Desolation in Mesopotamia
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Benson C Saili
THIS EARTH, MY BROTHER
Nuclear Cloud of Death wreaks havoc in Sumer in modern-day Iraq
Reading the Sumerian chronicles, one gets the impression Nergal, Enki’s second-born son but who had long closed ranks with the Enlilites, had turned Canaan into both an apocalyptic inferno and a watery inundation reminiscent, more or less, of the Deluge of Noah’s day. As soon as the Awesome Weapons (atomic bombs) were launched from the skies by Ninurta and Nergal, “they spread awesome rays, scorching everything like fire,” the Sumerian tablets relate.
“The resulting storm in a flash of lightning was created … The five cities of the valley he (Nergal) finished off, to desolation they were overturned. With fire and brimstones were they upheavaled: all that lived there to vapour was turned. By the awesome weapons were mountains toppled: where the sea waters were barred, the bolt broke open. Down into the valley the sea's waters poured. By the waters was the valley flooded. When upon the cities' ashes the waters poured, steam to the heavens was rising.”
Meanwhile, a widowed Lot, who along with his two virgin daughters had taken refuge in the cavernous recesses of Zoar’s mountainous countryside, decided to make sexual capital out of the catastrophe! This is the Biblical version of the debauchery as per GENESIS 19:30-36. “Now Lot went up from Zoar and dwelt in the hill country, and his two daughters were with him, for he was fearful to dwell in Zoar. So he was dwelling in a cave, he and his two daughters with him.
The firstborn said to the junior sister: ‘Our father, he is old, and there is no man in the area to come on us according to the way of all the earth. Do go, let us give our father wine to drink; then do let us lie with him and keep seed alive from our father.’ So they gave their father wine to drink that night. Then the firstborn came and lay with her father. Yet he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. It came to pass on the morrow that the firstborn said to the junior sister: ‘Behold, I lay with our father yesternight.
Let us give him wine to drink tonight also; then come and lie with him, that we may keep seed alive from our father.’ So they again gave their father wine to drink that night; and the junior sister got up and lay with him. Yet he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. Thus the two daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father.”
Sadly, this is a shamelessly male chauvinistic spin on what really transpired. You will perhaps have noted by now that in the Bible, the female always takes the blame for a man’s every misstep. Adam fell because of Eve; Samson was physically enfeebled thanks to Delilah; Judah was seduced by her daughter-in-law who posed as a prostitute; etc. By the same token, Lot was made to sleep with his own daughters by his very daughters. That simply is not true.
The truth of the matter is that it was Lot who actively and cunningly seduced his gorgeous daughters who had never known a man before. Lot simply confronted the two gals and span the yarn that the world had come to an end with the nuking of Canaan and therefore he and his two daughters were the only beings who had survived. It was therefore only they who had to start repopulating the world once again. With their naivety, the teenage daughters took what their father had said as gospel truth and allowed him to take turns at them in this regard. So forget about the Genesis account: it was a pure concoction intended to absolve Lot of willful incest and portray women in an ever-guilty light.
About a year later, the two daughters each had a son. The older daughter’s was named Moab. He became the father of the Moabites. The younger daughter’s was named Ben-Ammi, meaning “Son of my kinsman”. He became the progenitor of a people known as the Ammonites. Both the Moabites and Ammonites would repeatedly war against their next of kin, the Israelites, for reasons we have already touched upon.
“LAW OF UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES” COMES TO BEAR
Yet the nuclear strike against Canaan did not affect that part of the world only. In what Zechariah Sitchin has dubbed the law of unintended consequences, the nuclear holocaust, the “gigantic explosions”, had far-reaching ramifications as far afield as Sumer itself. “On the Land Sumer a calamity fell, one unknown to men,” say the Sumerian records. “One that had never been seen before, one which could not be withstood.”
This was in the form of what became known as the “Evil Wind” but which we today can easily understand as a drifting nuclear radiation cloud. “The cities, the people, the vegetation – everything was upheavaled by the gods' weapon (the nuclear bombs). Its heat and fire scorched all before it: it affected people even at some distance away.”
Exactly how did the chain of unintended consequences begin? “By a darkening of the skies were the brilliances (mushroom cloud) followed, then a storm to blow began. Swirling within a dark cloud, gloom from the skies an Evil Wind carried.” The Evil Wind was so dense that it completely obscured the skies for at least 24 hours on a day that would be forever etched on the human psyche.
“On that day, when heaven was crushed and the Earth was smitten, its face obliterated by the maelstrom – when the skies were darkened and covered as with a shadow – on that day the Evil Wind was born … There was created a great storm from heaven … a land-annihilating storm … an Evil Wind, like a rushing torrent … a battling storm joined by a scorching heat … By day, it deprived the land of the bright sun, in the evening the stars did not shine … It was a day not to be forgotten.”
The Sumerian records make it more than amply clear that the Evil Wind was triggered by a nuclear upheaval. “A blast, an explosion: an evil blast heralded the baleful storm, an evil blast was its forerunner.” They are also unequivocal as to who brought about the whole cataclysm. “Mighty offspring, valiant sons, were the heralds of the pestilence.” These are Nergal and Ninurta being referred to here: “Mighty Ones” or “Great Ones” were metaphorical characterisations of the Anunnaki by virtue of their dazzling technology, humanly unseemly feats, and their extraordinary longevity.
The Sumerian records talk of a “Cloud of Death” which arose from the cities of the Jordan plain, which began as an immense whirlwind, and which reached near and far. This cloud was propelled by a happenstance Mediterranean wind. “A dense cloud that brings doom (a nuclear mushroom), a tempest that scorches the heavens, rose to the sky, followed by rushing wind gusts.”
It was indeed a day not to be forgotten. “When dawn the next morning came, from the west, from the Upper Sea (Mediterranean Sea), a storm wind began blowing. The dark brown cloud eastward it directed, toward the settled lands (Sumer) did the cloud spread … A storm, the Evil Wind, went around in the skies.
And then the whirlwind began to spread and move westward with the prevailing winds blowing from the Mediterranean … Moving from west to east, the deathly cloud, enveloped in terror, casting fear everywhere, was carried to Sumer by a howling wind, a great wind which speeds high above, an evil wind which overwhelms the land. Slowly over the lands the Evil Wind blew, from west to east over plains and mountains it traveled.”
A lamentation text states that starting from the Jordan plain, the blast's deadly cloud was carried by the prevailing winds eastward all the way "to the boundary of Anshan" in the Zagros Mountains, affecting all of Sumer from Eridu in the south to Babylon in the north. “From the midst of the mountains it had come, from the Plain of No-Pity (Jordan Plain) it had come …”
“RUN FOR DEAR LIFE”, ENKI URGES GODS AND MORTALS ALIKE
Were Nergal and Ninurta aware of the certainty of the poisonous nuclear cloud? According to the Sumerian records, they were not. “The great gods paled at the storm’s immensity,” so we’re informed by the Sumerian chroniclers. Indeed, had they been aware of such an eventual outcome, they would have had General Abraham move as far away from Canaan as time permitted. For Abraham first took refuge in the Hebron mountains, some 50 miles away from Sodom. It was not until the Evil Wind materialised that he hastened to Gerar along the Mediterranean coast.
The only god who anticipated and predicted the Evil Wind was the “all-knowing” Enki. The moment Nergal and Ninurta were done with their bombing blitz, Enki, who was at the time was at Eridu, his Sumerian base, issued a clarion call for both the gods and Earthlings to run for dear life. Enlil, Nergal, and Ninurta immediately joined him in trumpeting the call. “To Ninurta and Nergal Enlil and Enki the alarm sounded,” say the Sumerian chronicles. “Unstoppable the Evil Wind death to all delivers! The alarm Enlil and Enki to the gods of Shumer transmitted: Escape! Escape! to them all they cried out. Let the people disperse, let the people hide!”
The gods were frantic. As the Evil Wind began to "spread to the mountains as a net," they began to flee their beloved cities. “From their cities the gods did flee, like frightened birds from their nests escaping they were … The deities ran off … They took unfamiliar paths." Writes Zechariah Sitchin: “The text known as Lamentation Over the Destruction of Ur lists all the great gods and some of their important sons and daughters who had ‘abandoned to the wind’ the cities and great temples of Sumer.”
One of the earliest to depart Sumer was Ninki, Enki’s wife. According to a text known as The Eridu Lament, Ninki took to a flying saucer and headed to a safe haven in Africa. “Ninki, the Great Lady, flying like a bird, left her city (Eridu).” Another of the early escapees was Inanna-Ishtar, who so hurriedly took off she was later to chafe that in her state of panic, she had left behind her jewelry and a host of precious possessions.
In her case, she left not in a flying saucer but in a submarine. “Inanna hurriedly departed from Uruk, sailing off toward Africa in a submersible ship and complaining that she had to leave behind her jewelry and other possessions … In her own lamentation for Uruk, Inanna-Ishtar bewailed the desolation of her city and her temple by the Evil Wind, which in an instant, in a blink of an eye, was created in the midst of the mountains and against which there was no defense.” But whilst some Anunnaki were double-quick on their feet, others kind of shilly-shallied. The result was either outright disaster or near-disaster. Two gods almost lost their lives. One god actually perished as we demonstrate in next week’s piece.
NERGAL’S EVIL WIND RENDERS MUCH OF SUMER “DESOLATE”
It was on the land of Sumer that the Evil Wind effected the most havoc, where it carried death which could not be eschewed. “From the Valley of No Pity, by the brilliances (atomic explosions) spawned, toward Shumer the death was carried … It covered the land as a cloak, spread over it like a sheet.” Brownish in colour, during the daytime "the sun in the horizon it obliterated with darkness: at night, luminous at its edges it filleth the broad earth and blocked out the moon. The moon at its rising it extinguished."
Wherever The Evil Wind reached, “death to all that lived mercilessly it delivered.” It "bore gloom from city to city, carrying dense clouds that bring gloom from the sky … Carried by the Evil Wind, it was a death from which there was no escape: it was a death let loose in the road, which roams the street … The highest wall, the thickest wall, it passes like a flood; no door can shut it out, no bolt can turn it back.”
What the Evil Wind caused in Sumer was not violent destruction but silent annihilation. “The unseen death moved slowly over Sumer, its passage lasting twenty-four hours – a day and a night … A poisonous nuclear cloud, driven eastward by unexpected winds, overwhelmed all life in Sumer … Slowly over the lands the Evil Wind blew, from west to east over plains and mountains it traveled.
The prevailing winds, coming from the Mediterranean Sea, carried the poisonous nuclear cloud eastward, toward Sumer, and there it caused not destruction but a silent annihilation, bringing death by nuclear poisoned air to all that lives.” The panic, fear, and confusion that overtook Sumer and its cities as the alarm was sounded are vividly described in a series of lamentation texts, such as the Ur Lamentation, the Lamentation over the Desolation of Ur and Sumer, The Nippur Lamentation, The Uruk Lamentation, amongst others.
To their credit, the gods, as we have already intimated, did alert mankind as to the calamity at hand. The Uruk Lamentation has them megaphone-announce (from low-flying drones) in the middle of the night, “Rise up! Run away! Hide in the steppe!” But although the people did heed the desperate call, it still was too late: they were felled by the Evil Wind anyway. Writes Zechariah Sitchin: “Those who hid behind doors were felled inside; those who ran to the rooftops died on the roofs.
Those who to the streets fled, in the streets were their corpses piled up. It was an unseen death: ‘It stands beside a man, yet no one can see it; when it enters a house, its appearance is unknown’. It was a gruesome death: ‘Cough and phlegm weakened the chest, the mouth was filled with spittle, dumbness and daze have come upon them.’ As the Evil Wind clutched its victims, ‘their mouths were drenched with blood’. The dead and dying were everywhere … The people of the lands by the Evil Storm's hand were clutched; futile was the running. No one treads the highways, no one seeks out the roads.”
The Evil Wind laid waste to man, plants, and animals alike. “Stealthy was the death, like a ghost the fields and cities it attacked. The highest walls, the thickest walls, like floodwaters it passed … Through the door like a snake it glides, through the hinge like a wind it blows in …
In the cities and the hamlets, the mother cares not for her children, the father says not 'O my wife' … The young child grows not sturdy on their knee, the nursemaid chants not a lullaby … The people, terrified, could hardly breathe: the Evil Wind clutched them, does not grant them another day … Mouths were drenched in blood, heads wallowed in blood … Their faces are made pale by the Evil Wind. Their spirit abandoned their bodies … The dead, lying where they fell, remained unburied: the dead people, like fat placed in the sun, of themselves melted away. In the grazing lands, cattle large and small became scarce, all living creatures came to an end.
The sheepfolds were delivered to the Wind. The cultivated fields withered; on the banks of the Tigris and the Euphrates only sickly weeds grew, in the swamps the reeds rotted in a stench … The storm crushed the land, wiped out everything … In the orchards and the gardens there is no new growth, quickly they waste away … On the steppes cattle large and small become scarce …”
The Sumerian records emphasise that the Evil Wind caused desolation rather than destruction. “From Eridu in the south to Sippar in the north did the Evil Wind the land overwhelm … It caused a calamity, one unknown to men, to befall the land … As the Evil Wind passed and blew, it left Sumer desolate and prostrate. The storm desolated the cities, desolated the houses … caused cities to be desolate, caused houses to be desolate, caused stalls to be desolate, the sheepfolds to be emptied.
There was desolation, but no destruction; emptiness, but no ruins: the cities were there, the houses were there, the stalls and sheepfolds were there –but nothing alive remained … The waters are poisoned: Sumer’s rivers flow with water that is bitter, the once cultivated fields grow weeds, in the meadows the plants have withered.”
Yet the real source of the Evil Wind – the atomic blasts – remained elusive as far as the people of Sumer were concerned. But they were dead right in attributing it to Enlil. They said it was "a great storm directed from Anu … It hath come from the heart of Enlil. In a single spawning it was spawned … Like the bitter venom of the gods, in the west (Canaan) it was spawned."
NEXT WEEK: ENKI’S HEROICS IN THE SHADOW OF DEATH
Columns
GONE FISHING
In recent years, using personal devices in working environments has become so commonplace it now has its own acronym, BOYD (Bring Your Own Device). But as employees skip between corporate tools and personal applications on their own devices, their actions introduce a number of possible risks that should be managed and mitigated with careful consideration. Consider these examples:
Si-lwli, a small family-run business in Wales, is arguably as niche a company as you could find, producing talking toys used to promote the Welsh language. Their potential market is small, with only some 300,000 Welsh language speakers in the world and in reality the business is really more of a hobby for the husband-and-wife team, who both still have day jobs. Yet, despite still managing to be successful in terms of sales, the business is now fighting for survival after recently falling prey to cybercriminals. Emails between Si-Iwli and their Chinese suppliers were intercepted by hackers who altered the banking details in the correspondence, causing Si-Iwli to hand over £18,000 (around P ¼ m) to the thieves. That might not sound much to a large enterprise, but to a small or medium business it can be devastating.
Another recent SMB hacking story which appeared in the Wall Street Journal concerned Innovative Higher Ed Consulting (IHED) Inc, a small New York start-up with a handful of employees. IHED didn’t even have a website, but fraudsters were able to run stolen credit card numbers through the company’s payment system and reverse the charges to the tune of $27,000, around the same loss faced by Si-Iwli. As the WSJ put it, the hackers completely destroyed the company, forcing its owners to fold.
And in May 2019, the city of Baltimore’s computer system was hit by a ransomware attack, with hackers using a variant called RobinHood. The hack, which has lasted more than a month, paralysed the computer system for city employees, with the hackers demanding a payment in Bitcoin to give access back to the city.
Of course, hackers target governments or business giants but small and medium businesses are certainly not immune. In fact, 67% of SMBs reported that they had experienced a cyber attack across a period of 12 months, according to a 2018 survey carried out by security research firm Ponemon Institute. Additionally, Verizon issued a report in May 2019 that small businesses accounted for 43% of its reported data breaches. Once seen as less vulnerable than PCs, smartphone attacks are on the rise, with movements like the Dark Caracal spyware campaign underlining the allure of mobile devices to hackers. Last year, the US Federal Trade Commission released a statement calling for greater education on mobile security, coming at a time when around 42% of all Android devices are believed to not carry the latest security updates.
This is an era when employees increasingly use their smartphones for work-related purposes so is your business doing enough to protect against data breaches on their employees’ phones? The SME Cyber Crime Survey 2018 carried out for risk management specialists AON showed that more than 80% of small businesses did not view this as a threat yet if as shown, 67% of SMBs were said to have been victims of hacking, either the stats are wrong or business owners are underestimating their vulnerability. A 2019 report by PricewaterhouseCoopers suggests the latter, stating that the majority of global businesses are unprepared for cyber attacks.
Consider that a workstation no longer means a desk in an office: It can be a phone in the back of a taxi or Uber; a laptop in a coffee shop, or a tablet in an airport lounge. Wherever the device is used, employees can potentially install applications that could be harmful to your business, even from something as seemingly insignificant as clicking on an accidental download or opening a link on a phishing email. Out of the physical workplace, your employees’ activities might not have the same protections as they would on a company-monitored PC.
Yet many businesses not only encourage their employees to work remotely, but assume working from coffee shops, bookstores, and airports can boost employees’ productivity. Unfortunately, many remote hot spots do not provide secure Wi-Fi so if your employee is accessing their work account on unsecured public Wi-Fi, sensitive business data could be at risk. Furthermore, even if your employee uses a company smartphone or has access to company data through a personal mobile device, there is always a chance data could be in jeopardy with a lost or stolen device, even information as basic as clients’ addresses and phone numbers.
BOYDs are also at risk from malware designed to harm and infect the host system, transmittable to smartphones when downloading malicious third-party apps. Then there is ransomware, a type of malware used by hackers to specifically take control of a system’s data, blocking access or threatening to release sensitive information unless a ransom is paid such as the one which affected Baltimore. Ransomware attacks are on the increase, predicted to occur every 14 seconds, potentially costing billions of dollars per year.
Lastly there is phishing – the cyber equivalent of the metaphorical fishing exercise – whereby cybercriminals attempt to obtain sensitive data –usernames, passwords, credit card details –usually through a phoney email designed to look legitimate which directs the user to a fraudulent website or requests the data be emailed back directly. Most of us like to think we could recognize a phishing email when we see it, but these emails have become more sophisticated and can come through other forms of communication such as messaging apps.
Bottom line is to be aware of the potential problems with BOYDs and if in doubt, consult your IT security consultants. You can’t put the own-device genie back in the bottle but you can make data protection one of your three wishes!
Columns
“I Propose to Diana Tonight”
About five days before Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed landed in Paris, General Atiku, a certain Edward Williams was taking a walk in a woods in the Welsh town of Mountain Ash. Williams, then 73, was a psychic of some renown. He had in the past foretold assassination attempts on US President Ronald Reagan, which occurred on March 30, 1981, and Pope John Paul II, which came to pass on May 13, 1981.
As he trudged the woods, Williams had a sudden premonition that pointed to Diana’s imminent fate as per Christopher Andersen’s book The Day Diana Died. “When the vision struck me, it was as if everything around me was obscured and replaced by shadowy figures,” Williams was later to reminisce. “In the middle was the face of Princess Diana. Her expression was sad and full of pathos. She was wearing what looked like a floral dress with a short dark cardigan. But it was vague. I went cold with fear and knew it was a sign that she was in danger.”
Williams hastily beat a retreat to his home, which he shared with his wife Mary, and related to her his presentiment, trembling like an aspen leaf as he did so. “I have never seen him so upset,” Mary recounted. “He felt he was given a sign and when he came back from his walk he was deeply shaken.”
The following day, Williams frantically sauntered into a police station to inform the police of his premonition. The officer who attended to him would have dismissed him as no more than a crackpot but he treated him seriously in view of the accuracy of his past predictions. He took a statement and immediately passed it on to the Special Branch Investigative Unit.
The report read as follows:
“On 27 August, at 14:12 hrs, a man by the name of Edward Williams came to Mountain Ash police station. He said he was a psychic and predicted that Princess Diana was going to die. In previous years, he has predicted that the Pope and Ronald Reagan were going to be the victims of assassination attempts. On both occasions he was proved to be correct. Mr Williams appeared to be quite normal.”
Williams, General, was spot-on as usual: four days later, the princess was no more.
Meanwhile, General, even as Dodi and Diana were making their way to the Fayed-owned Ritz Hotel in central Paris, British newspapers were awash with headlines that suggested Diana was kind of deranged. Writes Andrew Morton in Diana in Pursuit of Love: “In The Independent Diana was described as ‘a woman with fundamentally nothing to say about anything’. She was ‘suffering from a form of arrested development’. ‘Isn’t it time she started using her head?’ asked The Mail on Sunday. The Sunday Mirror printed a special supplement entitled ‘A Story of Love’; The News of the World claimed that William had demanded that Diana should split from Dodi: ‘William can’t help it, he just doesn’t like the man.’ William was reportedly ‘horrified’ and ‘doesn’t think Mr Fayed is good for his mother’ – or was that just the press projecting their own prejudices? The upmarket Sunday Times newspaper, which had first serialised my biography of the princess, now put her in the psychiatrist’s chair for daring to be wooed by a Muslim. The pop-psychologist Oliver James put Diana ‘On the Couch’, asking why she was so ‘depressed’ and desperate for love. Other tabloids piled in with dire prognostications – about Prince Philip’s hostility to the relationship, Diana’s prospect of exile, and the social ostracism she would face if she married Dodi.”
DIANA AND DODI AT THE RITZ
Before Diana and Dodi departed the Villa Windsor sometime after 16 hrs, General, one of Dodi’s bodyguards Trevor Rees-Jones furtively asked Diana as to what the programme for the evening was. This Trevor did out of sheer desperation as Dodi had ceased and desisted from telling members of his security detail, let alone anyone else for that matter, what his onward destination was for fear that that piece of information would be passed on to the paparazzi. Diana kindly obliged Trevor though her response was terse and scarcely revealing. “Well, eventually we will be going out to a restaurant”, that was all Diana said. Without advance knowledge of exactly what restaurant that was, Trevor and his colleagues’ hands were tied: they could not do a recce on it as was standard practice for the security team of a VIP principal. Dodi certainly, General, was being recklessly by throwing such caution to the winds.
At about 16:30, Diana and Dodi drew up at the Ritz Hotel, where they were received by acting hotel manager Claude Roulet. The front entrance of the hotel was already crawling with paparazzi, as a result of which the couple took the precaution of using the rear entrance, where hopefully they would make their entry unperturbed and unmolested. The first thing they did when they were ensconced in the now $10,000 a night Imperial Suite was to spend some time on their mobiles and set about touching base with friends, relations, and associates. Diana called at least two people, her clairvoyant friend Rita Rogers and her favourite journalist Richard Kay of The Daily Mail.
Rita, General, was alarmed that Diana had proceeded to venture to Paris notwithstanding the warning she had given Dodi and herself in relation to what she had seen of him in the crystal ball when the couple had consulted her. When quizzed as to what the hell she indeed was doing in Paris at that juncture, Diana replied that she and Dodi had simply come to do some shopping, which though partially true was not the material reason they were there. “But Diana, remember what I told Dodi,” Rita said somewhat reprovingly. Diana a bit apprehensively replied, “Yes I remember. I will be careful. I promise.” Well, she did not live up to her promise as we shall soon unpack General.
As for Richard Kay, Diana made known to him that, “I have decided I am going to radically change my life. I am going to complete my obligations to charities and to the anti-personnel land mines cause, but in November I want to completely withdraw from formal public life.”
Once she was done with her round of calls, Diana went down to the hair saloon by the hotel swimming pool to have her hair washed and blow-dried ahead of the scheduled evening dinner.
THE “TELL ME YES” RING IS DELIVERED
Since the main object of their Paris trip was to pick up the “Tell Me Yes” engagement ring Dodi had ordered in Monte Carlo a week earlier, Dodi decided to check on Repossi Jewellery, which was right within the Ritz prencincts, known as the Place Vendome. It could have taken less than a minute for Dodi to get to the store on foot but he decided to use a car to outsmart the paparazzi invasion. He was driven there by Trevor Rees-Jones, with Alexander Kez Wingfield and Claude Roulet following on foot, though he entered the shop alone.
The Repossi store had closed for the holiday season but Alberto Repossi, accompanied by his wife and brother-in-law, had decided to travel all the way from his home in Monaco and momentarily open it for the sake of the potentially highly lucrative Dodi transaction. Alberto, however, disappointed Dodi as the ring he had chosen was not the one he produced. The one he showed Dodi was pricier and perhaps more exquisite but Dodi was adamant that he wanted the exact one he had ordered as that was what Diana herself had picked. It was a ploy on the part of Repossi to make a real killing on the sale, his excuse to that effect being that Diana deserved a ring tha was well worthy of her social pedigree. With Dodi having expressed disaffection, Repossi rendered his apologies and assured Dodi he would make the right ring available shortly, whereupon Dodi repaired back to the hotel to await its delivery. But Dodi did insist nonetheless that the pricier ring be delivered too in case it appealed to Diana anyway.
Repossi delivered the two rings an hour later. They were collected by Roulet. On inspecting them, Dodi chose the very one he had seen in Monte Carlo, apparently at the insistence of Diana. There is a possibility that Diana, who was very much aware of her public image and was not comfortable with ostentatious displays of wealth, may have deliberately shown an interest in a less expensive engagement ring. It may have been a purely romantic as opposed to a prestigious choice for her.
The value of the ring, which was found on a wardrobe shelf in Dodi’s apartment after the crash, has been estimated to be between $20,000 and $250,000 as Repossi has always refused to be drawn into revealing how much Dodi paid for it. The sum, which enjoyed a 25 percent discount, was in truth paid for not by Dodi himself but by his father as was the usual practice.
Dodi was also shown Repossi’s sketches for a bracelet, a watch, and earrings which he proposed to create if Diana approved of them.
DIANA AND DODI GUSH OVER IMMINENT NUPTIALS
At about 7 pm, Dodi and Diana left the Ritz and headed for Dodi’s apartment at a place known as the Arc de Trompe. They went there to properly tog themselves out for the scheduled evening dinner. They spent two hours at the luxurious apartment. As usual, the ubiquitous paparazzi were patiently waiting for them there.
As they lingered in the apartment, Dodi beckoned over to his butler Rene Delorm and showed him the engagement ring. “Dodi came into my kitchen,” Delorm relates. “He looked into the hallway to check that Diana couldn’t hear and reached into his pocket and pulled out the box … He said, ‘Rene, I’m going to propose to the princess tonight. Make sure that we have champagne on ice when we come back from dinner’.” Rene described the ring as “a spectacular diamond encrusted ring, a massive emerald surrounded by a cluster of diamonds, set on a yellow and white gold band sitting in a small light-grey velvet box”.
Just before 9 pm, Dodi called the brother of his step-father, Hassan Yassen, who also was staying at the Ritz that night, and told him that he hoped to get married to Diana by the end of the year.
Later that same evening, both Dodi and Diana would talk to Mohamed Al Fayed, Dodi’s dad, and make known to him their pre-nuptial intentions. “They called me and said we’re coming back (to London) on Sunday (August 31) and on Monday (September 1) they are
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RAMADAN – The Blessed Month of Fasting
Ramadan is the fasting month for Muslims, where over one billion Muslims throughout the world fast from dawn to sunset, and pray additional prayers at night. It is a time for inner reflection, devotion to Allah, and self-control. It is the ninth month in the Islamic calendar. As you read this Muslims the world over have already begun fasting as the month of Ramadan has commenced (depending on the sighting of the new moon).
‘The month of Ramadan is that in which the Qur’an was revealed as guidance for people, in it are clear signs of guidance and Criterion, therefore whoever of you who witnesses this month, it is obligatory on him to fast it. But whoever is ill or traveling let him fast the same number of other days, God desires ease for you and not hardship, and He desires that you complete the ordained period and glorify God for His guidance to you, that you may be grateful”. Holy Qur’an (2 : 185)
Fasting during Ramadan is one of the five pillars upon which the structure of Islam is built. The other four are: the declaration of one’s belief in Allah’s oneness and in the message of Muhammad (PBUH); regular attendance to prayer; payment of zakaat (obligatory charity); and the pilgrimage to Mecca.
As explained in an earlier article, fasting includes total abstinence from eating, drinking, smoking, refraining from obscenity, avoiding getting into arguments and including abstaining from marital relations, from sunrise to sunset. While fasting may appear to some as difficult Muslims see it as an opportunity to get closer to their Lord, a chance to develop spiritually and at the same time the act of fasting builds character, discipline and self-restraint.
Just as our cars require servicing at regular intervals, so do Muslims consider Ramadan as a month in which the body and spirit undergoes as it were a ‘full service’. This ‘service’ includes heightened spiritual awareness both the mental and physical aspects and also the body undergoing a process of detoxification and some of the organs get to ‘rest’ through fasting.
Because of the intensive devotional activity fasting, Ramadan has a particularly high importance, derived from its very personal nature as an act of worship but there is nothing to stop anyone from privately violating Allah’s commandment of fasting if one chooses to do so by claiming to be fasting yet eating on the sly. This means that although fasting is obligatory, its observance is purely voluntary. If a person claims to be a Muslim, he is expected to fast in Ramadan.
The reward Allah gives for proper fasting is very generous. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) quotes Allah as saying: “All actions done by a human being are his own except fasting, which belongs to Me and I will reward it accordingly.” We are also told by the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) that the reward for proper fasting is admittance into heaven.
Fasting earns great reward when it is done in a ‘proper’ manner. This is because every Muslim is required to make his worship perfect. For example perfection of fasting can be achieved through restraint of one’s feelings and emotions. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said that when fasting, a person should not allow himself to be drawn into a quarrel or a slanging match. He teaches us: “On a day of fasting, let no one of you indulge in any obscenity, or enter into a slanging match. Should someone abuse or fight him, let him respond by saying: ‘I am fasting!’”
This high standard of self-restraint fits in well with fasting, which is considered as an act of self-discipline. Islam requires us to couple patience with voluntary abstention from indulgence in our physical desires. The purpose of fasting helps man to attain a high degree of sublimity, discipline and self-restraint. In other words, this standard CAN BE achieved by every Muslim who knows the purpose of fasting and strives to fulfill it.
Fasting has another special aspect. It makes all people share in the feelings of hunger and thirst. In normal circumstances, people with decent income may go from one year’s end to another without experiencing the pangs of hunger which a poor person may feel every day of his life. Such an experience helps to draw the rich one’s conscience nearer to needs of the poor. A Muslim is encouraged to be more charitable and learns to give generously for a good cause.
Fasting also has a universal or communal aspect to it. As Muslims throughout the world share in this blessed act of worship, their sense of unity is enhanced by the fact that every Muslim individual joins willingly in the fulfillment of this divine commandment. This is a unity of action and purpose, since they all fast in order to be better human beings. As a person restrains himself from the things he desires most, in the hope that he will earn Allah’s pleasure, self-discipline and sacrifice become part of his nature.
The month of Ramadan can aptly be described as a “season of worship.” Fasting is the main aspect of worship in this month, because people are more attentive to their prayers, read the Qur’an more frequently and also strive to improve on their inner and outer character. Thus, their devotion is more complete and they feel much happier in Ramadan because they feel themselves to be closer to their Creator.