The Anthem Philatelist

The Brabançonne (Song of Brabant) is the national anthem of Belgium. The anthem has a French , a Dutch and a German version, for the three official languages of the country. According to legend, the Belgian national anthem was written in September 1830, during the Belgian Revolution, by a young revolutionary called Jenneval, who read the lyrics during a meeting at the Aigle d'Or café. Jenneval, a Frenchman whose real name was Alexandre Dechet (sometimes known as Louis-Alexandre Dechet), did in fact write the Brabançonne. At the time, he was an actor at the theatre where, in August 1830, the revolution started which led to independence from the Netherlands. Jenneval died in the war of independence. François Van Campenhout composed the accompanying score and it was first performed in September 1830. In 1860, Belgium formally adopted the song and music as its national anthem, although the then prime minister edited lyrics attacking the Dutch Prince of Orange. The Brabançonne is also...

The national anthem of Andorra "El Gran Carelmany" (The Great Charlemagne) presents the nation's history in a first-person narrative. Charlemagne , King of the Franks and Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, 742 - 814, was born on April 2, 742 in Northern Europe. Charles was the eldest son of Pippin III and Bertrada of Laon. ‘By the sword and the cross,’ Charlemagne became master of Western Europe.    In 768, when Charlemagne was 26, he and his younger brother Carloman inherited the kingdom of the Franks. In 771 Carloman died, and Charlemagne became sole ruler of the kingdom. At that time the Franks were falling back into barbarian ways, neglecting their education and religion. The Saxons of northern Europe were still pagans. In the south, the Roman Catholic church was asserting its power to recover land confiscated by the Lombard kingdom of Italy. Europe was in turmoil.   Charlemagne was determined to strengthen his realm and to bring order to Europe. In 772 he launche...

A few months ago, I visited a link in Delcampe , a stamp and collectibles auction site, about "Cyber Philately: Computer Stamps- from Abacus to Internet", and I was transported back in time to my love affair with the "ultimate machine".   Pocket computer --- desktop --- laptop --- notebook --- netbook --- tablet PC . In a nutshell, that's the evolution of my computers.    Back in 1983, when I was in my second year high school in UP Cebu , my dad gifted me from Japan , my first computer- the Casio PB-300 , a pocket computer with a built in thermal printer. To my knowledge, it was the first computer with a built-in thermal printer but had only 2KB of RAM compared to mammoth 4GB of today. There were no elaborate graphics and software programs then. You can only see 12 characters in a line on a monochrome LCD for simple games and computation of algebraic formulas which was very helpful in my elective Calculus subject in high school in UP Cebu.   Only a hand...

While the Great Wall of China is not one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, it is typically included in the Seven Wonders of the Medieval World. In 1987, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization ( UNESCO ) placed the Great Wall on its list of the world’s great national and historical sites. That the Great Wall is a single, continuous wall built all at once is a myth. In reality, the wall is a discontinuous network of wall segments built by various dynasties to protect China’s northern boundary.    After an hour and a half ride from the central business district in Beijing , we arrived at one of the five Great Wall stations in Badaling. Upon arrival, one can immediately see the watchtowers which were built at regular intervals al ong the Great Wall and could be up to 40 feet tall. They were once used as lookouts and fortresses as well as for housing garrisons of troops and stockpiled supplies. They were also signal stations, where beacons,...

It’s sad that Mr. Bin, the stamp seller, would not be able to read this blog and see his picture on the net because just like Twitter and Facebook, Blogger is also restricted in China. There is broadband connection is every Shangri-la hotel in China but there are so many sites you can’t visit. Our eloquent guide Jason, who majored in English and international tourism, told us that since the “Chinese workers union revolt”, early this year, most blog sites were restricted; and he lost several Facebook friends.   We went to the Madian district which was a smooth 45 minute ride from our hotel (luckily there was no traffic that morning) to look for the Stamp and Coin market which was loca ted at No. 23, Huangsi Street, Xicheng District, (tel. number: 62040626). The staff at our hotel was kind enough to call the number to verify their address and to translate the address into Chinese. They hailed a cab and told the driver to take us there, further instructing us that the ride will...