The most beautiful European postage stamp in 2013

The Mail Delivery Vehicles stamp was released on May 6, 2013. The stamp portrays a Volvo LV-70 mail truck from 1933 and two drivers standing in front of it. The color tones of the old black-and-white photo have been adjusted to fit a four-color image. In addition to mail deliveries, the Volvo truck was also used for carrying passengers. Today, the 80-year-old car stands in the Mobilia automobile and road museum.
(image by Susanna Rummu and Ari Lakaniemi)

This Finnish postage stamp, designed by Susanna Rummu and Ari Lakaniemi, has been voted the most beautiful in Europe by a panel of judges. Issued in May, the stamp depicts two postal workers standing with their 1933 Volvo postal van.

A total of 56 stamps released in different European countries entered the competition, all depicting mail vehicles, in accordance with the theme of the series. 
The jury paid particular attention to the originality of the stamp design and technical aspects, such as the quality of the graphics. An important criterion was how well the stamp pleases the average stamp user, as well as philatelists with more interest in the matter.
The nine members of the jury were experts in graphic design and stamps from different European countries, including Germany, Belgium, France, and the Netherlands. The president of the jury, which convened in Brussels, was the Belgian philately activist Guy Coutant, the organizer of the distinguished Grand-prix de l'art Philatelique.
"The quality of the entries was high, and we needed three rounds of voting and a lot of debate to choose the winner. In the end, the Finnish stamp was the clear winner in all voting criteria," Coutant explains.

“In the end the Finnish stamp was the clear winner based on all voting criteria,” said philatelist expert and panel head Dr. Guy Coutant.
Altogether 56 countries entered stamps released this spring, all depicting different models of postal vehicles.

Congratulations to the Finnish post office Itella and the designers!

When Europe's intellectual elite spoke out for Finland: The Pro Finlandia petition of 1899

The title page of the British petition.

Before independence in 1917, Finland had been part of Sweden for over 600 years, until Sweden in 1809 lost Finland to Russia. From the Finnish point of view, it was important that Czar Alexander I granted Finland the status of an autonomous Grand Duchy within the Russian Empire.

In the end of the 19th century Czar, Nicholas II, influenced by Russian nationalists, instigated a process of Russification, which was met with strong resistance in Finland, first passive, and later active. On 15 February 1899, Czar Nicholas signed a document - the February Manifesto - which fundamentally curtailed Finland's autonomy.

The Finnish Estates declared the Manifesto to be invalid in Finland. 

Finnish historians Eino Jutikkala and Kauko Pirinen describe the events that followed in their book "A History of Finland" (1996):

"Politically vigilant of old, the university students skied from farm to farm and from cottage to cottage across the farflung, snowbound land and, in slightly more than a week, collected 523,000 signatures on a protest addressed to the Czar, petitioning him to bring the provisions of the Manifesto into harmony with the constitutional laws of Finland.This civic protest,in which nearly half the adult population took part, was an amazing demonstration of political alertness and unanimity.

"A deputation of five hundred men set forth to deliver the petition and the signatures, filling many volumes, to the Czar personally. Nicholas II, however, instructed the Minister Secretary of State to tell the deputation: 'I shall not, of course, receive them, although I am not angry with them, either'."

"The name of Finland and an awareness of the peril threatening her political status spread, because of the Manifesto, throughout the civilized world. No less than 1,063 scientists, writers and artists in different European countries drew up a petition addressed to the Czar, entitled 'Pro Finlandia', which was entrusted to a deputation under the chairmanship of Senator Trarieux of France for delivery to Nicholas II."

"'Scarcely a single famous name is missing from it,' said the embarrassed minister of the court eying the petition. After long deliberation, the Czar nevertheless refused to receive the international deputation. On their way back home through Finland, the members of the deputation, who represented the intellectual elite of the world, were accorded an idolatrous  reception, the like of which, in the words of one member, now Czar was likely to experience in that country for a long time."

It is possible that the international petition slowed down the rate of Russification somewhat in Finland. However, for the Finns the greatest significance of the petition was that it mobilized a sense of civic awareness among common people, which was of great importance during the years that followed. 

The "Pro Finlandia" petition, with all the signatures, was later published in book format. As you can see from the samples shown here, many of the national petitions were beautifully designed works of art: 

This is the text accompanying the British petition, which was signed by e.g. Florence Nightingale and Thomas Hardy:

The famous writers Anatole France and Emile Zolá were among the signatories in France:

In Norway, the petition was signed e.g. by Henrik Ibsen:

The first page of the Swedish petition.

The first page of the Italian petition.

The initial page of the Dutch petition.

The title page of the Norwegian petition.

A page from the Danish petition.

Snow is finally falling on Europe´s ski slopes

The 1898 ski season in Finland was also excellent. Here you can check the situation today.

 

Snow is finally falling on Europe´s ski slopes. We read that Swiss ski enthusiasts are breathing a sigh of relief after heavy snow finally hits the slopes. By the weekend mountains could see up to 70 cm, a forecaster said.

And over in the US, it´s already looking like another great season for ski centres on the west coast. Last year saw a record snowfall, with more than 18 m in total (!) in some areas.

Cross country was the favoured style of skiing in Finland in 1898

The late 1890´s were good in Finland for other winter sports as well

Casanova in pictures

The adventurer and womanizer Giacomo Casanova (1725 - 1789) is probably - along with Marco Polo - the most famous Venetian of all times. His autobiography, Histoire de ma vie (The Story of My Life) is above all an excellent source of the customs and norms of European social life during the 18th century.

The volume of the autobiography I have, includes a number of beautiful illustrations by the German (?) artist Fernand Schulz-Wetter. Here are some of my favourite ones:

Cicero on the pleasures of farming and the vine

 "He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth; And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man's heart."

Psalm 104:14-15

In his famous essay "Cato the elder: On old age" (published 44 BC), Cicero eloquently describes the delights of farming and gives us a beautiful declaration of love for the vine.

In these times of  "production quotas", "modulation", "direct payments", "decoupling" and "compensatory allowances", it is not difficult to feel a certain sympathy for the European farmers and wine producers, who try to eke out a living within the jungle of regulations and bureaucracy.

Hopefully Cicero´s words can give some comfort to the often struggling farmers and producers - and, more generally, perhaps contribute to an increased understanding of their profession:


Now I come to the pleasures of farming. These give me an unbelievable amount of enjoyment. Old age does not impede them in the least, and in my view they come closest of all things to life of true wisdom. The bank, you might say, in which these pleasures keep their account is the earth itself. It never fails to honour their draft; and, when it returns the principal, interest invariably comes too - not always very much, but often a great deal.


But what delights me is not only the product, but the productivity and nature of the earth herself. First, the scattered corn-seed is taken within her soft, subjugated lap. For a time it remains hidden - occaecatum is our word, from which comes occatio, harrowing. Then, warmed by the moist heat of her embrace, the seed expands and brings forth a green and flourishing blade. Supported by the fibres of its roots, this blade gradually matures. Within its sheath it stands firm upon a jointed stalk; this is its adolescent stage. Then, bursting out from the sheath, the blade puts forth the ears of corn, the ordered rows of grain with their palisade of spikes porotecting them from the beaks of the smaller birds of the sky.

To give an account of the vine - itse beginnings, its cultivation, its expansion - would be out of place here. But I must tell you that this is the recreation and satisfaction of my old age: my delight in the vine is insatiable. First, a general point, which I pass over briefly. In every product of the earth there is an inborn power. This is the power by which a minute fig-seed, or a grape-stone, or the tiniest seeds of any crop or root, are transformed into vast trunks and branches. Cuttings of vines or trees, young twigs springing from a branch, plants formed by dividing roots and lodging an unsevered shoot - who could fail to be amazed and delighted by the products that emerge from these? The natural disposition of vines is to fall to the earth; but give them a prop, and they will embrace it with hand-like tendril to raise themselves aloft. Far and wide they twist and turn, until the farmer´s skilful knife lops them in case they turn to wood and spread too luxuriantly.


When spring has started, the branches that have been left on a vine put forth their buds at every joint, and these buds are transformed into freshly growing grapes. At first very bitter to the taste, the moisture of the earth and the rays of the sun mature them, so that they sweeten to ripeness, wrapped round by young foliage which tempers the heat and keeps away the too powerful rays of the sun. What could be more delicious to the taste or more attractive to the eye?


Nor, I repeat, is the usefulness of the vine all that delights me. There is also the the manner of its cultivation and the very nature of the vine itself; the rows of stakes, the joining of the vine-tops to trellises, the tying down of the shoots, their propagation by slips; as well as the pruning of certain branches, such as I have already mentioned, and the liberation of others.

Cornfields, meadows, vineyards, woods, all give added pleasure to the cultivator´s life. And so do orchards, cattle-pastures, been in their swarms, and flowers in their infinite variety. Planting, too, is a delight, and so is agriculture´s most ingenious operation, grafting.

For an efficient and industrious farmer keeps his wine-cellar, his oil-store, and his larder always full. His whole house has a prosperous appearance: within its rooms are stored generous supplies of pork, goat´s meat, lamb, poultry, milk, cheese and honey. There is also his garden, which farmers call their ´second leg of pork´. The relish of all these good things is sharpened by labours for time of leisure, such as hawking and hunting.

PS

Here are some nice grapes for you to enjoy:

The importance of the Catholic Church in Western civilisation

(image by bigfoto.com)

“The great achievement of the Catholic Church lay in harmonizing, civilizing the deepest impulses of ordinary, ignorant people.”

Kenneth Clark

The late Lord Clark understood and recognised the importance of the Catholic Church´s unique achievment. However, it is sad to note that in our age, even among educated people, there is an enormous ignorance about the Church´s contribution to Western civilisation.

Fortunately there is now a much needed scholarly book available that corrects the often very biased and superficial picture of the Catholic Church: "How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization" by professor Thomas E. Woods Jr.

Here is an excerpt from an article in which professor Woods introduces his book:

From the role of the monks (they did much more than just copy manuscripts) to art and architecture, from the university to Western law, from science to charitable work, from international law to economics, the book delves into just how indebted we are as a civilization to the Catholic Church, whether we realize it or not.

By far the book's longest chapter is "The Church and Science." We have all heard a great deal about the Church's alleged hostility toward science. What most people fail to realize is that historians of science have spent the past half-century drastically revising this conventional wisdom, arguing that the Church's role in the development of Western science was far more salutary than previously thought. I am speaking not about Catholic apologists but about serious and important scholars of the history of science such as J.L. Heilbron, A.C. Crombie, David Lindberg, Edward Grant, and Thomas Goldstein.

---

To say that the Church played a positive role in the development of science has now become absolutely mainstream, even if this new consensus has not yet managed to trickle down to the general public. In fact, Stanley Jaki, over the course of an extraordinary scholarly career, has developed a compelling argument that in fact it was important aspects of the Christian worldview that accounted for why it was in the West that science enjoyed the success it did as a self-sustaining enterprise. Non-Christian cultures did not possess the same philosophical tools, and in fact were burdened by conceptual frameworks that hindered the development of science. Jaki extends this thesis to seven great cultures: Arabic, Babylonian, Chinese, Egyptian, Greek, Hindu, and Maya. In these cultures, Jaki explains, science suffered a "stillbirth." My book gives ample attention to Jaki's work.

In another more recent article professor Woods focuses on Pope John Paul II´s views on the role of the Church in Europe:

He had known all along that overthrowing Communism was a necessary but not sufficient condition for restoring the kind of decent and dignified life that befits human beings, and the moral state of Poland in the aftermath of Solidarity’s triumph only confirmed him in this view. “Giving in to desire, to sex, to consumption: that is the Europeanism that some supporters of our entry into Europe think we should accept,” John Paul told the faithful. “But we mustn’t become part of that Europe. We were the ones who created Europe….”
We were the ones who created Europe.
That stunning remark doubtless ruffled some feathers. Yet never were truer words said. In recent weeks Pope Benedict XVI has spoken of “the decisive contribution of Christianity” in the creation of European civilization. At a time when the media and other opponents of the Church are gleefully exploiting her present discomfiture, this is a truth all Catholics, and indeed all of Western civilization, would do well to revisit.