New Zealand - Cape Reinga Lighthouse

Cape Reinga Lighthouse is a lighthouse at Cape Reinga in the Northland Region of the North Island of New Zealand. It is owned and operated by Maritime New Zealand. The lighthouse is a common New Zealand icon and a popular tourist destination although the lighthouse itself is not open to the public. The lighthouse is at the Northern most point of New Zealand. The lighthouse was built in 1941 and first lit during May of that year. It was the last manned light to be built in New Zealand and replaced the Cape Maria Van Diemen Lighthouse, located on nearby Motuopao Island, which had been built in 1879. Accessing that lighthouse was difficult due to the rough seas in the area, so in 1938, it was decided to move the lighthouse to Cape Reinga for safety reasons. The complete lantern fittings from Motuopao Island were reused at Cape Reinga, though the new lighthouse was fitted with a 1000 watt electrical lamp instead that could be seen for 26 nautical miles (48 km). The lamp was powered by a diesel generator. In 1987, the lighthouse was fully automated and the lighthouse keepers were withdrawn. The lighthouse is now monitored remotely from Wellington. In May 2000 the original lens and lamp were replaced by a 50 watt beacon. The beacon is powered by batteries that are recharged by solar cells. The beacon flashes every 12 seconds and can be seen for 19 nautical miles (35 km). Russel sent me this nice card.

Finland - Coat of Arms

Merja gave me this card featuring a Coat of Arms figurehead from a Russian War vessel. The original is in the museum at Suomenlinna, Helsinki, Finland.

Czech Republic - Centenary of Czech Air Flight

This card commemorates the Special train ride from Prague to Pordubice, on the route of the First Czech air flight 100 years ago. Thank you Stan for this nice card.

Åland –Superheroes with Aland roots

Did you know that the creator behind many of the familiar cartoon superheroes of the 1940s and 1950s came from Saltvik, Åland? Three of his superheroes now appear in an Åland stamp booklet. Paul Gustafson was born in 1916 in Saltvik. Like many other Ålanders of this époque, he emigrated to the USA with his family when he was five. Having studied at Quentin High School and Manhattan’s Cooper Union, Paul spent some years apprenticing under cartoonist Frank Owen, whose wife, Vera, was also born in Åland. At the end of the 1930s, Paul made a name for himself as an independent cartoonist creating many characters, mainly superheroes, for Marvel Comics. Most of Paul’s comics were created between 1938 and 1946, some of them being: The Angel, The Arrow, Black Panter, A-man, Quicksilver, Magno, The Human Bomb, Blackhawk, Jester, Rusty Ryan and Midnight. He later focused on the comic strip Will Bragg. As a cartoonist, he sometimes signed his work Paul Earrol. From 1942 to 1945, Paul took an intermission from drawing to do his World War II military service. At the end of the 1950s, he left his career as a cartoonist to become a land surveyor for New York State. However, he did continue to do comic drawings for the local newspaper in Warwick, New York, where he lived with his family. Paul Gustafson is known to have created a number of different types of super-heroes.

For the stamp booklet, Åland Post has chosen to present The Arrow, The Fantom of the Fair and Alias the Spider. And My Dear Friend Ella sent me these maxi cards with the Super Heroes.

Cuernsey

This set of maxi cards were issued along with the set of five stamps on 15th November 1980 bu the Posta HQ at Guernsey in the Channel Islands to welcome Christmas. My dear friend Maria sent them to me.

Namibia

My Dear Friend Merja sent me this nice set of four maxicards. They show a part of the rich wild life in the Namibian Desert, and scenes from the desert itself. Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March 1990, following the Namibian War of Independence. Its capital and largest city is Windhoek. Namibia is a member state of the United Nations (UN), the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the African Union (AU), and the Commonwealth of Nations. The dry lands of Namibia were inhabited since early times by Bushmen, Damara, and Namaqua, and since about the 14th century AD by immigrating Bantu who came with the Bantu expansion. It became a German Imperial protectorate in 1884 and remained a German colony until the end of World War I. In 1920, the League of Nations mandated the country to South Africa, which imposed its laws and, from 1948, its apartheid policy.

In 1966, uprisings and demands by African leaders led the United Nations to assume direct responsibility over the territory. It recognized the South West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO) as the official representative of the Namibian people in 1973. Namibia, however, remained under South African administration during this time. Following internal violence, South Africa installed an interim administration in Namibia in 1985. Namibia obtained full independence from South Africa in 1990, with the exception of Walvis Bay and the Penguin Islands, which remained under South African control until 1994. Namibia has a population of 2.1 million people and a stable multi-party parliamentary democracy. Agriculture, herding, tourism and the mining industry - including mining for gem diamonds, uranium, gold, silver, and base metals form the backbone of Namibia's economy. After Mongolia it is the second least densely populated country in the world. Approximately half the population live below the international poverty line, and the nation has suffered heavily from the effects of HIV/AIDS, with 15% of the adult population infected with HIV in 2007.

Åland – The Battle of Bomarsund

 I present here a few cards showing the sea battles near Bomarsund a nineteenth century fortress in Sund on the Åland Islands in the Baltic Sea. It was built in 1832 by Russia but destroyed twenty-two years later in 1854 in the Crimean War by a British-French fleet. The Battle of Bomarsund was fought between the Russian defences at Bomarsund and an Anglo-French task force. After a week of fighting the British stormed the "remaining" fort and at the end of the battle the fort of Bomarsund was destroyed. Royal Navy mate Charles D. Lucas throws a live Russian artillery shell overboard by hand before it explodes, for which he is awarded the first ever Victoria Cross in 1857. The twenty-year-old Irish Mate later rose to the rank of Rear Admiral. Three hundred Finnish grenadiers defending the fortress were captured and taken to Lewes Prison in the United Kingdom. They were later allowed to return to Finland, and they returned with a song telling about their battle and imprisonment, called the War of Åland.

In the Treaty of Paris 1856, the entire Åland Islands were demilitarised, which is a status that has been preserved to this day. For those interested in more details please see my post dated 29^th April 2010 on my blog http://letstalkstamps.blogspot.com/search/label/War .These lovely cards with the paintings of that famous battle were sent to me by My Dear Friend Pia.