Depart Earth
Columns
Benson C Saili
THIS EARTH, MY BROTHER
King Anu issues evacuation decree as catastrophic globalwide flood looms
As the merciless Ice Age tightened its grip and mankind continued to reel from starvation and famine, a flint-hearted Enlil, the Bible’s primary Jehovah/Yahweh, simply looked the other way in a gloating fashion.
The kindly Enki approached and implored him: “Let us the Earthlings pond- and canal-building teach, let them from the seas fish and sustenance obtain!” Enlil outrightly rejected the plea. In fact, he underlined to the pantheon that under no circumstances should any of the Anunnaki bigwigs have anything to do with ameliorating the plight of mankind. “This by decree I forbid! Let the Earthlings by hunger and pestilence perish!” Enki in particular was told he would be closely watched in case he deviated from upholding this declaration.
Mankind was in a bind. The Anakim, the giant offspring of the Nephilim and their human spouses, had now proliferated and like mankind they too were on their own. They resorted to plundering the little food that mankind had to spare by way of bluster. They would lay siege to a particular human settlement and extort foodstuffs from them on pain of death. As such, mankind came to dub them “locusts”. Locusts, as you may be aware, can swarm a whole field in their billions and eat up all the vegetation in it till only bare ground remains.
Then came crunch time, when mankind could not spare a crumb for the Anakim. The Anakim now resorted to feeding on humans themselves, a propensity humans replicated by desperate necessity when they too began to feed on each other. It is this cannibalistic bent that gave “giants” the reputation of man-eaters in legends and folk stories that survive to this day.
By this time, Noah, who was not aware Enki was his real father, was a grown man. He had inherited Enki’s most distinguishing trait – boundless compassion. As a priest, Noah lived a life of privilege but his heart bled for ordinary mankind. It reached a stage where he could no longer stand the misery that he was seeing all around him and so moved from Shuruppak, where he was based, to Eridu, Enki’s cult city.
There, he set up abode in a cottage behind Enki’s Temple, as royal Anunnaki homes were called. Every day, Noah “wept, bringing oblations in the morning and at night giving attention to dreams”, in the hope that through this medium Enki might convey instructions to him which would serve to allay the hardships mankind was facing. Noah relentlessly bid Enki to try and prevail over his step brother Enlil to exercise mercy on the suffering and dying masses.
Initially, Enki, who was yoked to Enlil’s no-reach-out-and-touch decree, remained dismissively silent. In fact, he began to absent himself from his home, sailing in the marshlands throughout the day as Noah’s tears gave him a lump in the throat. But Noah was not giving up: noting that Enki now had become a scarce commodity, he built a makeshift cabin right on the banks of the river so that the moment Enki came ashore, whether this be at dusk or midnight, he would run to him, throw himself at his feet, and petition him to get Enlil to relax his hand vis-a-vis the fate of mankind.
ENKI DEFIES ENLIL
Unable to stand the pestering of Noah anymore, Enki finally hearkened. He called Noah, along with some of his advisors, into his inner sanctums and dubbing his eyes with a handkerchief explained to him how of the pantheon he had gallantly opposed Enlil but in vain. Then after sitting in silence for a long while, he announced that that he was going to defy Enlil anyway.
He there and then radioed his trusted lieutenants across the globe and made known to them that as the official “God of the Sea” – Oanness in Greek – he was giving the green light for mankind to fish from the seas. All the aerial and maritime patrols that had been in place to ensure mankind did not come near the sea were to be suspended forthwith. In addition, mankind was to be provided with corn from strategic reserves which continued to sustain the Anunnaki.
The stampede was of apocalyptic proportions. It was like the opening up of the sluice gates. The swoop on the bodies of brine was such that some people died in the very frenzy. The pro-Enki Anunnaki joined in the fray too: using sophisticated, mechanised fishing equipment, they came up with huge hauls just to help mankind.
Obviously, such frantic mass activity could not escape Enlil for long. When he got wind of it, he was furious. He there and then summoned Enki to Nippur and before the whole ruling assembly tore into him for his treachery, for being in breach of the surveillance and containment plans. “Just what’s wrong with you Enki?” he snorted. “Why can’t you listen to me for a change? I know you are older than me but I’m senior in rank, mandated to discharge my due functions by King Anu. It’s time you came to terms with that inalienable truth Enki.”
Enki’s terse response was that if Enlil were in his shoes, he would be just as empathetic: it was he, Enki, who created mankind and it was therefore natural to feel for them. Enlil angrily retorted that what Enki had created were second-rate beings who were so dumb and unruly that he, Enlil, was made to spend sleepless nights just to ram sanity into them and bring them in line.
“You cannot pride yourself on fashioning such imbecilic beings,” Enlil charged. “You ought to be ashamed of yourself Enki. Look at how your Lulu’s have multiplied and filled every inch of the globe, all because the only think they could ever be good at is having sex. You created beings, Enki, whose brains reside not in their skulls but in their groins.”
Enlil once again restated his earlier decree: mankind, the Nephilim, and the Anakim were to be left to their own devices. Their fate was extermination arising from hunger and disease. If any one single “god” so much as extended a charitable hand to them, he would incur the full wrath of he Enlil.
NIBIRU THREAT HAS ANU ORDER ANUNNAKI EVACUATION
This time around, Enki steeled himself and stoically bore the suffering of his own creation for a much longer time. Whilst deep down he was aching and seething and Noah was relentless in badgering him to take the desperately needed remedial action, he remained aloof for fear of ruffling Enlil’s feathers. Everything has a limit though and in the seventh shar after the onset of the Ice Age, Enki once again buckled.
Mankind was “starving and disintegrating”. They were “like ghosts of the dead”. Enki just could not bear the sight of these wraith-like human figures. At the time, mankind was now worshipping the Anunnaki gods formally, in the manner we do today. Wherever they were, they would congregate once in a while and air intercessions and supplications to the Anunnaki, particularly Enlil, Enki, Ninmah and Marduk although the Enkites as a rule abhorred the rite of worship. Humans were doing this out of sheer desperation in the hope that their “gods” might hear them and do something to put an end to their woes.
Enki assembled all the Enkites and loyal elders at his mansion at Eridu and pronounced these instructions: "Make a loud noise in the land. Send out heralds to command all the people: ‘Do not revere your gods, do not pray to your goddesses. There is to be total disobedience!” In other words, Enki decided to force the abolition of religion so that mankind should not remain in a docile, long-suffering state but actualise the inert power in him and become more militant. What this amounted to was an instigation to rise up against Enlil and his fellow Enlilites, who had introduced religion in the time of Seth’s son Enosh.
Enlil of course knew who was behind the whole humdrum and wasted no time in summoning the ever intractable Enki before the Assembly of the Gods. For much of the meeting, Enki and Enlil exchanged caustic words, Enki in defence of his actions and Enlil spewing venom at him for his intransigence.
Meanwhile, Nibiru was in its way back to the Solar System ecliptic in its 3600-year orbital journey around the Sun and its preliminary effects were already being felt. Using seismological instruments, Ninurta had already detected “quakes and jitters” in the Earth’s crust. Perhaps the most chilling of developments was a report submitted to the Assembly of the Gods by Enki’s second-born son Nergal and his wife Ereshkigal, who were based at Cape Agulhas, the astronomical, climate and Earth-monitoring station in South Africa.
They had just returned from the Antarctica and had found that the Antarctic Ice Sheet was slipping and was already at its most precarious angle in relation to the sea. What that meant was that the gravitational tug of a nearing Nibiru was certain to dislodge it into the sea, causing an apocalyptic globalwide flood.
Shortly after receiving the Antarctic Report, Enlil filed his own to King Anu on Nibiru thus: “The next time Nibiru the Sun shall be nearing, Earth to Nibiru's net force (gravity) exposed shall be, Lahmu (Mars) in its circuits on the Sun's other side shall a station take. From the net force of Nibiru Earth in the heavens protection shall not have, Kishar (Jupiter) and its host agitated shall be, Lahamu (Venus) shall also shake and wobble.
In Earth's great Below (southern hemisphere), the snow-ice of the Whiteland (Antarctica) its footing is losing; the next time Nibiru the closest to Earth shall approach, the snow-ice off the Whiteland's surface shall come a-sliding. A watery calamity it shall cause: by a huge wave, a Deluge, the Earth will be overwhelmed”!
After studying the report and following consultations with his advisors, King Anu made the decision that both Earth and Mars were to be evacuated and all the Anunnaki were to return to Nibiru. The gold mines in Africa and the smelting and refining facilities at Badtibira were to be shut down. All the Earth-based Anunnaki were to abandon their postings and converge at Sippa, the space station.
King Anu was to dispatch a fleet of “celestial chariots” (shuttlecraft) to transport the Anunnaki to the Mothership and onward to Nibiru. Of course all this would not happen overnight: it would take several years for preparations to be made, which in Anunnaki time amounted to mere weeks.
GALZU’S STAY-THE-COURSE MESSAGE
During these hectic days, a most interesting virtuoso of a being touched down at the spaceport at Sippar unannounced. Spaceport commander Utu-Shamash promptly got in touch with Enlil so that he meets him as Earth’s Chief Executive. The gray-haired being, who looked Anunnaki in every respect and sounded like a sage, introduced himself as Galzu, meaning “Great Soul”. He said he was coming from Nibiru as King Anu’s “emissary plenipotentiary” and had a special message to deliver. He asked that Enki and Ninmah also be present to hear the message.
Galzu raised suspicions in the mind of Enlil as Enlil had not received advanced notice from King Anu as to Galzu’s mission. Naturally, Enlil demanded that he shows his bonafides. Galzu produced a sealed and encrypted digital message and handed it to Enlil. Having opened and examined the message tablet, the IT experts at Nippur found that it indeed was consistent with other such tablets they had received from King Anu before: it was authentic and its coding was aboveboard. There was no need to request a confirmation from King Anu. The message from King Anu in part said, “For King and Council Galzu speaks, his words are my command”.
Enlil then sent for Enki and Ninmah, who were prompt in their arrival. The first thing Galzu noted about Ninmah was how old she looked when she and him had, so he said, gone to school together on Nibiru at some stage. “Do you remember me Ninmah?” Galzu asked. “We’re of the same age and were classmates.” On her part, Ninmah could not remotely remember the man, who thanks to the slowed biological clocks on Nibiru looked young enough to be her son.
Galzu said he had been sent to Earth to deliver final instructions about the Anunnaki evacuation from Earth ahead of the now near-at-hand Deluge that was certain to arise from the Antarctic Ice Sheet’s precipitate slippage into the Antarctic Sea. It was not in the interests of the three to return to Nibiru as they simply would be returning to their death. Galzu said when Dumuzi came to Nibiru with Adapa and stayed there for one shar, his body chemistry was closely studied and it was found that if he stayed longer, he would die way much earlier than he could if he stayed on Earth. This was because having lived on Earth for all his life, his biological processes were now attuned to Earth’s circadian rhythms and were not amenable to Nibiru’s.
Galzu went on to say all the Anunnaki who had returned to Nibiru after their tour of duty had died after living for only a few shars. “Those who on Earth the longest stayed by the returning harshly were afflicted: their bodies to Nibiru's cycles were accustomed no longer, their sleep was disturbed, their eyesight was failing, the net force of Nibiru weighted their walk,” Galzu said. “Their minds were also affected, as sons were older than the parents they had left! Death, my comrades, to the returnees quickly came; of that I am here a warning to give!”
ENLIL OUTRAGED AT CONFINEMENT TO EARTH
In a nutshell, Galzu’s message was that Enki, Enlil and Ninmah were to spend their entire lives on Earth, where they stood a better chance of living longer than they would on Nibiru: they would return to Nibiru only when staring death in the face so that the last rites were read on the planet of their origin. As such, they should ride out the Deluge and begin life on a new slate once the waters had receded. But the rest of the Anunnaki could return to Nibiru if they so chose.
“Now this is the secret command from Nibiru,” Galzu proceeded. “The three of you on Earth will remain; only to die to Nibiru you will return! In celestial chariots, the Earth encircling, the calamity you shall outwait; to each of the other Anunnaki, a choice to leave or the calamity outwait must be given. The Igigi who Earthlings espoused must between departure and spouses choose: no Earthling, Marduk's Sarpanit included, to Nibiru to journey is allowed! For all who stay and what happens see, in celestial chariots they safety must seek! As for all the others, to depart for Nibiru forthwith they ready must be.”
Enlil was furious as the implications were profound. If he was now confined to Earth, it meant he would no longer inherit the Sirian-Orion throne and he would have to continue contending with Marduk for supremacy on Earth. He ranted to Galzu that he regretted having come to this planet, which Enki and the Lulu’s he created had turned into a cesspit. He didn’t know that as a master, he would become the slave to slaves (Earthlings) and that he would end up being imprisoned on this backward planet.
Galzu listened to him sympathetically. His response at long last was a philosophical one. Was the Anunnaki mission to Earth a matter of fate, which was avoidable, or destiny, which was unavoidable? “On Nibiru much thinking and soul-searching deep questions were being raised,” he said soothingly. “Should Nibiru to its fate have been left (when need arose to plug the Ozone hole with a canopy of gold particles)? Or was the coming to Earth by the Creator of All (God) conceived and we only unwitting emissaries? Of that, my comrades, the debate will continue!” Enlil cursed under his breath. But was Galzu indeed the genuine article he presented himself as or simply an impostor?
NEXT WEEK: ENKI’S BOAT OF SALVATION
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.
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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
Columns
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.