Gilgamesh in Jericho
Columns
Benson C Saili
THIS EARTH, MY BROTHER
Drifting King of Uruk within sniffing distance of Abode of Noah?
The death of Enkidu weighed heavily on Gilgamesh’s mind. He just could not get over it no matter how hard he tried. His sorrowing was two-pronged. First, he had lost a great friend, in fact the greatest of them all.
Second, he was again confronted with the reality of the enemy he hated and dreaded the most – death. The same dilemma of yesteryears laid siege to him again: why should he die like Enkidu when he was three-quarters Anunnaki, more than a demigod? No, he said to himself, death was something that he had to avoid at all costs ad with every fibre of his being. And if he was indeed to ward it off, he should not trace his way back to Uruk but soldier on to Tilmun, the Anunnaki spaceport in the Sinai Peninsula. There, he’d either plead his way into a space-bound rocket or seek Noah, the hero of the Deluge, to boost him with the Elixir of Youth. Then death would be banished forever!
Now, without a ship, how was he going to get to Tilmun? He could hike a passing ship, which would be all too easy for him being a renowned king, but suppose there was another sabotage shipwreck or chance shipwreck and this time around he died? He just could not afford to take chances when he was on his way to possibly attain immortality. The safer route to take, he reckoned, was the overland one, bang on foot. It would be arduous and likely perilous given the vagaries of weather and the beasts of prey that roamed the vast expanse of the mid-eastern wilds. To get to Tilmun, he would have to traverse a distance of about 550 leagues, roughly 3000 km.
We’re talking months here, not mere days or weeks. But the task at hand far from daunted him. He had made lengthy overland ventures on foot in the past along with his father Lugalbanda as well as Enkidu himself and therefore was a seasoned adventurer. The only difference was that whereas in the past he had been with plenty of company, this time around he’d be all by himself.
Salvaging what he could from the wrecked ship, in terms of both food and weaponry, the familiar bow and arrow and an axe, he set off alone, desolate with sorrow, on arguably the most daring journey of his life. “To Utnapishtim (Noah) the son of Ubar-Tutu (Lamech), he took the road,” says The Epic of Gilgamesh.
THE TRAVAILS OF THE TRAVELLER
The journey was gruelling and bereft of certainty: every direction was a gamble. It was literally a leap in the dark. “He trod unbeaten paths, encountering no man, hunting for food,” the ancient scribes document for us. "What mountains he climbed, what streams he crossed, no man can know.”
As he trudged along, Gilgamesh kept up a mental dialogue with himself and a constant invocation of his gods. During the day, he prayed to Shamash, the Sun God, and during the night, he prayed to Nannar-Sin, the Moon God. And all the while, Enkidu continue to sit astride his mind still. “For his friend, Enkidu, Gilgamesh wept bitterly as he ranged over the wilderness.” At the same time, he implored the gods to keep death well at bay, to preserve his life as he journeyed along, as he was determined to reach the Land of the Living.
“With woe in his belly, fearing death, he roamed the wilderness … Must I lay my head inside the earth and sleep through all the years? he wondered to his gods. When I die, shall I not as Enkidu be? Let mine eyes behold the sun, let me have my fill of light, he begged of the gods.”
Although he ate frugally, the food he had carried in his haversack could not sustain him forever. When it ran out, he had only two possible means of sustenance – wild animals and wild fruits. That again depended on how hospitable a habitat was to flora and fauna. So far, he had been matching down generally barren land, with lizards and scorpions as the only creatures he encountered, both of which were not in the least appetising.
During the day, the desert sun blazed down on him, severely taxing his energies, and during the night the extreme cold of the desert stung him to virtual immobility. But if his great friend Enkidu had passed on, boldness now was his friend. He swore to himself he would persevere for as long as he had the merest ounce of energy in him. Occasionally, he’d encounter an oasis and would drink gargantuan quantities of water. Once in a very long while, he’d come across desertic plants and would greedily feed on the sap of their roots.
GILGAMESH TANGLES WITH TWO LIONS – AND TRIUMPHS!
Amid his travails nonetheless, Gilgamesh was gaining ground and instinct – or was it his gods – was leading him in the right direction. He had unwittingly been heading due northwest. “As day followed day, the terrain began to change: the flat desert wilderness, home of lizards and scorpions, was ending and he could see mountains in the distance. The wildlife was also changing.” This development gave him a tremendous fillip, only for his spirits to sag yet again.
Having set foot in what he hoped was Nannar-Sin’s territory, that is Canaan, and arriving at a mountain pass at dusk, he from a distance spotted a pride of desert lions lying as if in ambush. He felt an almost numbing chill crawl up his spine. He couldn’t run, for even if he still had the energy to do so, they would catch up with him anyway. And the idea of making a U-turn was simply out of question. He’d rather he was mauled by the lions than make a retreat.
The first thing he did was to pray to the god of the region, Sin. “To the place where the gods rejuvenate my steps are directed … Preserve thou me!” The prayers steadied his nerves and eventually he fell asleep as he sat leaning against a rock. It was a sound sleep in that he dreamt. And the dream was all joy and happiness and not gloom and doom.
When he woke up in the middle of the night, he was buoyed up as he interpreted the dream to mean he would prevail against all odds. Thus inspirited, he advanced to confront the still lingering giant cats, armed only with a bow and arrows and a tucked in axe. He had to be pin-point accurate in his aim: the lions were quite a number and he only had a limited number of arrows.
He had his well-honed hunting skills to thank. “Gilgamesh like an arrow descended among the lions, striking the beasts with all his strength.” Unfortunately, he ran out of arrows when there were two more lions to take care of. To tackle these ones, he had to employ another weapon. Enkidu had taught him how to fight the fiercest beasts but since he wasn’t at full strength, engaging two full-grown lions in combat at one go would be foolhardy.
Bravely inching closer, he drew his axe from his belt and squared up to fight them. He was indomitable. He pole-axed the more menacing one first. When the other saw what he had done to its companion, it charged at him, but he dodged in the nick of time. Minutes later, man had triumphed: the King of Beasts was slain by the King of Uruk. “He smote them, he hacked away at them,” The Epic of Gilgamesh says.
The Gilgamesh feat was commemorated throughout the ancient world by artists who included the Hittites, the Cassites, the Egyptians, and the Mayans of the northern Andes in South America. A Sumerian cylinder seal, from circa 1700 BC, which illustrated scenes from the epic tale, shows a half-naked and unkempt Gilgamesh battling the two lions. The Old Testament’s Samson story – of him killing a lion (JUDGES 14:4-6) – was modelled on the Gilgamesh story.
Having vanquished the lions, Gilgamesh first threw a party, exhilarated that his destruction of the two beasts, practically with his bare hands, was a very good omen indeed. “He ate their flesh as raw meat, with their skins he clothed himself … It was an omen that he will overcome all obstacles, he believed.”
GILGAMESH IN CANAAN AT LONG LAST!
Early the following morning, Gilgamesh proceeded to cross the mountain pass, trekking in a much more purposeful manner now having traversed a distance of over 375 leagues, or 2100 km. A huge sense of relief suffused him when at the foot of the mountain he spotted two major landmarks.
The first was a shimmering body of water, a “low-lying sea that looked like a vast lake” which he would later learn was “driven by long winds.” Gilgamesh knew about what his people called the “Salt Sea” or the “Sea of the Waters of Death”. In the Bible, it is called Yam Hamelalb, meaning “The Sea of Salt”. Today, we call it the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is the only one of its kind in the world. At 430 metres below sea level, it is the lowest body of water on the planet. The sea is the world’s most saline (salty) and it is so saturated with dissolved minerals that it cannot sustain plant or marine life, the reason it is called a dead sea.
The second principal landmark Gilgamesh made out about 15 km into the plain adjoining the inland sea was a “closed up about” city “whose temple was dedicated to Sin”. This was a city fortified with a wall. In the Bible, the city is called Yeriho, meaning “Moon City”. This is Jericho in English. Jericho was named in honour of Nannar-Sin, the Anunnaki’s Moon God who was the overall god of Canaan. Jericho was Gilgamesh’s first encounter with civilisation after months of endless wandering. One of the oldest cities in the world, Jericho was in existence as early as 7000 BC and had been a flourishing urban centre since 3500 BC. The saga of Gilgamesh happened circa 2900 BC.
Skirting the Dead Sea, Gilgamesh headed in the direction of Jericho, at whose outskirts he saw what looked like an inn. As he drew nearer, he saw a woman who was holding “a jug of ale, a bowl of golden porridge.” Gilgamesh’s unkempt appearance threw a shudder into her. "He is clad in skins … His belly is shrunk … His face is wind-bitten and battered. His face is like a wayfarer from afar.” Being all alone and concerned that he might be dangerous, she retreated into the inn and bolted herself in.
For some time, Gilgamesh paced up and down the premises before he began knocking on the door intently. When she asked him who he was, he told her he was not a savage but was actually a monarch called Gilgamesh, the famous King of Uruk, and that there was no way he could harm her. In fact, he needed her help. Since he sounded gentlemanly, she unbolted the door and invited him in but not without a residual sense of trepidation.
SIDURI CONFIRMS NOAH’S EXISTENCE
When the two sat across from each other, the lady introduced herself as “Siduri, the Ale Woman”. She was the owner of the tarvern she was running and brewed her own beer and Gilgamesh was quick to note that indeed there were fermentation vats all around them. Siduri then asked him why he looked more like a tramp or criminal than a king. Gilgamesh patiently recounted to her all that he had been through, including encounters with Huwawa at the Cedar Mountains, the Gudanna at Uruk, the shipwreck in the Strait of Ormuz, the death of Enkidu, and the confrontation with the desert lions at a mountain pass.
“I’m still grieving for Enkidu,” he said. “It was he who made me a better man many times over and taught me a whole host of skills, including wrestling with beasts. If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t have had a prayer against those lions.” Since Gilgamesh wasn’t smelling that great, Siduri prepared him water to bath and whilst he was away she prepared food. About an hour later, Gilgamesh emerged from the bathroom.
Siduri was amazed at his wholesale transformation: he looked one hell of a hunk and almost as light-skinned as the gods – the Anunnaki. She was now coming round to the conviction that he really did mean what he said: he was a king. It were months of hardship, the caked dirt, and the dishevelled hair that made him look so revolting and so disreputable. “I’m impressed,” she said as they ate together, looking at him admiringly now. “You look like a god.”
Gilgamesh smiled. “I’m actually more than two-thirds god,” he said. “My father Lugalbanda was the son of the goddess Inanna-Ishtar. My mum Ninsun is a full goddess: she’s a daughter of the great god Enki and the great goddess Ninmah.” “You surely have a great pedigree,” she said. “So what brings you here?”
“I come in search of my ancestor Utnapistim (Noah), the hero of the Deluge,” he said. “I’m given to understand that he’s still alive and he lives in the Land of the Living near Tilmun. I’m hopeful that if I meet him, he’ll provide me with the Elixir of Life and I too will live forever like him, like the gods. My friend Enkidu was overtaken by the fate that awaits all mankind: he’s turned to clay. I want to avoid ending up like him.””
“Utnapishtim is very much alive yes,” she admitted. “I have it on good authority that he dwells in the Land of the Living and has aged only marginally compared to the way he looked during the Deluge. So you seek immortality Gilgamesh? You too want to be like Utnapishtim?”
“Correct. I don’t wish to die. After all, I have more of the gods’ blood in me than a mortal’s.”
GILGAMESH REFERRED TO NOAH’S BOATMAN
Siduri first laughed before she advised him to be content with his condition as a mortal and make the most of his sojourn in this world. But Gilgamesh simply was not persuaded. “What is the quickest way to Tilmun?” he asked. “Is it across the body of water or circling it overland through the desolate mountains?”
Siduri said the quickest route was across the Dead Sea but it didn’t matter anyway: he’d never make it. “The Sea of the Waters of Death is impossible to cross,” she told him. “From days of long ago, no one arrived from across the sea. Valiant Shamash did cross the sea, but other than Shamash, who can cross it? Toilsome is the crossing, desolate is its way. Barren are the Waters of Death which it encloses. How then, Gilgamesh, wouldst thou cross the sea?”
Paraphrased, what Siduri was saying was that only Shamash, the Lord of Tilmun, was able to cross the Dead Sea and that from the beginning of time, no mortal had ever been able to replicate his feat. The sea was so stormy and treacherous that even if Gilgamesh was to survive the ordeal of the crossing, he would still succumb to the poisonous Waters of Death.
For a while, Gilgamesh silently pondered what he had heard. It seemed there was no end to the obstacles on the way to Tilmun, that every ray of hope was immediately nullified by a new road retarder. Noting that the man from Uruk looked troubled, Siduri decided to lift his spirits a bit. She disclosed to him that Noah had a boatman who worked for him and his name was Urshanabi. Urshanabi, she said, lived in the forest where he kept custody of certain treasures of Noah.
He was the only mortal capable of navigating the waters of the Dead Sea. “Urshanabi comes across from time to time for supplies,” she said. “Go and wait for him, let him see your face. If it suits him, he will take you across the sea to Utnapishtim’s abode on a raft made of logs.” The revelation no doubt excited Gilgamesh. He straightaway asked for directions to Urshanabi’s cottage. Siduri did likewise, then said, with a suggestive wink, “If you don’t find him, please come back to me.” Clearly, the lone lady was smitten by the giant and good-looking royal.
NEXT WEEK: EUREKA MOMENT 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.
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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.