Kumarbi�s Mutiny
Benson C Saili
THIS EARTH, MY BROTHER…
Alalu’s grandson strikes out at King Anu in bid to wrest Earth from Sirian-Orion control
Anu was first taken on a familiarisation tour of the Abzu, the region of modern-day Africa where Enki had detected subterranean gold ores. Anu then chaired a meeting at Eridu, the Anunnaki headquarters on Earth, during which he spelt out what he envisaged of the Earth mission.
Full-scale, high-tech mining was to commence in the Abzu: Enki, like the gifted engineer he was, was tasked to devise the requisite equipment. A permanent settlement, an extension of Eridu, was to be established and a spaceport, an aerodrome and all the allied logistical infrastructure such as maritime vessels for shipping the ore from the Abzu to Eridu were to be constructed. Further, bases were to be set up on every habitable planet in the Solar System or where that was not feasible one or more of its satellites.
“Way stations from Nibiru to Earth to establish, all the Sun’s family in one Kingdom encompass!” Anu declared. “The first on Lahmu (Mars) to be fashioned, the Moon for the plans also to be considered. On the other planets or their circling hosts stations to set up.”
Anu’s decree explains why the Anunnaki to date maintains a presence on Mars, on the Moon and on Saturn’s largest moon Titan (There are arguably several other Anunnaki colonies on planets and/or their moons we are yet to discover, or which we are not aware of but the Illuminati do). Once again, it was the quick-thinking Enki who suggested a name for the proposed expanded Eridu.
“Let it the EDIN be called,” he said. EDIN (or ATEN in alternative renderings) meant “Abode of the Pure Ones”. The Anunnaki referred to themselves as the pure ones (also as righteous, upright, bright, or illuminated ones) to distinguish themselves from the Earthlings they would later create. They were “pure” because they came from the “pure” planet Nibiru or the “pure” region of the Sirius-Orion star system and therefore possessed a purer gene pool compared to ordinary mankind.
The Edin is the Eden of the Bible. Contrary to what the Bible may have us believe, Eden (the first one, as there would later be a second one in Africa) was not a zoological and botanical garden fashioned by “God” as a dedicated haven for Adam and Eve. It was part of a collection of city-states established and dwelt by the Anunnaki, who mankind would later come to call “gods”. The Levites, who wrote the first five books of the Bible, did so when the Jews were in captivity in Babylon in the 6th century BC. Thus they incorporated a lot of data on the origins of man they happened upon there that Sumerians had set down on cuneiform clay tablets and cylinder seals.
Tragically, the Levite scribes so deliberately spun and slanted this information to suit their own contrived theology that some aspects of the Bible border on legend. “Scripture” is far from “God-breathed”: a great deal of it is simply the product of the whims and caprices of inherently fallible man, like you and me. When I say this to fellow Christians, I become an object of scorn and suspicion such is this Earth, my Brother.
ENLIL AGAIN SUPPLANTS ENKI
At the Eridu indaba, it was Enki who spoke after Anu, rather than Alalu, who remained curiously quiet. Enki’s turn preceded Enlil because at the time, Enki was Earth’s Chief Executive. In other words, on Earth Enki was senior to Enlil.
Regarding the proposed Edin, Enki said, “The commander of the Edin let me be, let Enlil the gold extraction perform.”
Enki was an innately creative person and so he preferred making a showcase of the Edin to superintending over mining activities in the blistering hot Abzu, a hostile environment to an albino-white race that was used to the perennial cold of Nibiru. He also knew that in terms of executive authority, the overseer of the Edin would carry more clout and command more respect and the goodwill of the Anunnaki, whereas the exacting tasks of underground mining would turn the Abzu overseer into a kind of pet hate.
Enlil, however, took strong exception to Enki’s pitch. An ex Air Force General and a trained aeronautical engineer, Enlil thought it was he who was best suited for the tasks of the Edin: “Of commanding and tasks to perform I am the better; of skyships I have the knowledge. Of the Earth and its secrets my brother Ea is the knower. The Abzu he discovered: let him of the Abzu be the master.”
When Enki tried to counter him using plain logic and tools of analysis, Enlil, who habitually operated on a short fuse, fired back angrily and abrasively and a slanging match between the two step brothers ensued. King Anu, who had the quiet and calm demeanour of Enki, finally intervened. He reminded his sons to not be oblivious of the fact that they were effective joint rulers of Nibiru rather than mere princes: when he replaced Alalu as King of the Sirian Empire, he did declare to the Nibiru nation that he was going to rule that planet in particular with his two sons. Since the three of them were co-equal, Anu proposed that they settle the matter by casting lots. The outcome would determine who among the three would go back to preside over Nibiru, who would go to the Abzu and who would stay in Eridu. The two sons nodded in concurrence.
“The three, father and two sons, clasped their hands together,” recalls Enki in his memoirs as ghost-written by Zechariah Sitchin. “They cast lots; by the lots the tasks they divided.”
The result redounded to Enki’s displeasure, who was not that lucky a being. King Anu was to return to Nibiru; Enlil was to run the Edin; and Enki was to take charge of the Abzu. Enki was so crestfallen he shed tears: he had such an attachment to Eridu, which he had built from scratch (Alalu was of the view, which he aired at a later stage, that Anu had rigged the outcome in favour of Enlil given that Enlil was his biological son whereas Enki not only was his step son but a son-in-law of his nemesis Alalu). He was only consoled by the assurance by Anu that although he would operationally be based in the Abzu, he would still remain the Lord of Eridu, though Enlil would be overall-in-charge of the Edin.
The new scenario thus was this: Enlil had now supplanted Enki as Earth’s Chief Executive. He was now “Lord of the Command”, that is, Earth’s Commander-In-Chief, though he would in due course be better known as Jehovah/Yahweh. Enlil was also put in overall charge of the Igigi, the Anunnaki fighter astronauts in orbit around Earth. That way, he supplanted Marduk, Enki’s firstborn son, as the “Prince of the Power of the Air” (EPHESIANS 2:2).
Enki, on the other hand, would have authority over all of Earth’s seas as he would be in charge of maritime shipments of ores from the Abzu to Eridu. Hence his other characterisation in due course as Poseidon, the God of the Sea. Enki would also be in charge of all of Earth’s firm lands except the Edin. This was very fitting in that prospecting for mineral ores, particularly those of gold, all over the Earth was his responsibility. As such, when Enki is referred to as “Lord of the Earth”, it means two things (a point most scholars including Zechariah Sitchin have missed). First, he was the Eridu (stem of the English term “Earth”) Lord. Second and even more important, he was overall in charge of the firm lands, where mineral prospecting and mining activities were taking place. Otherwise, the real Lord of the Earth was Enlil.
Poor Enki! He should have been in line to inherit the Sirian-Orion throne but that was denied him. He should have been King of Earth after Alalu but that again was deprived him. He was a first-class intellect, the Anunnaki’s greatest brain, something even Enlil himself openly acknowledged, but where it came to ascending up the imperial totem pole, he was destined to be no higher than second.
ALALU UNDER HOUSE ARREST
Meanwhile, Alalu was dumbfounded at all the goings-on right under his nose. He had been watching with ominous silence, his hands nonchalantly folded on his chest. As Anu prepared to board the celestial boat back to Nibiru, Alalu stepped up to him and called for an impromptu, all-inclusive meeting which Anu reluctantly consented to. In the meeting, Alalu wondered aloud to Anu why he was parceling out Earth to his sons when he well knew that he (Alalu) was Earth’s sovereign.
Anu’s response was that the status quo hadn’t changed: Alalu was still King of Earth. Enlil and Enki were simply his right-hand men, just as they had been to Anu himself on Nibiru. What they had been assigned were simply executive roles. They remained subordinate to and accountable to Alalu.
Alalu wasn’t convinced: he was of the view that he was being systematically dispossessed of authority over the affairs of Earth by sleight of hand and before long, he would be a nobody. Enki tried to assure him that he personally would not allow such a scenario as it would be criminal and therefore illegal. Alalu was aware Enki as his son-in-law meant well but Enlil worried him. Anu had elevated Enlil above Enki and put him in charge of the armed forces, including the Igigi, the fighter-spacemen who were previously superintended over by his grandson Marduk. To Alalu, it was clear Anu’s secret wish was to purge all those key figures who were related to Alalu in one way or the other so that at some stage Alalu was relegated to a nonentity.
As Anu set to return to Nibiru, Alalu and his grandson Kumarbi began to communicate by radio, in code language. Kumarbi got the message. Kumarbi had been left on one of the space stations in orbit around Earth and when Anu arrived there to pick him up en route to Nibiru, he was nowhere to be seen. But somehow, Anu managed to contact him using the Anunnaki’s ultra-sophisticated communication devices and wondered where he was. Kumarbi’s response was frank and forthright: he was staying put and would not be returning to Nibiru with Anu.
Kumarbi’s gesture threw a shudder into Anu. This must spell trouble, Anu thought. Anu straightaway contacted Alalu to get him to ram sense into his grandson but Alalu made it clear Kumarbi was an adult and he was in no position to dictate matters to him. Frustrated that he wasn’t getting anywhere with Alalu, Anu frantically got in touch with Enlil and the two decided, to the exclusion of Enki, that Alalu should be divested of his powers as overall ruler of Earth and must be put under house arrest. At the same time, a warrant of arrest should be issued immediately for Kumarbi.
But it was too late. Kumarbi had already gotten into stride as all these instructions ran round.
KUMARBI IS KING
When travelling between planets or star systems, the Anunnaki had several modes of serial transport. First, there was the natural means of transport using the planet Nibiru itself. A planet is a spaceship in its own right, more so in the case of Nibiru in that its elongated, comet-like orbit (it’s a comet-planet) straddles the circuits of all the planets of the Solar System. The Anunnaki typically journeyed to Earth when Nibiru was in the ecliptic, setting off from the planet using a celestial boat, their name for a spaceship.
However, King Anu did not simply travel by a celestial boat. He also used another form of transport, a mothership. This was a hollowed out asteroid which was the size of a mini-planet. It was called the MATA. Another of its name was the Royal ARI (The Sirian-Orion Queen also had her own mothership known as the ATEN, which we will dwell upon in due course). Although it was primarily a cosmic battle ship, the Royal Ari was a self-contained mini-world which could accommodate millions of people. To most people in there, it was the only world they knew. They were born in that artificial world, which was of Paradise proportions in terms of the quality of life, and died there.
Because of its humongous size and therefore its powerful gravitational force, the Royal Ari was stationed yonder in space, well away from both Earth and the Moon. King Anu used a celestial boat to depart from Nibiru and join the Ari, to depart the Ari to land on Earth, and vice versa. So as his celestial boat neared the Ari, it was suddenly fired upon from the direction of the Ari. King Anu’s Dak Elite Royal Guard had been trained for such a contingency and so they changed course in a desperate endeavour to get the King to safety. What had happened was that Kumarbi not only had mobilised the Iku and Beh forces against King Anu but he had also captured the Ari flagship itself with very little resistance.
This short-lived battle between the forces of Anu (the Titans) and the forces of Kumarbi (the Olympians) is characterised in the Sumerian tablets as a wrestling match between Anu and Kumarbi (or Alalu in some accounts) in which Prince Kumarbi bites Anu in the genitals and wrenches them off. It’s all allegorical language. What actually happened was that Kumarbi set his DAK forces (the collective Iku and Beh Anunnaki warriors) on the Ari mothership. The Dak were figuratively the “teeth” of the Sirian-Orion Empire and the Ari mothership was Anu’s “Ball of Power”. Thus by invading and capturing the Ari flagship, Kumarbi had prised this ball from Anu’s control. Sadly, even our highly esteemed Zechariah Sitchin literarised the plainly allegorical account.
In Greek mythology (which is actually rooted in fact), the same story says Zeus gathered the younger gods (Anunnaki) on Mount Olympus and waged war against Uranus the father of the gods who was at the head of the Titans, defeating them at long last. In this story, Zeus refers to Kumarbi. Kumarbi’s other title was “ZU”, meaning “Supreme Master” (of the Dak forces). When he seized the Ari mothership, he became King, or ZU-ZU (doubling a title in antiquity denoted a senior royal rank). Zu-zu, also rendered Zu-uz, would in time be corrupted to ZEUS. The Uranus of the story is Anu and the Titans are the Anunnaki forces loyal to Anu who manned the Ari.
When Kumarbi captured the Ari, he earned another title AR-ZU, meaning “Supreme Lord of the Ari”. Since he was now the new King of Earth, he took occupancy of the palace of his grandfather Alalu, now an ex-King, which was perched atop a mountain as most ancient fortresses were. Alalu’s palace was known as “AL-AMBA-HU”. Kumarbi renamed it “'AL-AMBA-ZU”, meaning “Place of gathering of AL (Alalu) and ZU (Kumarbi)”. In English, Al-amba-zu becomes “Olympus”, hence “Olympians” for the name of the Dak forces who fought under Kumarbi.
Note that Kumarbi did not forcefully displace his grandfather as King of Earth. Alalu instigated the Kumarbi-led putsch against Anu and voluntarily gave way to Kumarbi simply because in the greater scheme of things, it scarcely made a difference: it was the House of Alalu which still ruled.
Kumarbi, who officially ruled under his real name Alargar, became King of Earth after Alalu had ruled for 28,800 years (8 shars), although a part of this tenure falls to Alalu’s master geneticist Alulim, who as we have already related was the first Sirian to land on Earth and ruled for a while before Alalu arrived. It explains why some ancient records mistakenly assign the entire 28,800 years to Alulim as if it is a ploy to write Alalu out of history altogether.
NEXT WEEK: ANU STRIKES BACK
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GONE FISHING
In recent years, using personal devices in working environments has become so commonplace it now has its own acronym, BOYD (Bring Your Own Device). But as employees skip between corporate tools and personal applications on their own devices, their actions introduce a number of possible risks that should be managed and mitigated with careful consideration. Consider these examples:
Si-lwli, a small family-run business in Wales, is arguably as niche a company as you could find, producing talking toys used to promote the Welsh language. Their potential market is small, with only some 300,000 Welsh language speakers in the world and in reality the business is really more of a hobby for the husband-and-wife team, who both still have day jobs. Yet, despite still managing to be successful in terms of sales, the business is now fighting for survival after recently falling prey to cybercriminals. Emails between Si-Iwli and their Chinese suppliers were intercepted by hackers who altered the banking details in the correspondence, causing Si-Iwli to hand over £18,000 (around P ¼ m) to the thieves. That might not sound much to a large enterprise, but to a small or medium business it can be devastating.
Another recent SMB hacking story which appeared in the Wall Street Journal concerned Innovative Higher Ed Consulting (IHED) Inc, a small New York start-up with a handful of employees. IHED didn’t even have a website, but fraudsters were able to run stolen credit card numbers through the company’s payment system and reverse the charges to the tune of $27,000, around the same loss faced by Si-Iwli. As the WSJ put it, the hackers completely destroyed the company, forcing its owners to fold.
And in May 2019, the city of Baltimore’s computer system was hit by a ransomware attack, with hackers using a variant called RobinHood. The hack, which has lasted more than a month, paralysed the computer system for city employees, with the hackers demanding a payment in Bitcoin to give access back to the city.
Of course, hackers target governments or business giants but small and medium businesses are certainly not immune. In fact, 67% of SMBs reported that they had experienced a cyber attack across a period of 12 months, according to a 2018 survey carried out by security research firm Ponemon Institute. Additionally, Verizon issued a report in May 2019 that small businesses accounted for 43% of its reported data breaches. Once seen as less vulnerable than PCs, smartphone attacks are on the rise, with movements like the Dark Caracal spyware campaign underlining the allure of mobile devices to hackers. Last year, the US Federal Trade Commission released a statement calling for greater education on mobile security, coming at a time when around 42% of all Android devices are believed to not carry the latest security updates.
This is an era when employees increasingly use their smartphones for work-related purposes so is your business doing enough to protect against data breaches on their employees’ phones? The SME Cyber Crime Survey 2018 carried out for risk management specialists AON showed that more than 80% of small businesses did not view this as a threat yet if as shown, 67% of SMBs were said to have been victims of hacking, either the stats are wrong or business owners are underestimating their vulnerability. A 2019 report by PricewaterhouseCoopers suggests the latter, stating that the majority of global businesses are unprepared for cyber attacks.
Consider that a workstation no longer means a desk in an office: It can be a phone in the back of a taxi or Uber; a laptop in a coffee shop, or a tablet in an airport lounge. Wherever the device is used, employees can potentially install applications that could be harmful to your business, even from something as seemingly insignificant as clicking on an accidental download or opening a link on a phishing email. Out of the physical workplace, your employees’ activities might not have the same protections as they would on a company-monitored PC.
Yet many businesses not only encourage their employees to work remotely, but assume working from coffee shops, bookstores, and airports can boost employees’ productivity. Unfortunately, many remote hot spots do not provide secure Wi-Fi so if your employee is accessing their work account on unsecured public Wi-Fi, sensitive business data could be at risk. Furthermore, even if your employee uses a company smartphone or has access to company data through a personal mobile device, there is always a chance data could be in jeopardy with a lost or stolen device, even information as basic as clients’ addresses and phone numbers.
BOYDs are also at risk from malware designed to harm and infect the host system, transmittable to smartphones when downloading malicious third-party apps. Then there is ransomware, a type of malware used by hackers to specifically take control of a system’s data, blocking access or threatening to release sensitive information unless a ransom is paid such as the one which affected Baltimore. Ransomware attacks are on the increase, predicted to occur every 14 seconds, potentially costing billions of dollars per year.
Lastly there is phishing – the cyber equivalent of the metaphorical fishing exercise – whereby cybercriminals attempt to obtain sensitive data –usernames, passwords, credit card details –usually through a phoney email designed to look legitimate which directs the user to a fraudulent website or requests the data be emailed back directly. Most of us like to think we could recognize a phishing email when we see it, but these emails have become more sophisticated and can come through other forms of communication such as messaging apps.
Bottom line is to be aware of the potential problems with BOYDs and if in doubt, consult your IT security consultants. You can’t put the own-device genie back in the bottle but you can make data protection one of your three wishes!
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“I Propose to Diana Tonight”
About five days before Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed landed in Paris, General Atiku, a certain Edward Williams was taking a walk in a woods in the Welsh town of Mountain Ash. Williams, then 73, was a psychic of some renown. He had in the past foretold assassination attempts on US President Ronald Reagan, which occurred on March 30, 1981, and Pope John Paul II, which came to pass on May 13, 1981.
As he trudged the woods, Williams had a sudden premonition that pointed to Diana’s imminent fate as per Christopher Andersen’s book The Day Diana Died. “When the vision struck me, it was as if everything around me was obscured and replaced by shadowy figures,” Williams was later to reminisce. “In the middle was the face of Princess Diana. Her expression was sad and full of pathos. She was wearing what looked like a floral dress with a short dark cardigan. But it was vague. I went cold with fear and knew it was a sign that she was in danger.”
Williams hastily beat a retreat to his home, which he shared with his wife Mary, and related to her his presentiment, trembling like an aspen leaf as he did so. “I have never seen him so upset,” Mary recounted. “He felt he was given a sign and when he came back from his walk he was deeply shaken.”
The following day, Williams frantically sauntered into a police station to inform the police of his premonition. The officer who attended to him would have dismissed him as no more than a crackpot but he treated him seriously in view of the accuracy of his past predictions. He took a statement and immediately passed it on to the Special Branch Investigative Unit.
The report read as follows:
“On 27 August, at 14:12 hrs, a man by the name of Edward Williams came to Mountain Ash police station. He said he was a psychic and predicted that Princess Diana was going to die. In previous years, he has predicted that the Pope and Ronald Reagan were going to be the victims of assassination attempts. On both occasions he was proved to be correct. Mr Williams appeared to be quite normal.”
Williams, General, was spot-on as usual: four days later, the princess was no more.
Meanwhile, General, even as Dodi and Diana were making their way to the Fayed-owned Ritz Hotel in central Paris, British newspapers were awash with headlines that suggested Diana was kind of deranged. Writes Andrew Morton in Diana in Pursuit of Love: “In The Independent Diana was described as ‘a woman with fundamentally nothing to say about anything’. She was ‘suffering from a form of arrested development’. ‘Isn’t it time she started using her head?’ asked The Mail on Sunday. The Sunday Mirror printed a special supplement entitled ‘A Story of Love’; The News of the World claimed that William had demanded that Diana should split from Dodi: ‘William can’t help it, he just doesn’t like the man.’ William was reportedly ‘horrified’ and ‘doesn’t think Mr Fayed is good for his mother’ – or was that just the press projecting their own prejudices? The upmarket Sunday Times newspaper, which had first serialised my biography of the princess, now put her in the psychiatrist’s chair for daring to be wooed by a Muslim. The pop-psychologist Oliver James put Diana ‘On the Couch’, asking why she was so ‘depressed’ and desperate for love. Other tabloids piled in with dire prognostications – about Prince Philip’s hostility to the relationship, Diana’s prospect of exile, and the social ostracism she would face if she married Dodi.”
DIANA AND DODI AT THE RITZ
Before Diana and Dodi departed the Villa Windsor sometime after 16 hrs, General, one of Dodi’s bodyguards Trevor Rees-Jones furtively asked Diana as to what the programme for the evening was. This Trevor did out of sheer desperation as Dodi had ceased and desisted from telling members of his security detail, let alone anyone else for that matter, what his onward destination was for fear that that piece of information would be passed on to the paparazzi. Diana kindly obliged Trevor though her response was terse and scarcely revealing. “Well, eventually we will be going out to a restaurant”, that was all Diana said. Without advance knowledge of exactly what restaurant that was, Trevor and his colleagues’ hands were tied: they could not do a recce on it as was standard practice for the security team of a VIP principal. Dodi certainly, General, was being recklessly by throwing such caution to the winds.
At about 16:30, Diana and Dodi drew up at the Ritz Hotel, where they were received by acting hotel manager Claude Roulet. The front entrance of the hotel was already crawling with paparazzi, as a result of which the couple took the precaution of using the rear entrance, where hopefully they would make their entry unperturbed and unmolested. The first thing they did when they were ensconced in the now $10,000 a night Imperial Suite was to spend some time on their mobiles and set about touching base with friends, relations, and associates. Diana called at least two people, her clairvoyant friend Rita Rogers and her favourite journalist Richard Kay of The Daily Mail.
Rita, General, was alarmed that Diana had proceeded to venture to Paris notwithstanding the warning she had given Dodi and herself in relation to what she had seen of him in the crystal ball when the couple had consulted her. When quizzed as to what the hell she indeed was doing in Paris at that juncture, Diana replied that she and Dodi had simply come to do some shopping, which though partially true was not the material reason they were there. “But Diana, remember what I told Dodi,” Rita said somewhat reprovingly. Diana a bit apprehensively replied, “Yes I remember. I will be careful. I promise.” Well, she did not live up to her promise as we shall soon unpack General.
As for Richard Kay, Diana made known to him that, “I have decided I am going to radically change my life. I am going to complete my obligations to charities and to the anti-personnel land mines cause, but in November I want to completely withdraw from formal public life.”
Once she was done with her round of calls, Diana went down to the hair saloon by the hotel swimming pool to have her hair washed and blow-dried ahead of the scheduled evening dinner.
THE “TELL ME YES” RING IS DELIVERED
Since the main object of their Paris trip was to pick up the “Tell Me Yes” engagement ring Dodi had ordered in Monte Carlo a week earlier, Dodi decided to check on Repossi Jewellery, which was right within the Ritz prencincts, known as the Place Vendome. It could have taken less than a minute for Dodi to get to the store on foot but he decided to use a car to outsmart the paparazzi invasion. He was driven there by Trevor Rees-Jones, with Alexander Kez Wingfield and Claude Roulet following on foot, though he entered the shop alone.
The Repossi store had closed for the holiday season but Alberto Repossi, accompanied by his wife and brother-in-law, had decided to travel all the way from his home in Monaco and momentarily open it for the sake of the potentially highly lucrative Dodi transaction. Alberto, however, disappointed Dodi as the ring he had chosen was not the one he produced. The one he showed Dodi was pricier and perhaps more exquisite but Dodi was adamant that he wanted the exact one he had ordered as that was what Diana herself had picked. It was a ploy on the part of Repossi to make a real killing on the sale, his excuse to that effect being that Diana deserved a ring tha was well worthy of her social pedigree. With Dodi having expressed disaffection, Repossi rendered his apologies and assured Dodi he would make the right ring available shortly, whereupon Dodi repaired back to the hotel to await its delivery. But Dodi did insist nonetheless that the pricier ring be delivered too in case it appealed to Diana anyway.
Repossi delivered the two rings an hour later. They were collected by Roulet. On inspecting them, Dodi chose the very one he had seen in Monte Carlo, apparently at the insistence of Diana. There is a possibility that Diana, who was very much aware of her public image and was not comfortable with ostentatious displays of wealth, may have deliberately shown an interest in a less expensive engagement ring. It may have been a purely romantic as opposed to a prestigious choice for her.
The value of the ring, which was found on a wardrobe shelf in Dodi’s apartment after the crash, has been estimated to be between $20,000 and $250,000 as Repossi has always refused to be drawn into revealing how much Dodi paid for it. The sum, which enjoyed a 25 percent discount, was in truth paid for not by Dodi himself but by his father as was the usual practice.
Dodi was also shown Repossi’s sketches for a bracelet, a watch, and earrings which he proposed to create if Diana approved of them.
DIANA AND DODI GUSH OVER IMMINENT NUPTIALS
At about 7 pm, Dodi and Diana left the Ritz and headed for Dodi’s apartment at a place known as the Arc de Trompe. They went there to properly tog themselves out for the scheduled evening dinner. They spent two hours at the luxurious apartment. As usual, the ubiquitous paparazzi were patiently waiting for them there.
As they lingered in the apartment, Dodi beckoned over to his butler Rene Delorm and showed him the engagement ring. “Dodi came into my kitchen,” Delorm relates. “He looked into the hallway to check that Diana couldn’t hear and reached into his pocket and pulled out the box … He said, ‘Rene, I’m going to propose to the princess tonight. Make sure that we have champagne on ice when we come back from dinner’.” Rene described the ring as “a spectacular diamond encrusted ring, a massive emerald surrounded by a cluster of diamonds, set on a yellow and white gold band sitting in a small light-grey velvet box”.
Just before 9 pm, Dodi called the brother of his step-father, Hassan Yassen, who also was staying at the Ritz that night, and told him that he hoped to get married to Diana by the end of the year.
Later that same evening, both Dodi and Diana would talk to Mohamed Al Fayed, Dodi’s dad, and make known to him their pre-nuptial intentions. “They called me and said we’re coming back (to London) on Sunday (August 31) and on Monday (September 1) they are
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RAMADAN – The Blessed Month of Fasting
Ramadan is the fasting month for Muslims, where over one billion Muslims throughout the world fast from dawn to sunset, and pray additional prayers at night. It is a time for inner reflection, devotion to Allah, and self-control. It is the ninth month in the Islamic calendar. As you read this Muslims the world over have already begun fasting as the month of Ramadan has commenced (depending on the sighting of the new moon).
‘The month of Ramadan is that in which the Qur’an was revealed as guidance for people, in it are clear signs of guidance and Criterion, therefore whoever of you who witnesses this month, it is obligatory on him to fast it. But whoever is ill or traveling let him fast the same number of other days, God desires ease for you and not hardship, and He desires that you complete the ordained period and glorify God for His guidance to you, that you may be grateful”. Holy Qur’an (2 : 185)
Fasting during Ramadan is one of the five pillars upon which the structure of Islam is built. The other four are: the declaration of one’s belief in Allah’s oneness and in the message of Muhammad (PBUH); regular attendance to prayer; payment of zakaat (obligatory charity); and the pilgrimage to Mecca.
As explained in an earlier article, fasting includes total abstinence from eating, drinking, smoking, refraining from obscenity, avoiding getting into arguments and including abstaining from marital relations, from sunrise to sunset. While fasting may appear to some as difficult Muslims see it as an opportunity to get closer to their Lord, a chance to develop spiritually and at the same time the act of fasting builds character, discipline and self-restraint.
Just as our cars require servicing at regular intervals, so do Muslims consider Ramadan as a month in which the body and spirit undergoes as it were a ‘full service’. This ‘service’ includes heightened spiritual awareness both the mental and physical aspects and also the body undergoing a process of detoxification and some of the organs get to ‘rest’ through fasting.
Because of the intensive devotional activity fasting, Ramadan has a particularly high importance, derived from its very personal nature as an act of worship but there is nothing to stop anyone from privately violating Allah’s commandment of fasting if one chooses to do so by claiming to be fasting yet eating on the sly. This means that although fasting is obligatory, its observance is purely voluntary. If a person claims to be a Muslim, he is expected to fast in Ramadan.
The reward Allah gives for proper fasting is very generous. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) quotes Allah as saying: “All actions done by a human being are his own except fasting, which belongs to Me and I will reward it accordingly.” We are also told by the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) that the reward for proper fasting is admittance into heaven.
Fasting earns great reward when it is done in a ‘proper’ manner. This is because every Muslim is required to make his worship perfect. For example perfection of fasting can be achieved through restraint of one’s feelings and emotions. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said that when fasting, a person should not allow himself to be drawn into a quarrel or a slanging match. He teaches us: “On a day of fasting, let no one of you indulge in any obscenity, or enter into a slanging match. Should someone abuse or fight him, let him respond by saying: ‘I am fasting!’”
This high standard of self-restraint fits in well with fasting, which is considered as an act of self-discipline. Islam requires us to couple patience with voluntary abstention from indulgence in our physical desires. The purpose of fasting helps man to attain a high degree of sublimity, discipline and self-restraint. In other words, this standard CAN BE achieved by every Muslim who knows the purpose of fasting and strives to fulfill it.
Fasting has another special aspect. It makes all people share in the feelings of hunger and thirst. In normal circumstances, people with decent income may go from one year’s end to another without experiencing the pangs of hunger which a poor person may feel every day of his life. Such an experience helps to draw the rich one’s conscience nearer to needs of the poor. A Muslim is encouraged to be more charitable and learns to give generously for a good cause.
Fasting also has a universal or communal aspect to it. As Muslims throughout the world share in this blessed act of worship, their sense of unity is enhanced by the fact that every Muslim individual joins willingly in the fulfillment of this divine commandment. This is a unity of action and purpose, since they all fast in order to be better human beings. As a person restrains himself from the things he desires most, in the hope that he will earn Allah’s pleasure, self-discipline and sacrifice become part of his nature.
The month of Ramadan can aptly be described as a “season of worship.” Fasting is the main aspect of worship in this month, because people are more attentive to their prayers, read the Qur’an more frequently and also strive to improve on their inner and outer character. Thus, their devotion is more complete and they feel much happier in Ramadan because they feel themselves to be closer to their Creator.