be a great Commonwealth event and should be accompanied by a host of stamp issues.

  2022 also saw the hosting of a highly successful Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England’s biggest city after London, where the teams of over 70 countries and territories participated in the friendly and joyful sporting event.

  Unfortunately, a degree of Commonwealth disunity is apparent as the 2023 Commonwealth Day dawns following the recent vote in the United Nations which was intended to support the suffering people of Ukraine and which called on their Russian oppressors to quit the country they had violently invaded causing vast amounts of death and destruction of innocent Ukrainian civilians and their heroic armed forces. The governments of Commonwealth countries in south Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh,Sri Lanka), sub-Saharan Africa (South Africa, eSwatini, Mozambique, Namibia, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Togo, Gabon, Cameroon and Namibia) and The Caribbean (Dominica and Grenada) all failed to show the moral integrity needed to call for the end of Putin’s murderous assault on Ukraine but pleasingly they were greatly outnumbered by the forty Commonwealth governments which supported Ukraine in this time of its anguish. Integrity in a country’s attitude to national and individual freedoms and support for the oppressed are key features of being a Commonwealth member and some governments are clearly falling short in living up to these fine and noble ideals which The Commonwealth holds so dearly by not fully supporting Ukraine in its struggle against the murderous Russian invaders.

  The theme for this year’s Commonwealth Day is Forging a sustainable and peaceful common future which is a little hollow when sixteen, more than a quarter of, Commonwealth members fail to support a country experiencing extreme aggression from its vastly bigger neighbour. Philatelically, however, some Commonwealth postal administrations will be supporting the cause of peace when they participate in this year’s EUROPA omnibus issue from European postal services which is themed, Peace the highest value of humanity. Issues can be expected from Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus postal service on 3 May, Cyprus Post and Jersey Post on 9 May and Guernsey Post on 24 May. Royal Mail of course does not intend to participate in the EUROPA omnibus - it will be much too busy releasing items to commemorate the BBC comedy Blackadder on 17 May and the game Warhammer (a somewhat contradictory title when most other European postal services are promoting peace as an ideal) on 8 June 2023.

  This year’s Commonwealth Day will mark the tenth anniversary of the signing of the Commonwealth Charter which outlines the values and principles which unify the fifty six Commonwealth countries”. In her Commonwealth Day message, the Baroness Scotland, Secretary General of The Commonwealth, said, “We stand together now to face the challenges of the moment. Where there is violence and conflict we work for peace. Where there is insecurity, we protect the culture, process and institutions of democracy. Where there is poverty we tackle it. Where there is injustice we challenge it. 

  “Where our brothers and sisters have their lives threatened and disrupted by the impacts of climate change we stand with them, working tirelessly for climate action and a more sustainable world. I believe profoundly that our family of fifty six nations and 2.5 billion people is stronger, more vibrant, more connected and more purposeful than ever”. You can say what you like - The Commonwealth’s heart is in the right place even if sometimes words are not translated into actions by those who lead those fifty six nations.