Marduk is Seized
Columns
Benson C Saili
THIS EARTH, MY BROTHER
Popular Anunnaki god put under house arrest for refusing to be part of great deception
On becoming Earth’s foremost Anunnaki god effectively in 2024 BC but substantively in 1954 BC, Marduk declared Nibiru as his celestial counterpart, not Earth itself as was the case with his predecessor Jehovah-Enlil. We have already dwelt on the reasons he did so. Not only did Marduk identify himself with the great planet: he decided, in due course, to make Nibiru the focus, exclusively, of a new religion he called the Star Religion. The “Star” was Nibiru: if you recall, Nibiru was also known as the Star of Jacob for reasons we have already spelt out.
Why did Marduk choose to place Nibiru at the centre of mankind’s religious fervour? Well, he had calculated, and rightly so, that the return of Nibiru was going to occur on his watch – the astrological Age of Aries, which mathematically ran from 2220 to 60 BC. The last time Nibiru showed up was circa 4000 BC, which enabled Anu to visit Earth. This time around, Nibiru was expected around the halfway point of the 6th century BC, between 600 and 500 BC.
What that meant was that when King Anu appeared, Marduk would be the one ruling Earth and would therefore be the primary host of the Solar System’s greatest sovereign. Needless to say, that would be the greatest milestone of his life. Of course it was not every time Nibiru was in the ecliptic that Anu visited Earth. But he was always expected anyway: elaborate and meticulous preparations for his arrival had to be made whether he turned up or not.
In Babylonia, the key person Marduk chose to propagate his Star Religion was Hammurabi, the Babylonian King. Hammurabi went at his brief hammer and tongs. In Marduk’s Star Religion, the astronomer priests, known as the MASHMASHU, worked practically day and night in the Esagil, Marduk’s temple-abode which was principally an astronomical observatory.
The Esagil’s main function was to “constantly observe the heavens, track the movement of stars and planets, record special phenomena (such as a planetary conjunction or an eclipse), and consider whether the heavens bespoke omens; and if so, to interpret what they did portend.” At the head of the Mashmashu was the URIGALLU, the Great Priest, who was a holy man, a magician, and a physician rolled into one. The Urigallu conveyed the astronomer-priests interpretations of celestial phenomena to Hammurabi through a special priest known as the ZAQIQU.
Marduk, however, had his mortal enemies to contend with – the Enlilites, who were not ready to cut him any slack whatsoever. THE ENLILITES JUST WOULD NOT COUNTENANCE THE IDEA OF KING ANU BEING RECEIVED BY AN ENKITE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. That scenario was simply inconceivable. It is small wonder, therefore, that they raised kings who were unstinting in making inroads into Babylon, the nucleus of the Babylonian empire, so as to unseat Marduk. In their pathologically jaundiced mindset, Marduk just could not do right: every peace feeler he sent, every concession he tabled forth in the interests of peaceful co-existence with the Enlilites, fell on stone deaf ears. This Earth, My Brother …
MARDUK’S TELL-TALE COMPOSITE EMBLEM
When Marduk became the Lord of Earth, he chose the MUS-HUS as his regnal emblem. The Mus-Hus has been described as a mythical, hybrid watery creature with “a scaly (fish-like) skin, hind legs resembling the talons of an eagle, feline (lion-like) forelegs, a long neck and tail, a horned head, a snake-like tongue, and a crest”. In Babylonian sketches, Marduk is more often than not depicted standing by the Mus-Hus.
Since no such creature existed in real life, in Egypt, Marduk’s other bastion, it was represented by the crocodile. It was with the fat of the crocodile, known in Egypt as the MESSEH, that pharaohs were anointed on their accession as King. The crocodile was a symbol of virility (because of its sexual prowess), vitality (it’s the largest reptile on the planet), and longevity (it is among the oldest creatures of Earth, having existed in its present form for more than 200 million years).
Why did Marduk chose a nondescript creature as his emblem? The answer lies in the kinds of animals that were represented in the Mus-Hus. They were a fish, lion, eagle, and snake. The fish was probably a tribute to his father Enki, who was also known as the fish god, Oannes in Greek, Dagon to the Philistines. The lion represented homage to Sirius, where his mother Damkina came from.
Sirians evolved from a creature that was part-wolf, part-lion, and part-reptile. The snake was obviously a bow to Orion, where Enki originated and whose people evolved from a serpentine creature. As for the eagle, it in all probability represented the Carian race, one of the four major races of the Milky Way galaxy, the others being Reptoids, Felines, and Humans. The Carians evolved from a bird-like creature. (Egyptian gods such as Horus and Ningishzidda were sometimes depicted as bird-headed gods, which suggests a Carian genetic link.)
In sum, the Mus-Hus was Marduk’s statement that he had a universal outlook leadershipwise which was not partisan to any single galactic race. He was prepared to work with all and sundry in the interests of the planet Earth and its peoples. Sadly, the Enlilites didn’t care an iota. To them, whether Marduk meant well or not, he would always be a marked man.
BABYLON’S GOLDEN GLOW COURTESY OF MARDUK!
In the Bible, the term Babylon just stops short of being a swear word. It is a symbol of evil and defiance, a symbol of rebellion against “God”. From Genesis to Revelation, Babylon is mentioned only in unflattering terms. In Revelation for one , it becomes a byword for the so-called Antichrist’s evil world system spearheaded by the Roman Empire. For instance, in REVELATION 17:5, Babylon, as code for the Roman Empire, is described as “the mother of prostitutes and of Earth’s abominations”. The prophets have a field day lambasting and prophesying doom for Babylon and its god, Marduk, often referred to as Bel.
But don’t be taken in folks. The Bible, more so the Old Testament, is an Enlite document. It was written by the Jews, Enlil’s chosen people, his sheep. As such, it’s bias against the Enkites is to be expected. FOR IF THE TRUTH MAY BE TOLD, MARDUK DID TURN BABYLON INTO A MINI-PARADISE.
Babylonian texts extol Marduk as wildly popular because “he is seen as a approachable deity, who cares about human beings and their suffering”. In Babylon, happiness and joy were ubiquitous. There was scarcely any lack. Everybody was in blooming health. Strangers hugged each other more than they snapped at or wronged each other. The following extract from the letter of a Phoenician who had visited Babylon speaks volumes on the glory and grandeur of Babylon:
“The civilising power of Marduk: see in the streets of the city a man and a maid. He shines before the people as a sun in splendor, she as the Moon keeps her face to her Lord. As they pass, old men seated in their doorways smile. Old women cease to scold and the soldiers do not jostle. See in the market as they move, ripples of smiles upon the face of the people spreading among the throngs. Such is the power of Marduk. SEE THAT GOLDEN GLOW THAT WRAPS THEM AS ONE THAT IS THE MARK OF HIS POWER. It is not the power of Ishtar (Inanna), much more fiery and passionate. Marduk’s power spreads peace in man.”
The above scenario clearly is not a picture of a city or nation steeped in sin, as the Bible would have you believe: it is the picture of absolute bliss. Perhaps the most telling statement in the letter is the one we have emphasized – about the golden glow that shone forth from the people. This was the result of consuming Ormus folks – the monoatomic powder of gold known as Manna in the Bible. Ormus imparts perfect health, sharp faculties, and staggering spiritual and metaphysical insights.
This is the ultimate empowerment of the human race. And when you have just partaken of it, it makes your body give off a glow that can be seen from a distance. You shine like “the noon day sun” folks. You are “transfigured” courtesy of the gospels. For mainstreaming Ormus in Canaan, Marduk had his most devout cities, Sodom and Gomorrah, nuked at the orders of Jehovah-Enlil. For mainstreaming Ormus in Babylon, he was to be overthrown by the same Enlilite forces. But it is not easy to unseat a popular leader: it took close to 1500 years to make him budge.
ISHKUR-ADAD IS MARDUK’S MAJOR FOE
In order to fight, tame, and ultimately topple Marduk, the Enlilites groomed two powerful warrior nations primarily. They were Assyria to the north of Babylon and Hatti to the west. It were the Assyrians in fact who were the first to attack Babylon circa 1900 BC and would be Babylon’s main antagonist for the next 1000 years or so.
Ethnically, the Babylonians and Assyrians were Akkadians. Both were Semitic: indeed, GENESIS 10 makes it clear that the Assyrians were descended from Shem. The only element that set them apart was the god each worshipped. The Babylonian god as we have stated and restated was Marduk. The Assyrian god was Ashur. Who was Ashur?
The term Ashur (ESH-HUR when fully rendered) means “Fiery Mountain”. We know a fiery mountain is known as a volcano. “Volcano” (Vulcan, the god of fire, to the Romans) was what the Sumerians called Ishkur-Adad, Enlil’s youngest son, owing to his fiery temper and generally ruthless disposition. Indeed, the name Ishkur (ESHA-KUR in full) also means “Fiery Mountain”. When Adad became the god of Assyria, he usurped the title Enlil as a dare against Marduk, who had become the new Enlil in 2024 BC, and even conferred the queenly title “Ninli” on his spouse. And not only that: he also appropriated the winged disc, the symbol of planet Nibiru, as his own, just as Marduk had done. In Adad’s case, the winged disc bore an image of he himself, often carrying a bow, a symbol of war.
Hatti was the land of the Hittites, who had burst forth from Anatolia in today’s Turkey. The Hittites would blossom into a major military power and close ranks with the coalition of Enlilite states who were opposed to Marduk. The non-Semitic Hittites enjoy repeated mention in the Bible but without the rancor and virulence reserved for other nations such as the Babylonians. They were Abraham’s neighbors in Harran, and it was from Hittite landowners in Hebron, south of Jerusalem, that he bought the Machpelah burial cave. Bathsheba, the centre of King David’s sexual scandal, was the wife of a Hittite captain in his army. It was from Hittite farmers David bought the platform for the Temple on Mount Moriah. King Solomon bought chariot horses from Hittite princes and married one of their daughters.
The national god of the Hittites was Teshub. This is TESH-HUBA in full, also meaning “Fiery Mountain”. In short, Teshub and Ashur were the same god. The Hittites both with fondness and dread referred to Adad as the Storm God – the God of Thunder and Lightning and hence the god of rain. But they may as well have been referring to his stormy temperament.
As Teshub, Adad’s signature symbols were a triple thunderbolt and a bull, upon which he was depicted standing to send the message that he was the new Bull of Heaven, the title by which his father Jehovah-Enlil had gone by in the Age of Taurus. Throughout Aries, it was Adad who was Marduk’s greatest nightmare and not Enlil, Ninurta, Nergal, or Inanna-Ishtar as was traditionally the case in the countdown to Aries.
MARDUK ASKED TO BE PART AND PARCEL OF NEW GOD CALLED ANKI
For 400 years or so, the Enlilites fell flat in their resolve to depose Marduk. Meanwhile, as the centuries wore on, the reappearance of Nibiru – and possibly the return of King Anu, “Our Father Who Art In Heaven” – loomed ever large and inevitably attention overall shifted to this all-important planet of the gods. All of a sudden, Marduk’s Star Religion, which centred on Nibiru, assumed a universal dimension.
The urgency with which the Enlilites now were seized was, IN WHOSE HANDS WOULD BE THE SPACE-RELATED SITES WHEN KING ANU TOUCHED DOWN ON EARTH? If you recall, space-related facilities were the ultimate symbol of Anunnaki power and pride. This was because they linked Earth to the mother planet, Nibiru. The other reason was that like any other space traveler, King Anu arrived on planet Earth via a spaceport. Thus whoever controlled the spaceport enjoyed enormous prestige in the eyes of the King.
For example, when Anu came to Earth the last time around circa 4000 BC, he was received by Enlil, who was Earth’s Chief Executive, and piloted by Utu-Shamash, the Sinai Peninsula spaceport’s Chief Aviation Officer. Thus the people who controlled the space-related infrastructure were the primary hosts of Anu.
As the possible return of King Anu became imminent, the Enlilites decided to take several measures before he actually pitched. First, they were to ensure that all the space-related sites were under their aegis. At the time, the space-related sites were Babylon (the Mission Control Centre), Baalbek (the Landing Place) in Lebanon, the Great Pyramid at Giza in Egypt, and the Nazca Desert in today’s Peru.
Since this was circa 1600 BC, the Enlilites already were in charge of the Nazca Landing Place and the Giza Pyramid (since they ruled northern Egypt, where the Great Pyramid was located). Baalbek, however, was not under their control: it was being vied for by both the Enlilites and the Enkites. Babylon was out of the question: the Enlilites would not want to dignify it with Mission Control Centre status when Anu arrived.
THEY WOULD RATHER RESTORE JERUSALEM, WHICH WAS THE MISSION CONTROL CENTRE BEFORE 2024 BC, SINCE IT WAS LOCATED IN A REGION THAT WAS NOT UNDER THE DIRECT INFLUENCE OF MARDUK. Accordingly, it was on Jerusalem and Lebanon they set their sights. Now, if they had to capture Jerusalem from the Jebusites, who presently inhabited it, they needed their own people, the Hykso Hebrews, who were based in northern Egypt, as foot soldiers. That, however, was a tall order. The Hyksos had been in Egypt since days immemorial and they were for all practical purposes Egyptians. How were they to be prevailed upon to depart Egypt and fight for some obscure territory in Canaan? It was hard but a way had to be found.
Finally, Marduk either had to be overthrown or tactfully won over to the Enlilite side so that by the time King Anu arrived, an Enlilite was the de facto CEO of Earth. It was this measure the Enlilites took first. Having failed to unseat him over 400 years of naked aggression to date, they opted for the carrot approach as opposed to the stick approach. They made overtures to him to the effect that they needed his cooperation to bring about monotheism on the planet Earth. The one advantage monotheism had was that it would certainly unite Earthlings under the banner of one god and therefore make wars between nations, which were essentially religious, a thing of the past.
When Marduk asked as to how this monotheism was to be achieved, he was told that all Enlite and Enkite gods were to retreat into the shadows and pose as just one god, who would be unseen by Earthlings though he would be heard. The Anunnaki gods would take turns to be this representative god. The Enlilites also proposed that the role of the first such composite god would be carried out by Ishkur-Adad, to be followed by Marduk himself after a period of time.
Adad was chosen under the pretext that he was best placed to keep in check all those nations who kept waging war on Babylon since they were mostly under his control. But Adad, being a representative god, would not go under his own name. HE WOULD GO BY A NEW NAME KNOWN AS ANKI, WHICH MEANT “GOD OF HEAVEN AND EARTH”. Would that be music to Marduk’s ears or as pure garbage?
MARDUK BECOMES THE DEVIL
Needless to say, Marduk was far from impressed. He read the scheme for exactly what it was – a cleverly contrived strategy to undermine him as Lord of Earth and to ultimately unseat him. Besides, the idea of a non-visible god did not appeal to him. Marduk loved his people, his dear Earthlings, and wanted to be seen by them, to interact with them in person. He was a man of the people. What was the point of claiming that you were a god of your people without allowing them to see you? Even the Earthlings themselves would pooh-pooh the idea.
Those days, mankind worshipped or revered a god they knew – one they had seen with their own eyes. Tell them you were their god but they could not set their eyes on you, and they would denounce you as a joke. It goes without saying that Marduk rejected the Enlilite bait with the contempt it deserved. Whether they liked it or not, he was Earth’s foremost authority and he would remain so till the close of the Age of Aries.
The Enlilites did not take the spurn lying down. In 1595 BC, Adad sprang his Hittite warriors on Babylon. Their siege of Babylon was so overwhelming it was like a walk in the park but only because Marduk had instructed his king not to fight them as he was aware it was not the seizure of Babylon they were after per se: it was the seizure of he himself. As such, he didn’t want the lives of the Babylonians to be unnecessarily expended.
Indeed, the Hittite army headed straight for his sacred precincts and seized him. But they did not harm him at all: all they did was take him with them to a Mesopotamian city known as Hana. He was to be kept there under house arrest and was given 24 years in which to change his mind and sign up to the Enlilites’ monotheistic ploy.
Meanwhile, the Enlilites launched propagandistic pitches denouncing Marduk as the “Devil”, meaning “Prime Evil”. Devil resulted from a twisting of the term D’EA-BEL in Sumerian (Diabolos in Latin). D’Ea-Bel was Enki’s title, conferred on him for his lead role in the creation of Adam and Eve. It meant “The (D) Lord (BEL) of Life (Ea)”. In the case of Enki, the Enlilites corrupted D’Ea-Bel to Devil when he unilaterally illumined Adam and Eve knowledgewise, which Enlil took to be a betrayal. In the case of Marduk, who D’Ea-Bel Jr in that he was Enki’s heir, the Enlilites adulterated D’Ea-Bel to Devil as a vilification manoeuvre arising from his refusal to toe their monotheistic line. This Earth My Brother …
NEXT WEEK: ERA OF MOSES BEGINS
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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.