Moses Vs Ramesses
Benson C Saili
THIS EARTH, MY BROTHER
Moses gets the nod as the two contend for the Egyptian throne but …
Moses had been King of Midian for 40 years when Ramesses I became Pharaoh of Egypt. By this time, he should have had several more children with his Queen Zipporah but the Bible mentions only two, Gershom and Eleazer. The name Gershom meant “sojourner”, to underline the fact that although Moses was a sovereign in the land of Midian, he was not meant to live there forever as his real home was Egypt. As for Eleazer, meaning “God has helped”, it was a tribute to Nibiru King Anu. Moses venerated Nibiru, which he called the Aten, because it was the abode of Anu, “Our Father Who Art In Heaven”.
Now, when Ramesses took over as Pharaoh, there were two key dynamics at play in Egypt. First, the persecution of the Hykso-Hebrews had reached a new high. It was not on the scale of the Holocaust of Hitler’s day but it was austere anyway. Second, the indigenous Egyptians were clamouring for the return of Armana rule. Their rallying cry was voiced through Aaron, who had stayed in Egypt after his 3-year stint as caretaker Pharaoh. Both Ramesses and his predecessor Horemheb were not royals but usurpers. In particular, Egyptians were rooting for the return of the “Royal Mosis”, as Moses was now nostalgically referred to – a term that informed his naming in the Bible when in his native Egypt he was known as Akhenaten.
When he became Pharaoh, or Pharaoh-designate in truth, Ramesses was very old, stopping just short of walking on a cane. And as we all know, people mellow with age. SO TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE RESURGENCE OF HIS POPULARITY IN HIS MOTHERLAND, MOSES SERVED NOTICE ON RAMESSES THAT HE INTENDED TO RETURN TO EGYPT TO RECLAIM THE THRONE IN HEED OF THE WISHES OF THE EGYPTIANS. Of course Ramesses would have given him the middle finger as he had the power that went with incumbency but he decided not to opt for that course of action and instead gave Moses the green light to come over. Why this openhanded gesture on his part?
Well, it was simple. The pitting of wits between Moses and Ramesses was to be witnessed by the Egyptian Council of Elders, also known as Wise Men, who at least in this state of affairs were vested with the right to vote for the bona fide pharaoh. And you know as much as I do that such people are typically in the pocket of the King as they enormously enjoy his patronage. So Ramesses was hundred percent certain that even if he wasn’t the genuine-article pharaoh, the vote would go his way anyway. And once that happened, he would be in a position now to demonstrate to the Egyptians that it was not he who kept Moses at bay: it was the collective wish of the Council of Elders. The Egyptians would resultantly resign themselves to the outcome and begin to rally to Ramesses especially that he had acted so fairly and justly in the matter.
Arriving in Egypt, Moses did not head straight for an audience with Ramesses. He first fetched his cousin Aaron, the only other surviving Amarna King, and the two, along with their entourage of course, set course for the pharaoh’s residence. The meeting was held not at the official palace at Thebes in southern Egypt but at the pharaoh’s private mansion at Zaru, the mansion built for him by the slaving Hykso-Hebrews when he was Horemheb’s No. 2. It seemed Moses had insisted that Zaru be the rendezvous because that was his birthplace and therefore it had an abiding sentimental and symbolic value.
MOSES CHALLENGES RAMESSES’ RIGHT OF SUCCESSION
The Wise Men, a kind of rubber stamp parliament, were gathered in the hall at the Ramesses mansion to witness and adjudicate the rhetorical showdown between the rightful Pharaoh in Moses and the aspiring Pharaoh in Ramesses. First, Ramesses proffered reasons as to why he was the right person to succeed Horemheb. He had been duly anointed by Horemheb as successor and so had the seal of approval of the departed king.
It was not that he had usurped the throne: Horemheb had no heir and this was the reason he had settled for Ramesses. If Horemheb had come to power by foul and crook, that wasn’t of Ramesses’ making: he could not be held accountable for a sin that was committed by his predecessor. In any case, Horemheb argued, none of the Armana Kings were genuine Egyptians: they were in truth Hykso-Hebrews either paternally or maternally. On the other hand, Horemheb and he were full-blooded sons of the soil and therefore were deserving rulers of their beloved country.
Once Ramesses was done with his manifesto, Moses took the floor to make the case for his restoration as Pharaoh. Moses asserted that he was the linear pharaoh since his father Amenhotep III, that his rule was interrupted when Horemheb and company, who included Ramesses himself, leaned on him to step down and go into exile. In short, Moses was extra-legally removed from power.
Moses went on to denounce Ramesses as a commoner who therefore was not entitled to the institution of monarch. Both he and Horemheb did not have the merest drop of royal blood in them. As for the matter of his carrying Hykso-blood, Moses argued that pharaohs typically married daughters of foreign kings as minor wives and therefore it was common to find pharaohs in the annals of Egypt who had foreign blood in them as even Tuthmosis IV’s mother was a foreigner.
Above all, Moses produced incontrovertible evidence that he was indeed a pharaoh. Remember, when he went into exile 40 years before, he had taken with him his Pharaonic symbol of authority. This was a serpent rod made of bronze and shaped and engraved in the image of a scepter. The serpent was the symbol of Enki, the overall god of Africans and father to Egypt’s national god, Amen-Ra Marduk. To further buttress his case, Moses performed the ritual of the withered hand, whereby he placed his right hand limply across his chest, while supporting it with his left hand.
In the Bible, Moses’ actions (which it attributes to Aaron) before Ramesses are spun as magical feats. That is far from the truth: the “Word of God” lies folks. In Egypt, these rituals were part and parcel of a sitting pharaoh’s performance at the Sed festival, which was meant to validate the pharaoh’s capacity to continue ruling his people. The Sed festival was first held on the pharaoh’s 30th thronal anniversary and every three years thereafter. Typically, the rituals were performed by the Pharaoh’s aides on his behalf. The Koran documents the incident too and much more accurately in its case: Moses does not remotely come across as a magician but simply as someone who presents evidence of his authority.
In his highly insightful book, MOSES AND AKHENATEN: THE SECRET HISTORY OF EGYPT AT THE TIME OF THE EXODUS, the Egyptian historian Ahmed Osman puts the serpent rod and hand rituals in context thus: “In the tomb of Kheruef, one of Queen Tiye’s stewards, a throne scene shows the queen with her husband, Amenhotep III. Under the dais of the throne we see Kheruef and other officials, each holding something that he is about to hand to the king so that he can use it during the Sed festival celebrations of his Year 30.
In one scene, Kheruef is followed by eight palace officials, the first of whom is wearing an apron. He puts his right arm across his chest and his hand over his left shoulder while he holds his forearm with the left hand. The fourth of these officials holds a bundle of clothes in his right hand and a curved scepter with serpent’s head in his left.”
So when Moses performed the serpent rod and hand rituals before Ramesses, he was demonstrating two things. First, he was challenging Ramesses’ right of succession and making the case for his own. Second, he was reenacting the Sed festival, for had his rule not been interrupted, he would today be on the throne for more than 30 years and therefore would merit performing the Sed festival.
The authors of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament) did not get it wrong: they simply deliberately misrepresented the facts. Why? BECAUSE THEY DIDN’T WANT TO MAKE IT TOO OBVIOUS TO THE JEWS THAT MOSES WAS ONCE PHARAOH OF EGYPT, A NATION THAT WAS THE JEWISH PET HATE (it would be something akin to saying Adolf Hitler was in fact a Jew). As such, they dramatised and doctored the incident and had Aaron perform the “magic” when it was Moses who did so.
MOSES GETS THE VOTE BUT RAMESSES REFUSES TO BUDGE
Both the two contenders for the Egyptian throne had made their case and it was now up to the Wise Men to pass a vote indicating whose deposition had convinced them. To Ramesses’ surprise, the Wise Men all voted for Moses. The vote was indicated by bowing their knees in front of Moses, thus confirming that he had a superior claim to the throne. Sadly, Ramesses was not having any of that.
He immediately put his army on the alert and when word seeped through that Moses was to be the new Pharaoh, Zaru erupted into jubilation on the streets. It was all in vain really, for when the pro-Moses elements in the Egyptian establishment tried to press their case for the enthronement of Moses, they were ruthlessly crashed by the highly partisan army. Furthermore, all the members of the Council of the Elders were put to the sword.
Moses himself was untouched, being a King already of the territory of Midian. Ramesses in fact tried to convince Moses to reintegrate Midian into Egypt once again but Moses stoutly refused. INSTEAD, AN ANGRY MOSES RENOUNCED HIS EGYPTIAN NATIONALITY AND DECLARED HIMSELF A HYKSO-HEBREW. He then demanded that all the Hykso-Hebrews leave Egypt with him not for good but for only three days to hold a special festival to his god, the Aten, in the Sinai Wilderness.
Ramesses not only rejected the appeal but revved up on affliction visited on the Hykso-Hebrews. “And Pharaoh commanded the same day the taskmasters of the people, and their officers, saying, Ye shall no more give the people straw to make bricks, as heretofore: let them go and gather straw for themselves. And the tale [number] of bricks, which they did make heretofore, ye shall lay upon them; ye shall not diminish ought thereof: for they be idle; therefore they cry, saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our God" (EXODUS 5:6-8).
Since he could not have his bidding, Moses departed Egypt for Midian. In the event, Ramesses was officially crowned as Egypt’s new pharaoh. But as he was so advanced in age, he was no more than a shadow of his old self: the person who wielded real power was his firstborn son Seti, who was also in charge of the army.
MOSES CHOSEN TO SPEARHEAD JEWISH EMANCIPATION
Meanwhile, the Enlilites, the Anunnaki faction headed by Jehovah, were pressed for time. The planet Nibiru was scheduled to return in about 700 years' time. By that time, three imperatives needed to have been accomplished fundamentally. First, the two space-related sites, Jerusalem and Baalbek in Lebanon, should have been under Enlilite control. King Anu was expected to touch down on Earth by way of either Baalbek or Jerusalem. Thus either places had to be operational once again as the aeronautical Landing Place and Mission Control Centre respectively.
Second, Canaan, more so Jerusalem, should have been dominated populationwise by the Jews, Enlil’s chosen people, who he called his sheep. Presently, the whole of Canaan was occupied by non-Hebrew peoples who were largely pro-Marduk. They were Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Hivites, and Jebusites. This was against the strategic designs of the Enlilites. All the non-Hebrew peoples should have been flushed out by the time Anu returned and the Jews ensconced in their place.
Third, Marduk, who was legally Chief Executive of Earth (although the Enlilites scarcely recognized him) should have been deposed and an Enlilite installed in his place. The Enlilites were averse to an Enkite receiving such an august figure as Anu. They wanted that privillege to fall to them. The overriding priority presently, however, was to populate Jerusalem with Jews. The Jews at the time were concentrated in two places – Harran in today’s Turkey and Zaru in Egypt. Whereas the Jews of Harran were free people, the Jews of Zaru were in bondage. It was the latter the Enlilite decided to free and then remove to Jerusalem. And the person they chose to spearhead the sequence of activities in this regard was none other than Moses.
Moses had a number of qualifying attributes for this purpose. First, he was a military general of masses of experience. Second, he had been King of Egypt and King of Midian for a combined total of just under 60 years. Third, he was of Hykso-Hebrew descent on his mother’s side and so would find resonance amongst the Hykso-Hebrews.
The express commissioning of Moses to the task was assigned to Ishkur-Adad, Enlil-Jehovah’s second-born son. The Enlilites had decided that they would no longer show or intimate themselves to mankind as individual gods but would do so using only one representative on a rotational basis. This representative Anunnaki deity would go under the name ANKI, meaning, in paraphrase, “Lord of Heaven and Earth”.
IN OTHER WORDS, ANKI WOULD POSE AS BOTH ANU, THE GOD OF HEAVEN (NIBIRU), AND ENLIL, THE GOD (PUTATIVELY AND UNLAWFULLY) OF EARTH. The first person they chose to play this role was Adad. Unlike in the past when humans could physically see a god, that was no longer the case. This time around, humans would hear the voice of a god alright but may not see him. The idea was to instill a sense of awe, a sort of mystique, in the minds of Earthlings.
Thus it was that not long after Moses had returned from his rhetorical clash with Ramesses, Adad sent an “angel”, that is, a low-ranking Anunnaki, to summon him to his presence. Since this was Moses’ first encounter with an Anunnaki, he was overwhelmed and therefore acquiesced without much ado.
MOSES COMES BEFORE ISHKUR-ADAD
At the time of Moses, in the 14th century BC, the Anunnaki had all but withdrawn from direct interaction with and interference into the affairs of mankind. That did not mean they had retired or that they had left Earthlings wholly to their own devices. They were very much around and exerting subtle influence from behind the scenes. But the so-called senior gods – the likes of Enlil, Enki, Ninmah, Ninurta, and Nannar-Sin – were in semi-retirement. Only Marduk, being the executive ruler of Earth, was still active in answer to the call of duty but at a slightly diminished rate in his case too.
Nannar-Sin, Enlil’s second-born son, who would later be known as Zeus to the Greeks and Adonis to the Romans, was the principal Canaanite god of the day. In Canaan, Sin was simply referred to as El, meaning “God”. Sin and his wife Ningal, or Asherah to the Canaanites, had decided to settle in the southern parts of the Sinai Peninsula, in an area the Bible calls Horeb, near two twin mountain peaks known as the Mountains of the Elohim.
The Elohim, as you already know, was how the Sumerians referred to the ruling pantheon of the Anunnaki. In the Bible, the term Elohim is misleadingly translated as “God” when the right translation should be the plural “gods”, as the Anunnaki were called as a collective. Sin in particular was fond of setting up home atop or near mountain peaks, the reason his other name was El Shaddai, meaning “Lord of the Mountains”.
It was to Horeb, not very far from Serabit El-Khadim, Moses’ residential precincts, that Moses, so we’re given to understand by the authors of the Pentateuch, was taken by an “Angel of the Lord” – a Anunnaki messenger of Ishkur-Adad. According to the Bible, this happened when Moses, “a shepherd of the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian”, was “leading the flock behind the wilderness” (EXODUS 3:1).
This is all coded language as we have reiterated time and again. Being shepherd of Jethro’s flock simply meant Moses was the King of the Midianites. In the Bible, when the term shepherd is applied to a patriarchal figure, it means that figure was King. In the language of Enlilite gods, a shepherd was a member of the human race who ruled a people, the sheep, on their (Enlilites’) behalf.
Arriving at the scene of his summons, at about sunset, Moses, the biblical story continues, was treated to a wondrous and stupefying spectacle. A THICKET THAT GREW AGAINST A MOUNTAIN SIDE WAS BURNING RATHER BRIGHTLY BUT WAS NOT BEING CONSUMED BY THE FIRE (EXODUS 3:1-22/4:1-19). Naturally, Moses was overcome with fear. But did things proceed exactly as Exodus relates them? And was the bright but seemingly cold flame a miracle?
NEXT WEEK: MOSES SIGNS PACT WITH THE DEVIL!
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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!
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“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
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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!’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.