Blow to Gilgamesh
Columns
Benson C Saili
THIS EARTH, MY BROTHER
… as Enkidu expires thanks to Jehovah’s spite
Determined to teach Gilgamesh a lesson he’d never forget – that is, if at all he survived – for spurning her not only once but multiple times now, Inanna called upon a “sky monster” and set it loose on him. The official name of the monster was the Gudanna, meaning “Bull of Heaven”.
Just like Huwawa, the Gudanna was not an organic monster: it was a mechanical monster parked somewhere in the Cedar Forest. It was Enlil-Jehovah’s personal plane meant for use only in wars. If you recall, the bull was the symbol of the astrological age of Taurus (4380 to 2220 BC), which was dedicated to Enlil. Enlil himself was also referred to as the Bull of Heaven. The Gudanna was therefore synonymous with Enlil.
Inanna used bluster to commandeer the Gudanna to the satiation of her own personal ends: she did not seek the permission of Enlil at all. Some accounts intimate that she bypassed Enlil and sought permission straight from King Anu on Nibiru but that is highly improbable. With a host of important matters to attend to, there was no way Anu would deign to embroil himself in personal vendettas and matters of ego. In any case, even if Inanna cabled him in relation to the use of the Gudanna, Anu’s plausible cause of action would have been to refer her to Enlil, who not only was the proprietor of the plane but Earth’s Chief Executive.
With the Gudanna bearing down on his party, Gilgamesh’s priorities changed on the spur of the moment – from a quest for eternal life to fleeing for his life as a psycho Inanna meant business. Now, as godfather of Gilgamesh, Utu-Shamash could not just stand by and watch Inanna blow him to smithereens. Inanna had effectively declared war on a hapless Gilgamesh and therefore he needed his help. As Inanna was in the process of operationalising the Gudanna, Shamash acted swiftly.
He provided Gilgamesh with a levitating vehicle that could enable him make it back to Uruk in only three days when ordinarily he would have taken about a month and fifteen days. Shamash also provided Gilgamesh with sophisticated weaponry with which to counter missiles spewing forth from the Gudanna.
Gilgamesh and Enkidu had a headstart on the Gudanna but as they neared the ramparts of Uruk around the banks of the Euphrates River, the Gudanna, which was captained by Inanna and manoeuvered by two of her ace pilots, caught up with them. As the Gudanna swept low, Inanna pressed a button and a missile sailed forth. Over 200 of Gilgamesh’s men perished instantly. Gilgamesh dashed off into Uruk to mobilise fighters, leaving the quick-witted Enkidu and a few of the surviving men to tackle the Gudanna.
As the mobilised warriors flooded to what was now a battlefield, Inanna laid into them, felling them in their droves. The crazed and trigger-happy goddess was firing non-stop, causing widespread trepidation throughout Uruk. At some stage, she relented a bit and taking advantage of this lull, Enkidu deployed the anti-missile weapon Shamash had provided them and aimed at the Gudanna as it showily did acrobatics in the air.
The Gudanna’s sophisticated sensors alerted Inanna as to the incoming danger in a split second and being trained fighters she and her pilots ejected from the Gudanna. Only seconds after they had done so, and with their parachutes yet to unfurl, the Gudanna began to descend erratically in a spiral. Enkidu’s missile had not struck it clean; only brushed it but the damage was potent enough to bring it down.
A huge cheer went up from Gilgamesh’s warriors on the ground as they thronged Enkidu and hoisted him shoulder-high. Soon the whole of Uruk had basically emptied to come and see with their own eyes the fallen monster, which Gilgamesh’s warriors set about wrecking and vandalising as they chanted songs of triumph. “After the Bull of Heaven was defeated,” says The Epic of Gilgamesh, “Gilgamesh called out to the craftsmen, the armourers, all of them, to view the mechanical monster and take it apart. Then, triumphant, he and Enkidu went to pay homage to Shamash.”
ENKIDU, GILGAMESH INDICTED
The whole of Uruk partied throughout the night to celebrate the downing of the “sky creature” which had laid waste to hundreds of its sons. Enkidu for one became the toast of the town for almost single handedly terminating the Gudanna. But what Gilgamesh and Enkidu didn’t know was that through their heroic acts of resistance, they had sown the wind and would reap the whirlwind.
Aware that she had landed herself in hot soup for causing the destruction of Enlil’s fighter craft, Inanna raised a self-serving hue and cry, demanding that Gilgamesh and Enkidu be arrested and indicted for destroying a special machine belonging to the most important figure on Earth. She held a mock funeral at her Eanna abode in honour of the Gudanna and decreed several days of national mourning in Uruk, which almost nobody observed.
It didn’t take long for Enlil to learn about the destruction both of his plane and Huwawa. To say he was wroth is an understatement: he was apoplectic with rage and overcome with melancholy. “When Enlil this heard, with agony he cried, in the heavens of Anu was his wailing heard,” says The Epic of Gilgamesh. “For in his heart Enlil well knew: bad indeed was the omen!” Which it indeed was as we shall demonstrate in due course: it was an allegory of the end of Enlilite rule!
Enlil moved quickly to issue a warrant of arrest for Gilgamesh and Enkidu. Although Inanna too was at fault for unauthorised access to the Gudanna, she was not indicted given the special place she occupied in King Anu’s heart. Gilgamesh and Enkidu were charged for the “murder” of Huwawa and Gudanna, which was absurd indeed as these were mechanical creatures and not organic beings.
It just goes to show how the Anunnaki, or the Enlilites in particular, belittled the life of an Earthling. To them we were beneath artificial things they prized highly. Being an Enkite, Enkidu for one was so tortured by Enlil’s callous sheriffs that he was rendered comatose from the savage beatings. Seeing his bed-ridden friend, Gilgamesh was inconsolable. “Enkidu was afflicted with a coma. Distraught and worried, Gilgamesh paced back and forth before the couch on which Enkidu lay motionless. Bitter tears flowed down his cheeks.”
ENKIDU SENTENCED FOR “MURDER”
It was not until Enkidu was fully recovered that the trial commenced before the Enlilite Council of the Gods. The majority verdict initially was a death sentence for both Gilgamesh and Enkidu. The two contested the sentence and on appeal, Shamash recused himself from the ranks of the bench to act as counsel for the appellants.
In his deposition, Shamash argued that both he and Inanna were complicit in what had transpired and so they were equally culpable. He went on to say that Gilgamesh and Enkidu were attacked “by the monsters” and so had the right to defend themselves. “They had to kill before they were killed,” Shamash put it before the bench. “None of the two deserves to die.”
Although Shamash’s arguments were well-reasoned, all he managed to do was to secure the acquittal of Gilgamesh. Enkidu’s death sentence was upheld, with the bench holding to the view that in the demise of both Huwawa and the Gudanna, it was by his direct hand alone that they perished. Shamash denounced the decision as nonsensical. “Why should Enkidu die alone?” he wondered aloud. “The killings of Huwawa and the Gudanna were done with his (Gilgamesh’s) concurrence.”
Sadly, the bench was not persuaded. Enkidu was headed for the gallows. The only option was for him to file for clemency before the high offices of Enlil, which he did at the advice of Shamash although if it were up to him alone, he would rather he died as a martyr. But Shamash held him in very high esteem being his future son-in-law.
Enlil relented thanks to the concerted pleadings of Enki, Ninmah and Ninsun and commuted Enkidu’s death sentence to lifelong toil in the “Land of the Mines,” that is, Tilmun in the Sinai Peninsula, “a place where copper and turquoise were obtained by backbreaking toil in dark tunnels”. But deep down, Enlil still begrudged Enkidu. One way or the other, he vowed to himself, he’d get even with Enkidu. Enlil simply was not the forgiving type.
Enkidu was accordingly summoned to Enlil’s courts and informed of his fate. Then Enlil rendered him the following instructions: “Two emissaries clothed like birds, with wings for garments, shall appear unto you. One of them, a young man whose face is dark, who like a Bird-Man is his face, shall transport you to the Land of the Mines. He will be dressed like an Eagle. By the arm he will lead thee. Follow me, he will say.
He will lead you to the House of Darkness, the abode below the ground, the abode which none leave who have entered into it. A road from which there is no return, a House whose dwellers are bereft of light, where dust is in their mouths and clay is their food.”
Underground mining in those days was the equivalent of Hell. One lived there for life, never to resurface. They died right underground and were buried right there. Once again, Gilgamesh shed copious tears for his most cherished friend. But Enkidu himself was stoic: if that was how fate willed it, he said to Gilgamesh, then so be it.
GILGAMESH’S SECOND SHOT AT ATTAINING IMMORTALITY
Shortly after Enkidu’s sentence was passed, Gilgamesh once again began to muse about his mortality and the possibility of eschewing it. Then an idea dawned in his mind. The Land of Mines, where Enkidu was now destined, was cheek by jaw with the Land of the Living in the Sinai Peninsula and of which Shamash was in charge. The latter was the spaceport, the place where those who had dutifully served the gods – the Anunnaki – lived in eternal bliss.
These folk, who included Noah, the hero of the Deluge, had ridden a shem to Nibiru, so it was believed, and had returned to Earth invested with immortality. The spaceport teemed with rockets: maybe it was time Gilgamesh had his second stab at riding in a shem by going to Tilmun! He’d ask Shamash to arrange for him to travel with Enkidu as he was headed to the same place basically.
Hence it was that Gilgamesh yet again prostrated himself before Shamash for permission to undertake the venture and for his blessings as his godfather. “O, Shamash, the Land I wish to enter: be thou my ally!” Gilgamesh entreated Shamash in the company of his mother Ninsun. “The Land which with the cool date palms aligned, I wish to enter; be thou my ally! In the places where the shems have been raised, let me set up my shem!”
Shamash at first equivocated as he didn’t want a replay of the Cedar Mountain scenario: Enlil had made it clear to him that if such an abomination were to happen again, Shamash would be stripped of his post as the overseer of the Anunnaki’s space-related facilities. But after meticulously prescribing a code of conduct along the way for Gilgamesh, he finally gave him the green light but not before he warned him of the hazards and difficulties of the land route.
Gilgamesh proposed that he travel by sea for most of the journey, and drop off Enkidu on the way. He would sail down the Persian Gulf, around the Arabian Peninsula, and up the Red Sea till he reached Tilmun City (today called El-Tor), the most important port on the Sinai coast. It was there he would part with Enkidu, who would proceed to the Land of Mines not very far off to slave for the rest of his life, whilst Gilgamesh himself would proceed to Paradise.
MAGAN VESSEL SHIPWRECKS
A month later, Gilgamesh and Enkidu, accompanied by 50 men comprising sailors, body minders, and medical attendants, set sail in a chartered Magan Boat, a “Ship of Egypt”. This was a decoy boat – to give the impression that they were headed for Egypt when their destination was actually the Sinai Peninsula.
For part of the way, Shamash escorted them. Then wishing them a safe journey, he sailed back in the opposite direction, his heart heavy with the harrowing thought of seeing Enkidu for the last time. It galled him that such a man of valour and such a fine physical specimen would no longer be his son-in-law. As he sailed along, he cursed his grandfather Enlil, who more often than not came across as a devil than a virtuous, above-board being.
Gilgamesh and Enkidu meanwhile continued with their journey. They were not too far gone from Sumer and were sailing through the narrow strait leading out of the Persian Gulf, today known as the Strait of Ormuz, when dusk fell. “The mountains along the distant coast became dark, shadows spread over them.” Shortly thereafter, they noticed a watchtower far afield on the right-hand shore of a strip of land which is today part of a country called Oman.
What they saw atop the watchtower gave them the creeps. “Standing alongside the mountain was someone who like Huwawa could emit rays from which none can escape. Like a bull he stood on the great Earth house.” The creature beckoned them to come to a halt. Clearly, it wanted to accost them.
Gilgamesh was all too aware that such a creature had to be fought and tamed before it erased them from the face of the Earth with its death-ray emitting device. The memory of Cedar Mountain was still fresh in his mind: if Enkidu hadn’t killed Huwawa, he and him would not be alive today. So Gilgamesh there and then gave orders that the ship anchor ashore so that they confront the mechanical watchman.
Enkidu on the other had seemed to have a presentiment of what could transpire. He countered that they keep clear of the shore, postpone the journey, make u-turn, and head back to Uruk. Gilgamesh refused to budge. “Whether the watchman be a god, a mortal, or otherwise, I’ll fight him,” Gilgamesh vowed as he instructed his men to have their arms at the ready.
Then all hell broke loose. “A sudden wind, as though driven by the watchman's beam, tore the ship's sail and overturned the boat. Next, the ship itself was thrust on its side and capsized. It sank fast, like a stone in water. All in it sank down.” Unbeknownst to them, it was all the work of Enlil. Remember what he had said about sorting Enkidu out when the prerogative of mercy over Enkidu was wrung from his lips by Enki, Ninmah and Ninsun? Enkidu was the Jonah of the Magan ship. It was he Enlil had plotted to be rid off for destroying his beloved Gudanna: everybody else was collateral damage. No one held a grudge like Jehovah.
ENKIDU IS NO MORE
Only two survived the shipwreck and these were none other than Gilgamesh and Enkidu. Gilgamesh for one was essentially unscathed. But Enkidu sustained internal injuries which compromised his ability to swim. Seeing his body drifting limply, Gilgamesh swam over and dragged him along towards the shore, well away from the location of the watchtower, praying for a miracle. Gilgamesh then laid him down and began to administer mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and Enkidu came to at long last and sat up.
Outwardly, Enkidu didn’t look in a particularly bad shape and spoke coherently. Since the winds were blowing in the direction of the shore, the flotsam soon began to wash ashore, including the wreckage itself. Gilgamesh and Enkidu rose to their feet and ambled toward the wreckage so they could take a closer look at it. “They could see the ship with its crew still at their posts, looking amazingly alive in their deaths. In the sudden death (from the death rays fired off by the mechanical watchman and not from drowning), they just froze in whatever position they were.”
The two survivors spent the whole night arguing as to what should be their next of action. Enkidu, who not hundred percent, wanted them to hitch a ride back to Uruk on the first passing boat but Gilgamesh was determined that come what may, he had to get to the Sinai Peninsula by any means necessary. The idea of making a retreat was simply inconceivable. Then in the early hours of the morning, Enkidu took a turn for the worse.
“His limbs became numb, his insides were disintegrating.” Gilgamesh was thrown into panic. He there and then changed his mind and now inclined to return to Uruk for the sake of his best friend. “My friend," he cried, "Please stay alive. To our land I will bring thee.”
Sadly, Enkidu’s number was up. He opened his eyes for the last time and unable to utter a single word as his vocal chords were numbed stared fixedly at Gilgamesh as if to bid him farewell. Then breathing his last, he gave up the ghost. Gilgamesh could not believe his bosom friend, who was closer and more dedicated to him than any of his brothers, was gone. He dug a grave right on the shore and buried Enkidu. For six days and seven nights, he sat by the grave, mourning the man he esteemed as the hero of Uruk.
NEXT WEEK: ALUTA CONTINUA FOR GILGAMESH
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
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.