Inanna Topples Enlil!
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Benson C Saili
THIS EARTH, MY BROTHER
Jehovah’s authority over Earth usurped by his own wacko granddaughter
Returning to the Esagil, Marduk’s temple-residence, Marduk took his visiting brother Nergal straight to a “sacred” chamber called the Shuanna. Shuanna means “A Celestially Supreme Place”. It was a high-tech chamber Marduk and his priests had set up to study and observe the cosmic scene.
When dusk came, Marduk sat down Nergal in the Shuanna and using both computer simulations and viewing instruments demonstrated to him that the Age of the Ram “is upon us” and therefore his time to replace Enlil as Earth’s sovereign had arrived. “The heavens my supremacy bespeak,” Marduk said. “The coming Age of the Ram, my sign, my rule proclaims.” As such, he would no longer depart Babylon but would await his coronation there. He was not imposing himself on the Earthly perch: it all was in keeping with the sequence of Enlilship as agreed between the Enkites and Enlilites just after the Deluge courtesy of the enigmatic Galzu’s decree.
Nergal immediately countered Marduk’s assertion that his time had fallen due: he put it to him that his instruments were inaccurate. At the Eanna, Inanna’s palace at Uruk, he and Inanna had sat in the Ehalanki, the equivalent of the Shuanna, and using its equally sophisticated instruments had ascertained that the Age of the Ram was nowhere near, that Taurus was still in progress. “The backdrop of the evening sky is still dominated by the constellation of Taurus,” Nergal insisted to Marduk. “Whilst you are entitled to succeed after Enlil, you cannot do so way ahead of schedule. Taurus has to completely vanish from the night sky before you exercise your right.”
Marduk thought that was nonsensical. He argued that an astrological Age lasted 2160 years and if they were to go by that reckoning, his accession was only about 75 years down the road given that the present year was 2295 BC and Aries was mathematically scheduled for 2220 BC. True, Taurus, being one of the largest constellations (it occupies more than 30 degrees of the celestial arc) was always visible for an extra 200 years (which meant it physically hovered for 2360 years) but it unjustly stole into Aries’ time. It was time that anomaly was righted by adhering strictly to celestial time (the mathematical 2160-year maximum) and not to zodiacal time (the actual time a constellation lingered in the skies).
NERGAL CONVINCES HIS BROTHER TO EXIT BABYLON
It was a stalemate. Nergal said he was the one who was right and Marduk was adamant it was he who was right. In a situation like this, it was Marduk who had the advantage in that he was already ensconced in Babylon and had so fortified and equipped it it was virtually impossible to dislodge him short of bombarding him into submission. But at this stage, the Anunnaki were tired of warring against each other and warfare was out of the question.
Nergal thought quickly and came up with an idea that could wheedle Marduk out of Babylon. “Okay, my brother you win,” he said. “But if you have to become the new Enlil, you need the relevant insignias and instruments of authority. You need the Holy Sceptre. You need the Oracle of the Gods, the mechanism with which to decree fates. Finally, you need the Radiating Stone which disintegrates everything (what we today call the nuclear button that is vested in the head of state). These have been entrusted to my custody.
I therefore urge that you travel to the Abzu (in southern Africa where Nergal reigned) and collect them yourself as no one else can do so in your stead. That done, you can return to Babylon just at the precise time when the Age of the Ram mathematically commences. Then you will have nobody opposing you, not Enlil, not Inanna.” Clearly, Nergal was spinning a yarn here. Enlil simply wouldn’t have deposited such vital instruments of Earthly authority to Nergal: no ruler in his right mind would do such a thing for as long as he was on the throne. But Marduk naively trusted his brother, who had given him the impression he looked forward to an Enkite rising to supremacy. And when Marduk contacted Enlil for confirmation, Enlil indeed affirmed Nergal’s claim.
It was game, set and match: Marduk prepared to set off for Africa. Since Marduk would be gone for 75 years and as always he would be accompanied by his heir Nabu, whose gift of the gab and incisive thinking he valued greatly, who would rule Babylon in his stead whilst he was away? Who would ensure the exhaustive hydrological infrastructure he had laid down and “other works of wonder” operated in good nick?
“If anything goes amiss,” Marduk warned his brother, “the day shall be turned into darkness, the flow of river waters shall be disarrayed, the lands shall be laid to waste, the people will be made to perish.” In order to forestall such an eventuality, Marduk needed somebody with his industry and round-the-clock vigilance to rule in his absence.
Nergal was quick to offer his services. He said he would proficiently hold fort, seeing to it that everything was spick and span. Nergal’s assurance was convincing and after consultations with Enki and Nabu, Marduk accepted Nergal’s offer. “He’s family,” Enki said to Marduk. “You have had differences with him in the past for sure but this is not about Marduk or Nergal: it’s about our legacy as Enkites. Trust me, Nergal will make good on his undertaking.”
Before Marduk departed, he called a ceasefire in his hostilities with Inanna. Then after a lull of about a month, he ordered his engineers to restore water to all the lands of Sumer with immediate effect. Shortly thereafter, he and Nabu and a retinue of aides and security men numbering in the hundreds set course for the “Land of Mines” as Africa was referred to. The year was circa 2295 BC.
NERGAL OCCASIONS DISASTER IN SUMER
For a few months, all was well in Babylon and the wider Sumer. Water was aplenty and irrigated agriculture was on a roll. Then all hell broke loose. It seemed Nergal had fooled everybody and was simply biding his time. At exactly the precise time he and his equally diabolical ally Inanna appointed, Nergal went into the Babylon control room in an underground chamber and ordered his men to wreck the intuitive, high-tech device that regulated the water reticulation system as well as the power supply (to the homes and facilities of the Anunnaki gods only) throughout Sumeria. “Nergal tore the luminescent radiating stone that gave the system energy from its socket and from its machine links.”
It was a disaster. “Marduk’s devices stopped humming. Lights went out.” Exactly as Marduk had warned, “the day turned into darkness (metaphorically speaking), the fields and canals dried out: parts of Sumer flooded," and soon "the lands were laid to waste, the people were made to perish." Nergal had in his rage paralysed the fiefs of the very council of Enlilite gods who had sent him to oust Marduk. It was like he had scored an own goal but did he care?
Nergal had calculated that all that would be sabotaged was Babylon only, so that the people would think they had been booby-trapped by Marduk when he left the city and as such rise against him once and for all. But all the cities of Sumer were affected. “The people made sacrifices to Anu and Ishtar but to no avail: the water sources went dry." Soon all the gods other than Ishtar had subjected Nergal to angry tirades and Enki was implored to travel to Babylon and ram sense into his second-born son. The Babylonians were up in arms and were baying for Nergal’s blood, calling for the urgent return of Marduk, whose present whereabouts were not known.
When Enki turned up at the Esagil, he was spitting fire. “What on Earth have you done?” he demanded of Nergal. “What a letdown you have been! To think I spoke so glowingly about you to Prince Marduk!” With Nergal unable to give an intelligible account of what had transpired, Enki gave him the marching orders straightaway. “Go away! Take off to where no gods ever go!" Enki also ordered that the golden statue that had been sculpted to Nergal’s honour not be set up at all in the Esagil as he had turned out to be such a disgrace.
With his powerful father quivering with rage, Nergal had no option but to depart Babylon but not without a spectacular parting shot: he destroyed all of Marduk’s personal effects and set fire to the Esagil. Nergal also ensured a sizeable number of his followers, the Gutians/Kutheans, remained stationed in Babylon and Agade, the former to see to it that Babylon remained subdued and the latter to bolster Inanna. Then he trekked back to Kutha, his Sumerian base, which was not very far from Babylon.
INANNA EXALTS HERSELF ABOVE ANU AND ENLIL
About four years after Nergal was driven away from Babylon by Enki, a virtual leadership void ensued in the major regions of the world. Enlil travelled to Mars. Ninurta went to do business in “the lands beyond the ocean”, today’s South America. Marduk, after discovering that Nergal had sent him on a wild goose chase, decided to go to the Antarctica, where he was to remain for years, once again living up to his epithet of Amon, meaning “The Obscure One”. Ishkur-Adad was his typically aloof and indifferent self; Nannar-Sin his usual calm, collected, and withdrawn self. Utu-Shamash was busy running the space-related facilities.
Inanna thought this state of affairs presented an opportunity for her to step into the breach and assume supremacy over all Earth. First, she sat down to consider a new Earthling king who would do her bidding and assist her crusade to seize all the principal lands of the world. This person had to come from the Sargon bloodline naturally. After Sargon had died, she had replaced him with his eldest son Rimush on the throne of Agade. He ruled for only 9 years, having been killed by “his servants”. His younger brother Manishtushu took over as regent but he too lasted for only 15 years: he was killed in a “palace revolt”. Inanna then installed Manishtushu’s son in office.
The new King of Agade was called Naram-Sin. His name meant “Beloved of Sin”, Inanna’s father Nannar-Sin. Indeed, Naram-Sin’s daughter Enmenanna would in future succeed Sargon’s daughter Enheduanna as high-priestess of Nannar-Sin. But Naram-Sin should ideally have been called “Beloved of Ishtar” in that Inanna had doted on him since he was a little kid as he showed the potential to be as great as his grandfather Sargon, whereas Rimush and Manishtushu were largely inclined toward peaceful co-existence with other nations, the reason they had been reluctant to wage war.
Inanna’s brief to Naram-Sin was that he should “seek grandeur and greatness by ceaseless conquest and destruction of my enemies” with a view to expanding her empire. This time around, Inanna was not going to do pinpricks in her quest for world domination: she was going for the jugular. And in Naram-Sin, she had a most loyal and dutiful servant.
NARAM-SIN CONQUERS EGYPT, SEIZES SPACE-RELATED SITES
In his heyday, Sargon had his share of conquests under the aegis of Inanna, but he was wary that he did not encroach on the territories of either the Enkites or the most powerful Enlilites. For instance, he did not seize the Sinai Peninsula. He did not march into African lands. And in Sumer itself, he steered clear of Lagash, Ninurta’s cult city, and Babylon, Marduk’s domain. The only sensitive area he captured was Baalbek.
Not so with Naram-Sin. His first target prize was Canaan. He captured Jerusalem, the Mission Control Centre; Jericho, the city of “Moon God” Nannar-Sin; and at long last the entire Sinai Peninsula, where Tilmun, the spaceport, was located. Having registered this triumph, Naram-Sin was so euphoric he depicted himself on a stella standing by a rocketship, as if to say he had now attained godly status. Thereafter, he ran rampage through the lands along the Mediterranean Sea to eventually annex Baalbek. “As a Flying Goddess, Inanna was quite familiar with the place,” say the Sumerian records. “She burnt down the great gates of the mountain and, after a brief siege, obtained the surrender of the troops guarding it: they disbanded themselves willingly."
Naram-Sin mixed seizing supremacy with suppression of rebellions. The two Syrian cities of Arman (Aleppo) and Ebla (Tell Mardikh) were particularly stubborn. Naram-Sin set them ablaze and went on to boast that he was the first king to destroy these two great cities. “Never since the time of the creation of mankind did any king whatever set Arman and Ebla to sword and fire,” he wrote in his annals. In fact, he so poisoned the lands of Lebanon by way of chemical warfare that future invading eastern kings scrupulously avoided it for the next one thousand years!
Having overrun the whole of Canaan, Lebanon, and Syria, Naram-Sin now set his sights on the lands of Marduk – Magan (Egypt) and Meluhha (Sudan and Ethiopia). Marduk was still away in the Antarctica and Nergal was the one flexing muscles over these lands. Since Nergal and Inanna were at once political allies and bedfellows, Naram-Sin did not break a sweat at all. At the say-so of Inanna, Naram-Sin had gone out of his way to lionise Nergal with a view to a smooth landing in Egypt.
Writes Zechariah Sitchin: “The long text known as The Kuthean Legend of Naram-Sin (or, as it is sometimes called, The King of Kutha Text) attests that Naram-Sin went to Kutha, Nergal's cult centre, and erected there a stela to which he affixed an ivory tablet inscribed with the tale of this unusual visit, all to pay homage to Nergal. The recognition by Naram-Sin of Nergal's power and influence well beyond Africa is attested by the fact that in treaties made between Naram-Sin and provincial rulers in Elam (west and southwest Iran), Nergal is invoked among the witness gods.
And in an inscription dealing with Naram-Sin's march to the Cedar Mountain in Lebanon, the king credited Nergal (rather than Ishkur-Adad) with making the achievement possible.” But Naram-Sin’s main trump card was Inanna, who guided, urged on, and armed him with her ''awesome weapons”. Naram-Sin marched against three major kings of Marduk’s African regions and captured them in person, making a show of them as he thrust further into Marduk territory.
INANNA IS THE NEW ENLIL!
Inanna was on a roll. She was literally spitting fire. Such was her military might that she was virtually untouchable, with fellow gods in dread of her. Said a hymn that eulogised her. “The great Anunnaki gods fled before you like fluttering bats. They could not stand before your fearsome face, could not soothe your angry heart." Whereas before she launched her worldwide campaign she was called “Beloved of Enlil" and “One who carries out the instructions of Anu”, and portrayed in imagery as an enticing Goddess of Love, in the annexed territories she was now depicted as a ruthless and savage conqueror, as a Goddess of War bristling with weapons, on rock engravings.
For donkeys’ years now, she had been based in Agade since the days of Sargon the Great. Her erstwhile temple-abode in Uruk, the Eanna, she had vacated and re-commissioned as a sacred monument to King Anu of Nibiru. Now she targeted this “house of irresistible charm” for dismantling so as to bring to an end its standing as a symbol of Anu’s authority. She set about knocking it down brick by brick whilst she assaulted its staff and threw them behind bars where they defied her.
But she was not yet done. She wanted to be the Goddess of Earth and therefore she needed to send a strong message to her grandfather Enlil, the reigning God of Earth, that she was now the Mistress of the Realm. Accordingly, she ordered Naram-Sin to storm the Ekur in Nippur. This was Enlil’s temple-residence. Descending on the unguarded city, Naram-Sin crushed all who had served Enlil and “like a bandit he plundered it”.
Then arriving at the Ekur, he “erected large ladders against the House, smashed his way in, entered its Holy of Holies.” Extracting the Holy Vessels of an absent Enlil, Naram-Sin cast them into a blazing bonfire. Then he “forged great axes, sharpened double-edged axes of destruction, levelled the Ekur down to the foundation of the land.” That done, he “docked large boats at the quay by the House of Enlil, and carried off the possessions of the city." The sacrilege, the coup against the all-powerful Enlil, was complete.
With the job done, Inanna declared herself the “Supreme Queen” and also assumed a new name, Anat, meaning “(Ruler) of the Cosmos”. In other words, not even King Anu had authority over her anymore. She would be, so she boasted in earnest, “greater than the mother who gave birth to me, even greater than Anu.” She even countermanded all rules, regulations, laws, and ordinances Enlil had promulgated for the planet and announced a new World Order in which her word would hold sway. “The heavenly Kingship was seized by a female!" says a Sumerian text. "lnanna changed the rules of Holy Anu!"
Naram-Sin too did not shrink from lapping up his moment of glory. He declared himself “King of the Four Regions”. These were Sumer (the First Region); Egypt (the Second Region); the Indus Valley (The Third Region); and the Sinai Peninsula (The Fourth Region), all of which together constituted the nerve centre of the planet. He proceeded to proclaim himself a god and appropriated all the trappings of godship (Anunnakiship), donning a horned headdress in mimicry of the gods.
He called himself Dingir.Naram-Sin, meaning “Divine Naram-Sin”. This title was reserved for the Anunnaki but it was also conferred as a honorary title on a demigod subject to the approval of Enlil. In Naram-Sin’s case, it was bestowed by Inanna, the new Enlil!
Would Enlil and King Anu take all this lying down?
NEXT WEEK: INANNA IN LEAGUE WITH THE LIZARD RACE!
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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”.
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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.