End of an Era
Benson C Saili
THIS EARTH, MY BROTHER
Hebrews expelled from Egypt after Jacob’s sons murder southern Pharaoh
Which god did the Hykso-Hebrews worship whilst they inhabited northern Egypt? Time and again, one encounters assertions by scholars that the Jews were strictly a one-god nation. That is simply not true. Both the Bible itself and extra-biblical sources make it plain that until some time when the Age of Aries (2220 to 60 BC) was winding down, the Jews struggled to maintain adherence to one deity. In any case, even their principal god, Yahweh, was not a single god: he was a composite god who post-Exodus was fronted, largely, by Ishkur-Adad.
In the time of Apepi II, the last Hykso Pharaoh, the Hyksos did not worship any of the Enlilite gods at all. They worshipped the Enkite god Seth. If you recall, Seth was the god who had his half-brother Osiris killed. During Apepi’s rule, Osiris was a wildly popular departed god in Egypt and to counter that the Hyksos exalted Seth, the antithesis of Osiris, because their standpoint was that they had to be at cross-purposes with anything that was quintessentially Egyptian.
AS IF THAT WAS NOT ABOMINABLE ENOUGH, THE HYKSOS EMBRACED A SUPERNATURAL GOD WE WOULD TODAY CALL THE DEVIL AND THESE ARE “GOD’S CHOSEN PEOPLE” WE’RE TALKING ABOUT. This was Apophis, after whom Apepi named himself. Apophis was the spirit of evil, darkness, and destruction and was characterised as the polar opposite of the spiritual aspect of Marduk.
The Hyksos embraced the Apophis spirit (but without worshipping it) for two reasons. First, the indigenous Egyptians regarded it as the arch-enemy of Marduk and as such dubbed it “The Enemy of Ra”, Ra being Amen-Ra in full, the name by which Marduk was known in Egypt. Apophis was depicted as a huge snake – a bigger and therefore more powerful snake than Marduk, whose other cognomen was “The Great Serpent”, although he (Apophis) was also referred to as “The Evil Lizard”.
Egyptians would make figures or effigies of the snake and then burn it, curse it, step on it, or even spit on it in a bid to repel Apophis and therefore ward off his influence. It is Apophis who is responsible for the underlying evil humans attach to snakes in general and not Enki, the Serpent of Genesis who was actually an enlightener and therefore a force for good.
Second, Apophis was such a resilient spirit that it could never be defeated, only temporarily slowed down. The Hyksos took great pride in invoking such a spirit in that they too regarded themselves as invincible despite the setback they experienced at the hands of Kamose, when they were driven out of Egypt but only to return using the tactic of infiltration and once again take the reins practically in perpetuity.
NOW, HERE IS THE IRONY OF IRONIES: AS MUCH AS THE HYKSOS HATED EVERYTHING WHICH WAS TYPICALLY EGYPTIAN, THEIR KINGS ADOPTED NAMES WHICH AT FACE VALUE SEEMED TO SUGGEST THAT THEY ALSO REVERED MARDUK. This was done with a view to winning over a section of the Egyptian populace in northern Egypt who tenaciously worshipped Marduk. For instance, when Apepi II became Pharaoh, he adopted the Egyptian throne name Auserre, which meant “Great and Powerful Like Ra”. He in fact called himself “Son of Ra”. The Hyksos’ utter disregard for their own Enlilite gods was likely the reason Jacob decided to abdicate since he was slavishly loyal to Enlil and Nannar-sin.
A notable attribute of the Apepi rule was that northern Egypt was now more militarily powerful than southern Egypt (a Jacobite legacy) and therefore exercised hegemony over southern Egypt, which was under obligation to pay tribute to Apepi. It explains why Apepi’s other title was “King of Upper (southern) and Lower (northern) Egypt”. Writes Christopher Knight and Robert Lamas in The Hiram Key: “For hundreds of miles to the south of Avaris (the Hykso capital), the city of Thebes (the capital of southern Egypt) continued its line of Egyptian (Bantu) kings, although they bowed to the power of the Hyksos and paid to Apepi’s tax collectors the dues demanded.”
SIMEON AND LEVI CONTRIVE TO RULE WHOLE OF EGYPT
Meanwhile, two of Jacob’s sons were seething. They were Simeon, the second born, and Levi, the third born. With Reuben, the firstborn, having become estranged from his father for having committed adultery with one of his father’s wives, it was Simeon who was the de facto firstborn. Simeon was particularly close to Levi, so that the two typically strategised and schemed together.
The two brothers were irked by two measures their father had taken. The first was his hand-over of the throne to Apepi II. As far as they were concerned, he should have bequeathed it to Simeon. The second had to do with Jacob’s selection of young Joseph as his heir. They thought this was unjust in that Leah, their mother, was senior to Rachel, Joseph’s mother, and in any case the two women had the same father and the same mother. Rachel therefore was the bloodline spouse, not Rachel: the heir had to come from her.
Long story short, Simeon and Levi wanted to rule as that was their inborn right as scions of the great Jacob and his first wife Leah. Accordingly, they hatched a plan. Their sights first and foremost were set on southern Egypt, which was the weaker of the two Egypts. They would depose and kill its pharaoh and Simeon would take over. Then they would target Apepi in northern Egypt, oust him too, and install Levi on the throne. The whole of Egypt would thus be under the rule of the Jacobite dynasty. Also once the two brothers were in power, Joseph would have no chance of unseating them.
In order for their scheme to see the light of day, they would have to come up with some very clever, persuasive lie to bring their father on board just in case something went wrong and Jacob wondered what on Earth they had been up to. The excuse they came up with was a masterstroke. IT HAD TO DO WITH ORMUS, THE MONOATOMIC POWDER OF GOLD, ALSO VARIOUSLY KNOWN IN THE BIBLE AS MANNA OR SHEWBREAD.
THE SECRET OF ORMUS
The Book of the Dead, authored by Ningishzidda (called Thoth in Egypt), Enki’s genius son, is reputed to be history’s oldest complete book. We learn from the book that the Egyptian pharaohs of old (the much earlier dynasties, the 1st to about the 4th Dynasty didn’t die the way we do. WHEN THEY REACHED A STAGE WHERE THEY FELT IT WAS TIME THEY PASSED ON, THEY SIMPLY CHANGED DIMENSIONS. They voluntarily translated from this physical realm to the spiritual realm.
This was a process that began in the King’s Chamber in the Great Pyramid of Giza, where they disembodied and then embarked on a journey through a tunnel all the way to the spaceport in the Sinai Peninsula, where they boarded an etheric spacecraft which transported them to Nibiru. This was not the physical Nibiru but its subtler equivalent (just as the physical Earth has its subtler double people immediately arrive in when they die, a kind of way station on their way to the Astral plane, the spiritual realm of the departed.)
How did the pharaohs of old transform from a physical being into a spiritual being instantaneously without undergoing the normal process of death? Well, it was all thanks to Ormus. Scientists have determined that Ormus can be made to disappear into another dimension. It can also impart that capacity to anything in which or around which it sufficiently abounds. That is to say, in the case of a human being, if he ingests an appropriate amount of Ormus or is smothered with an appropriate amount of it under the right environmental conditions, he can immediately translate from the physical to the etheric, the equivalent of voluntary and painless death.
The Giza pyramids are one such suitable ambience for this transformation. Writes Lawrence Gardner in Genesis of the Grail Kings: “The Pyramids were constructed with the technology of the superconducting highward firestone (Ormus)”. Arguably the most famous pharaohs of the Fourth Dynasty (c. 2613 to 2494 BC) are Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure. IT IS INTRIGUING THAT THEIR BODIES HAVE NEVER BEEN FOUND GIVEN THAT PHARAOHS LIKE THEY WERE WOULD HAVE BEEN PRESERVED THROUGH A PROCESS KNOWN AS MUMMIFICATION.
What was found in their respective King’s Chambers was a substance that turned out to be Ormus! This was in the 9th century AD, when the first explorers tunneled their way into the sealed chamber. What they found in there was a “lid-less, hollowed, granite coffer, containing not a body but a layer of a mysterious powdery substance”.
Clearly, each of the three pharaohs had in their respective times simply translated to a subtler realm using the wonder medium of Ormus. “The once sealed Kings Chamber appears to have been contrived as a superconductor capable of transporting the pharaoh into another dimension of space time through the Meissner Field (a body’s polar magnetic aura),” writes Gardner. “It was here that the pharaoh’s rite of passage was administered in accordance with The Book of the Dead.”
The Pharaohs of Jacob’s day, however, seemed to have long lost knowledge of Ormus’s capacity to effect a translation of the live human body to another dimension as in their case they did die and their bodies were mummified (preserved by embalmment). Some of these preserved bodies are found in the world’s leading museums. HOWEVER, IT APPEARS THE SOUTHERN PHARAOH, SEQENENRE TAO II, HAD STUMBLED UPON THIS SECRET KNOWLEDGE AND IT WAS THIS REASON SIMEON AND LEVI PITCHED TO THEIR FATHER AS GROUNDS TO CONFRONT HIM SO THAT HE SHARED IT WITH THEM.
They too wanted to simply translate directly to the spiritual realm when they were sufficiently aged and not experience death. Simeon and Levi knew in their heart of hearts that if Tao had that kind of knowledge, he would not be keen on sharing it with his arch-enemies of the north. That would give them the excuse to kill him, which their father would hopefully understand.
BLOODY BROTHERS SLAY BANTU PHARAOH
It was easy for Simeon and Levi to secure a meeting with Tao being the scions of the legendary Pharaoh Yaacoba. Believing them to be well-meaning visitors who like him abhorred the northern monarchy, Tao received them with all the decorum due at his palace at Thebes. Meanwhile, Simeon and Levi made overtures to some high-ranking members of Tao’s army, who signed up to the duo’s scheme to eliminate him.
Their enlisting was essential as the two on their own just could not bring their scheme to fruition or muster the popular regnal support from the southern Egyptian populace being members of the loathsome Hyksos, who were denounced as Hikau-Khoswet (“Ruling Settlers”), an adulteration of the name Hyksos.
The two brothers first patiently studied Tao’s daily routine, which has been documented thus in The Hiram Key: “Everyday, he left the royal place of Malkata to visit the temple of Amen-Ra at the hour of high noon, when the sun was at its meridian (directly overhead) and a man cast no shadow, no stain of darkness, across the ground. With the sun at its zenith (highest point), the power of Ra was at its height and that of the Serpent of Darkness, Apophis, was at its weakest.” It was whilst emerging from the temple that Tao was tactfully spirited away.
Exactly who handled him – whether it was Simeon and Levi themselves or their henchmen – is not known for certain. But whoever they were, they must have been familiar to the king to get that close to him. They were most likely renegades from amongst his security detail who Simeon and Levi had promised phenomenal rewards when they were in power.
The traitors’ initial trick was to tell the king that they suspected a plot against him and so they were taking him to a safe place, to which the king readily obliged, as one would do to people they trusted the most. Then once they got him to the “safe haven”, they bared their fangs and produced Simeon and Levi. The duo first asked the king to make known to them the cross-dimensional secret of Ormus, which he was said to have come in the knowledge of.
According to The Hiram Key, Tao did admit that yes, he did possess that kind of knowledge but he could not divulge it without the involvement of two other people who were privy to it. He would rather die than betray such a sacred trust. He got his wish and would in future be known as Tao the Brave for refusing to waver even on pain of death.
In July 1881, the mummies of several Egyptian pharaohs, including that of Tao, were discovered in a tomb near Luxor in Egypt. Tao’s was the only corpse to show signs of a violent death. He had grisly wounds on his head, which doctors who examined his body described as follows: “The middle of his forehead had been smashed in … Another blow had fractured his right eye socket, his right cheekbone, and his nose.
A third had been delivered behind his left ear, shattering the mastoid bone and ending in the first vertebrae of the neck … The terrible wounds on Seqenenre’s skull were caused by at least two people (Simeon and Reuben?) attacking him with a dagger, an axe, a spear, and possibly a mace.” Tao had ascended to the throne in 1558 BC. He was killed in 1554 BC. He was the last king of southern Egypt’s 17th Dynasty.
PHARAOH AHMOSE EJECTS HYKSOS FROM EGYPT
Sadly for Simeon and Levi, the assassination of Tao did not get the indigenous Egyptians to throng the streets and burst into dance in a frisson of euphoric excitement. Most of the generals threw their weight behind Tao’s son, Kamose, who was immediately installed as the new Pharaoh and the first king of the 18th Dynasty. It seemed Simeon and Levi had not consolidated their support before they killed Tao. They were forced to retreat to northern Egypt in ignominy.
Kamose vowed that he wasn’t going to rest till he had driven the Hyksos out of Egypt. But he did not retaliate against them straightaway. He first honed the skills of his forces and in the third year of his reign attacked northern Egypt. The offense was not sustained though as the following year, after being on the throne for only four years, he died of natural causes. He had however considerably shrunk Hykso territory, which suggests he was a formidable commander-in-chief.
At the time of his death, Kamose had no kids and his immediate younger brother, Ahmose, was only 10 years old. His mother therefore took over as regent till Ahmose became of age. As his late brother, Ahmose was just as determined to be rid of the Hykso menace once and for all. At the head of a 480,000-strong army, he relentlessly assailed northern Egypt till finally what remained of Hykso territory was now the overcrowded Avaris, the capital.
In 1525 BC, the Hyksos surrendered and asked for a safe passage out of Egypt and back to Canaan. Ahmose obliged them, as a result of which 240,000 Hebrews left Egypt for Canaan. THIS WAS THE FIRST EXODUS: THE EXODUS OF MOSES’S TIME WAS ACTUALLY THE SECOND ONE. At the time of their expulsion, the Hyksos had ruled northern Egypt for 522 years, beginning with General Abraham (Pharaoh Mehibre Kheti) and ending with Pharaoh Apepi II.
SIMEON, LEVI CURSED; JUDAH BLESSED
The First Exodus was led by Jacob himself, assisted by his fourth son Judah, after Apepi II simply vanished into thin air. Reuben had long fallen out with his father and Simeon and Levi had been sidelined for precipitating circumstances that led to the Hykso expulsion. Because of this sorry development, Simeon and Levi were cursed by their father as plainly stated in GENESIS 49:5-7: “Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. O my soul, come not thou into their SECRET; unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united: for in their anger they slew a man, and in their self-will they DIGGED DOWN A WALL. Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel.”
Jacob accused his two sons of having dug down a wall and of having killed a man. The “wall” was northern Egypt, a buffer against southern Egypt’s possible incursions into Canaan. This buffer was destroyed when southern Egypt waged war on northern Egypt and expelled the Hyksos following their assassination of Tao. Jacob also dissociated himself from the duo’s purported “secret”, the cross-dimensional Ormus which they cited to their father as the reason for killing Tao having refused to disclose it to them. The killing, Jacob regretted, was so unconscionably cruel and totally unjustified.
THE GREATEST BENEFICIARY OF HIS THREE BROTHERS FALL FROM GRACE WAS JUDAH. He had ably led the Hyksos into Canaan and for that he deserved a reward. GENESIS 49:8-10: “As for you, Judah, your brothers shall acclaim you; your hand shall be on the scruff of your enemies. Your father's sons shall bow down to you. A whelp of a lion is Judah—from the prey, my son, you will grow up—he crouches, he reclines like a lion; and like a lioness, who would make him rise up? The scepter shall not withdraw from Judah, nor the statute-maker's staff from between his feet, until indeed he comes to whom it belongs and the peoples' homage goes to him.”
Judah was declared the King of the Hebrews, the successor to Jacob. However, the promotion was not permanent: HE WAS TO BE KING UNTIL THE RIGHT PERSON, THE ANOINTED HEIR JOSEPH, WAS GROWN ENOUGH TO TAKE OVER. Was Jacob’s wish in relation to Joseph honoured?
NEXT WEEK: JOSEPH TAKES CENTRE STAGE
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 Tonightâ€
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.â€
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.â€
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.â€
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.â€
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 restaurantâ€, 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. Â 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. Â 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.â€
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 boxâ€.
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
Columns
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!’â€
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.