Evil Zu is No More
Columns
Benson C Saili
THIS EARTH, MY BROTHER…
Kumarbi’s era comes to an end as Jehovah’s son puts him to the sword
In the Sumerian chronicles, Kumarbi overwhelmingly comes across as the very personification of the Devil. He is dubbed “The Evil Zu”. That need not surprise in view of the fact that history is written by the winners and whatever slant the winners take, the reader basically runs with.
The fact of the matter is that Kumarbi was not as black as he is painted. He ruled Earth for 36,000 years (that is, 10 Nibiru years, called shars) without provoking the merest insurrection against him. And whilst he ruled, he did not unduly impose himself on Enlil and Enki. Enlil still retained his title and responsibilities as Earth’s Chief Executive. Gold production, that was acutely needed to mend Nibiru’s waning atmosphere, was not disrupted.
Although Kumarbi had declared Earth independent of the Sirian-Orion Empire, he was still intent at maintaining good diplomatic relations with King Anu. That’s why when he captured the Ari mothership, he did not blow away Anu’s celestial boat which he could easily have done with the fabulous firepower of the Ari: he simply scared him with close-shave projectiles.
And since Kumarbi was cooperative with the strategic imperatives of the Sirian-Orion monarch, King Anu refrained from engaging him in sustained hostilities, which would have led to the destruction of Earth. Earth had to be preserved at all costs given that the Galactic Federation of the Worlds, the Milky Way Galaxy’s equivalent of the United Nations, had declared it a Living Genetic Library and was therefore the galaxy’s most precious planet. Moreover, if Earth was to be destroyed in a cosmic war, that would spell disaster for Nibiru, which desperately needed a mineral that was only obtainable from Earth.
By seceding from the Sirian-Orion Empire, Kumarbi had forfeited his position as heir to the Sirian-Orion throne and Enlil was automatically reinstated. Yet it was just as well. Kumarbi had always been aware in his heart of hearts that his position as Cup-Bearer to the Sirian-Orion monarch was pure make-believe: it was all a ruse meant to rid him of the nagging temptation to lead a revolt against the Sirian-Orion overlords. When he seized power on the occasion of Anu’s first visit to Earth, it was because he had read through this lullaby.
But although Kumarbi undertook to co-operate with King Anu, he was not yet done as far as his designs for the full spectrum of power were concerned. His aim was to annex Nibiru as well considering that whoever ruled Nibiru was effectively the ruler of the Solar System. Kumarbi’s desire was that the Solar System be wholly independent of the Sirian-Orion Empire. With the Ari under his control, Kumarbi now exercised a lot of sway even on Nibiru itself. Anybody who wielded power over the Ari was to all intents and purposes omnipotent in that it was capable of destroying an entire planet just with one particle beam blast.
In his quest to attain to his goal of taking over the entire Solar System, Kumarbi had one great stumbling block though. This was Enlil, the future god of the Jews today best-known as Jehovah/Yahweh.
KUMARBI SNATCHES CRITICAL SPACE NAVIGATION INSTRUMENTS
In order to possess full power over Earth in particular, it was not enough to have control over the Ari or to be King. One had to have control over what was termed the Tablets of Destinies. These were devices that tracked and controlled planetary orbits and trajectories of spaceships. The loosest comparison we have here on Earth today is Mission Control Centre at Nasa, whose sophisticated equipment guides spaceships such as Apollo 11 and space probes such as the Mars Rover. The Tablets of Destinies, however, were much more powerful in that they could alter the course of a heavenly body such as an asteroid for instance so as to prevent it from colliding into Earth or direct it right at the planet out of sinister motives. Even a drifting mini-world such as the Ari could be influenced by the Tablets of Destinies.
On Earth, the person who controlled the Tablets of Destinies was Enlil. When Kumarbi became King of Earth and asked for the vital tablets, Enlil had refused to part with them and there was nothing Kumarbi could do since only Enlil knew the tablets’ secret codes. In fact, Enlil didn’t allow Kumarbi to come anywhere near his headquarters in the Edin. Enlil resented Kumarbi just as Kumarbi had resented Anu. As far as Enlil was concerned, Kumarbi would only have the tablets over his dead body.
Then an opportunity arose. The Igigi, who were stationed in orbit around Earth, came up with a litany of grievances. Key among their gripes was that relief cadres from the mother planet literally took ages to arrive; the rotation system was just too glacially slow. The Igigi were also loath to the fact that every time they landed on Earth to pick up the gold, they were never allowed a smidgeon of a moment to explore the beautiful and scenic Earth. They wanted a rest and recreational facility where they could occasionally vacation and recharge their metabolic batteries.
Kumarbi, who was also known as AN-ZU (“Supreme Master of Aerospace”, as he personally supervised the space-based Igigi), first approached Enki (who was an in-law uncle of his having married Alalu’s daughter) to propose two things. The first one was a familiarisation tour of both the Abzu and Eridu. The second was a rapprochement meeting with Enki and Enlil. At first, Enlil was dead set against meeting Kumarbi in view of the manner he had become King of Earth but Enki finally persuaded him. “Let Anzu of the workings gain understanding,” Enki said to Enlil as per his records in The Book of Enki. “I will the Abzu to him show, you the Bond-Heaven-Earth reveal.”
Kumarbi to Earth with 50 other like-minded Igigi. This top-heavy entourage should have raised eyebrows but Enlil and Enki were completely blindfolded. To assuage the Igigi, Enlil had already laid on a treat for them: they were to stay at a resort near his summer home in the Cedar Mountains in modern-day Lebanon. Meanwhile, Kumarbi was to be accorded a tour of the Abzu mines and thereafter be the guest of Enlil at EKUR, his mansion at Nippur, his cult seat in the Edin, whilst Enki was chilling out at his Eridu retreat. There, at Ekur, Enlil went out of his way to make Kumarbi feel special, admitting him into the DIRGA room, the Ekur’s “Holy of Holies” where the Tablets of Destinies were kept.
“Enlil Anzu to Nibruki (Nippur) invited, to the hallowed dark chamber he let him enter,” Enki relates. “In the innermost sanctuary the Tablets of Destinies to Anzu he explained. What the Anunnaki in the five cities were doing to Anzu was shown.” As for a discussion of the Igigi grievances, Enlil said these would be addressed in the next few days when Enki joined them from Eridu. Meanwhile, Kumarbi and Enlil would take turns to man the Dirga. Enlil clearly was intent on getting Kumarbi to feel he was unambiguously top dog: he even gave him access to his heavily armed, armour-plated sky chamber. Sadly, Kumarbi’s mind was already made.
One day, when Enlil was taking his routine mid-day swim, Kumarbi seized the Tablets of Destinies, dashed into Enlil’s sky chamber that was parked on the premises and at gunpoint commandeered pilot Abgal to fly him to the Landing Place in the Cedar Mountains. There, a hysterically euphoric Igigi feted him as “King of Earth and Mars”. It was so goddamn easy. Meanwhile, the aftermath of the steal was instantaneous. “In the sanctuary of Nibruki, the brilliance petered out, the humming quieted down,” writes Enki. “Silence in the place prevailed, suspended were the sacred formulas. In space the Igigi were confounded. In Nibruki Enlil was speechless; by the treachery he was overwhelmed.”
The first thing a habitually impetuous Enlil did was to reach Enki and angrily howl at him for this disaster, as it was he who broached the idea of Kumarbi’s familiarisation tour of the Dirga. The cool-headed Enki said it was no use crying over spilt milk: what was needed now was to find a means to tame Kumarbi and retrieve the Tablets of Destinies.
NINURTA SQUARES UP AGAINST KUMARBI
Enlil and Enki consulted with King Anu on Nibiru as to the next course of action and Anu ordered that the Tablets be repossessed at any cost, which entailed ousting Kumarbi as King of Earth even if that meant disrupting gold production that was so critically needed for the repair of Nibiru’s dissipating atmosphere. But whatever war it was, it had to be conducted civilly so that no lasting destruction was inflicted to the planet. The preservation of the planet was in the interests of Kumarbi as well.
An emergency meeting of the Anunnaki top brass was called by Enlil, at which a viable strategy was to be hammered out. But if Kumarbi was to be militarily taken on, who would be the lead belligerent? Note that this was not a full-scale war in the offing: at the time, the Anunnaki had a strictly enforceable code whereby they were not to war against and annihilate each other. They came to Earth to extract gold and not to blow each other to bits. So in order not to make this a war of Anunnaki versus Igigi, it was decided that one of the pantheon was going to face off with Kumarbi in an aerial slugfest. If he perished in the confrontation, another would step into the fray till victory was won.
It was the quick-witted Enki who proposed Ninurta, Enlil’s firstborn and heir. Ninurta was the perfect choice, being a Nibiru-trained fighter pilot. The Sumerian records describe him as “the heroic son of Enlil who launched bolts of lightning, a mighty hunter renowned for his martial abilities”. Enlil, however, was quizzical of Enki’s outright propositioning of Ninurta, as though he intended mortal harm to come Ninurta’s way and therefore pave the way for the probable rise to supremacy of his own son Marduk. But Enki’s position was seconded by Ninurta’s own mother Ninmah. In any case, Ninurta himself was just too happy to take the gauntlet. It was game, set and match: the young prince was raring to go. But Ninurta set a condition for his being thrust into the possibly deadly enterprise that we shall dwell on next time around and which condition the pantheon assented to.
Ninurta and Kumarbi did battle over the Cedar Mountains, where they fought day and night. Now, Ninurta faced something of a Sisyphusian challenge. With his fingers on the almost magical Tablets of Destinies, Kumarbi was not only theoretically invincible but was also virtually invisible. “The Tablets are my protection, invincible I am,” he boasted to Ninurta by radio, a vain boast really since it could take him ages to crack the codes, which only Enlil knew. Moreover, the fantastically sophisticated weapons that were installed in the sky chamber that he had snatched from Enlil were capable of pulverising anything. Hence Ninurta drew a blank: all the firepower that he unleashed at Kumarbi, the “lightning bolts”, bounced back. Frustrated and alarmed, Ninurta sent word to his father through his younger brother Ishkur/Adad asking for further warring tips.
Enlil responded by reinforcing him with a new weapon called a TILLUM missile, but exactly how to use it to full efficacy was advised by the all-knowing Enki. Enki said: “With your Whirlwind (fighter craft) stir up a storm. Let the dust cover Anzu’s face, let it the wings of the sky bird ruffle … Shoot the Tillum into the pinions or small cogwheels of Zu’s wings”. It worked like a charm. Kumarbi’s craft tumbled horrendously to the ground though he and hostage pilot Abgal parachuted to safety. Kumarbi was arrested, the Tablets of Destinies were recovered and immediately reinstalled in the Dirga, and everything sprang to life again. Ninurta was the hero of the moment both on Earth and Nibiru.
DEATH SENTENCE FOR KUMARBI
Kumarbi was arraigned and tried before a 7-man court-martial comprising of Enlil, Enki, Enlil’s wife Ninlil, Enki’s wife Ninki, Enlil’s son Nannar/Sin, Enki’s son Marduk, and Enki/Enlil’s half-sister Ninmah. Ninurta prosecuted the case and prayed for the death sentence. Enki recorded the deliberations as follows as relayed to us by his master scribe Endubasar:
“The Igigi by right were complaining, a rest place on Earth they do need, Marduk in counter argued. By his evil deed all the Anunnaki and Igigi did endanger, Enlil said. Enki and Ninmah with Enlil
In a landslide 6-1 decision (Marduk voted against the decision), Kumarbi was sentenced to death. The mode of execution was decapitation but it was not as gruesome as legend depicts it: the executor, Ninurta, employed a “death ray”, which sliced through Kumarbi’s neck with laser precision.
The Kumarbi revolt and execution was the beginning of the legend of the “Evil Zu”, who became a type of the Devil. When pulpit men in Christian churches preach about the “Devil rebelling against God” because he wanted to be like “The Most High,” scarcely do they realise that they are alluding to the Kumarbi saga. You see, there are too many God-types and too many Devil-types in the Bible and all these are none other than elements of the Anunnaki!
Meanwhile, Alalu was remanded in custody by way of a house arrest for conspiring alongside his grandson to seize power over Earth 8 shars ago. He too was to be tried but this time around, Anu was to join the bench as he was on his way to Earth to savour the defeat and death of Kumarbi.
Anu’s involvement in the trial perturbed Enlil. He was aware that Anu was a naturally charitable being and chances were he would influence the bench to excuse Alalu, which to a naturally austere Enlil was anathema. In order to hedge his bets, Enlil ordered that a slow-acting poison be cleverly administered to Alalu (Endubasar, the Earthling scribe who penned Enki’s autobiography, put a rather unseemly slant on the incident). Enlil, like the stern disciplinarian he was, believed in an eye for an eye and indeed when we flip through the pages of the Old Testament, we come across countless incidents in which Jehovah meted out instant, deathly justice to people who defied or transgressed against him: in some cases the prophets had to plead with him to stay his iron hand.
NEXT WEEK: THE FATE OF ALALU
Columns
THE KEY TO HAPPINESS
Speaking at a mental health breakfast seminar last week I emphasised to the HR managerial audience that you cannot yoga your way out of a toxic work culture. What I meant by that was that as HR practitioners we must avoid tending to look at the soft options to address mental health issues, distractions such as yoga and meditation. That’s like looking for your lost bunch of keys, then opening the front door with the spare under the mat. You’ve solved the immediate problem, but all the other keys are still missing. Don’t get me wrong; mindfulness practices, yoga exercise and taking time to smell the roses all have their place in mental wellness but it’s a bit like hacking away at the blight-ridden leaves of the tree instead of getting to the root cause of the problem.
Another point I stressed was that mental health at work shouldn’t be looked at from the individual lens – yet that’s what we do. We have counselling of employees, wellness webinars or talks but if you really want to sort out the mental health crisis that we face in our organisations you HAVE to view this more systemically and that means looking at the system and that starts with the leaders and managers.
Now. shining a light on management may not be welcomed by many. But leaders control the flow of work and set the goals and expectations that others need to live up to. Unrealistic expectations, excessive workloads and tight deadlines increase stress and force people to work longer hours … some of the things which contribute to poor mental health. Actually, we know from research exactly what contributes to a poor working environment – discrimination and inequality, excessive workloads, low job control and job insecurity – all of which pose a risk to mental health. The list goes on and is pretty exhaustive but here are the major ones: under-use of skills or being under-skilled for work; excessive workloads or work pace, understaffing; long, unsocial or inflexible hours; lack of control over job design or workload; organizational culture that enables negative behaviours; limited support from colleagues or authoritarian supervision; discrimination and exclusion; unclear job role; under- or over-promotion; job insecurity.
And to my point no amount of yoga is going to change that.
We can use the word ‘toxic’ to describe dysfunctional work environments and if our workplaces are toxic we have to look at the people who set the tone. Harder et al. (2014) define a toxic work environment as an environment that negatively impacts the viability of an organization. They specify: “It is reasonable to conclude that an organization can be considered toxic if it is ineffective as well as destructive to its employees”.
Micromanagement and/or failure to reward or recognize performance are the most obvious signs of toxic managers. These managers can be controlling, inflexible, rigid, close-minded, and lacking in self-awareness. And let’s face it managers like those I have just described are plentiful. Generally, however there is often a failure by higher management to address toxic leaders when they are considered to be high performing. This kind of situation can be one of the leading causes of unhappiness in teams. I have coached countless employees who talk about managers with bullying ways which everyone knows about, yet action is never taken. It’s problematic when we overlook unhealthy dynamics and behaviours because of high productivity or talent as it sends a clear message that the behaviour is acceptable and that others on the team will not be supported by leadership.
And how is the HR Manager viewed when they raise the unacceptable behaviour with the CEO – they are accused of not being a team player, looking for problems or failing to understand business dynamics and the need to get things done. Toxic management is a systemic problem caused when companies create cultures around high-performance and metrics vs. long-term, sustainable, healthy growth. In such instances the day-to-day dysfunction is often ignored for the sake of speed and output. While short-term gains are rewarded, executives fail to see the long-term impact of protecting a toxic, but high-performing, team or employee. Beyond this, managers promote unhealthy workplace behaviour when they recognize and reward high performers for going above and beyond, even when that means rewarding the road to burnout by praising a lack of professional boundaries (like working during their vacation and after hours).
The challenge for HR Managers is getting managers to be honest with themselves and their teams about the current work environment. Honesty is difficult, I’m afraid, especially with leaders who are overly sensitive, emotional, or cannot set healthy boundaries. But here’s the rub – no growth or change can occur if denial and defensiveness are used to protect egos. Being honest about these issues helps garner trust among employees, who already know the truth about what day-to-day dynamics are like at work. They will likely be grateful that cultural issues will finally be addressed. Conversely, if they aren’t addressed, retention failure is the cost of protecting egos of those in management.
Toxic workplace culture comes at a huge price: even before the Great Resignation, turnover related to toxic workplaces cost US employers almost $50 billion yearly! I wonder what it’s costing us here.
QUOTE
We can use the word ‘toxic’ to describe dysfunctional work environments and if our workplaces are toxic we have to look at the people who set the tone. Harder et al. (2014) define a toxic work environment as an environment that negatively impacts the viability of an organization. They specify: “It is reasonable to conclude that an organization can be considered toxic if it is ineffective as well as destructive to its employees”.
Columns
Heartache for Kelly Fisher
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o date, Princess Diana, General Atiku, had destroyed one marriage, come close to ruining another one in the offing, and now was poised to wreck yet another marriage that was already in the making. This was between Dodi Fayed and the American model Kelly Fisher.
If there was one common denominator about Diana and Dodi besides their having been born with a silver spoon in their mouths, General, it was that both were divorcees. Dodi’s matrimonial saga, however, was less problematic and acrimonious and lasted an infinitesimal 8 months. This was with yet another American model and film actress going by the name Susanne Gregard.
Dodi met Susanne in 1986, when she was only 26 years old. Like most glamourous women, she proved not to be that easy a catch and to readily incline her towards positively and expeditiously responding to his rather gallant advances, Dodi booked her as a model for the Fayed’s London mega store Harrods, where he had her travel every weekend by Concorde. They married at a rather private ceremony at Dodi’s Colorado residence in 1987 on New Year’s Day, without the blessings, bizarrely, of his all-powerful father. By September the same year, the marriage was, for reasons that were not publicised but likely due to the fact that his father had not sanctioned it, kaput.
It would take ten more years for Dodi to propose marriage to another woman, who happened to be Kelly Fisher this time around.
DODI HITCHES KELLY FISHER
Kelly and Dodi, General, met in Paris in July 1996, when Kelly was only 29 years old. In a sort of whirlwind romance, the duo fell in love, becoming a concretised item in December and formally getting engaged in February 1997.
Of course the relationship was not only about mutual love: the material element was a significant, if not vital, factor. Kelly was to give up her modelling job just so she could spend a lot more time with the new man in her life and for that she was to be handed out a compensatory reward amounting to $500,000. The engagement ring for one, which was a diamond and sapphire affair, set back Dodi in the order of $230,000. Once they had wedded, on August 9 that very year as per plan, they were to live in a $7 million 5-acre Malibu Beach mansion in California, which Dodi’s father had bought him for that and an entrepreneurial purpose. They were already even talking about embarking on making a family from the get-go: according to Kelly, Dodi wanted two boys at the very least.
Kelly naturally had the unambiguous blessings of her father-in-law as there was utterly nothing Dodi could do without the green light from the old man. When Mohamed Al Fayed was contemplating buying the Jonikal, the luxurious yacht, he invited Dodi and Kelly to inspect it too and hear their take on it.
If there was a tell-tale red flag about Dodi ab initio, General, it had to do with a $200,000 cheque he issued to Kelly as part payment of the pledged $500,000 and which was dishonoured by the bank. Throughout their 13-month-long romance, Dodi made good on only $60,000 of the promised sum. But love, as they say, General, is blind and Kelly did not care a jot about her beau’s financial indiscretions. It was enough that he was potentially a very wealthy man anyway being heir to his father’s humongous fortune.
KELLY CONSIGNED TO “BOAT CAGE”
In that summer of the year 1997, General, Dodi and Kelly were to while away quality time on the French Rivierra as well as the Jonikal after Paris. Then Dodi’s dad weighed in and put a damper on this prospect in a telephone call to Dodi on July 14. “Dodi said he was going to London and he’d be back and then we were going to San Tropez,” Kelly told the interviewer in a later TV programme. “That evening he didn’t call me and I finally got him on his portable phone. I said, ‘Dodi where are you?’ and he said he was in London. I said, ‘Ok, I’ll call you right back at your apartment’. He said, ‘No, no, don’t call me back’. So I said, ‘Dodi where are you?’ and he admitted he was in the south of France. His father had asked him to come down and not bring me, I know now.”
Since Dodi could no longer hide from Kelly and she on her part just could not desist from badgering him, he had no option but to dispatch a private Fayed jet to pick her up so that she join him forthwith in St. Tropez. This was on July 16.
Arriving in St. Tropez, Kelly, General, did not lodge at the Fayed’s seaside villa as was her expectation but was somewhat stashed in the Fayed’s maritime fleet, first in the Sakara, and later in the Cujo, which was moored only yards from the Fayed villa. It was in the Cujo Kelly spent the next two nights with Dodi. “She (Kelly) felt there was something strange going on as Dodi spent large parts of the day at the family’s villa, Castel St. Helene, but asked her to stay on the boat,” writes Martyn Gregory in The Diana Conspiracy Exposed. “Dodi was sleeping with Kelly at night and was courting Diana by day. His deception was assisted by Kelly Fisher’s modelling assignment on 18-20 July in Nice. The Fayed’s were happy to lend her the Cujo and its crew for three days to take her there.”
Dodi’s behaviour clearly was curious, General. “Dodi would say, ‘I’m going to the house and I’ll be back in half an hour’,” Kelly told Gregory. “And he’d come back three or four hours later. I was furious. I’m sitting on the boat, stuck. And he was having lunch with everyone. So he had me in my little boat cage, and I now know he was seducing Diana. So he had me, and then he would go and try and seduce her, and then he’d come back the next day and it would happen again. I was livid by this point, and I just didn’t understand what was going on. When he was with me, he was so wonderful. He said he loved me, and we talked to my mother, and we were talking about moving into the house in California.”
But as is typical of the rather romantically gullible tenderer sex, General, Kelly rationalised her man’s stratagems. “I just thought they maybe didn’t want a commoner around the Princess … Dodi kept leaving me behind with the excuse that the Princess didn’t like to meet new people.” During one of those nights, General, Dodi even had unprotected sexual relations with Kelly whilst cooing in her ear that, “I love you so much and I want you to have my baby.”
KELLY USHERED ONTO THE JONIKAL AT LONG LAST
On July 20, General, Diana returned to England and it was only then that Dodi allowed Kelly to come aboard the Jonikal. According to Debbie Gribble, who was the Jonikal’s chief stewardess, Kelly was kind of grumpy. “I had no idea at the time who she was, but I felt she acted very spoiled,” she says in Trevor Rees-Jones’ The Bodyguard’s Story. “I remember vividly that she snapped, ‘I want to eat right now. I don’t want a drink, I just want to eat now’. It was quite obvious that she was upset, angry or annoyed about something.”
Kelly’s irascible manner of course was understandable, General, given the games Dodi had been playing with her since she pitched up in St. Tropez. Granted, what happened to Kelly was very much antithetical to Dodi’s typically well-mannered nature, but the fact of the matter was that she simply was peripheral to the larger agenda, of which Dodi’s father was the one calling the shots.
On July 23, Dodi and Kelly flew to Paris, where they parted as Kelly had some engagements lined up in Los Angeles. Dodi promised to join her there on August 4 to celebrate with her her parents’ marriage anniversary. Dodi, however, General, did not make good on his promise: though he did candidly own up to the fact that he was at that point in time again with Diana, he also fibbed that he was not alone with her but was partying with her along with Elton John and George Michael. But in a August 6 phone call, he did undertake to Kelly that he would be joining her in LA in a few days’ time. In the event, anyway, General, Kelly continued to ready herself for her big day, which was slated for August 9 – until she saw “The Kiss”.
THE KISS THAT NEVER WAS
“The Kiss”, General, first featured in London’s Sunday Mirror on August 10 under that very headline. In truth, General, it was not a definitive, point-blank kiss: it was a fuzzy image of Diana and Dodi embracing on the Jonikal. A friend of Kelly faxed her the newspaper pictures in the middle of the night and Kelly was at once stunned and convulsed with rage.
But although Kelly was shocked, General, she was not exactly surprised as two or three days prior, British tabloids had already begun rhapsodising on a brewing love affair between Dodi and Diana. That day, Kelly had picked up a phone to demand an immediate explanation from her fiancé. “I started calling him in London because at this time I was expecting his arrival in a day. I called his private line, but there was no answer. So then I called the secretary and asked to speak to him she wouldn’t put me on. So Mohamed got on and in so many horrible words told me to never call back again. I said, ‘He’s my fiancé, what are you talking about?’ He hung up on me and I called back and the secretary said don’t ever call here again, your calls are no longer to be put through. It was so horrible.”
Kelly did at long last manage to reach Dodi but he was quick to protest that, “I can’t talk to you on the phone. I will talk to you in LA.” Perhaps Dodi, General, just at that stage was unable to muster sufficient Dutch courage to thrash out the matter with Kelly but a more credible reason he would not talk had to do with his father’s obsessive bugging of every communication device Dodi used and every inch of every property he owned. The following is what David Icke has to say on the subject in his iconic book The Biggest Secret:
“Ironically, Diana used to have Kensington Palace swept for listening devices and now she was in the clutches of a man for whom bugging was an obsession. The Al Fayed villa in San Tropez was bugged, as were all Fayed properties. Everything Diana said could be heard. Bob Loftus, the former Head of Security at Harrods, said that the bugging there was ‘a very extensive operation’ and was also always under the direction of Al Fayed. Henry Porter, the London Editor of the magazine Vanity Fair, had spent two years investigating Al Fayed and he said they came across his almost obsessive use of eavesdropping devices to tape telephone calls, bug rooms, and film people.”
Through mutual friends, General, Porter warned Diana about Al Fayed’s background and activities ‘because we thought this was quite dangerous for her for obvious reasons’ but Diana apparently felt she could handle it and although she knew Al Fayed could ‘sometimes be a rogue’, he was no threat to her, she thought. “He is rather more than a rogue and rather more often than ‘sometimes,” she apparently told friends. “I know he’s naughty, but that’s all.” The TV programme Dispatches said they had written evidence that Al Fayed bugged the Ritz Hotel and given his background and the deals that are hatched at the Ritz, it would be uncharacteristic if he did not. Kelly Fisher said that the whole time she was on Fayed property, she just assumed everything was bugged. It was known, she said, and Dodi had told her the bugging was so pervasive.
KELLY SUES, ALBEIT VAINLY SO
To his credit, General, Dodi was sufficiently concerned about what had transpired in St. Tropez to fly to LA and do his utmost to appease Kelly but Kelly simply was not interested as to her it was obvious enough that Diana was the new woman in his life.
On August 14, Kelly held a press conference in LA, where she announced that she was taking legal action against Dodi for breach of matrimonial contract. Her asking compensation price was £340,000. Of course the suit, General, lapsed automatically with the demise of Dodi in that Paris underpass on August 31, 1997.
Although Kelly did produce evidence of her engagement to Dodi in the form of a pricey and spectacular engagement ring, General, Mohamed Al Fayed was adamant that she never was engaged to his son and that she was no more than a gold digger.
But it is all water under the bridge now, General: Kelly is happily married to a pilot and the couple has a daughter. Her hubby may not be half as rich as Dodi potentially was but she is fully fulfilled anyway. Happiness, General, comes in all shades and does not necessarily stem from a colossal bank balance or other such trappings of affluence.
Pic Cap
THE SHORT-LIVED TRIANGLE: For about a month or so, Dodi Al Fayed juggled Princess Diana and American model Kelly Fisher, who sported Dodi’s engagement ring. Of course one of the two had to give and naturally it could not be Diana, who entered the lists in the eleventh hour but was the more precious by virtue of her royal pedigree and surpassing international stature.
NEXT WEEK: FURTHER BONDING BETWEEN DIANA AND DODI
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EXTRAVAGANCE One of The Scourges in Society.
Extravagance in recent times has moved from being the practice of some rich and wealthy people of society in general and has regrettably, filtered to all levels of the society. Some of those who have the means are reckless and flaunt their wealth, and consequently, those of us who do not, borrow money to squander it in order to meet their families’ wants of luxuries and unnecessary items. Unfortunately this is a characteristic of human nature.
Adding to those feelings of inadequacy we have countless commercials to whet the consumer’s appetite/desire to buy whatever is advertised, and make him believe that if he does not have those products he will be unhappy, ineffective, worthless and out of tune with the fashion and trend of the times. This practice has reached a stage where many a bread winner resorts to taking loans (from cash loans or banks) with high rates of interest, putting himself in unnecessary debt to buy among other things, furniture, means of transport, dress, food and fancy accommodation, – just to win peoples’ admiration.
Islam and most religions discourage their followers towards wanton consumption. They encourage them to live a life of moderation and to dispense with luxury items so they will not be enslaved by them. Many people today blindly and irresponsibly abandon themselves to excesses and the squandering of wealth in order to ‘keep up with the Joneses’.
The Qur’aan makes it clear that allowing free rein to extravagance and exceeding the limits of moderation is an inherent characteristic in man. Allah says, “If Allah were to enlarge the provision for his servants, they would indeed transgress beyond all bounds.” [Holy Qur’aan 42: 27]
Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said, “Observe the middle course whereby you will attain your objective (that is paradise).” – Moderation is the opposite of extravagance.
Every individual is meant to earn in a dignified manner and then spend in a very wise and careful manner. One should never try to impress upon others by living beyond one’s means. Extravagance is forbidden in Islam, Allah says, “Do not be extravagant; surely He does not love those who are extravagant!” [Holy Qur’aan 7: 31]
The Qur’aan regards wasteful buying of food, extravagant eating that sometimes leads to throwing away of leftovers as absolutely forbidden. Allah says, “Eat of the fruits in their season, but render the dues that are proper on the day that the harvest is gathered. And waste not by excess, for Allah loves not the wasters.” [Holy Qur’aan 6: 141]
Demonstrating wastefulness in dress, means of transport, furniture and any other thing is also forbidden. Allah says, “O children of Adam! Wear your apparel of adornment at every time and place of worship, and eat and drink but do not be extravagant; surely He does not love those who are extravagant!” [Holy Qur’aan 7: 31]
Yet extravagance and the squandering of wealth continue to grow in society, while there are many helpless and deprived peoples who have no food or shelter. Just look around you here in Botswana.
Have you noticed how people squander their wealth on ‘must have’ things like designer label clothes, fancy brand whiskey, fancy top of the range cars, fancy society parties or even costly weddings, just to make a statement? How can we prevent the squandering of such wealth?
How can one go on spending in a reckless manner possibly even on things that have been made forbidden while witnessing the suffering of fellow humans whereby thousands of people starve to death each year. Islam has not forbidden a person to acquire wealth, make it grow and make use of it. In fact Islam encourages one to do so. It is resorting to forbidden ways to acquiring and of squandering that wealth that Islam has clearly declared forbidden. On the Day of Judgment every individual will be asked about his wealth, where he obtained it and how he spent it.
In fact, those who do not have any conscience about their wasteful habits may one day be subjected to Allah’s punishment that may deprive them of such wealth overnight and impoverish them. Many a family has been brought to the brink of poverty after leading a life of affluence. Similarly, many nations have lived a life of extravagance and their people indulged in such excesses only to be later inflicted by trials and tribulations to such a point that they wished they would only have a little of what they used to possess!
With the festive season and the new year holidays having passed us, for many of us meant ‘one’ thing – spend, spend, spend. With the festivities and the celebrations over only then will the reality set in for many of us that we have overspent, deep in debt with nothing to show for it and that the following months are going to be challenging ones.
Therefore, we should not exceed the bounds when Almighty bestows His bounties upon us. Rather we should show gratefulness to Him by using His bestowments and favours in ways that prove our total obedience to Him and by observing moderation in spending. For this will be better for us in this life and the hereafter.