Enkites Go To War
Benson C Saili
THIS EARTH, MY BROTHER
Osiris slain by “Satan”, Horus exacts vengeance
Not long after the Deluge, the enigmatic Galzu appeared to Enlil, the Bible’s main Jehovah/Yahweh, in a kind of vision. Galzu delivered a message to Enlil that changed full cycle the status quo in relation to the rulership of Earth.
Up until now, that is, roughly 95,000 years, Enlil had been the only ruler of Earth. Not anymore, announced Galzu. From now henceforth, rulership of Earth was to alternate between the Enlilites and the Enkites. One clan would rule for “three celestial portions” (that is, three zodiacal ages) and the other would rule during the next three – and so forth and so on.
The first to rule would be the Enlilites. The announcement was made in the Age of Leo and therefore Leo did not factor in the permutations. As such, the Enlilites were to exercise hegemony in the first three ages after Leo, namely Cancer, Gemini, and Taurus and then hand over to the Enkites in the Age of Aries. This measure, Galzu said to Enlil, was taken with a view to foster harmonious relations between the two ever-feuding clans.
When Marduk heard the news, he was stirred. Since his father Enki had long promised him that he was going to make him the next ruler of Earth come rain or shine, it was a matter of course that come the Age of the Ram, as Aries was otherwise called, he would ascend to the supremacy of Earth.
He would be the new Enlil! (Enlil, meaning “Commander-In-Chief”, was the title of the Anunnaki ruler of Earth, not a name.) He therefore decided that he would start preparing for the Lordship of the world there and then; that’s how determined he was to rise to the commanding heights of the planet. Accordingly, he stepped down as ruler of Egypt and handed over power to his son Shu, after ruling for only 1000 years.
Shu was not Marduk’s heir: it was Nabu. But Marduk sidestepped Nabu for strategic reasons. He wanted to campaign with him all around the world since Nabu was the Anunnaki’s most eloquent and persuasive speaker. He was a demagogue, propagandist, and rabble-rouser rolled into one. He had such a gift of rallying people to his cause that he could turn the most loyal follower of an opponent into a Judas. It’s small wonder that the Jewish term for prophet is “Nebo”, an alternative rendering of Nabo.
The Age of the Ram was some 8640 years away at the very least (about two-and-half years in Anunnaki time) but Marduk and Nabu set about proclaiming it as the era of the Enkites right away so as to etch the prospect indelibly on the psyche of mankind.
SETH’S “SATANIC” RAGE AT OSIRIS
Shu, who was married to his half-sister Tefnut, ruled Egypt for 700 years. He was succeeded by his son Geb, who like his father was espoused to his half-sister Nut. Geb was on the throne for 500 years.
Now, Geb and Nut officially had five children – three boys and two girls, though one boy is not named. The firstborn was a boy known as Asaru, also spelt Ashur. The name Ashur has been interpreted to mean the All-Seeing Eye by Zechariah Sitchin. Well, we beg to differ. Ashur is actually the abbreviated form of Asa-Ur-Ur – the name of the star system we call Sirius.
It was a commemoration of the Anunnaki’s partial origins. The Anunnaki originally came not from Nibiru but from the Sirius and Orion star system. Ashur is best-known as Osiris, the Greek rendition of the same name.
Osiris was married to his half-sister Aset. Again like Osiris, Aset was named in honour of the Orion Queen, whose throne title amongst others was Ast. The Orion Queen, who later became the Sirian-Orion Queen after the two empires merged and therefore King Anu’s ceremonial wife, was the mother of Enki.
Aset too is best-known by the Greek version of her name – Isis. Apparently, the Greeks knew better: another of the numerous titles of the Orion Queen was SSS-SSS (meaning Queen of the SSS World, the Orion Empire), which the Greeks clearly abbreviated to Isis.
Osiris’ younger brother was known as Satu. This is Set in English and Seth in ancient Greek, but in its full Sumerian rendering, it was Satu-An, meaning Prince Satu. Satu-An is Satan in English. Thus the term Satan (like the term Devil) did not originally have the diabolical connotation it carries today: it was a very noble name which traced back to the Orion Empire, the paternal origins of the Enkites.
The beings of the Orion Empire were known as the SSA.TT.AN, which simply meant the “Serpent Race of Heaven”, Heaven being the Orion Empire. It were the Enlilites who twisted the name Satan to become the very byword for embodied evil for reasons we shall dwell upon at the opportune time. Satu was married to Nebat, Geb’s second daughter.
In truth though, the five kids were not all blood siblings. Not all the five were the biological children of Geb. Osiris was the result of an incestuous relationship between Marduk and his granddaughter/daughter-in-law Nut. Isis too (and the unnamed boy) arose when Ningishzidda, who was Enki’s best-looking son, was lured into bed by Nut. Thus only Seth and Nebat were Geb’s biological sons.
Given the above convoluted state of affairs, both Osiris and Seth had a legitimate claim to Geb’s throne. In the case of Osiris, he may not have been Geb’s biological son but the fact that his father Marduk was senior to Geb meant he had a higher princely status than Seth. In the case of Seth, he was the true firstborn of Geb, not Osiris, who was a bastard child. So Seth too had a case for ascendancy to Geb’s throne.
But as far as Geb was concerned, Osiris was his firstborn, period, and so upon stepping down, he bequeathed the throne to Osiris. Seth, however, just could not take the matter lying down. In the next 100 years, he lobbied relentless at least for a share of the throne, insisting that it was he who was Geb’s legitimate heir.
The matter was referred to the elder statesman Enki, who at the time was living at Abu Island near Aswan. Enki wanted peace amongst his clan. Therefore, to avert a possible civil war, he ruled that Egypt should be divided into two parts and allocated to both Seth and Osiris.
Accordingly, Osiris was given Lower Egypt (the north, ironically) and Seth Upper Egypt (the south). One would have thought Enki’s gesture was just but not Seth. Seth was wroth. First, he was disgruntled that Osiris got northern Egypt, which was more prestigious in that it contained the famous and aviationally strategic Giza pyramids.
Second, by wedding his half-sister Isis, Osiris had ensured that the heir to the Egyptian throne, in the event that it was reunited, would come from his loins. This was because according to Anunnaki rules, one had to be the son of half-siblings to succeed to the throne, which meant Seth’s heir would not be entitled to the throne as he was married to a full-sister.
Seth thought Osiris had done him a great injustice left, right, and centre. He had deprived him not only of the throne but also of the succession. Seth’s indignation was such that it sparked what came to be known as the First Pyramid War.
OSIRIS IS NO MORE
From the day he became King of southern Egypt, Seth was determined to eliminate his brother and rule the whole of Egypt, directly or through a successor, and not only part of it. The day of reckoning finally arrived during the visit to southern Egypt of the Ethiopian Queen Aso. At a banquet held in her honour in Seth’s palace, all the Anunnaki royals and VIPs were in attendance to grace the occasion.
As the wining and dining proceeded apace, a “poisoned chalice” disguised as a wine goblet was served Osiris by one of Seth’s henchmen and Osiris was so stoned he drifted into a deep slumber. Seth then had his henchmen carry Osiris to a guest room ostensibly to put him to bed.
That, however, was a ruse. Osiris was immediately placed in a casket-like chest, which was then hermetically sealed. The chest was then loaded into a chopper, taken to the Red Sea, and dropped deep into the brine. Osiris, who had ruled Egypt for a total of 450 years, was no more. It was the first time an Anunnaki had murdered a fellow Anunnaki on Earth.
The moment Osiris’s disappearance was conveyed to his half-sister wife Isis by informers, she sought the help of Marduk and a concerted search was launched for the body of Osiris with the help of satellite scanning. Satellite pictures showed that the casket had been carried by the waves of the sea and had been deposited on the coast of Babylos in modern-day Lebanon. It was quickly located and Isis had it hid in a secret place. Meanwhile, she called upon Ningishzidda to rush over and try to restore Osiris to life using his medical wizardry.
But before Ningishzidda could pitch, Seth somehow found the hiding place and spirited away the casket. Then removing Osiris’s lifeless body, he cut it into 14 pieces and scattered them over a wide stretch of forest using a chopper. But Isis simply was no quitter: once again, with the help of satellite pictures, she had the body parts retrieved with the exception of the genitalia, which Seth had ground to powder for fear that Ningishzidda might use his medical magic and raise Osiris’s heir from the extracted sperm cells.
EXIT OSIRIS, ENTER HORUS
When Seth was arrested and brought to trial, Isis demanded two things essentially. First, Seth must be sentenced to death for murdering her husband. Second, Marduk should produce Osiris’s heir with her. Sadly, neither of her pleas was satiated. Seth was pardoned at the insistence of the Enkites themselves. Enki was of the view that two wrongs would not make a right, that the Enkites could not lose two of their pillars as that would serve to advantage the rival Enlilites.
As such, Isis was bidden to make peace with Seth and produce a heir by him. Isis vowed she would never share a bed with the succubus that was Seth. Seth tried all sorts of ways to prevail over Isis to marry him, including forcefully taking her to a secluded place to vainly ram sense into her, whereupon Ningishzidda came to her rescue.
It was Ningishzidda she appealed to to help her find a means of conceiving using the DNA from Osiris’s tissues. Like the genius he was, Ningishzidda did measure up to the plea: he managed to produce sperm cells from Osiris non-sexual DNA using a revolutionary process known as artificial meiosis. Isis then inseminated herself with these sperm cells at ovulation time and that was how the famous Horus was born.
After the death of Osiris, Seth approached Marduk and demanded that he be declared the sole ruler of a united Egypt as he was now the only eligible heir. Isis countered the move, insisting that she was already pregnant with Osiris’s baby. Seth scoffed at the assertion, dismissing it as pure hallucination. Until Isis physically presented a legitimate heir to Osiris, Seth had every right to ascend to the throne. Isis was wary of unveiling an infant Horus and so Seth was installed as the sole ruler of Egypt. Altogether, he ruled Egypt for 350 years.
Meanwhile, Isis hid baby Horus in the papyrus swamps as Seth was always on the lookout for the little threat to his throne. Once, Horus was bitten by a scorpion and escaped death only thanks to Nngishzidda’s medical intervention. At some stage, Horus was adopted by Gibil, one of Enki’s children.
Throughout his clandestine upbringing, Horus was told his main preoccupation in life was to unseat Seth from the Egyptian throne. He was raised up as Netch-Atef, meaning “Avenger of his Father" Osiris. Gibil meticulously coached him in the art of war, both aerial and infantry, as well martial arts to ready him for a future duel with Seth. All the while, Seth was not aware Horus even existed.
“SATAN” IS VANQUISHED
When Horus was sufficiently grown, he decided it was time he claimed his late father’s throne. He made a dramatic appearance before the “Council of the Gods” and demanded that Seth steps down forthwith to allow for his coronation as the new and rightful King of Egypt.
The Enkite pantheon were taken aback, more so Seth. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Horus wasn’t just making a casual claim: he came armed with the requisite genetic evidence that had been certified by DNA expert Ningishzidda. What followed is summed up by Zechariah Sitchin in his book The War of the Gods in the following words:
“Seth suggested that the gods' deliberations be recessed so as to give him a chance to discuss the problem peacefully with his newly appeared nephew. He invited Horus to ‘come, let us pass a happy day in my house,’ and Horus agreed. But what Seth had in mind was not peacemaking: his mind was set on trickery. And when it was eventide, the bed was spread for them, and the twain lay thereon. And in the night Seth caused his member to become stiff, and he made it go between the loins of Horus.
“When the gods next met in council, Seth demanded that the Office of Ruler be resolved as his, for Horus was disqualified: whether or not he was of the seed of Osiris, the seed of Seth was now in him, entitling him to succeed, not precede, Seth!
“Now it was the turn of Horus to surprise the gods. When Seth poured out his semen, ‘I caught the seed between my hands,’ Horus said. In the morning he showed it to his mother, telling her what had happened. Isis then made Horus erect his member and pour his semen into a cup. Then she went to the garden of Seth and poured the semen of Horus on the lettuce that Seth then unknowingly ate.
“So, announced Horus, ‘Not only is Seth's seed not in me, but my seed is in him! It is Seth who has been disqualified!’ Baffled, the gods called upon Thoth (Ningishzidda) to resolve the issue. He checked the semen that Horus had given his mother, which Isis kept in a pot. It was found to be indeed the semen of Seth. He then scanned the body of Seth and confirmed that it contained the semen of Horus.”
Seth, however, was not in the least inclined to cede power. He straightaway declared war on Horus.
The war was long and protracted. It was the first war in which the Anunnaki involved humans. Fighting under the banner of the wildly popular Horus were the Mesniu, the first humans to use firepower weaponry, and rallying to Seth was an ethnic army commanded by Canaan, Ham’s son and Noah’s grandchild. The war was fought in two phases.
Initially, armies squared up against each other. Then at some stage, there was a decisive one-on-one face-off between Horus and Seth with a view to stem profligate losses of the cannon folder that were human lives.
In the mano-o-mano confrontation, Horus was the first to be hit. He was struck by a chemical weapon which brought him to the brink of death. Again it was Ningishzidda his mother called upon to use his extraordinary medical knowledge and expeditiously restore her son to health. Once Horus was fully recovered, Ningishzidda provided him with a fighter craft called the Nar, which, sadly, was quickly destroyed by a game and spirited Seth.
Horus then resorted to a sophisticated, stealth bomber-like flying saucer which was used by Marduk and from there fired off a Multiple Warhead Missile called a Harpoon at Seth (it is telling that when in 1977 McDonnell Douglas developed a naval-guided anti-ship missile, they called it the Harpoon Missile. The Military Industrial Complex are well-informed.) In the event, Seth was felled. Not only did he lose his testicles but he was blinded and captured.
Horus wanted to finish him off and braced to slice off his head but Isis had pity on her half- brother and facilitated his flight from captivity. Upon learning this, Horus was so mad he decapitated his own mother. But thanks to Ningishzidda’s surgical prowess, the severed head was put back in place and Isis cheated death.
The two adversaries were at long last brought before the Council of the Gods, the Egyptian chapter of the Anunnaki pantheon which was headed by Enki. The matter to be decided was this: should Horus the victor rule Egypt alone or it should again be split into two countries in which both Horus and a blinded and genitally dismembered Seth would have sovereignty?
NEXT WEEK: THE SIN OF HAM THAT NEVER WAS!
Columns
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!
Columns
“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
Columns
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.